Tommy Mauney To Drive 2nd B1 Racing Car In Bristol!

Tommy Mauney hasn’t raced at Bristol Dragway in a decade.

Thanks to B1 Racing, that will change next week.

The Pro Modified pioneer will race the team’s ’69 Camaro he ran once last year at the upcoming ADRL Spring Drags III, which take place April 20-21 at historic Bristol Dragway, less than two hours from Mauney’s home.

B1 Racing team owner Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa wanted to run a second Pro Extreme car, and crew chief Rick Hickman immediately suggested Mauney to again team up with Joshua Hernandez and his B1 Racing Corvette for the ADRL’s debut in Bristol.

Mauney got the call on Monday and his excitement was apparent even days later.

“I want to thank Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Rick and all the B1 Racing crew for this opportunity. It’s a big honor to get to race in Bristol. I love that place. I raced my first national event at Bristol in 1974, finishing as a runner-up to Roy Johnson,” Mauney said.

“It’s an awesome, awesome track, one of the most beautiful ones out there, and I really do appreciate them asking me to race. It tickles me to death to get to run in Bristol.”

Since that race in 1974 in Bristol, Mauney has carved out quite the legacy, winning Pro Stock and Pro Modified world championships in the IHRA, and racking up a number of event wins in the process.

But he hasn’t raced in Thunder Valley since the early 2000s, and he’s anxious to return to a track he calls home.

Running in the ADRL’s highly-competitive Pro Extreme class only adds to the excitement.

“This is the area where a lot of the Pro Modified racing started, and I feel like it’s going to be one of the best races for the ADRL. There’s a lot of people talking about it,” Mauney said. “I love going there and I’ve always had pretty good luck there. It is close to home and it couldn’t be a better place to go, really.”

After testing the Pro Extreme Camaro, which was built to be driven by Ali Aryan during the 2011 and 2012 ADRL seasons, Mauney hopes to build on his first performance in the B1 Racing car, which took place last September at the ADRL’s Dragstock event in Rockingham.

There, Mauney was literally thrown into the mix, as he had not even been in the driver’s seat with the car running. He considered himself lucky just to qualify in what ended up being the third-quickest PX field in ADRL history, running a 3.775 to slip in at the No. 12 position.

Mauney fell in the first round of eliminations to Mick Snyder, but knows there is plenty more in the car. It topped out at only 198 miles per hour at Dragstock, leaving Mauney to believe the car can achieve quicker numbers at Bristol Dragway.

“The car showed a lot of promise in Rockingham and I hope we can ran better than that in Bristol,” Mauney said. “I just want to do my job and hopefully do well for the B1 Racing team.”

(Photos by ADRL/Richards)