Drag racing is a fast-paced race where two cars go straight down a track to see who can get to the finish line first. It's all about speed and quick starts.
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a car that was made by Chevrolet in the 1960s and 70s. It's known for being a muscle car, which means it was built for speed and performance.
The Chevrolet Camaro is a famous sports car that many people love. The 1969 version is known for being powerful and stylish, making it a favorite among collectors and racers.
A four speed manual transmission is a system in cars that lets you change gears manually, giving you control over how fast or powerful the car goes. It has four different settings to choose from, which helps in driving efficiently.
Firebird Raceway is a place in Arizona where people go to watch and participate in different types of car races, especially drag racing. It's a popular spot for racing enthusiasts.
The quarter mile is a distance used in drag racing to see how fast a car can go. It's about 1,320 feet long, and racers try to finish it as quickly as possible.
NHRA stands for National Hot Rod Association, which is a big organization that runs drag racing events in the U.S. They help organize races and set rules for different types of racing.
A Briggs and Stratton engine is a small engine commonly used in things like lawn mowers and go-karts. In junior dragsters, they use a five-horsepower version to help kids race.
Billet blocks are strong engine parts made from solid metal. They are used in racing and performance cars because they can handle more power and stress than regular engine blocks.
A centrifugal clutch is a part that helps connect the engine to the wheels automatically when the engine goes fast enough. This makes it easier to start moving without having to press a pedal.
Audi is a luxury car brand from Germany that makes high-end vehicles with advanced technology and performance features. They are known for their stylish designs and comfortable interiors.
The Dodge Viper is a super-fast sports car that looks really cool and has a loud engine. It's designed for people who love to drive and want an exciting experience on the road.
Traction control is a system in cars that helps keep the wheels from spinning too much when you accelerate. It helps the car stay on the road and not slide around.
The Shelby Cobra is a classic sports car that is very fast and lightweight. It's famous for its racing history and is loved by car fans for its unique style.
ABS is a system in cars that stops the wheels from locking up when you brake hard. This helps you keep control of the car while stopping quickly.
Car
Dodge Srts
Dodge is a car brand that makes powerful and sporty vehicles. They are known for their tough looks and fast engines, making them popular among car lovers.
The Dodge Challenger is a big, powerful car that looks like the classic muscle cars from the past. It's famous for being fast and fun to drive, especially the sportier versions like the Hellcat.
The BMW 5 Series is a fancy car that is designed to be both comfortable and fun to drive. It's known for its smooth ride and nice features, making it a great choice for people who want a stylish car.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks tough and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a lot of space inside and can be used as a family car while still being fun to drive.
The BMW 3 Series is a smaller luxury car that is fun to drive and has a nice interior. It's a good option for people who want a stylish car that still feels sporty.
The Dodge Custom 880 is a big, old car from the 1960s that people liked for its roomy interior. It's a classic car that many collectors appreciate.
LIVE
Welcome to Driven Radio Show, your home for car talk covering the latest news to the greatest
views on the biggest names in performance, sports, and just plain cool driving machines.
Let's rev up the conversation.
Time for Driven Radio Show!
Hello all you car-fiends, Mark Groves here, co-host of Driven Radio Show.
Brett and I had a great guest lined up, right?
And then our computers decided, no show for you!
Yeah, we may know cars, but we're just not all that great with computers.
So, we may not be able to catch up with Chuck Sunstrom, but we can still bring him to you
in this best of show from 2024.
Enjoy and thank you for listening to Driven Radio Show.
Our special guest this week is Chuck Sunstrom of Radford Driving School, a Michigan native,
eh, he doesn't have to put up with that Michigan weather anymore.
Chuck is a well-known and respected motorsports veteran and drag racing instructor.
Over the last two decades, he has pursued his drag racing passion as a full-time driver,
mechanic, track manager, and as the race director at Firebird International Raceway
and Spokane County Raceway.
Chuck also led an events business and security company creating high-profile events at automotive venues.
In December of 2023, Chuck was named general manager of Radford Racing School,
and in January of this year, he began managing the Radford Racing School team
and operations on the Seven Track campus.
Seven tracks, seven tracks.
Chuck, welcome to Driven Radio.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me.
Well, hey, we tried to do it last week, but somebody didn't communicate the time adequately.
No, that's all on me, this whole Zoom thing.
You know, whether it's Zoom and Teams and the whole Daylight Savings thing screws,
you actually on Zoom, they don't, when I put it in my calendar,
it screws it up with Daylight Savings time.
Oh, don't blame me.
So let's, we'll blame Zoom.
Yeah, I mean, I'll take the blame if it makes you feeling better.
Yeah, I got big shoulders.
I'm not pointing the, I'm not pointing at you.
I think it's all Zoom's fault, and then I'm gonna stand by that.
How did you become a car guy?
You know, I grew up as in kind of a car family, you know, I was young and grew up in Upper Michigan,
and my dad, my mom, they were drag racers, so my dad was kind of the...
Your daddy and your mom?
My dad and my mom.
So my dad was kind of the guy in town that was the drag race guy,
because we lived quite a ways from a drag strip.
We were racing in Wisconsin at the time, and so he always had cars from the 1970s.
You know, the first car he had when I was born was, you know, I think he had a 65 Cheval,
and then 1970 bought a brand new SS 396 four-speed Nova.
I mean, it had a lot of really cool cars, so I didn't stand a chance.
You know, I grew up in it.
Well, you got to school fast though, every morning.
A 396 is a lot of engine in a Nova.
How old were you when you started drag racing, and for how many years did you race?
You know, I started racing, I was always kind of involved in types of racing.
When I was 13, I started racing BMX, pedal bikes, you know, it was a cool thing in our town,
and the cool thing was I got into bikes, and so my parents built a BMX track in our backyard,
because there wasn't any around there.
You sound like you had cool parents, man.
Yeah, they were awesome.
They still are.
They're still awesome parents.
And so when I turned 16, I kind of gave up on the bikes.
You know, when I was 14, I bought a 69 Camaro body, started building that.
So that was my first car.
So my first car when I got my driver's license was a 69 Camaro with a 454
tunnel and I'm sticking out the hood.
So, you know, I got my driver's license.
I don't want to race bikes anymore.
I want to drag race, but the crazy thing back in that time is the tracks in Wisconsin,
we were racing, you got to be 18 to drag race.
So, you know, at 17, I actually snuck down and got in a car and made a pass down the track
and my four speed Camaro, you know, and when I turned 18, I actually had, I had my 69 Camaro,
and I had a 68, which I still have to this day.
There's a story behind that car.
But, you know, I have a 68 SS Camaro that has 14,000 original miles on it.
Oh, man.
It was a barn find when I was 18 and I still own that car, but I had a big block at the time
at a 427 Dugnash 5-Suite and it started racing that when I was 18.
And then shortly after that moved to Arizona.
Okay, well, now you kind of jumped the shark here.
You made your first pass when you were 17.
What was your ET?
1245.
That's respectable, especially then, yeah.
Like I said, it was a four speed manual transmission, 454 street tired car.
And when you got back to the pits, what'd your dad say?
Yeah, that's a good question.
He said, that was a great run.
And I said, well, how do we get it in the 11th?
So I was rolling fast enough for me, so.
Spoken like a true drag racer.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So how many years did you race?
You know, I've never stopped racing.
So I raced, you know, growing up in Arizona.
I moved to Arizona when I was 19.
And the big thing then was to go out to the Wednesday night drag,
started running the local summit point series races as soon as I moved to Arizona.
Kind of did that for many, many years.
Was still drag racing.
Pretty steady and consistently when I started at Firebird Raceway,
I started working there part-time in the late 90s, 99, 98, 99.
And then was working there part-time on the weekend still racing.
Then had kids, you know, the kids started growing up,
started racing junior dragsters, and that kind of took away from my racing.
Um, traveled quite a few years with my kids.
Racing juniors still did some racing, but I raced quite a bit until 2009.
And 2009 is when I was now working at Firebird Raceway full-time,
started there full-time in 2007.
Had closed down my repair shop and went to work at Firebird Raceway.
And kind of changed my career from being a racer into running events and working at race tracks.
Still raced to this day.
You know, I still race our local series, race whenever I can, wherever I can,
but it's second nature to actually being there, running the events and running the track.
Okay, I want to come back to your kids racing and junior dragsters,
but I got a couple other questions before we get to that.
One, what's your best ET?
Two, how fast have you gone?
And three, have you set any records?
I haven't set any records.
You know, drag racing is not a real easy sport to set records.
You know, it's specific to a class, whether it's a stock,
aluminum, or super stock, something like that.
Never race those categories.
You know, I've raced super gas cars, super comp cars.
Fastest ET, I've driven a dragster 754, like 194.
It's not the fastest pass I've ever sent.
That's a ton.
Fastest pass, top speed.
194.
Wow, in the quarter, in the quarter.
Oh, that's stupid.
I'd like to try that once.
I wouldn't even care if someone else was driving.
I just want to know what that's like.
Is that a hard enough launch to bruise your forehead with the helmet?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you got, you know, there's things you do in drag racing.
I mean, you make sure your head's back against the seat.
And, you know, I mean, a lot of things we teach in our drag race school at Radford is,
you know, your foot placement, your seat placement, you know,
even the fact that you launch a car, your foot comes off the gas pedal.
So it's how you, you know, how you seat your foot on the ground,
how you use your ankle and how you relax your leg and different things
healthy as a driver in drag racing.
So are you at the gym doing those one foot leg lifts?
Yeah, exactly.
Now, junior drag racing, for those who've never seen one or never seen it done,
talk a little bit about what a junior dragster is, what they're built with,
what you're using for power, that sort of stuff.
Junior dragsters, you know, I started out again in the late 90s program with NHRA.
It's really evolved.
It's, you can start racing juniors now.
You can get into a beginner program when you're six years old.
So when my kids started, they were eight.
Um, we actually ran and was still to this day at Firebird Raceway here.
We run a big wheel program.
So we have kids that start out at four and five years old and race 60 feet on their
pedal big wheels.
It's an awesome program.
The kids, you know, they get in, they get to dress up and they, you know,
they wear clothes and a helmet.
We bring them out on the track and they, we ladder them by reaction time
and they win trophies every race and they get little goodie bags and it,
those kids are, they can't wait until they're old enough to get into a junior drag.
And when they start in juniors at, you know, seven, eight, nine years old,
juniors are broke up as to how fast they can go by age groups.
You know, there's a, there's an age group and a limit.
You can go up to nine years old and then 10 to 12 and then 13 to 17.
And a junior dragster is a miniature dragster.
You know, it's usually a Cromali chassis, just like a big full size dragster,
but it's miniature.
And they were based off of a five horse Briggs and Stratton engine when they first started.
Obviously now it's, you know, they're all running aftermarket billet blocks and billet,
you know, clutches and it's a centrifugal clutch, kind of like a snowmobile.
You know, we would build those cars with suspension and carburetor and weights and
clutches and, you know, we have computers on them.
And, you know, my kids learned so much about math and, you know,
reading the air and jetting and gearing and tire pressure.
And, you know, they really learned a lot driving those cars and just the friends they
made and around the country.
It was just an amazing program.
Junior dragsters, do you run an eighth or a quarter?
They run eighth mile.
Okay. And what kind of speeds do they see?
So they have a limit set by NHRA.
So the fastest you can run a junior dragster is a 790 elapsed time at 85 mile an hour max.
That's still cooking right along.
Yeah. When you get into your 13 to 17 year old category, the majority of those cars will go
that fast or faster.
They put weight on them and tune them down so that they don't break that speed.
That's impressive.
You've been drag racing for years.
You still drag race now.
You've been involved with junior drag racing and your kids.
But what was your first car related job and how old were you when you got it?
16.
Actually, I went to work at a car dealership in Michigan.
It was a Volkswagen Mazda Audi dealer.
So I worked there through high school, my junior, senior year.
I worked there for a year after high school before I moved to Arizona.
I started out when I was 16, my first year there, my first summer there.
I worked doing oil changes and washing cars and moving cars in and out.
And then after my first summer there, I actually went to work as a tech,
you know, a flat rate technician.
So I was doing regular repairs, went to some Volkswagen training courses
and Mazda training courses and different things when I was 17.
That's pretty impressive.
Yeah, it was a great learning experience.
It really was.
What did you do as race director at Firebird International and at Spokane County?
Race director position is kind of based on the actual events themselves.
So it's managing the event from, starts out pre-event with event setup, layout,
staffing, different things like that.
So I managed all the crew that worked the events,
whether it was a starter or a tech inspector or anything like that.
And I started out just doing that.
You know, I started out just race directing the drag race events.
And actually started as a tech inspector, started volunteering first,
then they hired me as a tech inspector.
I worked two events as a tech inspector and then they said,
hey, we want you to be a race director.
That was kind of their plan all along.
And I did that for years and that evolved into when I went to work there,
full time in 2007 at Firebird kind of took over operations in general.
So I was in charge of the drag strip maintenance,
all the staff for grounds to set up and the setup of the events and all the type of stuff
ended up throughout the years between 2007 and 2013 when we closed Firebird,
taking over the safety crew, you know, managing that portion of it,
you know, getting involved a lot and working with all the people we had there
from everything from marketing to every aspect of an event.
What is Radford Racing School and who's the school named after?
So Radford Racing School is the largest and best in my opinion.
And everybody else out there, high performance based driving school in the world.
And it's, you know, we use the term high performance based driving,
but because that's what we are, you know, we teach racing,
we teach race car drivers and we always have, that's the history of the school.
But, you know, it's the only driving school in the world that has such a variety of training.
There isn't a person out there with a driver's license that can't benefit greatly from going to
our school. The Radford name came from when our current owners took over the school and bought it
out in 2019. It was time for a name change. And, you know, they were looking for something
that was kind of traditional looking, you know, quickly as, hey, what do we use for a name?
And they named it after a historical name in motorsports in Britain actually,
which was Harold Radford. I don't know if you're familiar with him, but he was a car designer,
big huge history with designing cars for everybody from, you know, Fiat and a lot of
different European, Italian manufacturers. He built cars for movie stars and, you know,
he built cars for the Beatles and Steve McQueen and James Garner and different things like that.
So it was something that our current owner was passionate about, you know, knew the name,
knew the background. So that's what he chose as the name for the school.
How long's Radford been in business?
The school actually started in 1968. So, you know, started in California under the previous owners.
And, you know, it was a very historical school, started out in California, came to Arizona in
1997, 1998, built the first purpose built school there. You know, in the past, they had
rented or leased from different tracks that were out there, a couple of different locations in
California. And it's been in Arizona since 97, I think it was, it was started in Arizona.
And now you said anybody who's got a driver's license could benefit from what you teach at
Radford. What kind of classes are taught there? And what skills do you teach people who just
have a regular driver's license? Do you also teach teens and new drivers?
We do. We have one of the top rated teen driving programs in the world.
So you can take a one, two or three day teen driving course. You know, the cool thing is you
have the draw of the high performance side. There's always a little bit of base in that,
little bit of excitement for people. But every course that we have, whether you take a high
performance driving course, a teen course or a advanced road racing course, they start out with
a lot of defensive driving techniques, accident avoidance, a lot of different things that we
train people in that help you as a driver in every aspect. And you know, that's one thing huge
with the teen driving and everyday drivers is they come through our courses and it just makes
you a lot safer driver. We teach some crazy things that actually involve how you react in a bad
situation. You know, our accident avoidance program is amazing. And it's, we have a simulator
driving course with, you know, lights that we trigger. And, you know, there's a program you
do where you pick a lane based on the lights at last second. And it's, you know, that teaches you
to be looking forward, how your mind reacts to a situation. We teach you a lot of cool things
with that that you would never learn, you would never know. And you walk away with just some
great driving skills. Do you have a course that teaches people how to pull out of the lot where
you bought the car without wrecking it? I've seen so many videos of these idiots
trumping on it going, ah, I just got this thing. Well, now it's a big thing. Go back to the Vipers,
the Dodge Vipers. And, you know, the Vipers was one of the first real cool high performance cars
that was very unique when it came out. And, you know, there was such a huge percentage of the
Vipers that were wrecked within the first 30 days of being. Well, that's because when they came out
with the RT10, it was supposed to be the modern day iteration of the Cobra. And there were no
nannies on it. There was no traction control. There was no ABS. And people had already gotten
used to that stuff. And then they went out and drove these and well, just floored going around
this corner. Yeah, not going to work. Whoop-a-doop-a. You know, and that's where some of our programs
that Dodge came from. It really is, you know, Dodge, since that time has looked at it and said,
when we sell these cars, we want people to go through something. We want them to go through
a training course and a safety driving course. And, you know, that's where we do a lot of things
with Dodge. And that's where our partnership started with them. Yeah, people don't sneeze at
400 horsepower cars now. But when you get a 400 horsepower car with steamroller meets on it,
no traction control. Guess what? Yeah, I'm not even, you know, transitioned to that to where
we are today, right? I mean, you know, anybody can go by, I use this term lightly, but I say,
in our class, I say, you can go out and buy an 800 horse minivan. You know, I might be exaggerating
a little bit, but not much. Not much. The reality is, you go back 10, 12 years and, you know, we
were all building cars and we would spend lots of money and really tear these cars up and tear
everything out of them and build these great big bag of box to hopefully make $600. Yeah. And,
you know, we knew how to drive these cars, you know, we understood them, we worked our way up
to those and now anybody can go walk into a showroom and buy a car that has six, seven,
eight hundred, nine hundred horsepower. And it's actually really scary. You know, it really is.
Yeah, it is. Traction control and whatever electronics they have on them, it's still very
dangerous. So, you know, learning to respect that car and learning the techniques and the
different things to driving that car is very important. Yeah, when I get my hands on a ZR1,
I'm coming to see you. All right. You also teach go-kart racing and you have open wheel programs?
So, yes, we do. So, our go-kart programs, you know, historically, through years, we had
a couple different programs. We had some shift your car programs, different things.
Currently, right now, we don't have a base go-kart program and that's something we're
looking at revamping in the future, trying to figure out what the market is and how to go with
that. Because with us, we don't want to just put in a class where you can come out and drive
go-karts. To us, that is a driver advancement program. And that's what we're trying to put
together. If you're going to come out and you're going to race, if your goal in life is to race
an open wheel car, those drivers start out in go-karts. They move up to shift your cars. They
move through the ranks into being an open wheel racer. So, that's what we're trying to put together.
So, our shift to kart program that we had years ago turned into more of a shift to
kart experience. You know, people were coming out to drive the karts and we want a training
program. So, we're putting that together now. Currently, the only thing we offer is our open
wheel program. So, we have an F4 program. F4 is the beginning block to run F1. Obviously,
it's the first step in it. We have eight F4 spec cars that we use. We have a beginner,
intermediate and advanced course for the F4 cars. And it's a program that you want to go
open wheel racing. You come out and you go through our F4 program and that'll put you into a car.
Heavily backed by Goodyear. Goodyear has a scholarship program they do with us. A great
program with the F4 series. You know, we have our name on the F4 series with Goodyear. So,
it's a great program to get new drivers into open wheel racing. Do you teach driving techniques
for professional protection agents, you know, for bodyguard for lack of a better term?
We do. That's actually a big part of our business. So, we teach tactical driving. We do a lot of it
for, we have, we take some of our courses, our four day advanced road racing course and we alter
that. You know, it has different aspects to it based on the group and organization that we're
we do some night vision driving with some of them. We've actually, we have groups to train.
We've trained everyone from local police academies to FBI, CIA, Navy SEALs.
We've trained them all. So, we still do regular basis. Is that under your special operations
on your website? Correct. Correct. Nice. Can you teach me how to be John Wick?
You know what? There's nothing that money can't accomplish. Of course we can.
You think I have to say this, but I mean, I've been to a lot of schools and met a lot of drivers
in different tracks around the world. We have the best instructors in the world. We really do.
Our guys are some amazing drivers, amazing teachers, right? I mean, you can always find
amazing drivers and amazing teachers. It's putting those two together, you know, to be able to do it
and train. So, we have some instructors that have been with us 25 plus years throughout the history
of the school and it's, they're very passionate about it. They're very good at what they do.
That sounds cool, man. Okay. Now, here's where Mark starts to lose his mind.
What vehicles do you drive? Do students drive at your school?
Dodge SRTs. So, we actually have a fleet of 80 Dodge vehicles.
80? Oh my God. That's so sorry. Mark wants to know if you've got one that's got been up
fenders on it. He'd like to go take her for a spin. I'll do that one. No, we don't. Unfortunately,
we try and keep them looking pretty and unbent. So, you know, it happens time to time, but not
very often. It really doesn't. For the amount of driving that we do and training we do, you know,
we have very few accidents. I can fix that for you.
80 SRTs. You know, I can throw some random numbers. We have about 30, 39 or 40 regular
Hellcat SRT challengers that we use in our everyday classes. We have chargers. All of our
instructor cars are chargers. Breathe, Mark. Breathe. Chargers are red eyes. You know, we have
some red eye challengers that we use in some of the courses. We have five of the 2018 demons
that we still use in our drag class. We currently have three and we have two more coming of the
new Demon 170s for our two-day drag program that's kicking off in September with the Demon
170s. Tell Mark about the 170. And what are your top HPs and your lowest HPs?
So, the Demon 170, I mean, that's a whole other conversation. That's an impressive production
car I've ever seen in my life. So, that's 1,025 horsepower. Jesus.
The technology in that car is unbelievable. So, I could put anybody, even you, you know, in that
car. You told him about it. A couple hours of training, you know, really set dial-in electronics
and stuff in that car and have you go to the drag strip and say, hold on and punch the gas and you'd
run a 960, 970 power set. Oh, my God. You know, we haven't gone on the road in a while. Yes.
I'm feeling the gravity. And tell him about, you know, lower-end horsepower.
I think the lowest we would run would be a 500 horse. I mean, some of our just our regular
standard SRT Hellcats. Some of the courses we run them with a black key. I don't know if you're
familiar with the different keys and you can run a black key or a red key and all of the SRTs.
Red key bumps up the horsepower. It's the, you know, it changes the programming in it.
We start out, you know, different courses, different types of driving. We run whether you
use the black key or red key. So, our minimum horsepower car you're going to be driving is going
to be a 500 horsepower car. I'll loan you a pair of my driving shoes. Yeah. I mean,
we're going to have three of the new Dodge Hornets coming in. The GT Hornets, you know,
Dodge is moving, you know, that's currently their big push is the Hornets, which is an SUV,
kind of a family vehicle. They've got some sportier models. We're starting incorporating
those into some of our team programs and our different programs. So,
if you can't talk about the relationship with Dodge, can people who buy a new Dodge high
performance vehicle take classes that don't wind up wadding up their cars?
So, it's kind of a, you know, cool deal. I mean, anybody that's bought a Dodge SRT since we started
with them, you know, for the last six, seven years, if you go on the dealer, you go anywhere in the
country and you buy a brand new Dodge SRT, you automatically with that SRT get a free one day
SRT experience at our school. No kidding. Yeah, and you should. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you register,
you go online through Dodge Garage, you register your van and it sends you a link and you call us
and you set up one of our SRT experience classes. So, our SRT experience class that you get with
that is kind of a unique class. It's designed just for those owners that come in. It's a single day
experience that teaches you some of the highlights of the car and different aspects of the car,
but also goes through a lot of our safety training, our driver techniques that'll,
you know, you'll walk away in a day with a lot. You'll have a blast, but you'll also learn a lot
of respect and understanding and safety driving with the cars. Nice. Yeah. And people who are
buying those really do need that. Yes. I think that's, I think that a lot of people who have bought
some of the super high performance stuff from Dodge over the last 10 or 15 years
didn't have any business owning it. Right. And really could have used some instruction.
A little help. What is your day at the drags with Alex Taylor program?
Something new we're trying. You know, I'm a drag race guy and, you know, our schools,
our school traditionally is a road course based school. We've always been involved with the drag
strip being at Firebird Raceway. And that was kind of my time. You know, I worked with the school
since the nineties with working at Firebird. When they started their drag program back in 2018
with the 2018 demons, I was involved with that and helped the school with that. So, you know, as I,
as I kind of transitioned into working at the school, it's what more can I do from a drag race
side and Dodge pushing the new demon 170s. We now have a new two day course, drag course that it
includes those cars that were starting in September. We've had a great response, huge demand. We've got
two to three classes per month starting in September through May of next year and all those
classes are full. So when we put those on the calendar, we had them all booked full within three
days. So we're looking at adding more dates for those. Our issue with that is that the drag strip
is a separate course from our school. So we have to schedule rent that course from Firebird Raceway.
So it limits the number of courses we can do. But back to the drag race side,
you know, I've tied in some of the drag race events that I've done through my company for
years now through the school. And the day at the drags with Alex Taylor was something that I wanted
to do to get people that have never been down the drag strip are scared of drag racing, but follow
people like Alex. Alex is an amazing individual. She's a great driver. She has a huge following and,
you know, people that just love her. So we put together this program so you can sign up for
this program. Very inexpensive, $499. You come out. We have two half day programs coming up in
October and you're going to start out with breakfast with Alex. We're going to go through
some classroom training. We're going to put you through numerous different exercises with our
skid pad, car training, some in-car training and then over at the drag strip in the car with Alex
and then passes in the car by yourself driving the car, you know, finish with some, you know,
some conversations and interaction with Alex. So it's going to be just a fun but learning day
for anybody that's interested in drag racing. Very cool, man. Sounds like there's only about
eight or 10 things we want to go do here. Now, when you talk about drag racing, I'm sitting here
looking at this. I've been actually watching. It's kind of funny. You're even on the show tonight
because I've been watching a number of dragster, you know, videos and programs and what it takes
because I've always been amazed by the phenomenal horsepower put out by dragsters. But you know,
the stuff I read about was there and watched was that, you know, you've got what, six passes,
maybe up to nine passes in an engine and then you have to rip it out and completely rebuild it.
And how does it work with your vehicles for drag racing? Is it more kind of a street car
type drag racing or are they souped up even further? There's so many aspects to drag racing.
That would be a whole nother show, you know, really. Oh, young Padawan. Let me tell you,
okay, Yoda. Quite open the can of lungs, man. You know, you look at different types of racing,
right? And I've, you know, I've done numerous different types and, you know, I've played around
and done some road racing and, you know, I worked for an oval track in Spokane and learned a lot
about oval track racing that I never wanted to know. But, you know, it's they're all kind of
similar. You know, you get a noble track and you've got your base local stuff with a couple
classes and then you go into late models or open wheel and you go into NASCAR, a couple different
series there, you know, with drag racing, there's everything. I mean, anybody can come out and drag
race a drag race car. I mean, you can race your minivan and a street drag program and just go and
have fun. And you get into a bracket racing program, which is more based on your local crowd,
but people that are more enthusiasts that want to race every weekend, build these cars at home.
That program is based on how fast your car is, then you can move up to
NHRA divisional series and national series and all these different classes. You know, you can race a
16 second car and be competitive or you can race a, you know, a four second, three second top fuel
dragster. And to answer your question, I mean, you get up into a higher end class and a, you know,
professional class. Yes, it gets real expensive, you tear them apart. But even with our school,
you know, we're running our demon drag program and we put hundreds and hundreds of runs on these
cars without ever breaking things in them. Oh, nice. I'd like the Mopar I own.
Oh, wait a second. Don't make me make the joke about you got to get through the quarter mile
first. That is a race to drag it somewhere. Is there any truth to the rumor that a hot rod
power tour may stop at Radford? It absolutely is. You know, very excited to have them. Something new
with the school that I brought in power to our West, you know, fairly new series for hot rod.
And they were looking at venues and, you know, after last year trying to decide what they did.
And, you know, from a venue standpoint and interaction, they're going to start out in Pomona
on Monday with drag racing. And then their next three stops in California and Lake Habasoo will
be more of the car show get together stop. And then they're going to finish on Friday at Radford
racing school. And that'll involve some autocross and different options where people can actually
participate and do some fun things with their cars, their awards ceremony, all that type of
stuff will be with us at the school. Does the school have any special promotions going on right now?
We do. So right now we're running different promotions each month and we're featuring
our specific classes. So August, we just started featuring our GT road racing course,
which is kind of an advanced course for people that want to go road racing. We have 25% off of
that course during the summer months. We just finished an HPD, which is our heart performance
driving experience. So currently it's summer promotions, specific course promotions.
How can people learn more about the school and how can they get signed up for these classes?
Website is the biggest way to do it. Go to our website, radfordracingschool.com.
And, you know, it kind of lists out all of our courses. I mean, you can sign up right online
or just give us a call. I mean, we have somebody answering the phones all day, every day,
you know, great guy. I mean, he'll explain anything you want, kind of walk you through what
type of course you're looking for based on just asking you some questions and get you involved
and get you fitted into what would fit you best based on what you're looking for in your experience.
Okay, Chuck, the important questions. Number one, what's in your garage?
You look around right now. So now my 68 Camaro is sitting here. I've got a BMW M5 F10 series.
I've got it. There's a Jeep sitting here that I'm actually doing some work on for a friend.
Of course, there's a Dodge, you know, I drive a red eye Dodge charger every day.
That's my company car. So drive that home, park that in the garage.
You walk out my backyard, my kids, two of my sons are really into BMWs. I don't know if that's a
good thing or a bad thing. So we've got a couple E30 sitting out there, a couple E46 wagons.
Cool. Got a 71 Monte Carlo SS in the back that one of my sons is built.
Yeah, okay. Now we're talking.
Lots of projects, you know, so my oldest son has a couple drag cars. They're here sometimes,
sometimes it is house. So it just depends on what day you come over.
All right. And then the question to everybody always waits for, what is the dumbest thing you've
ever done in a car? You know, that's a really hard question, right? I mean, probably the dumbest
things I've done were probably before I had a driver's license and I probably not like to get
into those because my parents will probably watch this show. Oh, statute of limitations is out.
It's all good. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, we were 13, 14 years old and lived in Michigan
and had a lot of land and a farm that my grandpa owned. And so we did a lot of dumb things, you
know, I mean, taking out mom and dad's doom buggy and rolling it over with five or six people in it,
you know, taking my dad's 79 Z28 four-speed Camaro when I didn't have a driver's license and they
were at work and taking it out on the road and seeing how fast we could get it going and, you
know, different things like that. Did you ever get caught? No. No. Going so fast. My parents are
smart. They knew what I was doing, you know. Chuck, don't feel bad about talking about doing dumb
stuff when your parents are listening. My dad still listens to every episode of this. Do you know
how disappointed in me is? Yeah. You know, every couple of weeks I got to look at them and try to
explain something I did 40 years ago. Right. Right. I always tell my kids that I said, you know,
every time we come over, family get together and waiting for something to come up, you know, that
shed that burned down in our house, miraculously, at some point you guys are going to tell me the
truth, right? You know, still haven't heard much, but they're still young. Oh, you don't want it,
man. No. If there's anything that will change how you view your father dumb is having your kids go,
you know, when you were doing this, I was sneaking up, blah, blah, blah. Shut up. Yeah, exactly.
Shut up. You were my angel. I did great. Shut up. So yeah, it's a learning lesson. You know,
the other thing that stands out is we did a drag race demo derby a couple years ago at the drag
strip. That was a really dumb idea. No, maybe at fan standpoint, they loved it. You got to
explain this now. What is it? So demo derby at speed. You know, I saw something I think online
that somebody had done this kind of demo thing and I thought, okay, I could make something really
cool out of this, you know, so advertise this drag race demo derby and you could build a car,
had to be under 500 bucks was the goal and come out and race in this demo derby and the
format was we'd line up two cars on the starting line with a tree just like you're going to drag
race. We were drag racing to eighth mile, but you had to tap the other car and then get to the
finish line first. Oh, no way. I just left it at that, you know, pretty vague with it. The only rule
we had was you could not tap them in the driver's door and, you know, the people, the ideas of how
they were going to take out the other car or they were going to get ahead and just yeah, I mean,
it's just the thought process going behind it with these drivers was just amazing. You know,
it was fun to sit and kind of watch it and listen to and I bought a Volvo and I bought this old
Volvo on Craigslist for 300 bucks and it was a turbo four door, I don't know, something Volvo
piece of crap and put my son in it. My son, one of my sons wanted to drive it. That was probably the
dumbest thing I ever did, you know, in the race, but you know, he's I was wondering if I was going
to kill him or not. And once we got through the event and he won the race, the crowd loved it so
much, I decided, let's go out and run again. So I had, I took the four people that were left in it
and I put all four cars on the track at the same time, so I had two in each lane. Oh God.
So, you know, that started out kind of cool and it was kind of fun and, you know, a little bit
of destruction and he actually won it again. He got out front after he got spun around and,
you know, this car, the second pass, actually he had got hit and blew the radiator and actually we
kept running it with no cooling in it and he won the first race, he won three more rounds,
then we did this four wide deal. He won that, the car was still going, I told him, I said,
just run until it blows up, you know, who cares. And then after that, I was standing there and I
said, you know, I'm going to take you and the guy that finished second and I want you guys to do this
in reverse. Oh my God. I went on the starting line backwards and I want you to back down the
track and race to eighth mile. And I said, don't worry about hitting each other, just see who can
get to the eighth mile first. And that was when I thought I was going to kill them because, you
know, they got out a couple hundred feet and we're going pretty good and then you know how
you're backing up real fast and all of a sudden you just kind of lose it, the car starts going
and I saw him start to lose it and he lost it and he slid sideways and the other car
t-boned him in the driver's door and hit him really hard and he was okay. Yeah, we was in a
Volvo, it's all right. Yeah, your boxy, but they're good. Yeah. We actually, we took that car home,
we hooked it to a tree and pulled the front and back out because the back end was pushed up into
the tires front and fashioned the front tires. So we hooked it to a tree and we kind of jerked them
out. We actually came out and did it again. So we had a couple months later and ran the same car
still with no coolant in it and ran another four or five passes and it was still running when I
finally called the junkyard to come pick it up. Oh, that's incredible. That's fantastic. You know,
who wins the backwards race, don't you? Kids who grew up in their dad's lumber yard. Yeah,
exactly. Because we all know how to dry forklifts. Can you get far without it going?
That's the first thing that gets disconnected. I'm just going to throw this out here, but
my next one's going to be a car soccer match. So that's going to happen sometime next year.
So I've seen those and they're hilarious. Yes, that sounds like a blast. Have you ever seen
those races where they strap on appliances? What? And they do like an eighth mile track or that figure
eight track? No, I like to figure eight with a crappy either a crappy boat or a crappy RV trailer.
If you've ever seen a Geo Metro try to race with a washing machine strapped to it, it's amazing.
When I was in Spokane, we did some of that stuff in 2011-2012. We did a drag a boat race.
Actually, they had to hook a boat behind their car and it wasn't a trailer, it was just a boat.
Some were fiberglass. They'd hook it on a big long chain and they would race and we would,
you know, and it's the destruction and the things flying around. That's one of those things that
starts out really cool. And a couple laps in, you're wondering who's going to die from pieces
flying, your fans and things. And then we did a school bus race. We had a bunch of school buses
from an auction and put some of our drivers in, did a school bus race. We did a monster truck show
where we actually towed an RV out there and had a monster truck drive through it, run over an RV.
And that was actually really disappointing. We did that at Firebird and we did it in Spokane.
Those RVs, they hit the RV and it just kind of falls apart and there's nothing left.
Well, they're not made of anything. It's like a lightweight aluminum and crappy plastic paneling
inside. It's built like some of the apartments around here. Yeah. It's exciting adrenaline and
then they hit it and you're all standing there. Is that it? Game over. Well, these all sound like
they run from the same school of thought as the people jumping cars off a cliff in Alaska
for the 4th of July. And we've got several friends of the show who do that.
John Fakara, we're talking about you, buddy. And Christopher Michaels, same crew.
I just recently saw that because one of my sons, he was telling me the other day,
says, I'm going to go that's one of these days. He said, I really want to go see that.
If he does, I'll introduce him to guys who do that crap. They drive from,
jeez, where did they start out this year? I think they may have started in Atlanta.
Some of them drove to Alaska and then they jump all the cars off a cliff and fly home.
Right. What a vacation. And yeah, there have been some spectacularly hilarious results.
One of the cars this year made it to the pond at the bottom of the hill.
Right. Right. Wow. That's where it hit. Wow. There's always a line. I've been, my whole life,
I've really pushed to do driving safely and drag racing and don't race on the streets.
This ain't that. Yeah. So I'm not sure about the jumping off the cliff thing.
Well, you're not in it. I know, but it's kind of weird to see the destruction and pieces flying
and cars blowing up. No, I like the guy who jumped the car off the cliff that had four
blow-up dolls in it. Right. Watch them get annihilated at the bottom of the hill.
We've been speaking with Chuck Sundstrom of Radford Driving School. Chuck, take a minute and
tell us where we can find you online and on social media and where we can find Radford.
Again, radfordraceschool.com, same handle, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. We're starting
to do a lot more YouTube videos and stuff on there. Oh, cool. People can get a look at it.
Yeah. The event side, GoFast Entertainment. So gofastent.com, GoFast ENT, also on social media.
So we're expanding on a lot of our drift events, drag race events, a lot of good things coming
with that also. So a big tie in there between the school and the event side. All very cool stuff,
Chuck. Thank you so much for being with us. You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
Well, we finally got Chuck on and it was every bit of what I thought it would be
and I want to go to driving school a little more now than I did before. I was exploring a lot of
his website during the interview. Oh, is that what you were doing? Yeah, because I'm like,
wait, this is cool. Oh, this is cool. Oh, this is cool. That drag racing thing, that just sounds
so fun to me. I want to go do it. Straight shot, romp it, go through and have some training before
you do it. Oh, I'm sure there's a ton involved and it just looks like you floor it and go straight,
but I'm sure there's quite a bit more involved. Well, when he started talking about how to work
your muscles and your ankles and stuff like this, I'm like, oh my God, it's that? It's that? Wow.
Yeah. I have no idea. Well, you got to, there's a difference between what we've experienced and
think is fast cars versus that just did a seven second quarter at 200 miles an hour.
That's really hauling the mail, man. Man, if I, if I rolled a 17 second quarter, I'd be like,
yeah, me, because yeah, going that fast, no, no, daddy, no. Yeah. Yeah. It's a whole different
world. Now, I can tell you having had several fast two wheel vehicles and I had one that,
not with me on it, but a buddy of mine ran it and managed to get a sub 10 second. He got a
989 on it and that is otherworldly. And now we have street cars that run that. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Straight off the lot. Jesus. Holy crow. Oh, I want to go to this. I want to go to
Radford driving school. One more time. Radford driving school dot com. Be sure you look them up
on all the social media and they say they're on YouTube. So go check them out.
Thank you for spending your time with driven radio. We love what we do and we wouldn't be
able to do it without the support of our listeners. You can find us online at drivenradioshow.com.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at driven radio show and on LinkedIn as driven
radio show podcast. We have found that the download numbers we get from our provider
represent a small fraction of the listens the show gets and that streaming lessons are not
included and iTunes doesn't report download or streaming numbers. So if you're listening,
please do us a favor and download the show. That way we know how many of you are out there.
If you have a story you would like to tell or someone you would like us to interview,
please contact me at Brett at drivenradioshow.com. I am Brett Hatfield for Mark L Groves.
Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time here on Driven Radio.
Wait, are they done? I thought those two dorks would never shut up. I love commercials.
Especially when they're about cool hangouts and great mechanics for car people. Bring me the
commercials now. You are just so manly. Look, I think I grew a new chest hair.
You know, Daryl Ossipic might just be the most interesting man on earth. Might be.
If you look at his collection of vehicles, you'll realize this is a Renaissance man from weird old
beaters to serious performance hot rods. All in one place. Owner of Ossipic Automotive,
Daryl is the car whisperer practicing voodoo that brings vehicles back from the dead.
Just for us here on this show, Daryl has worked on Mercury Mountaineer, classic Corvettes,
Nissan Xterra, unusual Mercedes cars, and a 64 Dodge Custom 880. Neither of ours anymore.
Not no, Mo. But you know why it ran? Daryl Ossipic. That's right. In other words, we come to him
with our whining issues and he comes back to us with shiny fixed automobiles. It is like magic.
Daryl has ASE certified mechanics and happily gives binding estimates. You might not know he's
happy, but that might be because he sees us coming in and it erases all of his joy.
Yeah, you'll watch that face drop. Daryl will explain what he finds, what he plans on doing,
and lets you make your decisions. Nothing hidden, no mechanic bait and switch. He's straight up and
even guarantees all work for at least one month or 1,000 miles. Yeah. Ossipic Automotive, that's
Ossipic Automotive, 5920 Merriam Drive in Merriam, Kansas, called Daryl at 913-831-3613.
What was that number? 913-831-3613. Don't even have to read it.
It's been in my head for a while now. That's that dude on the back of my skull.
Ask for the Big D and tell him Brett sent you.
After he sighs heavily, he'll get you taken care of 913-831-3613 Ossipic Automotive.
Welcome to the house of Hell, yes. Hell, yes. Casamigos at 159th and Merlin serves up some of
the best Mexican food this side of Mexico. It's a driven radio show favorite for after the show.
We've been there. And before. Yeah. And something during if we can get away with it. Not wrong.
Jose Villasenor, the owner, makes food the old fashioned way. You know, delicious.
Oh, yeah. Remember that? Uh-huh. Plus he has a little red Corvette, so we already like them.
I saw that in your garage. And a little brown Corvette. Yeah, I'm helping. I'm helping.
You're still kind. I'm taking out and trade for chips and salsa.
Smart man. Did I mention the food? Oh, yeah, that huge menu and margaritas that are pleased to meet
you. Order takeout, dine in, eat on the patio. It's all good. Service is awesome. Seriously,
it's the only restaurant I've been to where the owner comes out and gives me a hug.
Make the drive to Casamigos at 159th and Merlin in Olathe, Kansas. Check them out online at
CasamigosKC.com. Living La Vida Local. Casamigos, where flavor is your friend. See. See.
Car guys have dreams, don't we? The dream might be sitting in the garage waiting to be perfected.
It might be sitting on an auction site with a guy working the highest bid. Oh, Lord,
I got one of those right now. What makes it a dream? The potential. The goal. A perfected ride
that makes you look back at it every time before you close your garage door. Just one more shot.
You know how they tell you you found the right car? You can't park it in a parking lot without
shooting a look back over your shoulder as you walk away. Amen. And at Hot Rod Express,
dreams come true. Call Hot Rod Express in Blue Springs, Missouri at 816-224-9597.
Ask for Rick Hunter, the nicest guy this side of a kick-ass burnout. He did wonders for my
65 Corvette and he can do it for your car too. Whether you want your dream ride to look more
original than when it rolled off the showroom floor or you want to turn it into a high performance
meat-eating, flame-throwing street monster, Rick and his expert crew can make that happen.
Stop dreaming. Start driving. Call Rick Hunter at Hot Rod Express, 816-224-9597,
or just stop by at 5105 US 40 in Blue Springs, Missouri, 816-224-9597. At Hot Rod Express,
they make friends fast.
About this episode
Chuck Sundstrom, the new general manager of Radford Racing School, shares his extensive background in drag racing and motorsports in this engaging episode. From his early days racing BMX bikes to managing high-profile events, Chuck discusses the evolution of his career and the exciting programs at Radford, including teen driving courses and tactical driving for professionals. Listeners will appreciate his insights on the importance of driver education, especially with today's high-performance vehicles, and the unique experiences offered at the school, including drag racing with Dodge's latest models.
Brett and Mark welcome Chuck Sundstrom of Radford Racing School to discuss growing up in a drag racing family, teaching all kinds of driving from protective details to teenagers, and letting his son race in a drag race demo derby. All this and much more on this week's Driven Radio Show!
