At 18, Dylan Winefsky is using a nostalgic strategy to racing
Nostalgia drag racing is an experience like none other. Attending an NHRA Scorching Rod Heritage Collection celebration at Firebird Raceway in Boise or meandering by way of orange groves to quickly stumble on Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., is like jumping in a time device, and each individual of the amenities that host the 8-race nostalgia tour have exceptional features that bring structured, thunderous drag racing back to its roots. Strangely sufficient, 18-year-aged Dylan Winefsky has found that he matches correct in amongst some of the sport’s most diligently devoted and traditionally invested drag racing enthusiasts and their nitro-burning Nostalgia Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars and trucks.
Winefsky gained his NHRA Nostalgia Humorous Auto license at the age of 17, and his very first race in the nitro gas altered earlier piloted by his father, Robert, was the 2022 Very good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet up with. Younger Winefsky skilled No. 3 in 14 cars and trucks vying for the 8-motor vehicle field and recorded a semifinals finish.
“I was seriously anxious at that very first race,” mentioned Winefsky, who is also the vehicle chief and assembles anything off-web page in advance of receiving to the race. As soon as there, he measures apart and allows the crew just take in excess of as he focuses entirely on driving.
“It was my initial time jogging in competitiveness in opposition to any person else, and I did not want to mess up or make a fool of myself. I understood I had to be on my ideal game achievable. There was a tiny little bit of an intimidation issue – at the time, I was just a 17-yr-outdated kid, and I don’t feel anybody assumed I could do it.”
His problems were based mostly in logic the 6. Gas Altered adorned with Winefsky’s Nitro Moose emblem is a Mark Williams Amusing Car or truck kit with a 125-in. wheelbase, and it can be a significantly cry from something the youngster has pushed in advance of.
Winefsky bought his begin in the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League as shortly as it was authorized, and following 8 several years in the fifty percent-scale dragster ranks, he acquired his Tremendous Comp license at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing Faculty. From there, he obtained an State-of-the-art E.T. license in his family’s de-tuned Gasoline Altered, and under the tips and steering of nitro legend Johnny West, he then certified in NHRA Nostalgia Funny Motor vehicle.
“It was a significant adjust from what I was utilized to,” he shared. “There have been big changes, from launching the auto to driving the vehicle, and it took about a few runs to actually get snug with in which the brake handle is, to parachute, to fuel shut-off. The toughest part in the commencing was just figuring out the placement of almost everything, but just one of the greatest pieces was having Johnny West by my aspect the full time. He served a good deal with the mental portion of driving the motor vehicle, and he also aided tune the vehicle. It was good.”
The El Mirage, Ariz., resident, who also credited Brian Hope and Kyle Hough for their insight, attended six races – including two exhibition events – in his new trip, obtaining at any time-cozy all the time. In addition to the semifinals functionality at his very first race, Winefsky reached the semis yet again at the 51st once-a-year Nightfire Nationals in Boise, and to near out the time he was extended an invitation to race at the California Hot Rod Reunion, wherever he was introduced with the Legends of Nitro Rookie of the Yr award.
“That was rather spectacular,” said Winefsky. “I really wasn’t expecting it mainly because there were being a pair of other opponents that ran truly very good, much too. But our general performance sewed it up in the direction of the conclusion.”
The stellar ending to the yr was dream-like for Winefsky, who’d had his eye on racing his dad’s car or truck because he was a tiny boy or girl.
“I was 4 or 5 in 2010 when my dad initial created this vehicle, and from the beginning, I realized I desired to travel it someday,” Winefsky recalled. “My father enjoys tuning the automobile a lot more than driving it now, so I get my transform.”
This fall, youthful Winefsky attained his NHRA nitro Humorous Vehicle, and the household has since acquired a chassis from John Power Racing that they prepare to initial establish as a different Gasoline Altered and then, down the road, transition into what the previous Jr. racer referred to as “a Major Present motor vehicle” and race Nostalgia Amusing Automobile.
“There have been a large amount of problems this year, just driving the [Fuel Altered],” claimed Winefsky, who raced in 2022 with the aid of Robert’s Car or truck Treatment, Kevin Stith and Stith Printing Inc., DJ Safety, Edge Towing, and American Flowtech. “Every time you go out, it could do something diverse than it has just before – you can find anything new each individual time. But the other side of that is how satisfying it is. Finding Rookie of the 12 months at the Sizzling Rod Reunion was these types of a shock that I was speechless for a few of minutes there. I believe my rookie season went greater than any person expected.”