Champions Traits Story and photos by Dwight Drum
© 2004-7 Dwight Drum Web work by Larsen & Drum
NHRA POWERade Contenders
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Ron Capps Cory McClenathan Robert Hight J.R. Todd "Hot Rod" Fuller
Champion Traits Quest
Two active seasons in top sanctions gathering nearly 150 answers from highly skilled motorsports racers to one champion-traits question has produced many thoughts and no simple explanation.
The basis behind the single question is looking for a way to measure the complex human ingredients it takes to produce a top sanction champion. If found there would be a mad rush to buy the formula. As we know life and science works in other ways.
That knowledge didn't stop the question or the answers.
One question never needs asking. It takes a very brave person to have the fire to fly on a solid racetrack. The question asked results in many reasons in many minds. The only consolation to this dedicated quest is the more answers, the better.
That said, smart drivers have a bright way of defining what it takes to be the best. Their thoughts are worthy of attention.
Eric Medlen Melanie Troxel Jack Beckman Clay Millican
THE QUESTION: Do you think that champions have common traits and abilities? If so, what are they?
NHRA POWERade Series Standouts
"Gotta have a lot of 'want-to'."
Clay Millican, NHRA Top Fuel Dragster
"You started at one spot and some day you're going to be back there."
Cory McClenathan, NHRA Top Fuel Dragster
"Race the same way he raced for fun on the weekend."
"Hot Rod Fuller, NHRA Top Fuel Dragster
"They'll get out, throw their helmets and huff and puff."
Ron Capps, NHRA Funny Car
"No matter what they go to do, that they really want to do, they will be great."
Eric Medlen, NHRA Funny Car (1973-2007)
"You have to live it."
Robert Hight, NHRA Funny Car
"The guys that love it will always do better then the guys who think it's a chore."
Jack Beckman, NHRA Funny Car
"You've got to be a workaholic."
Dave Connolly, NHRA Pro Stock Car
"They have a will to win, a love for the sport and they're very competitive."
Karen Stoffer, NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
"Everybody does it a different way."
Steve Johnson, NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
"Just not worry about the championship stuff."
Chip Ellis, NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
"We're all human."
Matt Smith, NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
Matt Smith Chip Ellis Karen Stoffer Steve Johnson
Do you think that champions have common traits and abilities? If so, what are they?
Top Fuel Dragster Drivers
Clay Millican
"The only thing that pops right to mind is the only thing they have in common is a lot of 'want-to'. That comes from my momma. We know that no matter what it takes, we want to do it. Gotta have a lot of want-to."
Cory McClenathan
"They do. The common traits and abilities are the fact we've been in that position before where you are in the hunt for the championship. You know how to conduct yourself. Most of us learn the hard way. That's not being in that position, maybe being a little bit too cocky. You can be on the top one minute and on the bottom the next, especially in this sport. That happens a lot.
"For me during the Joe Gibbs days when I worked for Joe and we worked with Tony (Stewart) and Bobby Labonte, I was a golden child. I was just a hired gun. I walked in with a helmet, did my job and went home. All that changed very quickly for me at the end of Joe Gibbs then, but running for the championship you tend to get spoiled when you're winning five or six races a year. That comes easy and then you find yourself struggling and be thankful for what you get every single weekend, just qualifying seems to be tough.
"So yeah there are some common traits and abilities. I find one thing to be a fact I have to work twice as hard every year to stay in shape to do the job I do every single year it comes. In the offseason I eat everything I can get my hands on and then a month before the season starts I find myself working out and trying to drop 10 or 15 pounds. That seems to the same year in year out.
"The biggest thing for me is if you're going to enjoy this sport and try to have some fun, you need to realize that don't forget where you came from. You started at one spot and some day you're going to be back there."
Melanie Troxel
"I think probably one trait of most people who could win a championship or have won a championship is just that desire and drive to keep working at something even when you reach this level. When you're better than most people in the world at it, you're driven to keep getting better and better at it. That's probably the trait that I would think is common to most champions."
"Hot" Rod Fuller
"I think they do. I think one of the best traits is blocking out all things that can get into somebody's head. When you go for a championship you've got a tremendous amount of pressure. I think a true champion to get in that car and it doesn't matter what kind of car, block all that out and still race the same way he raced for fun on the weekend. I think that's one of the keys. I think you have to have a tremendous amount of drive and ability.
"I have a lot of kids come up to me and ask me what I think it takes rto be a champion. Commitment. You really have to have the determination and fortitude to go through and achieve the goals that you want to achieve, not just in racing but in life itself."
J.R. Todd
"Yeah. I just try to be consistent, repeat and do the same thing every time, not try to make any mistakes and just have a routine. That way they go out there and do the same thing every time. You are not going to make mistakes. If you keep that up, that's what it takes to win on Sundays and be a champion in this sport."
Steve Torrence
"I don't know. I think everybody out there has the ability and is very capable as a skilled driver. I did win a championship last year in Top Alcohol. I don't think one thing in particular sets a champion apart from anyone else. Especially in drag racing and in any sport, you've got a team behind you. It's just the best combination of everything coming together for that guy that year to be a champion.
"Schumacher and a couple others have come out and won back to back championships like Force. You want a good team. You put yourself in the best situations to have the best chance to be a champion."
Funny Car Drivers
Robert Hight
"Yeah. I believe they do. I believe it takes 100% focus on the goal at hand. You have to live it. To be a champion in anything, you just have to live it. Like John (Force) He doesn't go fishing. He's not a golfer. Every day you wake up and on your refrigerator is your goal. You wake up and that's the first thing you see. You just work on it all day until you get there. I believe some people are born with it. Then I believe others learn it."Eric Medlen (1973-2007)
"I believe that they do. I don't know if I could actually identify them. I know one thing I've been fortunate enough to be around a few world champions, like rodeo, some football guys and drag racing obviously and a few NASCAR guys. Every one of those guys that's a champion, especially the guys who have one multi-championships, I don't know what the trait is but no matter what they go to do that they really want to do, they will be great."The biggest example I can use is Jerold Camarillo, a guy that I roped with and he was older in his mid-forties and a stocky guy but not too heavy. I was thin in high school and young and we'd always have confrontations. Let's go play basketball. Let's go play tennis. Let's go shoot pool.
"It started off shooting pool. I thought I can plan decent and this guy cleaned my clock. He said, 'I was unfair, that's how I used to pay my entry fees by playing pool.' Oh OK so I thought I'm going to try him at something else. He had a basketball net at his house and I asked him to shoot some hoops. I thought I could run circles around this guy and he beat me at the basketball court too. I asked him if he played basketball too and he said he just liked to play.
"Then we played tennis and I thought I got his ass on the tennis court. I be up way ahead and he'd find some way to beat ya. Everything he chose to do he would excel at. I never really asked him about it, but I just watched him and just figured that is what champions are made of.
"They have something in them that they can search and figure what it's going to take to excel at whatever it is they want to do. Whether that's driving a race car, running a ranch, business, sports, they all have that. I don't know what that trait is, but there is something about that."
Jack Beckman
"Yeah. I've read a lot on this at the Frank Hawley drag racing school where I teach. We get big into the psychology of it. You can be a unique individual and win a championship, but more often than not if you look over the course of years and you take the luck factor out of it. AJ Foyt called it vision and he didn't specifically mean what your eyes do. It's an awareness of what's going on around you.
"All those great traits when you get in the car really won't help a lot if you don't have motivation. So when you get right to the core of it, it's motivation, passion, desire. The guys that love it will always do better then the guys who think it's a chore. You can see that. Now some of them forgot they love it because of the corporate aspect of it.
"But if you took the money away from them. Take a NEXTEL Cup guy, If you took away their budget, they'd be on a dirt track the next week because they love driving. They just get all this corporate stuff in their head and they forget the real reason they started racing.
So somebody who has the passion and desire and then the motivation will do what it takes to find a way to get to the top. And what it takes once you get in the race car is that vision, that ability to block out distractions. We call it self-control at the school. When you get up there there's nothing else that matters to you except in our case cutting a good reaction time then keeping the car in the groove. It's a series of tasks.
You'll see a lot of the newer drivers make a lot of mistakes because they get overwhelmed. You're really only going to do one thing at a time. They're trying to think about pulling the parachute when they're doing a burn-out. When we work with the new students the same traits that help you to become a good driver will eventually help you become a good racer and champion. It's just the ability to focus. Foyt called that 'vision' and I think what he meant by it is everything that takes place in that race car. It's an awareness of your environment."
Pro Stock Car
Dave Connolly
"Ah. The main thing is confidence and you've got to be a workaholic. They don't hand out championship trophies, by no means. For example, my class in Pro Stock Car champion Greg Anderson; that guy don't stop. He's a non-stop worker. It's the desire to win I guess that you have. That's probably the easiest I could sum it up. "
Pro Stock Motorcycle
Steve Johnson
"I think when you look at a champion you go backwards and you say he got all the points. He won enough races. He was consistent and he beat everybody. So it's like when you do a crossword puzzle.
"Who does a crossword puzzle, one across, two across, three across, four across all the way down to twenty across and go over to the downs? Who does one down all way down to twenty down? Nobody does that.
"That relates back to being a champion in the sense that you don't go at it and just say I gotta get all the points. There are all different ways that you go at it.
"And to say what makes a champion, well obviously the guy that's got the most points, but to get the most points, everybody does it a different way. There's luck. There's hard work. There's extra money. There's fate. There's all kinds of things.
In reality I don't think there's one champion that has won anything on the planet that hasn't had all of those things. And no matter how you do the process of it the bottom line is whoever gets the most points at the deal, wins the race and finishes the process of it."
Karen Stoffer
"I think probably a common factor among champions is probably a lot of passion for the sport. Also winning as a whole, but I think mostly love for the sport. I think that's common thread in all champions. I think everybody has it. They have to put together an entire team and put the package together with sponsors and that kind of stuff. They have a will to win, a love for the sport and they're very competitive. I think those three things make a champion."Chip Ellis
"I think a champion is a person who can deal with the pressure and just not worry about the championship stuff. You gotta worry about whatever the race is or the round that you're going in at that moment. I really believe if you can go out there and do the same thing every time and do it good, you'll go rounds, you'll win races and you'll become the champion."
Matt Smith
"Sometimes. We're all human. You see a lot of us go up there and have a bad light for no reason. Everybody has that. Everybody has had a bad light. There is nobody perfect all year long. We're all human. It's just one of them deals."
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