By Doug Hill
May 02, 2009 01:27 am
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"I grew up in the very far northeast corner of Oklahoma in Picher," Dennis Glover said. "My dad's side of the family all raced big body Chevelle stock cars on dirt circle tracks." A longtime resident of Norman, Glover is an architect who oversees new campus construction projects for the University of Oklahoma.
"Uncles and one aunt on my mom's side had Chevy hot rods they'd take to the drag strip. Growing up we'd go watch them race at MoKan Dragway in Asbury, Mo., or Monett Speedway," he said. "Hot rods are in my blood."
Glover learned to drive on a home-made tractor that his grandfather had constructed. "He always had cars with nice wheels and loud pipes. His 1940 Ford pickup was baby blue and black and looked like it had just come off the show room floor in the late '70s," Glover said.
With help from his dad, Glover built and competed in his first race car, a '67 Ford Galaxie 500 while in high school.
"We did all the body work and gave it a custom paint job," Glover said. As with many motor heads, cars took a backseat for the young man when he went away to school, got married, started a career and began raising a family. But the Glover racing tradition didn't fade away.
"We started Junior Drag Racing when our son Cody was 8 years old," Glover said. That was a few years back. Cody Glover graduated from Norman North High School in 2007. He is currently employed as a welder/ fabricator for hot rod builder Liquid and Powdercoat Finishes in Kansas City, Mo.
"Cody got a half-scale, rear engine dragster for Christmas that year." Junior dragsters weigh 240 pounds and typically have a 5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine that burns 100 percent racing alcohol.
Glover's dragster was made by Phil McGee in El Dorado Springs, Mo. It has a one-piece fiberglass body, rack and pinion steering and snow mobile type clutch. "Everything on this car is American made, which is kind of cool," Glover said.
I asked him what the small video game-type box is that's mounted over the engine.
"That's a data logger. We monitor the head and exhaust gas temperatures and the revolutions per minute. You can tell if you're sending too much or too little fuel to the engine," Glover said. At the track, between races, they download the data to a laptop, graph motor performance and tune it accordingly.
"There's also a sensor for the rear tires which can tell us if they're breaking loose and spinning too fast." The suspension can be adjusted for slickness variations at different tracks. "The clutch can be tuned and gear ratios changed, just like in a big car," he said.
Pint-size Glover began his speed demon career doing straight line, eighth-mile races at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble. "Frankly, my wife was not happy about it for the first season," Glover admitted. Mrs. Glover changed her tune after having an opportunity at an out of state race during the second season to actually pilot Cody's dragster herself.
"Safety is the number one priority," Glover said. "They have a 5-point seat belt, arm restraints so they won't come out during a roll-over, padded roll cage and multiple engine kill switches," he said. Drivers wear a helmet, gloves and full flame resistant suits.
"In 12 seasons of racing all over the country I've only seen four crashes and the worst injury was a kid's bruised knee," Glover said.
When Cody was 13, Glover began looking for a full-size vehicle they could work on together and build into a racer.
"We bought a 1965 Chevy pickup but ended up using body parts from two other trucks," Glover said. "We did a complete off-chassis restoration, including fuel and brake lines."
They also did several upgrades including power steering, four-wheel power disc brakes and all new wiring harness. "The only thing it doesn't have that a modern truck would is power windows and air conditioning," Glover said.
One of the trucks that they robbed of sheet metal was found in a pasture near Harrah. "We had to borrow a chainsaw from the farmer who owned it to cut out trees that were growing through the truck," Glover said. "It was also a '65. We bought it from him and got some interior parts and front fenders to use."
Other parts were located in a field near Ada. "The engine started life as a Chevy 454 big block but we bored it out and made some performance modifications," Glover revealed. It's now a 468 cubic inch behemoth, built to run on regular unleaded fuel.
"The goal was for Cody to be able to drive it to school. He also raced it at Thunder Valley," Glover said. Cody put the Chevy through its paces in the High School class and the No Electronics Street class.
"I've raced it a couple of times in the Nostalgia class," Glover said. "I'm going to do that this summer also."
Cody's sister Jacy watched her older brother race junior dragsters and learned a few things along the way.
"She's 4 years younger and when she turned 8, Jacy was ready to race," Glover said. She benefited from listening to her dad coach Cody during the years before her eligibility began. Now in her seventh season of competition, the Norman North sophomore has claimed several titles including three Junior Dragster Racing League Divisional championships and one Western Conference National Championship in 2002.
"Teaching both kids to race was a piece of cake. It's something in their DNA," Glover said. "As you progress to the older divisions there's strategy involved and more difficulty. Jacy couldn't wait to get in a race car, but we told both of them, if you lose interest just let us know. We didn't push it," Glover said. "We won't be at every race this year anyway, unlike the past, because Jacy is also playing fast-pitch softball."
Always in effect but rarely necessary to enforce, the Glovers insisted their children maintain good academic standing to continue racing. Besides honing technical and mechanical skills, time at the track has presented an added bonus.
"We have made tons of friends," Glover said. "Some of our closest friends are from racing." Competing in a seven state division they've traveled much of the southwest.
"You get to know the kids in your age group and their parents," Glover said. He pointed out Jacy's racing logo painted on the side of her dragster. It's a lady bug wearing a bright red helmet zipping down the track on one wheel. There's no doubt the hot rods in Glover's blood have been passed on to the next generation.
Have you seen a cool car around Norman? Writer Doug Hill's always on the lookout for future Dig My Ride columns. E-mail him at Hillreviews@hotmail.com.
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