The Joys of New Pipe

To ask whether or not Dan Lafferty loves life and racing is like asking if there are glaciers in Glacier National Park. Uh, yeah!

Lafferty is constantly laughing and joking, picking on other racers and engag- ing with fans with his infectious smile and huge laugh. Lafferty loves to have a good time. However, his gregarious personality is switched off in a nano-second and he becomes the extremely serious Lafferty when it’s time to get into his race car, or when he gets down to working at his business. Lafferty owns and operates Lafferty Drilling and Blasting based in Wendell, Idaho, and it’s the most typical “man” business possible: He gets to blow things up for a living. He takes his craft seriously, knowing that one minor lapse in concentration can have disastrous results.

To get away from the stress of blowing things up, for more than 20 years Lafferty has been tearing up racetracks in the Intermountain West in a series of Super Pro Dragsters, winning regularly and always a threat at big money bracket events anywhere in the country.

In early 2013, Lafferty contacted Sunset Performance Racing Engines to commission one of its monster 5-inch bore spaced engines that produces in excess of 1,400 hp on one, yes, one, carburetor and no nitrous.

He soon discovered the Sunset power was more than his current TNT racer was happy with, so he decided to set it aside for the local Super Pro wars, and get some new pipe to run Top Dragster. He contacted John Parks at Chrome Worx Performance Products in LeRoy, Michigan. Chrome Worx is unique in that it takes a bare American Race Cars chassis and assembles the car to the exact specifications of the client. After the 250- inch wheelbase ARC chassis and Sunset engine were married at Chrome Worx, Parks started working his magic. The assembled car was taken to Todd’s Extreme Painting, where Todd and his staff were given carte blanche to run with the color palette of black, red and white along with some gold leaf, which Lafferty made synonymous with his older dragsters.

Todd’s shop isn’t called “Extreme” Painting for nothing. The gang there did more than paint the outside of the race car. Anywhere on the car where paint could could be seen, it was applied, including the cockpit dash, the transmission housing, roll cage shield and the rearend housing.

Like a parent who has a very talented child, Parks knew this car would be special. Throughout the long hours of assembly, everything just seemed to work out, according to Parks, “These cars have personality to them, and I could just tell this one was special, due to the fact everything went together so nicely. Nothing fought us at all; it was a breeze to assemble.”

Lafferty and Parks seemed to be on the same sheet of music from the onset of the project, and the results show. This car is a combination of brawn and flash, which is indicative of Lafferty’s personality, and it fits him well. The brawn part was shown the first time down the track. The car flawlessly ran in the 6.90 range at nearly 200 mph. On that day, the weather was less than ideal and the corrected altitude was nearly 4,000 feet. “I knew that when we got this car down to sea level this car would fly,” Lafferty said.

Throughout the 2014 season, Lafferty received special awards as Best Appearing Car at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series division seven race in Salt Lake City and the division six event held in Boise, Idaho. The pièce de résistance occurred last November at the NHRA Lucas Oil division seven regional at The Strip in Las Vegas. Lafferty drove the Chrome Worx dragster to the win over a huge and very stout field of Top Dragster runners. In Vegas, the car ran flawlessly, performing between 6.84 and 6.89 throughout qualifying and eliminations. In the final round victory, Lafferty slowed down to a 6.99 when his opponent broke just off the starting line. Keep in mind, Vegas is also a high-altitude track.

Lafferty is still chomping at the bit to get to a sea-level track to see exactly how quick and fast the dragster will go in good air. He figures that it should run about a 6.70. Then he’ll truly be loving life.

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BUILD LIST

• 250-INCH WHEELBASE ARC CHASSIS
• HEAVY-DUTY 1 3⁄8-INCH TUBING BACK HALF
• SINGLE SHOCK SWING ARM SUSPENSION WITH ANTI-ROLL SYSTEM
• CUSTOM PENSKE RACING SHOCK
• MARK WILLIAMS ULTIMATE PRO AXLES
• MARK WILLIAMS BOLT-THROUGH CENTER SECTION
• MARK WILLIAMS DRIVESHAFT
• LAMB ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT DUAL-CALIPER BRAKES
• HUGHES PRO MOD POWERGLIDE TRANS
• HUGHES GM 96 TORQUE CONVERTER
• RACEPAK V-300 DATA SYSTEM LOADED WITH SENSORS
• RON DAVIS WATER/TRANS COOLER COMBO RADIATOR
• CUSTOM-PAINTED WELD DELTA 1 BEADLOCK WHEELS
• CUSTOM-DESIGNED FRONT WHEELS BY LINDSAY/CHROME WORX
• COMPLETE CUSTOM PAINT BY TODD’S EXTREME PAINT
• ISP CUSTOM-UPHOLSTERED, POUR-IN SEAT, ISP SIDE AND TOP HEAD PROTECTION
• COMPLETE CARBON FIBER INTERIOR PANELS OPTION
• ALMOST EVERY PAINT AND CHROME OPTION OFFERED BY CHROME WORX
• ENGINE BY SUNSET PERFORMANCE RACING ENGINES