This weekend’s National Hot Rod Association’s Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways is like a homecoming to Auburn’s Aaron Strong.
“I have been going out to this race since 1993 or 1994,” said Strong, 33.
Even though Strong has been in the stands for the Northwest Nationals on nearly 15 occasions, this year marks the third time he’ll be flying down the quarter-mile in the Competition Eliminator class.
Strong – the defending NHRA Northwest Division 6 Comp Eliminator champion – is no stranger to the track or National events, but he said racing there is always a little intimidating.
“You always get a little nervous when you go up for the first round, but the national events are just a bigger race than a standard bracket or divisional race,” he said.
Strong got his start on the racetrack as a junior at Fife High School
His first run was behind the wheel of his dad Wayne Strong’s 1993 Mustang, a souped-up former cop car.
“We both did runs in it,” Strong said.
Soon, Strong was scorching local strips in his own 1963 Chevy Nova.
“I raced that a lot,” he said. “Did a lot of bracket racing and some points racing. I did all right in that for years, then I wanted to start going faster.”
Traditionally, drivers move on from bracket racing to Super Stock or other intermediate levels of racing. Not Strong.
“I kind of jumped the next step,” he said. “I kind of went to the class that I wanted to race in, which was Comp Eliminator.”
Spurred on by his brother and fellow Comp Eliminator racer Brandon Huhtala, Strong set about buying a car in 2005.
Selling off one of the dump trucks from his trucking company – Strong Trucking – he acquired a 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier, formerly owned by Pro Stock racer Ron Krisher.
“They traded it in to the chassis builder who builds the car,” he said. “So I bought it from the builder, Jerry Bickle. I had it for a couple years, painting it and getting it ready to run in this class.”
“The car itself is about $55,000 rolling, used,” he continued. “That’s not even motor, tranny, race pack or ignition. One of these cars turn-key is about $150 grand for a Comp Eliminator. It’s just one level below Pro Stock.”
Strong and his friends and crew, Jeremy Witherbee, Paul Sanders and Ryan Warter, set about adjusting the car from its Pro Stock set up.
“The only difference between Comp Eliminator and Pro Stock is really the motor,” Strong said. “This car has a 280-cubic-inch motor that gets about 800 horsepower. Pro Stock runs 500-cubic inch motors that get close to 1,450 horsepower. They’ll do 6.50-seconds at 210 miles-per-hour.”
Although he had a car, Strong still needed to get his license to race in the Comp Eliminator class.
“It was kind of hard at first,” Strong said of the licensing process. “That first run you make, you don’t know what the car is going to do, you don’t know if it’s going to go left or right, up or down or straight. You don’t know what it’s going to do, and at the same time you’re trying to license. So it’s really hard. You just don’t want to break something or crash the thing.”
Things went well for Strong, however, and he was soon able to notch the requisite six error-free runs in the car to obtain his license.
“The car went straight. I was comfortable, although it took a little while to get used to the speed,” he said.
Used to pulling 12-second times at about 100 mph in his Nova, Strong said it was quite a step up to the 7.90-second, 170 mph times he pulled in his new ride.
“It was nice, but it took 30 or 40 runs to get used to it,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of runs where we’ve had to shut it down and abort the run. You’ll get out of the groove and get too much wheel speed. You just have to respect these cars. You’re just along for the ride, so you can’t overdrive them.”
With license in hand and car ready, Strong made his Division 6 debut in 2008.
“I did OK, I went to three or four divisional races,” he said. “I went to the Northwest Nationals for the first time. I think I finished 11th that year. I just kind of got my feet wet.”
In the following seasons, Strong became more and more comfortable behind the wheel of his car, and last year he finished the season as the Northwest Division 6 Comp Eliminator champ.
“We were really fast last year at the beginning,” he said. “I found a lot in the car, just in suspension, chassis set up. I didn’t spend a dollar on anything, just kept refining everything that was already there, just learning how to make it work better.”
This year, just six events into the divisional season, Strong said he’s not quite where he wants to be.
“This year we’ve been fast, but we’ve had some parts failures,” he said. “We blew a clutch at a race in Canada and then had some races where we got rained out, following the clutch explosion. We didn’t have time to get the new clutch figured out and lost a race in the first round.”
Although the year has not been great for his divisional standings, he’s found success at the National events, grabbing fourth at the Winter Nationals in Pomona, Calif. and making it to the semifinals at the Las Vegas Nationals.
Currently, Strong said he’s happy running Comp Eliminator, but eventually hopes to move up.
“Pro Stock would be my ultimate dream, but you definitely need some corporate sponsorship,” he said. “You can’t run there without lots of money. It’s a lofty goal.”
For now, however, he’s just concentrating on getting the car ready and enjoying the weekend.
“It’s just a good positive environment,” he said. “I look forward to it, getting to see people I’ve come to know on the weekends that I only see every once in awhile. In our division, everybody is friends, if you need a part or help, we’re in each other’s trailers helping out. There is definitely a camaraderie there.”
“(The Northwest Nationals) are definitely a cool thing that people should go out and see,” he said. “There are all kinds of people coming from out of town to see the race. It’s a pretty special deal to go out and see the magnitude of all the rigs, $500,000 a pop all lined up in the pits. I don’t know anybody, whether you’re into racing or not, who isn’t impressed by it.”
