Schaun Schnathorst has been drag racing since 1986.  He started out with street cars and is currently competing in NHRA’s toughest sportsman class, SuperComp.

He has been using ethanol in his race car since 2000.  “Ethanol is not only the smart and responsible choice for the future, it has power increasing advantages over conventional fuels which enables your vehicle to burn cooler, burn cleaner and burn rubber!”

In 2007 our team received exciting news when we were able to bring EPIC (Ethanol Promotion and Information Council) on board.  “I guess you could say we were sold on ethanol before it was sold on us.”

If you are not familiar with SuperComp racing it is a class that is governed by it’s ET = elapsed time.  This ET is most generally 8.90 seconds unless higher elevation tracks would dictate differently.  (For example, Denver, Colorado is 9.46 due to the increase in altitude.) 

It is an extremely difficult class to compete in due to the fact that if you do not cut a good light (reaction time) and run 8.90 seconds or really close to that without going over, you lose… and there is no second place.  The class normally has a field of 100 plus cars, usually in the 120 car count range.

Technology has taken over and we use laptops and weather stations with pager outputs to try to adjust our throttle stop to either slow the car down or speed the car up in order to achieve the 8.90 run.  The rest is up to the driver…. he or she must still cut a good light in order to be competitive.

In my spare time also bracket race at local events where the dial in is posted on what you think the car will run all out.  The race is handicap started.  Example:  If I say I will run 8.50 seconds and my opponent says he/she will run 10.50 seconds, my opponent will get a 2.00 second head start.  Hypothetically if both competitors had identical reaction times and perfect runs, they would arrive at the starting line at the same time.  (This of course never happens!)