Pierce Back in the Game with Gene Snow's A/FD

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association

Brandon Pierce still can't believe he got the call. Drag racing legend Gene Snow could have picked anyone to drive his A/Fuel Dragster, but he called Pierce, who had been on the sidelines for a year and a half and was starting to think he might be stuck there forever.

"I was driving home from work one day and the phone rang," Pierce said. "Gene said he wanted me to drive for him, and I said, 'Are you sure you know who you're talking to?' I guess he thought I could cut the kind of lights he wants, and he sure has had some good people driving for him – Spencer [Massey] and Chase [Copeland.] I hadn't run my car in a year and half, and I figured everybody had already forgotten all about me."

Before taking what he knew could turn into a permanent vacation, Pierce accomplished both of the goals he and his father set when they started in A/Fuel 11 years ago: make the Top 10 and crack 280 mph. "We knew we didn't have the funds to win a national championship, but we thought we could make the Top 10 and we really wanted that 280," he said. "The car was running so well that weekend – 275-277 mph – but I had no idea I'd gone 280. It just felt like another good run, definitely a 5.20-something, but 280? You know how hard that is to do? To see that number on paper, to have that time slip in your hand, is unbelievable. There's only a handful of us who have ever done it, and when Bill Reichert comes over to say congratulations, you know you've really done something."

By then, Pierce had already racked up three victories and six final-round appearances in divisional competition. He upset Randy Meyer in the final round of the 2006 Division 4 race at Noble, Okla., his home track, backed it up the next year with a final-round decision over Darvin Martinets there, and also won the 2007 Division 5 race at Great Bend, Kan., over two-time Division 5 champ Richard Putz. Pierce followed with runner-up finishes at Dallas and Memphis in 2007, the year he nearly won the Division 4 title, and also runner-upped at the Jeg's Allstars race in 2008 in Chicago, where a third straight 5.47 and a .022 light left him just short of Tom Bayer in the final.

"Until last year, my last ride had been at Noble in 2011, the only race we ran that whole year," said Pierce, 37, who started racing 20 years ago and worked his way up from an 11-second Chevelle to Pro, Super Pro, Quick 16, Super Gas, Super Comp, and finally Top Alcohol Dragster. "It was our home track and we figured we'd go out there and have a little fun and ended up making it all the way to the final."

Then … nothing.

"It's no fun sitting there, watching everybody else race, I can tell you that," Pierce said. "I'll admit it: it sucked. I really thought I was done. 'Who's gonna call me?' I thought. 'I'm not even out there anymore.' I'm pretty low-key; I never thought anybody paid any attention to me. I've always tried to cut good lights – I knew the only way I could win was on the Tree – and I guess Gene noticed. Driving for him, you'd better be good on the lights. Look at how well Spencer and Chase did for him."

Snow's team has a full schedule planned for 2014, including a full slate of Central Region events and national event stops in Topeka, where last year Pierce barely missed making his first final-round appearance, and home state events in Houston and Dallas. Pierce beat eventual winner Alan Bradshaw in the 2013 Topeka semi's but was disqualified when his nitro percentage was found to be 1 percent too high. "I don't know what happened there – it's not like we were trying to get away with anything," he said. "I think it's just that it's such a long haul from the pits to the staging lanes at Topeka that the alcohol had more time to evaporate."

Pierce made his first divisional final with Snow's team later in 2013 at, naturally, Noble, where he finished second to eventual world champ Jim Whiteley. His only start this year ended early when he missed the cut at the rain-shortened Central Region opener at Houston, but he has no complaints.

"It's still pretty crazy to me that I'm back out here," said Pierce, an Oklahoma native who now lives in Cypress, Texas. "I mean, I couldn't believe I got that call. Me? It's like a dream I'm still waking up from. It all came together really fast, and I still don't have the words to describe what I felt that day. There are a lot of good drivers out there – a ton of them – and I consider myself fortunate that Gene asked me. It's an honor. He's one of the guys who signed my license in 2003, and I've been friends with him and Vernon [Wilde] and Spencer forever. I really owe a lot to him, Vernon, Spencer, Lucas Oil, Dixie House Café, and my family. My goal is to eventually run Top Fuel, and I realize that that kind of thing doesn't usually happen, but hey, you never know. I never thought I'd get that call from Gene, either."