IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series Race 2 Winner Top Dragster: Dan Davies

Horsepower replaced horses in the life of Dan Davies.

Davies and his wife moved to their property near Toledo, Ohio in 2005 with the purpose of having room for the horses they raised. Over the years, there are tire prints instead of hoof prints and the barn has been converted into a big shop where race cars are built.

They certainly put out a good product as Davies raced his way to the Top Dragster win at the recent IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series event at Virginia Motorsports Park.

“We took over the horse barn,, and now that’s a nice assembly in the back,” Davies explained. “We have a dragster jig and multiple welders. We can do pretty much anything on a dragster. We can do bodies, work on older cars and do updates. We do front suspensions and a lot of retro fits on older cars.”

If that sounds unusual, Davies’ path to becoming a drag racer is also unique. He isn’t a second-generation racer. He tells that his dad’s never even been a car guy. But, Davies certainly is. Nothing thrills him more than tuning a car and getting it down the track.

The Ohio driver did it better than anyone at Virginia Motorsports Park. He felt a little lucky in the first round when Erich Rawlings fouled by just -.002 at the start. But, Davies was tough throughout eliminations. He got the better reaction time over Anthony Marable in round 2, and was an incredible .001 at the tree in the quarterfinals to win on a holeshot.

It wasn’t the smoothest path, however, as he explained there was a problem with the fuel system during qualifying. Luckily, a friend was there to help out.

“I travel to these races with Chris Stine. He’s got about one of everything in his trailer, but the one thing we didn’t have was a carburetor,” Davies said. “They were calling for Top Dragster for pairings. So, we had to put it back together and hope for the best. My car didn’t make a good run in the first round, but he was -.002 red. We finally got the carburetor straightened out on Saturday.”

He added the car ran just like it did in qualifying after that. He beat the always tough Joe DiPasquale with a .011 start in the semifinal round, and edged Jessica Pritchett in an extremely close final round.

Davies had just a .024 to .025 advantage over Pritchett at the start, but posted a 4.085-second run at 162.92 mph to win the race. He was complimentary of the job that the folks at IHRA and VMP did to provide a good racing surface.

“They did a great job on the track,” he said. “It was perfect all day. The semifinal against Joe, I had a lot of confidence going into the final. We were close on the tree, but her car didn’t run the number for her.”

He described the moment he realized he’d won an IHRA Ironman trophy as surreal. While there’s a lot more exposure and as he described “commotion” going on compared to a bracket race, there was a peaceful feeling that came over him when doing the winner’s interviews.

After all, he was talking about something he truly loves.

“For me, racing is about more than just the mechanical side of it,” Davies said. “I always loved learning about the chassis side of it, the fabrication and all that. I like the competitiveness although my family was never into sports. When you build the cars and then you see people winning races with your cars, that really is rewarding.”