Greg Ventura Wins NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Street Championship
- 24 Feb 2017
Ventura beat John Bycroft in the final round at Las Vegas. He did the math and added up the points himself. He calculated that he had enough points to win the championship. But he had to wait a day to hear the official results from the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. “It probably took me a day for it to sink in,” said Ventura, a Maintenance Analyst with K&N Engineering. “It took about a day and a half, but after that it was official. That was a Sunday night that I won the race. On Monday afternoon, I got the call saying I was the champion. That was, it was relief, it was kind of an emotional thing.” The season finale in Las Vegas became a two-event race. The spring races in Las Vegas were rained out. As a result, the spring race was made up during the weekend in addition to the scheduled fall races. Ventura entered the races in Las Vegas in second place in the Super Street standings. He fell to third place after the spring make-up event. He had to pass two drivers instead of one to win the championship. “That’s exactly what happened,” Ventura said. “After the first round, I really didn’t think to myself I am going to win this championship. I’m just going to keep going until that little win light doesn’t show up on the guard rail past the finish line. I just kept knocking the rounds down. When I got to the semis, even the final round, here’s my chance. Here’s your chance to put this whole season away.” It was his first NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Street championship. He brought two cars to the season finale in Las Vegas. It turned out to be a perfect combination. His Super Gas entry provided a distraction from the Super Street championship, just enough to let him relax when he raced the Super Street car. “The car was impeccable. It was awesome,” Ventura said. “To take my focus off, I had my other car I was running at that same event. I have two Novas that I race. I had them both there to kind of distract me. If you’re hyper-focused on the points and what everybody else is doing, you really don’t do well. I almost won the class in the event as well. I was literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off.” Ventura won two races in his championship season in Super Street. He won his first race at Fontana. But he missed the first Super Street event of the season in Arizona.
His Super Street car, a Chevy Nova, was his first race car. He and his father first started racing it in 1991 when Ventura was still in high school. It needed some upgrades, shocks and suspension mainly. When it was ready to race, he entered it in Fontana. “He passed away in 2012,” Ventura said about his father. “I never won this championship when he was alive.” After winning in Fontana, he was third in the Super Street standings. Ventura decided to run for the Super Street championship after Fontana. But he needed to make up points that he missed by skipping the event in Arizona. He went to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in Oregon. He advanced to the third round and earned enough points to put him in contention for the championship. “I earned some valuable points there,” Ventura said. “I had to go up there to make up for the race that I missed at the beginning of the year. That helped me propel myself into the championship chase.” After the Oregon event, he experienced a win drought. He was competitive, but he didn’t win another race until the season finale in Las Vegas, an event he needed to win to take home the championship. Ventura starts his campaign to repeat as Super Street champion in Phoenix in March. He went to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series season opener in Pomona earlier this month. He reached the third round in Super Gas. But his focus will be in Super Street. “I’m not going to chase the points in Super Gas this year,” Ventura said. “I’m going to do the same thing I did last year in Super Street. That first race will be in a couple weeks in Phoenix.” In addition to racing for the Super Street championship, Ventura wants to qualify for the Jeg’s All Star event in Chicago in July. The top drivers in each of the seven Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series division are invited to the Jeg’s All Stars. It is also a team event, pitting drivers from the same division against other drivers from other regions. “It’s the best guy in every division,” Ventura said. “The best guy in each division meets in Chicago in July and we’ll race it out.”
“It’s second to none,” Ventura said. “There’s two people in the world. There are people who do have K&N on their cars and then there’s people that should. In every arena that they have a product in, it’s on my car. I have everything that I can possibly have that the company makes on my racing cars.” Ventura said he wants to thank K&N, Lucas Oil Products, Taylor Freezers, Carrol Shelby Goodyear and Race Trans for helping him win the Street Stock championship. | ||||
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