"I've been a big fan my whole life," says Tumbarello, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles in the 1960s and now lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colo. "I'd go to Irwindale and Lions every weekend. About five years ago, I was back in California for the World Finals and saw this stand for Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School. I thought it would be a great birthday present for my business partner, and then, naturally, I had get one for myself, too."
One pass was all it took. "I got out of the car after that first run and said, "Well, I'll be doing this again. It's an addiction. I should have just tried crack - it would have been a lot cheaper, says Tumbarello, 60, who calls himself "the oldest rookie."
A year later, he was racing a Top Dragster. "Every time I'd go to a national event, I'd get my free National Dragster, and the first thing I'd do is go straight to the classifieds in the back to see what was for sale," Tumbarello says. "I'm not much of an Internet person, but when I got back from Hawley's school, I got right on there, found a dragster here in town, and bought it." Before long, it wasn't fast enough for him.
Tumbarello then bought a chassis from someone in Phoenix who had bought it from T.J. Zizzo and - poof, just like that - he was a bona fide Alcohol Dragster racer. "I found a used engine and an old 14:71 blower and went out and made some laps and got used to it," he says. "Then we stepped up to a screw blower."
With just a year of Top Dragster experience, he had a lot to learn. "I knew absolutely nothing when we got started," Tumbarello admits. "After I'd make a run, I'd get back to the pit and go over it with my friend Steve Griboski, who races in Alcohol Funny Car. He'd have me walk him through the whole run, and at first it was like, 'Well, I left the starting line, went real fast, pulled the chutes, and then it was over.' It was intimidating. But now I can tell you what the car's doing, if it nosed over at some point, if it didn't pull as hard through high gear. After awhile, your mind starts to catch up to the speed."
The mechanical learning curve was steeper. "When we started, we were just kind of stumbling around on our own with an old KB cast block," he says. "It was a struggle to find a decent tuneup and not hurt any parts, and I've had to learn a lot of things the hard way. If I'd known then what I know now, I might not have done this. We used to hot-lap that Top Dragster, sit around between runs, maybe change a spark plug or make a jet change. It was so laid back. I had no idea how much service and maintenance is involved with alcohol racing. I broke a wrist pin in Phoenix one time and had a real nice fireball. Early on, the biggest hurdle was blowing up something and having all this melted aluminum to look at."
It's been an uphill climb, but Tumbarello has made strides year after year. "I met Mark Eakins, who was with Jerry Green's Mile-High Express team years ago," he says. "When Jerry quit racing and passed away shortly thereafter, I asked Mark to help us run it, and he's been a huge help. We're a real small-budget team. I mean, I just bought my first new bloack last year. I'd always bought used stuff before that. I got some motors from Marty Thacker, and he really took me under his wing. I figured I'd be better off going to a few races with him, seeing what he does, and trying to duplicate it, and it was a real eye-opener. I realized that we had no real clutch program or maintenance program in place. Mark Wolf from Marty's team came to a race with us, looked at our floaters and clutch parts, and said. 'Man, you guys are just chasing your tails.' Our stuff wasn't ground well, and he showed us what needed to be done."
Tumbarello has run just a handful of races in each of the past few years, but this year he expects to be at both regional events and both national events in Las Vegas and both Topeka events, at least. With backing from electricbody.com, a skin-care-product firm based in Las Vegas, he'll be making his 2012 debut at this weekend's regional event at The Strip At Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We've never had any timers on the car until this year," says Tumbarello, a commercial-painting contractor. "We've always tried to be conservative and run 5.50s. I just wanted to drive my car, and I was out there having fun. There's still nothing better than driving it - it's even more of a thrill and more exciting than I thought it would be - but now it's time to win some rounds. I've always wanted to race; I just wasn't in a financial position to do it. I'm not saying that I am now, but here we are - we're doing it."
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