Chase Copeland is living every kid's dream - driving a five-second race car, winning national events, and contending for championships in his early 20s.
At the wheel of drag racing legend Gene Snow's A/Fuel Dragster, Copeland has finished in the top 10 in the final NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster standings in each of the past two years, and both times he has won his hometown race, the Texas Motorplex national event.
"Gene had never won at Dallas before, and it was a big achievement in my life to do that for him," says Copeland, who made one of the great runs in Top Alcohol Dragster history, 5.21, to defeat Marty Thacker in the final. "To do it two years in a row was unbelievable."
Copeland, 23, can do a lot more than just drive. He works for chassis builder Joe Monden, who has built most of the top A/Fuelers in the country. "Joe's the one who got me in the driver's seat," Copeland says. "He taught me just about everything I know. I couldn't do anything on the chassis side when I got there. He taught me everything, and he's pretty much the whole reason I'm out here doing this."
Copeland's only previous experience in drag racing had come in Jr. Dragsters. "I ran them from when I was about 12 until I was 15, and it was a lot of fun," says Copeland, now 23. After that, he and his dad, Clay, got their feet wet, so to speak, in drag boats.
"Those things are really coming back around right now, really on their way up," says Copeland, who married wife Brittany a few weeks ago and just returned to the U.S. from their honeymoon in Antigua. "We ran one for three years - nine-second Top Eliminator boats that went about 130, 135 mph - and we won the championship twice."
Right out of high school, Copeland went to work on Scott Palmer's Top Fuel dragster just as his friend, Spencer Massey, who's about five years older than him, had done. After that, Monden asked Copeland, an Oklahoma native, if he wanted to work in his chassis shop in north Texas.
"I didn't know how to weld or how to build a car, but I figured why not?" says Copeland, who also has seat time in a Pro Mod. "Joe introduced me to Gene, and that's how this whole deal with me driving got started. With a Pro Mod, you're just trying to keep it in line. This thing isn't that hard to keep straight, but there's a lot to do before you stage. There's a lot that you have to have right or the car's not going to make it - especially now that we're only allowed to run 94 percent [nitro] and now that the fuel has to be at least 50 degrees. The tuning window is very narrow."
Copeland, who's quick on the lights - just like Massey - was a quick study. He won the Houston divisional over Michael Manners in 2009 and was runner-up at back-to-back-to-back Division 4 events Belle Rose, Tulsa, and Houston in 2010. Then came the consecutive national event titles in Dallas.
"I've seen a lot of people come along, and Chase is just like Spencer - really good on the lights," Snow says. "His reaction times are unbelievable and they just keep getting better, and it's for one reason: confidence. He has complete confidence when he's in that car."
As an integral part of a crew that consists of himself, father Clay, Vernon Wilde, and the "Snowman" himself, Copeland does the clutch between rounds and "normal driver stuff, like pack the chutes." Massey, when he has time between driving the Fram/Prestone Top Fuel dragster on the NHRA tour for Don Schumacher Racing, pitches in sometimes, too.
"He was pretty good, right from the beginning," Massey says. "I was there, and it took him just a few runs to be smooth."
"When I started driving Gene's car four years ago, Spencer taught me the ins and outs of driving an A/Fuel car and just how Gene likes things on his race car," Copeland says. "The quicker the run is, the smoother the ride is going to be. You can really tell when it's on a good run because the front end is hiked up for 60 or 100 feet on a low-or mid-5.20. You can feel the chassis arch up. On a .40 run, it just doesn't get up on the tire like that. People always tell me, 'You're following in Spencer's footsteps.' Well, I'd love to. One day, I'd love to be exactly where he's at right now, driving a Top Fuel car. These last few years have really been a whirlwind, and I've been blessed to be involved with people like Joe and Gene and Spencer. If you don't have any experience driving something like this, who's ever going to let you do it? It's a dream that a kid always has, but you never think it's really going to happen like this."
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