NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

When it comes to perfect runs for Sportsman drivers, the record books don’t reveal much, but one thing that’s certain is that they are few and far between. Perfect runs, which include a .000 reaction time with a run matching the index or dial-in to the thousandth of a second, just don’t happen that often, and when they do, most racers are quick to admit that it wasn’t by design.

Enter Mike Wiblishouser.

In the final round of Super Gas at the recent Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Wiblishouser, a four-time national event winner and consistent Top 10 finisher, faced off against Val Torres in the final round and achieved perfection with a .000 light and an accompanying 9.900 pass. It was one of those OMG moments that left even the track announcers speechless.

No one knows for certain how many perfect runs have been logged in NHRA competition, but one thing is certain; it has never happened in a national event final, a round where the stakes are the highest and the pressure is most intense.

Wiblishouser was thrilled just to see the win light on in his lane. Moments later, when he was handed the time slip, he began to realize this wasn’t an ordinary victory.

“No, nobody plans for that. I just let go at the right time and closed my eyes, hoped for the best, and it was lucky,” said Wiblishouser. “It’s funny because the [NHRA worker] who was at the top end told me I was trip zip [.000 reaction time] and then he said I ran a 90. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s good.’ Then he handed me the time slip and I saw it was 9.900, and I was like, ‘Holy smokes,' but to be honest, the car did exactly what it was supposed to do.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve never had one of those [perfect runs] before. I used to do a ton of bracket racing, and I even won the E.T. Finals before I started racing in Super Comp, but I don’t think I’ve done it. I remember a few one packs [.001 package] but never perfect. That’s really just a horrible job of red-lighting.”

Wiblishouser admits that in the final, he was set up for what he hoped would be a .007 light and had his ’07 Corvette roadster set up to run 9.89, giving him room to drive the finish line. Given that he was racing world champion Torres in the final, Wiblishouser felt he’d likely need his best run of the weekend.

“Once I made it through the semi’s, I started thinking about exactly what Tree looked like when I let go. I visualized the whole sequence. I was so focused on the Tree, I practically forgot how to do a burnout, and I was all over the rev limiter and basically did a dry hop. I’ve done it a bazillion times, but I almost forgot what the next step was. The minute my light came on, I hammered the holy heck out of it, so once I saw a green light, I felt like I’d hit it pretty hard.”

While the perfect run is cool, and Wiblishouser plans to frame his winning time slip, he admits that’s secondary to winning one of the coveted special edition NHRA 75th Anniversary diamond Wallys. When he started the season, that was his biggest priority, and he’s thrilled to have checked that box before the end of April.

“You have no idea what this means,” he said. “In NHRA’s 60th year, I won two national events, so I have two pewter Wallys, so my whole goal this year was to win one [diamond Wally], and it didn’t matter if it was a divisional or a national, I wanted a 75th anniversary Wally.

“Val Torres was the guy who beat me twice in the first round earlier this year, and I went to the Phoenix national event and got popped first round again, so that’s three straight round-one losses. What a funny sport this is. I literally quit 15 times on the way home from [Pomona divisional] when Val beat me for the second time.”

Given his early struggles, one might have expected Wiblishouser to come to Pomona with an aggressive mindset, but he insists that wasn’t the case. He merely stuck with the same game plan that had led to previous success.

“I was not more aggressive because that will get you in trouble," he said. "I’ve had a couple of finals where I’ve been red by a thousandth. Maybe hungry would be a better word to use. I’ve never wanted to win something as bad as this race. Pomona is also very special to me. It’s been my favorite track since I moved [to Arizona] from the Midwest. This is my fifth national event win, but none are as special as this one.”

Back to that perfect run for a moment.

Much like a hole in one in golf, most racers never get one, no matter how good they are or how long they race. Perfect runs just sort of happen, and oftentimes when they are least expected.

Consider that a typical NHRA schedule includes 20 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series national events, 45 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional events, and a handful of SPORTSnationals events and bonus races like the JEGS Allstars. That’s a lot of racing, yet in a typical season, there might be one or two perfect runs in eliminations. They are a bit more common at big-money bracket races, but those events are contested almost exclusively at eighth-mile tracks, so that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

For Wiblishouser, the perfect run and Pomona victory was easily the highlight of his season, but not the only one as he went from Pomona to Las Vegas for the double divisional and scored a second diamond Wally by beating Greg Ventura in the final round.

“Honestly, that [Las Vegas win] was pretty sloppy. I did not drive my best race,” Wiblishouser said. “I had some luck, and we had some problems with the car, but somehow, it all worked out. I was also pretty sick, and I should have just loaded up and left after the first race, because I lost early in the second race, but two wins in two weeks, I’m not complaining.”