2025 Drag Racing Season Recap
Unfortunately, it’s that time of year again… time to park the race car in the corner of the garage for winter storage and reflect on the past season.
Last year (2024) was a perfectly okay season, not terrible, but not great. I won a fair number of rounds but didn’t make any finals appearances and never really built solid momentum. The good news is that 2025 was a strong bounce-back year for me.
To be fair, bracket racing (the specific type of drag racing I participate in) is all about consistency, from both the driver and the car. Some days the car is perfectly dialed in, but the driver… not so much. Other days, the car doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. To succeed in bracket racing, a lot of variables need to fall into place at the same time. Add in a healthy dose of luck, and that’s why we say, “sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.” When races are decided by just thousandths of a second, making the right decisions and executing your game plan over 660 feet (1/8 mile) is no easy task!
Like most seasons, I ran into a few issues along the way. Thankfully, with the help of fellow racers (and most importantly my dad!), I was able to get back up and running quickly. Early in the year, I broke a transmission input shaft, which caused some collateral damage. Luckily, it happened during a non-points race weekend, so it didn’t affect my season-long points chase. About a month later, a faulty brake master cylinder caused some inconsistency, but once that was replaced, the car was MUCH better for the rest of the season.
I wrapped up the year with two final-round appearances - a win in the Sportsman class and a runner-up finish in Pro. In the points chase, I finished 3rd overall in Sportsman (less than one round behind both first and second place) and 4th overall in Pro - my best points finish ever in that incredibly tough class.
One of our last events of the season was the NHRA Division 1 ET Finals. This is a regional race where the top points earners from eight tracks across the Northeast compete, with each class winner earning a spot at the World Finals in Las Vegas at the end of October. Unfortunately, my car and I weren’t quite in sync that weekend, and it ended in fairly disappointing fashion. On the bright side, my dad made it all the way to the finals in the Pro class, coming up just short to finish as the runner-up which was awesome to see. It’s always exciting and rewarding to still be in the lanes during the later rounds.
All in all, it was another fun year filled with the usual highs and lows that come with racing. Thankfully, there were more ups than downs, and the cars are all in one piece, which means we’ll get the chance to do it all over again next year. Hurry up, Spring!
