It was the latest major win for Hefler, who won the IHRA Sportsman Spectacular presented by Moser Engineering and FuelTech at Xtreme in April. It came just months after his scary top-end crash at Texas Motorplex. Like getting back on a horse, Hefler came back to win the Spring Stampede at Texas Motorplex in May.
Then Saturday, the 52-year-old driver won the Box title at the most prestigious national championship in all of bracket racing, beating Petersen in an all-Chevy II final-round battle. Both finalists took pride that it was all door cars in the semifinal rounds.
“I love door cars and beating the dragsters more than anything,” Hefler said. “I’ve always liked Chevy II’s. I have three of them. It’s a car that my wife really likes.”
Ironically, Hefler is now the owner of a dragster, winning the grand prize of an Ezell Race Cars custom-built dragster. His overall prize package was valued at over $60,000 which included a $20,000 big check from Summit Racing Equipment, an IHRA Gold Card, a World Champion Diamond Ring, the prestigious IHRA World Champion Ironman Trophy plus the grand prize of the custom-built dragster.
Hefler has been racing since he was six years old and started in door cars at 13. He works in the oil and gas business when he’s not racing, saying he does the “rough work that most don’t want to do.” He’s certainly equally tough on the track, racking up the aforementioned wins and several others in his bright red Chevy.
Still to be crowned IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Champion is an honor that few have ever accomplished. He faced some of the best racers in North America in eliminations, getting past Michael Crowell from Dragway 42 in the quarterfinals and Bill Casner from Bunker Hill Dragstrip in the semifinals.
Hefler credited the tough competition at Xtreme Raceway Park for helping get him prepared for the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals. He said that facing the hard-nosed Xtreme racers on a regular basis led to the biggest single win of his racing career.
