X-DRL Headed to the Heart of Chassis Building

Chances are, if someone is driving a fast and successful door car, it was likely built in the St. Louis area, making the X-DRL’s debut in the city and at Gateway Motorsports Park the perfect opportunity to honor the chassis shops of Jerry Haas Race Cars, Jerry Bickel Race Cars, Tim McAmis Race Cars and Garrett Race Cars. Combined with other area chassis shops, it represents many of the biggest names in the chassis-building industry – and when it comes to door cars, in the world. These companies are state-of-the-art chassis shops producing incredible race cars driven by the top names in the sport across the world. The cars are extremely remarkable in their attention to detail and innovation, and feature many of the most impressive features in any car in the sport.

Just as incredible is that all of them are located in the St. Louis area, making it a hotbed for doorslammer racing. All have incredible facilities as well, offering a multitude of services, and, combined, this foursome sells more than 100 new cars a year. Considering practically every car is more than $100,000, that’s quite the undertaking. That doesn’t even factor in the paint shop, body shop, parts shop and more, making them all successful businesses, not only in drag racing but in the entire St. Louis area. Without question, St. Louis is a mecca for area chassis builders, making the X-DRL’s X-treme Gateway Showdown the perfect time to give them the spotlight.

JERRY BICKEL RACE CARS

Located in Moscow Mills, Missouri, JBRC averages around 26-28 new car builds per year, plus all the updates, for other cars. The most they’ve ever done in one year is 33 cars. Average cost of car: $115,000 (many much higher, upwards of $150,000) Housed in a 20,000-square foot facility that includes a body shop, parts shop and paint shop, making it a state of the art one-stop shop.

Bickel has won a number of awards, including the CarCraft Chassis Builder of the year twice. Has built cars for numerous world champions in NHRA, ADRL and IHRA. His cars have set numerous world records, including the fastest nitrous-powered car in the world (3.74 seconds at 200 mph in the 1/8-mile).

Clients include X-DRL standouts Dan Millen, Robert Mathis (the most recent Pro Nitrous winner), Bob Rahaim and Jim Laurita.

“We now have a chassis for nitrous cars, one for the turbo cars and now a chassis for the blower cars, and we’re real pleased with that,” Bickel said. “That’s something we’ve really focused on developing over the years. “We’ve developed our nitrous and turbo chassis’ with input from some of the top guys, and now we’ve developed our blower chassis with input from some of the top guys. We feel confident we’ve got a good package with the blower cars and we’re real happy with the progress. We’ve come a long way.”

JERRY HAAS RACE CARS

Haas is a 12-tme Car Craft Magazine All-Star chassis builder.

One of the premier chassis builders when it comes to the Pro Stock class, including X-DRL Pro Stock and NHRA Pro Stock. When it comes to Pro Stock – NHRA and X-DRL – Haas is one of the premier names. He builds everything including the 2011 GXP, 2013 Camaro, ’69 Camaro, 2013 Mustang and a variety of others. The Camaro, Mustang and GXP bodies are the most popular and built primarily for Pro Stock drivers.

NHRA Pro Stock cars cost more than $200,000, and cars he builds for X-DRL are close to that range as well. Has more than 30 years of experience building cars and works out of a 10,000-square foot shop that offers a variety of services.

NHRA – All Pro Stock drivers Vincent Nobile • Allen Johnson • Mike Edwards • Greg Stansfield • Jason Line • Greg Anderson • Mark Martino • Jim Cunningham • JR Carr • Shane Gray • Chris McGaha • Warren Johnson • Kurt Johnson • Jeg Coughlin, Jr. • Mark Hogan • Roger Brogdon • Steve Kent • Steve Pokawski • Gordie Rivera • Matt Hartford

X-DRL Cary Goforth • Billy Glidden • Todd Hoerner • John DeFlorian • Dean Goforth • Kevin Bealko

TIM MCAMIS RACE CARS

Multiple-time award winner and attention to detail and innovation is often raved about in the drag racing world for TMRC-built cars. Located in Hawk Point, MO, TMRC is a very popular car builder in a variety of classes, from Sportsman to professional. Cars range from $100,000 to nearly $200,000. TMRC has built championship cars in NHRA, IHRA and ADRL. TMRC builds a variety of cars, including ’68 Camaro, ’69 Camaro, Mustangs, ’57 Chevy and much more. TMRC also has the Tim McAmis Performance Parts division which manufactures and sells the same quality parts, kits and components that are used on the award-winning and championship caliber in-house race cars. From a oil tank to a welded chassis, to a lightweight Carbon Fiber body, TMPP has everything a hardcore doorslammer racer needs. The state-of-the-art trailer and semi travels with X-DRL to all events, offering parts and other materials from a variety of racing companies. The body/mold company, Velocity Composites, develops and distributes composites to all of the chassis builders worldwide and is responsible for many of today’s popular doorslammer body styles. Tim was the first IHRA Pro Modified World Champion.

GARRETT RACE CARS

Located in Marble Hills, Mo., Garret Race Cars produces state of the art race cars with handcrafted workmanship. Everything from design to engineering, fabrication and final assembly is done with uncompromised attention to detail. Whether it’s an Outlaw Pro Mod, Top Sportsman, Competition Eliminator, Super category car, or a high horsepower Outlaw 10.5” car – producing one that is “best of class” is our goal. GRC has built cars for X-DRL standouts Todd Martin, Brandon Pesz, Glenn Butcher and many more.