Screaming down the rubber-streaked pavement of Muncie Dragway'squarter-mile, freshman Zach Maddox hits 111.98 miles per hour,concentrating solely on shifting through the gears of his 4-speed1970 Camaro. He finishes the stretch, passing the laser-triggeredtime clock in a silver blur with a time of 12.35 seconds. His besttime yet.
"I'm always wanting to go faster," Maddox said, after hispersonal record-breaking run, leaning down to brush small rocks offof one of the car's rear slicks.
Maddox, like many of the other grease-stained car owners in therumbling pits of the dragway, has been working for years, three tobe exact, to make his hot rod race-ready. With the help of his dad,Clee Maddox, the two stripped the car down to its sub-frame,removing the front portion, replacing every panel and sandblastingand painting both the top and bottom of the car'sbody.��
"It's taken three years of doing nothing but spending money onthis," Maddox said. "It was in horrible shape when I got it. We'veput somewhere around the neighborhood of $20,000 in it. We just gotit ready to go this summer."
Maddox bought the car, originally from Arizona, as a project forhim and his dad, who had a 1973 Camaro when he was in highschool.
"He had a car just like mine," Maddox said. "If they weresitting side by side, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.I wanted something for us to work on, and I found this one and itwasn't rotting away like a lot of the cars around here--it hadreally good frame rails. It's just something I wanted to do."
Clee Maddox said he enjoys the car mainly off the strip,though.
"It's just a way for us to spend more time together," he said."I've raced it, but I'm not nearly as fast as he is."
With the many cars present, from professional racers' cars tospeed-hungry Corvettes and Mustangs, to even a snowmobile,competition at the dragway is seemingly fierce. However, forMaddox, the horsepower-hyped racers don't exist.
"Since I run slicks, the guys I'm racing might be running nineand 10 second quarters. Some of those guys, all their cars are forare dragracing. My car, every Friday and Saturday night, my buddiesand me go out in my car and cruise around. I'm just up here to seeif I can beat my own time--to see how fast I can go."
Clee Maddox said he feels the same.
"It's a streetcar so [Zach] takes it out driving on weekends,and it's really just so we can have some fun together--it's notreally about competing."
After his final run on the drag way, Maddox steers the Camarothrough the crowd of cars toward his trailer to begin loading upfor the night. Father and son adjust the car for the ride home,already ready for more action.
"I love doing this," Maddox said, glancing at the car on thetrailer's bed and taking in the successful night. "We'll go homeand all next week, we'll work on this, and come back over and raceagain. I love it."
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