“I got licensed to race in Top Fuel Hydro here in 1998 and it’s always been one of my favorite places because of that. And I won the race, so it was a spectacular deal for me because it started my Top Fuel career,” said Haas, a 55-year-old from the southwest corner of Michigan who has been racing boats for 30 years.
“Apparently, I like to do it,” he said.
He began racing on water because he grew up next to a lake. He’s tried racing snowmobiles and cars, but likes boats the most.
“I’ve had a fascination with speed since I was a kid,” Haas said. “The boat thing is the biggest thing I’ve ever done in motorsports. There is nothing like going from a dead stop to 225 miles an hour in 600 feet.”
If given the chance to race Top Fuelers on land, he would jump at the chance.
“But my age, I don’t think I’d get the chance,” he said. “I know I can do it physically, but I’m not one of those young pretty guys who brings the sponsors.”
He is boat racing’s version of perhaps land drag racers Tony Schumacher or John Force. He’s won five Top Fuel titles, including four in the last five times.
He comes to High Point, where he has won four times, leading the points in the race to become the first champion of the tour under the direction of Lucas Oil.
He humbly says that he’s had an up-and-down season. He’s won twice, the most recent last week at Augusta where he lowered the record for elapsed time to 3.89 seconds for the new distance of 1,000 feet for runs by the tour’s four professional classes.
He’s been knocked out of one race by mechanical failure and dodged calamity at another when he was involved in an incident at the end of last month that injured Daryl Ehrlich, who won here last season.
The crash began when Haas crossed into Ehrlich’s lane after his rudder broke at the finish. Ehrlich hit Haas’ wake and went airborne as he became tangled in Haas’ parachutes. Ehrlich wound up with a broken back. Haas escaped injury when his Speed Sport Special ran aground and hit some rocks.
“I was headed toward the crowd, but when Ehrlich hit my chutes it kind of straightened me out,” Haas said. “The guys had to scramble to fix it. But they give me a good hot rod and when you have a good hot rod, you can win races.”
Haas’ hot rod comes from a St. Louis team owned by Lou Osman, who has been able to weather the economic downturn and afford the $200,000 that it takes to field a boat each year because his job as a military sales representative has prospered.
Osman credits the team’s success to the crew, in particular 80-year-old engine tuner Amos Satterlee, whose resume includes extensive NHRA work that began in the 1960s and included building Funny Car engines for Danny Ongais and Mickey Thompson in the ’70s.
“I told a friend of mine who is thinking of moving up from Pro Modified that he had plenty of money to do it financially, but all the money in the world, if you don’t have the crew then you have no chance in Top Fuel,” Osman said. “Amos is the best tuner out here and John is the best driver.”
The team is experienced enough that it passes on Friday’s opportunity to practice.
“If it were a new boat we might,” Haas said. “But we’ve tested quite a bit. There’s no sense wearing yourself out.”
Haas will make one, possibly two passes, in qualifying today as a prelude to Sunday’s eliminations for the four teams that made it to Oak Hollow.
Because of the lake’s smooth surface, he said a new elapsed time record is possible. The hot, humid weather stands in the way.
“The heat and humidity takes oxygen out of the air and oxygen makes these things go,” Haas said. “We had the same conditions at Augusta, but not quite this bad. One of the belts was coming off the engine at about 800 feet. If we can keep it on, we may set the record.”
It would be another reason for Haas to love High Point.
gsmith@hpe.com | 888-3519
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