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Craig Sullivan, A Sportsman Racer with a Professional Attitude

PITTSBORO, NC – Most racers count their biggest wins by the number of trophies or oversized checks lining their Craig Sullivanshop walls. But for PDRA Top Dragster racer Craig Sullivan, winning often means something different altogether. Although he continually finishes in the top five of whatever division he races, his “big wins” can’t be measured on the track.

“I won the Jon Kaase Shootout at Norwalk in 2004,” Sullivan told, recounting one of his best memories from racing. “That was a special time because my wife and all three of my kids were there. We’ve been close to several championships in the JEGS Quick 32 Series. We’ve been second, third and fifth, but anytime that we can go out with a new product and start testing and be successful with it is a win for us. When we launched American Race Cars’ first hardtail Top Dragster in 2011 there were a lot of skeptics. But the car was fast right out of the box, and it was consistent.

“The great thing is when you can walk through the PRI Show and you’ve got these vendors that come to you and go, ‘We really appreciate your hard work.’ In 2013 I had three vendors come up and say, ‘We’re supposed to talk to you about marketing our product. We need distribution set up.’ I connected with Danny Vaca of LAT Oil at the US Nationals. We chose LAT Oil because it was something that we felt we could win with. We’ve been marketing really strong with Danny, and we’ve come up with a new product or two. We’ve seen a sizable increase in his distribution. We’re going after more market share. Same thing with Renegade Race Fuels. We were able to get hooked up with them two years ago, and we’ve increased their market share. Those are the big wins we see.”

It’s only partially true that winning on the track results in greater partnership with industry manufacturers. For Sullivan, it’s as much about making his sponsors look good as it is about on-track bragging rights. As the founder of Sullivan’s Equipment – a 20 year success story – this self-made man knows what it takes to make it.

With one race left in the 2015 season, the man who says he “works to race” sits third in PDRA Top Dragster points, a category he’s earned the number one qualifying award for two times this year. Although competitors must often push the limits just to qualify in Top Dragster, qualifying in the top five is not something that everyone believes is beneficial on race day. Sportsman racers often opt for a slower, and arguably more consistent, tune up. Sullivan points out that one of his main objectives in qualifying at the top of the pack is to get greater exposure for his sponsors.

“We got out on a slow start because the dragster we debuted this year was a different animal than our 2011 American. This American Race Cars dragster features multiple slip joints, larger tubing than SFI minimum requirements, and very narrow track width to make it more aerodynamic, so that we can pick and choose where we want our line to be. We’ve consistently gotten faster every race, but we’re still tweaking on it to make it go faster. I think we’ve still got a lot left in the chassis and a lot left in our engine program. We brought the billet head and billet intake out by VED, Visner Engine Development. There were a lot of guys skeptical about it, but we’ve shown it’s a proven beast and very fast.

“Of course, American Race Cars has been very good to us. Our engine program is by Tony Bischoff at BES Race Engines. We have the fastest Ford nitrous car in the country. We’ve been told that we’re the fastest nitrous Top Dragster car in the country. There’s a couple of guys that want to dispute that. It just depends on what day it is and where we’re at as to who’s the fastest. Induction Solutions does the nitrous on our car. Hyperactive Performance Solutions helps tune and maintain our EFI program that we’re on. John Meaney at Big Stuff 3, Renegade Racing Fuels, and Abruzzi Transmission and Converters are a few of our other great partners. We really helped Marco [Abruzzi] with his bolt together converter. Mickey Thompson has been a big backer with the R&D that they’ve done with the 3195 tire. It’s put us way ahead of the competition, and Mickey Thompson has been able to gain market share in the Top Dragster ranks with how fast we’ve gone with the car and how consistent it is. The faster we go the better it makes everybody that helps us look.”

Despite his laundry list of partners, Sullivan hopes to continue upping the professionalism of his program by securing a major sponsor. “To be able to run a professional series, like the PDRA, is something else. Each class has its own idiosyncrasies that you have to go through to get where you want to be. It’s not the most power every time. We’ve done real well with that in the sportsman level, even with our Super Stocker.”

Although Sullivan’s plan is to keep pushing the limits and going quicker and faster (he has big plans for next year), he certainly didn’t start off going fast. He started at the bottom and has worked his way through the ranks since he was 16 years old.

“When I was a young kid my father ran modified production Super Stock,” remembered Sullivan. “He quit racing and that was all I had ever known. So when I got to where I could, I started doing it on my own. I was 16 when I started with a ‘67 Fairlane.”

Sullivan moved from bracket racing his Fairlane to Nostalgia Super Stock before eventually competing with the JEGS Quick 32 Series and then Top Dragster. Today, he still fields a Super Stock Mustang in NHRA along with his Top Dragster machine.

“Early in the year we concentrated on just trying to go rounds. We didn’t try to go after winning the race as we were trying to get the new car acclimated. Chad Crawford that was with me early in the season and part of last year got called back up to the pro ranks. He’s the Car Chief for Dave Connolly’s Top Fuel car. As soon as he showed up at their place they started going rounds and winning and qualifying better. It was a pretty big setback for us, when we’re shaking out a new car to lose talent like that.

“TJ Strange is the Crew Chief now. He’s been on for three or four months. He’s going to be a long term investment for me that we’ll be able to build upon. It’s been a learning experience going back and forth with him on the tune up we’ve got. I think we’re set pretty well for next year. Halfway through the season we decided to get started on next year and make sure we’ve got our operating procedures in place to be successful.”

Although Sullivan has his sights set on next year already, he hasn’t forgotten that there’s still one race left for him to make an impact on the 2015 PDRA season. “The last race – we’re going to go out and win it,” he said confidently. “I don’t think we can catch [points leader] Justin Melton. We might be able to go around Derrik Sholar. With the canceling of the Bradenton race, that really put us out of Championship contention. Then my showing at Rockingham didn’t help matters any either. But I think if you can finish in the top two or three any year it’s a pretty successful year.

“We’re going to come out blazing next year.”

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