It was the winter of 1989, and after competing in just three NHRA Winston Drag races, I was definitely hooked on Pro Stock. Now it was time to take things to the next level. I was convinced that if I ordered a brand-new race car with all of the up-to-date technology I was sure that I could qualify my Ford at a national event, so I placed my order for a brand-new Jerry Bickel Ford Probe. I will add that during this time period Bob Glidden had just won his 10th Pro Stock championship in a Ford Probe, so of course if Bob could do it, I was sure I could, too.

My Probe was probably one of the prettiest racecars that Jerry ever built me, and I couldn't wait to get it on the racetrack. What better place to debut my new Probe than the Citrus Nationals in West Palm Beach, Fla. The plan was to leave right after the kids got home from school that day, go by Sonny Leonard's shop to pick up engines, and then drive to Florida. Unfortunately, by the time we left home the weather had turned ugly, and I found myself driving in a blinding snowstorm — following two tire marks on a one-lane highway. Now I have always credited myself with being a great driver, but driving a tractor trailer in snow and ice was not high up on my driver resume. It was a scary trip, but we made it to Sonny's safely and then into South Carolina before I could find a place to stop for the night. Thankfully, the kids slept the entire night, so they had no idea of the excitement they had missed.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and of course Toni insisted that we had to stop to celebrate our family Thanksgiving dinner even if it was at a roadside Shoney's Restaurant. So, I found a place to park the rig, and we all sat down and had good old fashion turkey dinner complete with all of the fixins and of course pumpkin pie. I will never forget that dinner — everyone had such a good time.

Well, we finally made it to West Palm and tested our new Probe for several days. I didn't win the race, but I did win the award for the Best Appearing Car that year. How cool was that. I was happy with my car, but I wouldn't really know how I stacked up against the upcoming competition until I tested with all of the other Pro Stock competitors.

I didn't have long to wait. During that time, all of the Pro Stockers tested in Houston before going to Pomona, so of course we loaded up engines and headed to Houston Raceway Park. Well, we tested for several days, and my Probe was one of the slickest race cars on the track, however, when it came to putting up competitive e.t.s on the scoreboard…not so much. We tried everything to run fast; we even borrowed a set of carburetors from Bob Glidden but still no luck. I walked over to Bob's pits to return his carburetors, and he gave me some of the best advice I have ever had in my Pro Stock career. He said, "Jim, if you love Pro Stock racing as much as I think you do, why don't you sell that Probe and go find yourself a GM car to race. Buy yourself a Trans Am, get a GM engine and go Pro Stock racing!"

What?! Are you kidding me?! I knew that I could make this Ford program work. Frustrated, I trudged back to my pits and told Toni about my conversation with Bob. It took her about 30 seconds to speak her mind, and she didn't sugar coat it. She told me, "Well, you can race this Ford up and down the racetrack all you want, but I'm not going to Pomona with you with this car. We are so slow that it is embarrassing!" So now what was I suppose to do?

Toni pointed me towards Butch Leal's pits, gave me a shove, and said, "I heard that Butch has a Pontiac for sale. If you are serious about racing Pro Stock, you need to go over there and talk to him about buying his car!" And so, on the advice of Bob Glidden and Toni, I walked over to Butch Leal's pits, and as they say, the rest is history. That very night, we came to terms on the sale of his Willy Rells Trans Am — unfortunately, it wasn't completed yet.

;

We left the very next day, drove to Ohio, picked up the Trans Am, and took it straight to Jerry Bickel's shop in St. Louis. He completed building my Pontiac but, unfortunately, didn't have it ready until the Houston race. In the meantime, I had joined forces with Bob Ingles to supply me engines, and it was in March of 1990 that I attended my first NHRA drag race with my new "Willy-Bickel Trans Am".

There had been no time to test the car before coming to the track, but back then, NHRA allowed the driver (if he had a new race car) to have a "new car/new driver" pass, so I figured we had to be okay with just that. That meant that I had one pass down the track (prior to qualifying) to shake the bugs out of the car. And boy, oh boy, did I shake some bugs out. I got to the finish line, and the Safety Safari guy ran over to me and said, "Wow, what did you hit out there?!"

I couldn't believe what I saw! The front end mounts had collapsed (not Bickel's design), and the front end was folded under the car. Oh boy, this wasn't a good thing, most especially since we had to make our first qualifying run in about an hour… Time to get to work. We pulled our poor Trans Am back to the pits, started fiber glassing and duct taping, and eventually got the front end back together. Thank goodness for red and white Racer's Tape! Unfortunately, we missed the first qualifying run and because of a rain delay had to run Q2 late at night. Needless to say, I was just a little gun-shy since I had never run at night before and I wasn't sure if my taped up front end was going to hold. I dropped the clutch, and when the car made a move about half track, I lifted.

Well, the next day was hotter, and the water had started seeping up through the track surface, so qualifying was going to be a little more difficult. Since I really hadn't made a full pass in my Trans Am until Saturday I was pretty happy that I was16th with only one pair left to run at the end of Q4. The weather was hot and the track was not that good, and the only other car left that could possibly bump me out was – Rickie Smith. Not a chance. LOL Yep, you guessed it…Rickie sailed right down the track, qualified, and that found me sitting No. 17.

I ran that Trans Am with the taped-up front end until I had time to get it back to Bickel's shop to get it properly fixed and repainted with a cool new Fram/Bendix/Autolite paint scheme. We qualified at 8 of 17 races that 1990 racing season and ended up 15th in the Winston points. Not a bad finish considering our rocky start. I learned a lot that year, but I think the biggest decision I made was to listen to Bob Glidden and Toni when they convinced me to switch to my Pontiac Trans Am. My ’90 Pontiac Trans Am started my NHRA Pro Stock career at Houston Raceway Park, and now, 19 years, several body styles, and 405 starts later, my Pontiac GXP will take me to the finish line at Houston Raceway Park.

To be continued…