NHRA News: Rigors of modern day drag racing demand physical fitness (11/4/2004)

Rigors of modern day drag racing demand physical fitness

Contributed by Ted Yerzyk
11/4/2004

"I plan on starting Pilates or yoga this winter."
– Tommy Johnson Jr.

Watching a driver emerge from a Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car just after a sub-five second, 320-plus mph blast down the quarter mile makes it easy to see the amount of effort driving a 6,000 horsepower race car demands from the body. When a driver takes off their helmet, they look like they've just run a 100-meter sprint with Shaquille O'Neal on their back.

Gasping for air is the common post-run result for a driver who just experienced a push of up to 6 Gs for four and a half seconds, followed by an abrupt negative 6 G deceleration process when both parachutes deploy. At the same time, the driver's veins are coursing with adrenaline from their high-speed joyride. It's no wonder more and more drivers are placing a premium on fitness.

"Everyone always asks why we're out of breath after a run," Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr. said. "This year at preseason testing at Las Vegas, I wore a heart rate monitor and my peak heart rate reached 179 beats (per minute) during a pass. The heart rate chart looked almost the same as the driveshaft speed on my on-board computer.

The force of two parachutes being deployed
at the same time can reach a negative 7Gs.
Racers Edge Photography

"My normal resting heart rate was like 55 beats. Sitting in the car waiting to go, it was like 70 beats. From the time we started the car, through the burnout, and executing the run, it went up continually until I turned off the track and stopped. It wasn't back to normal until I was on the return road.

"It's like you're running a full out sprint. The G-forces are pretty intense. Every fan wants to know what it's like to go that fast. It's not the speed, but the acceleration that gets your heart pumping so rapidly. It has nothing to do with speed and going that fast. You can drive 300 mph all day long. It's how you get to that speed so quickly. We go from 0-100 mph in less than one second. Your mind has to work so hard and so fast. The amount of time you have to process things is very compact. Your brain really works overtime."

"There's a reason you see many drivers short of breath," Larry Dixon said. "The G-force load on the body in such a short span is tremendous, and then you add in the adrenaline rush that's there every time. If you're in better shape, it's a lot easier on your body."

A veteran pilot of the Funny Car wars, Ron Capps is one of few drag racers who's dared to experience other forms of racing, having tested an IROC car, driven a Skip Barber Formula open wheel car, and raced in sprint car racing's Chili Bowl event in Tulsa, Okla.

"Driving an IROC or open wheel car is even more demanding," Capps said. "Those guys have to be in really good shape. It's highly underrated. When we race at tracks during the summer, those can be some very grueling days. If you go rounds on Sunday and its 100 degrees and humid, that can make for a long day. There's definitely no downside to being in good shape. And those guys go for 500 miles. If we do everything right, we go one mile."

Training for speed
Whit Bazemore's passion for cycling has been well chronicled in recent years. The veteran flopper driver pedaled more than 6,000 miles on his custom-built Seven bicycle last year, and he routinely rides an 80-mile route near his home in Indianapolis.

Bazemore stays in
shape by cycling.

While Bazemore is a freak for cycling, his Funny Car rivals from Don Prudhomme Racing have a different line of attack for keeping fit. Johnson tends to focus more on a strict diet, while mixing in some cardio activity. At the same time, Capps does his best Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation by pumping iron at his local LA Fitness gym in Encinitas, Calif. An avid sportsman, Capps also plays racquetball to keep his reactions quick, hits the links for a round of golf to work on hand-eye coordination, or heads to the beach to hang 10 on his surfboard and tone his body's natural balance.

"It's very important to be in good shape," Capps said. "With drag racing, it's not an endurance thing to do the job, but I approach it from injury prevention perspective and to strengthen my body for the negative G-forces when the parachutes come out. If something goes wrong, you want to be in the best possible shape for that scenario.

"I do a lot of strength training and I still play a lot of racquetball for cardio and golf for hand-eye coordination. The better drivers have the best hand-eye coordination. You see someone pedal a car or win on a holeshot fairly often, so hand-eye skills are important. The strength exercises are for injury prevention."

Johnson, a five-time NHRA winner and one of just 13 drivers to have scored victories in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, is a strong believer in the importance of mental fitness, which he believes is strengthened by habitual exercise and a solid diet.

"Being in good shape is definitely a plus," Johnson said. "All the studies say exercise makes you mentally sharper, along with the positive health benefits. Not only are you healthy and a better driver, but it's good to maintain a constant weight for the benefit of the race car. The last thing the crew chief needs is a driver going up and down in weight all the time. I try and keep between 160-165 pounds.

"In the off-season, I'm more focused on my exercise program. It's hard when you're on the road all the time. I run on the treadmill and do a lot of cardio work at home. I also enjoy playing basketball. I don't do a lot of weight training. I don't want to be big and buff. I remember watching a video on Ayrton Senna with Snake a few years back and Senna did a lot of cardio by jogging on the beach. He did a lot of running and some stretching exercises. I think as the older I get, the better it is to be more flexible. I plan on starting Pilates or yoga this winter."

Daily workouts with a personal trainer keep Capps in top shape.
Photo by Ron Lewis

For Dixon, the two-time Top Fuel champion and 35-time category winner, being strict with his cardio training to stay as light as possible is crucial to the performance of his Miller Lite dragster.

"I never really thought about the fitness side of things too much until in 1995 when I tore my ACL and had to have surgery," Dixon said. "The rehab forces you to work out and do those kinds of things. I didn't think about my body weight until Dale Armstrong came on to tune the dragster and told me to lose 15 pounds. That let me know how important being lighter was. It's the same reason you don't see any 200-pound jockeys.

"If I lift weights, I build muscle and that puts on weight which isn't good for a driver. I use the stationary bike and treadmill for an hour every other day every chance I get. I try to stay pretty active."

Whereas his three drivers use modern techniques and advances to stay physically fit, in his driving heyday, "the Snake" kept in top condition with the help of torque wrenches and other tools.

"I stayed in shape by working on the race car," Prudhomme said. "That's how I watched my weight, by working on the car. These guys today have it easy."

Watch what you eat
It's very easy for a driver to let their diet waver when on the road or at the racetrack. For that reason alone, being stringent with one's eating activities is key for any driver.

Many drivers employ a masseuse, like traveling therapist Jodie Greis, to help their bodies
recover after a weekend of drag racing.
Racers Edge Photography

"You try to eat healthy, which is hard on the road," Johnson said. "It's really hard for the crew guys to eat right. The temptation with all the junk food around is hard to resist. Back in 2001, I dropped 20 pounds by doing a low-carb diet. I was a big Mountain Dew drinker, now it's nothing but Diet Coke for me. I try to cut out a lot of the unnecessary sugars. My one weakness is Peanut M&Ms. I get most of my carbs by eating fruit."

"I wrestled for years in high school," Capps said. "So I learned what's important to eat and not to eat. It's easy to go and eat a lot of junk food because it's convenient at the track and the catering isn't the best. You have to shy away from it. I have a fast metabolism. I know what works best for my body."

Dixon travels to the majority of the NHRA events with his family in their Featherlite Vogue motor home, which pretty much mirrors their home life. So, rather then going to Chilis or Applebees or hitting the McDonalds drive-thru for a quick meal, they can eat a relatively healthy meal just like they were at home in Indiana.

"We eat the same," Dixon said. "Having the motor home is nice because we can buy all the meals before we get to the racetrack. It has a fridge, stove, and we have a barbeque grill to cook with. It's one of the big benefits of having the motor home.

"When I work out, I can eat what I want, but at the same time, part of having an NHRA license requires you to get a physical every year. They do blood work along with your regular check up. They check your cholesterol, so I try to eat the right things so that I'm healthy. It's more important now than ever before."

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