NHRA News: Downing and Perley the men behind Anderson's success (4/12/2004)

Downing and Perley the men behind Anderson's success

4/12/2004

Greg Anderson

They are the talk of the NHRA. Not just Pro Stock – the entire NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series has something to say about Greg Anderson and his KB Racing program.

Anderson spent time making the tuning calls for six-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Warren Johnson before he was compelled to take a shot at driving. He put a team together that produced two wins in six final rounds en route to a third-place finish in the 2002 standings. That wasn't good enough. So Anderson went looking for the ultimate team – A dream team.

He found it in the form of a dual crew chief scenario with Rob Downing and Jeff Perley. They weren't new to the sport either. Downing graduated from University of Nebraska before working his way up to a tuning job with Mark Pawuk. Perley has spent his entire adult life in motorsports and had been with Johnson and General Motors just before Anderson struck out on his own.

Just to be sure they were ready to compete on the highest level, they convinced Jason Line to bring his NASCAR engine building experience over to Ken Black's Vegas General Construction and KB Framers race teams. That's when it all seemed to come together.

In 2003, Anderson's second full season of racing, the squad of veterans meshed and the results were jaw-dropping. Anderson won a record 12 races in 15 final rounds. The team set both ends of the national record as well as 19 track records throughout the season. They were the No. 1 qualifier 14 times and have been the top qualifier for nine consecutive races, dating back to the second Chicago race in September.

But as they head to Houston Raceway Park for the 17th annual O'Reilly Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil, there is one topic on everyone's mind. Is the team operating within NHRA rules or not? How are they dominating this class? What's the secret? In this questions and answer session, Downing and Perley talk about why they win, what their biggest challenges are, and what they think about being questioned on a weekly basis.

Q: What does KB Racing do better than other teams?

Perley lines up his boss for a run.
Racers Edge Photography

Perley: Win races.
Downing: We prepare better, in comparison to other teams, we have eight guys at the shop, including us, that all work a lot of hours. We do our best to keep everyone informed about what's going on and we try to prepare well. We have a lot of good guys that have a lot of experience. Nobody is afraid to listen to anyone else. The car guys will help with the engines and the engine guys will help with the cars.
Perley: I think we all realize that without a team, none of us would work nearly as effectively as we do. We have a mutual respect for how much time it takes to be ready for a run. There isn't a time when we don't feel confident that the engine is ready and they don't ever worry that the car is ready.

Q: Rob, what does Jeff bring to the team?
Downing: He is the best at reading the tracks and knowing what calls to make on the next run. We will sit down and talk about it and I always look to him, especially when I am not sure about something. If we are teetering on something, we go with how he feels.
Perley: It's a pretty cool situation because we are both open enough that we can use each other to make the best decisions. There are certain days when he is really on or vice versa. Both of us have been crew chiefs and we both realize what a big job it is. We, maybe too much, rely on each other to make the whole thing work. It's really a cool deal.

Q: Jeff, what does Rob contribute to the team?

The studious Downing has a
calming influence on the team.
Racers Edge Photography

Perley: Rob grounds everybody. He makes sure we are well organized, well prepared, and he is always even-keeled. He doesn't get frustrated easily. If there is any kind of controversy or if we have a bad run or if something is not quite as right, Rob is always there to make sure we are going in the right direction. We share all of the duties on the car. At no point is either one of us led to believe we could do this without the other guy.

We both raced with pretty good teams before this and Greg raced with pretty good teams before this. Not to take anything away from those teams, but we all learned that we could put a better team together if we had more qualified people in every spot, not just one good guy leading a bunch of squirrels.

Q: Why drag racing?
Downing: My dad was involved with drag racing. I was one of those kids always at the track. I decided to go to school and make it my profession. When I was young and interested in racing, I always loved Pro Stock. I knew guys like Warren (Johnson) and Bill Jenkins had engineering backgrounds.
Perley: It's all I ever had my heart set on doing. I'm originally from Canada and my dad came down here in 1962 and raced with Richard Petty, Cotton Owens, and David Pearson. He did it for a short time then became a pilot. We grew up on stock car racing but I had a limited budget and I couldn't afford to go circle track racing. Drag racing was my own twist on racing. My dad was into circle track racing and I always enjoyed drag racing.

Q: What about the accusations that you guys cheat?

Open communication is key,
Downing and Perley insist.
Racers Edge Photography

Downing: It frustrates us a little because we work so hard. It's not going to stop what we are doing here and it's not going to change the way we do things. We know we are working hard, doing things by the book, and keeping everything legal. If people want to be upset, that's their prerogative. People who know us know we aren't cheating.
Perley: What people don't seem to realize is we aren't new to the sport. We are a new team, but we all have a lot of experience and we've brought a lot of experience into one shop. Are we getting a little sick of the accusations? Sure. Are they going to continue? Yes. It happens to everyone on top. It doesn't make it right, but it seems like the inevitable. We've raised the bar for the class in general. We have a more complete team and people don't want to believe they can get outrun by a team as new as we are. They assume we can't be beating them through talent, so [we] must be cheating.

Q: After dominating 2003, what drives you now?
Perley: I feel less pressure from outside and more pressure from inside. We're fortunate in that everyone we hire is very self-motivated. Everyone is driven. Being that way you put pressure on yourself to be better. We know we can always do better and we have to struggle with some thing because we expect perfection.
Downing: Last year has given me confidence because I know what we can do. Where I was before, winning a race was a huge thing. We went to every race hoping we could qualify and then do well. Here we go to every race with confidence and we plan on doing well. If we don't, it's an exception.

Q: What do you think about your drivers?

Every inch of the car is scrutinized.
Racers Edge Photography

Downing: Greg is incredible to work with. He never stops working. We have to sometimes reel him in and tell him to throttle back. He drives the entire team. I think Greg is the best driver in the category, no question. He never lets pressure get to him. He is always calm and ready to race. Jason is cut from the same mold.
Perley: Greg covers up a lot of our mistakes. He can wheel through a mistake where some drivers know they don't have the ability to wheel through it and make the run. I wouldn't trade Jason for anyone in the class either, except for Greg. Jason is a great driver, especially considering how few laps he has. He has a lot of natural talent. Does he has room for improvement? Yes. But we all do.

Q: What would be a weakness of this team?
Perley: Working too much. I think we all know how to take a day off but I think we feel like we shouldn't. There are times when we are going to the race track and we are just drained mentally. We get very little sleep and by the time you get to the race track, we're exhausted. Being at the track is kind of a break. When we test, we make about eight runs a day and at the shop we work a minimum of 12 hours a day. Being at the track is a cake-walk.
Downing: Everyone drives everyone else. There is always someone (at the shop) and you feel like you should be here too, working hard. It's worth it when we win races. From my end, adding a second car has set us back on the organizational end. It's been a lot more responsibility to get the entire operation to run smoothly. We're working on that.

Q: Why would anyone ignore technology, especially these days?
Perley: If everyone was to believe that what happened 10 years ago was the absolute fastest you could get a car to run, we wouldn't be any faster. Everyone in our building believes we can not only be faster, but there are better ways of becoming faster. If you see what other forms of motorsports are doing, then you can discover other ways of improving performance. We look to Formula One and NASCAR.

Everyone on the team is a motorsports junkie. We all pay attention to all forms of racing. The rules are very different than ours and the conditions by which they race under are very different, but the technology can still be applied to our program. That works both ways. We have people who try to use what we are doing in their form of motorsport.

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