By Daniel Green

Island drag racer Chris Barnes recently landed third place in the National Hot Rod Association’s (NHRA) Northwest Nationals. Racing his 1964 Plymouth wagon against powerful American muscle cars, Barnes didn’t go down until the semi-finals, a whopping achievement for a station wagon driver.

Barnes has been involved in drag racing for over two decades now, but he explained that his interest in cars goes farther back.

“I was a car guy since I got Hotwheels,” he said.

Now, he and his crew chief, islander Mike Brenno, have competed in a myriad of racing events with a handful of old wagons. Their most coveted vehicle, however, is the ‘64 Plymouth Savoy that almost took them to the top of the Northwest nationals.

Barnes admitted that the car was an “old man magnet.”

“It has a carburetor,” he noted. “A lot of people don’t even know what a carburetor is.”

But the car attracts geezers for a good reason: its racing class, “Stock Eliminator,” is one of the most historic classes in the NHRA, meaning some of the old men who talk to Barnes about his car were actually veteran racers.

“It’s like going to a baseball game and meeting Babe Ruth,” Barnes said.

Aside from the attention Barnes receives because of his car’s age, the wagon itself is, as dragster enthusiasts would put it, a “monster.”

He has upgraded the car’s stock 318 HP engine with a 426 — an engine that displaces just one cubic inch less than most of the classic Corvettes.

Barnes said he covers the first 60 feet of a race in less than 1.5 seconds, adding that he routinely runs the car at around 125 miles per hour at the peak of the race.

“I’m haulin’ ass,” he said, somewhat seriously. “All the organs are pinned to the back of your body and the front wheels come up off the ground.”

Not surprisingly, the car eats up a gallon of fuel every quarter mile.

The third place showing at Northwest Nationals has been one of the greatest achievements of Barnes’, and his team’s, racing career.

At the competition, 40,000 people watched as he burnt opponent after opponent. In addition to the $450 in award money he will receive, the victory proved to Barnes that his years of hard work and love for the sport could pay off with sheer excitement.

After all, Barnes doesn’t drive with hopes of stardom, but rather for the simple enjoyment of racing souped-up cars.

On his car’s website, Barnes described his battle at nationals rather casually: “It was a fun ride.”

— Daniel Green recently graduated from Vashon High School, where he wrote for The Riptide.