Hultberg happy to be home to go racing

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

Talk about a kid in a candy store, Medical Lake drag racer Glen Hultberg is just that. Only thing this “kid” is 51.

For the first time in his career that pages back well over 30 years, Hultberg can, if he wants, drive home and sleep in his own bed following a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) race. Because, for a change he won’t face a tow of seven, 10 or upwards of 15 hours to park his trailer and dragster in the driveway of the family home along the shores of Granite Lake.

“Seven minutes from my front door,” an elated Hultberg offered when speaking of this weekend’s return of NHRA racing to the Spokane area for the first time since 1972 when the Lucas Oil Series visits Spokane County Raceway in Airway Heights. The four-day run starts with a test and tune session today, and concludes Sunday with final elimination rounds. See http://www.spokanecountyraceway.com for full schedule details.

“For years we’ve been traveling the three (western) provinces of Canada; Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon,” Hultberg said. “Some of the hauls we make are 15 hours away to make a divisional race. To have one minutes away from my home is as if the dream has come true,” he said.

Growing up in Grandview, Wash. with older brothers who loved their Muscle Cars planted the seed – or as Hultberg puts is, “the legal addiction.” He became a life-long fan of the sport that pits two drivers side-by-side with 1,320 feet in front of them. First one to the finish line wins and the other guy goes home.

Hultberg hasn’t had much track time this year, running only at the last divisional event in Mission, B. C., east of Vancouver. See he sold his old car and bought a new one. “I flew to Tampa, Florida and bought this new Undercover chassis,” he explained. None-the-less, the new car seemed to be working just right at Mission where he qualified sixth in a field of 42 entries three weeks ago with a pass in the 6.9 second range at nearly 200 miles-per-hour.

Because of altitude and other climate factors, the car will run about 1/10th of a second slower, “a 7.08 or a 7.09,” elapsed time in the quarter-mile Hultberg predicted. It’s right where he needs to be to win a Wally, the nickname given to the trophy named after NHRA founder, Wally Parks.

“The last four years we’ve been a top-10 qualifier in Top Dragster – no Wally’s yet,” Hultberg said of having not won a coveted divisional or national event. “But we’re in the hunt and we think this car is going to do a lot better for us.”

While victory has eluded him so far, Hultberg needed just two more rounds and he would have collected a $10,000 payday in Seattle last year. “It wasn’t driver failure that time. The car kind of gave up on us. It was a minute breakdown – one of those 10-cent parts – that came back to bite you,” he said.

He’d like to think that maybe being in – and on – a familiar setting, might be the factor that could put him in the winner’s circle come Sunday. “We’ve raced here for years and we know how this thing reacts,” he said. “So I think us home boys have a little bit of an advantage.”

Even though much of the surface is newly poured concrete, there is becoming a lane of choice.

Hultberg’s car is pretty basic in many areas when compared to some of the people he runs against. “I have no nitrous (oxide), no blower or turbo charger,” he said. The car was painted in Hultberg’s garage yet has already won “best-appearing” in its class at the Spokane Auto Boat Speed Show. Not bad for a homemade paint job.

Yet despite this simplicity, at his only NHRA divisional race so far this season in Mission, Hultberg won another award for “Best Package.” That means he had a perfect reaction time leaving the starting line – something that is most rare – and then ran within 3/1,000ths of a second off what is called a dial-in. In other words, the time you think it will take you to drive the entire quarter-mile.

Family involvement is a huge part of Hultberg’s racing enjoyment.

“My wife Rebecca is – truth of the matter – a full supporter of the racing operation,” Hultberg said. To the extent that it was she who called Reher-Morrison, the engine manufacturer and bought the motor, a $50,000 to $75,000 investment, “Without me even knowing about it.”

Hultberg and his wife of 30 years operate a general contracting firm – G & R Repair – which allows them time off to go race. “I’m G and she’s R,” Hultberg said of his business that has been operating for the last 18 years.

Sons Josh, Jake and Lance will be in their dad’s pit area, but not daughter Candace. She’s busy, her dad said with other potentially loud beasts doing grizzly bear and wolf research through a college program at Eastern Washington University.

“We just love it to death,” Hutlberg said.

Especially when all the racing happens just down the road a ways.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]