Davis Heads to Houston Ready to Race

Written by Ian Tocher

SUWANEE, GA — Ronnie Davis has won five IHRA Top Sportsman championships and is a two-time NHRA Div. 2 champion, but this weekend he begins a quest to win the first-ever American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Top Sportsman national title. The all-eighth-mile series opens its 2012 tour Mar. 30-31, with the CarSafe Dragpalooza VIII at Royal Purple Raceway, near Houston, where Top Sportsman will begin its first full season of official ADRL status after debuting as an exhibition class last year.

“I’m excited about getting to this first ADRL race and going after the championship,” the Suwanee, Georgia-based golf cart dealer says. “I’m very happy that ADRL added Top Sportsman and becoming the first to win a championship in it with all three major sanctioning bodies would be a tremendous achievement.

“I’m very, very serious about this. At almost every race I go to I’m working as well as racing; I bring golf carts and satellite systems to sell and I service carts and satellite dishes at the track, but this time the only golf carts I’m bringing are my own. I’m going to the ADRL with one objective only and that is to race. It’s the first time I’ve done this in a long, long time, but I think it will help me mentally and to stay focused. I’m looking forward to that.”

For ADRL action Davis will be driving his sleek, black-and-yellow, Tommy Mauney-built ’63 Corvette powered by a nitrous oxide-injected, 822-cubic-inch engine from Roush Yates Performance Engine Group. For the quarter-mile NHRA events he uses a similar, orange Mauney car, but driven by a nitrous-boosted Roush Yates 738 c.i. motor. With a pair of number-one starts and one runner-up finish to his credit after the first three NHRA Division 2 events this year, Davis sits just one point out of first place in the divisional Top Sportsman standings.   

“I don’t worry about finishing runner-up,” he insists. “My main goal is not necessarily winning races; my goal is winning championships. Now, of course I want to win every single race I enter, but any day I can get to the final round I’m happy because I at least get runner-up points. My philosophy has always been to go deep in rounds and let the points take care of themselves.”

And despite being far from home, Davis will have his own, enthusiastic cheering section at Royal Purple Raceway as both of his daughters live in the Houston area. Older daughter Bridget and her husband, Omar Medina, along with their children, Lillie and Samuel, will join sister Michelle with husband Mark Seger to root Davis on and help celebrate his Mar. 27 birthday. (“I’m 39—again,” he says.)

“Between my Roush Yates horsepower, my Tommy Mauney car, a race free from work-related distractions and my two girls and my grandkids coming out to see me, I’m feeling really good about going to this ADRL race,” Davis says. “Of course anything can happen out on the track, but I like my chances.” 

Ronnie Davis Racing greatly appreciates the sponsorship and support of Roush Yates Performance Engine Group, Rock Batteries, J.H. Global Star Golf Carts, Hickory Enclosed Trailers & Race Performance Motor Coach, TracStar Satellite Systems, Goodyear, CSR, VP Racing Fuels, TCI, Moroso, Magnaflow, Hedman Hedders, Auto Meter, Torque Converter Services, Braswell Carburetors, MSD, Penske Shocks, Chapman Auto Body, and Tommy Mauney Race Cars.