Georgia Drag Racing News

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Fayetteville Ga.’s David Sisk Pulls Double Duty at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Castrol GTX Friday Night Drags Car Show

CONTACT: Marcy Scott
Trey Sanders

HAMPTON, Ga. (June 6, 2007) – Fayetteville, Ga.’s David Sisk has discovered all that Atlanta Motor Speedway has to offer on Friday nights. Sisk not only participates in the drag racing portion of the Castrol GTX Friday Night Drags Series, he also enters his pristine 1967 Chevelle in the Show N’ Shine car show, pulling double duty.

In just two nights of competition, Sisk has taken home four trophies: two first-place drag trophies in the Pro class and two pieces of runner-up hardware in the Show N’ Shine competition.

Sisk’s award-winning Chevelle wasn’t in its current immaculate condition when he purchased the car just three years ago. Sisk described the car as a “rust bucket” and had to perform extensive rust repair, including two new front fenders.

“I sold a 1971 Chevelle I restored and wanted to buy a ’67,” Sisk recalled. “I like the longer body on the ’67 and I found my current Chevelle in Clearwater, Fla. I replaced a lot of rusty parts and have done a lot of metal fabrication to get it where it is today.”

Sisk drag raced his 427 big-block powered ’67 Chevelle in the 2006 edition of Friday Night Drags and enjoyed it so much, he purchased the 1968 Chevrolet Camaro that has notched final-round wins in both nights of competition this season.

“I used to race a 4-cylinder 1977 Toyota Liftback,” Sisk remembered. “That was a long time ago and my experiences last year drag racing at AMS in the Chevelle prompted me to go out and buy the ’68 Camaro to race this year.

Sisk’s plum colored Camaro weighs in at a mere 2,000-pounds and a 383 cubic-inch small-block engine is all that will be found under the hood.

“We don’t use nitrous or anything like that,” said Sisk. “The car is all motor and I don’t want to jinx ourselves and say that it is unbeatable in the eighth-mile, but it’s close.”

Despite Sisk’s previous drag racing experience, he has decided to hand the reigns of the Camaro over to his employee and friend, Len Gibson. A Valdosta resident, Gibson makes the trek from South Georgia to Hampton every Friday night and is the man responsible for piloting the bow-tie to both final-round wins in 2007.

“Len is a great driver and I would trust him with any of my cars” noted Sisk. “He comes from a circle track racing background, racing go-karts for seven or eight years, but he has adjusted nicely to going in a straight line.”

Sisk recognizes it can be hectic at times, being a drag car owner and having his cherry Chevelle parked in the Show N’ Shine garage, but Sisk credits the drag car and his crew for managing to get the job done.

“The events at AMS are great,” said Sisk. “It can get a little hectic with two vehicles competing, but I bring a real good crew to the track and they help make it run smoothly for us.

“The Camaro is a very low maintenance car as well and that helps a lot. We do all of our tuning before we come to the track so all we do is charge it, fuel it and run it.”

Sisk and company are on their way to meeting their goal of an AMS championship in 2007 and Sisk plans to get behind the wheel if they can build a points lead.

“Before we started the year, we set the goal of winning the Pro Division championship,” Sisk said. ”I didn’t buy that Camaro to watch from the sidelines forever, so I am anxious to get behind the wheel.”

Despite Show N’ Shine trophies, drag racing trophies or championship points, there is one aspect of Castrol GTX Friday Night Drags that is intangible and can’t be replaced for Sisk.

“There is absolutely nothing in the world that compares to the feeling you get when you hit the button and launch a car at 4,200 RPMs,” Sisk said laughing. “I just hope we get a comfortable points lead so I can get in there and drive it and not have to worry about losing points.”

For more information about Castrol GTX Friday Night Drags and the Show N’ Shine car show, contact the Atlanta Motor Speedway ticket office at (770) 946-4211 or visit
http://www.atlantamotorspeedway.com/