It is a Harvey Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand!

 As all of you know, my dream and goal was to qualify for an NHRA national event with the new 1967 Mustang car and the new Janis engine. We originally planned to debut the car late this year but that slipped because of time and work. We moved the date to next year and now that is getting away from us and may not even happen next year. Because of our workload, lack of time to work on the car, and resources, we realized that our dream may be just that, a dream.

We have had the car since the first of the year and we have not touched it yet. We are trying to get the old car finished but even that is a challenge. Meanwhile a brand new car with brand new components sit and is becoming outdated technology. ProMod is a fast paced world that doesn’t wait for someone who is busy and does this as a hobby.

We have realized that competing at this level is almost impossible for people who own a business, are involved in that business, and cannot dedicate a majority of their time on the sport. Even if we hired someone like the Janis family to provide a crew, I don’t know how we could spend all of the time away from home (that it would require) to be competent enough to drive a very dangerous car at the NHRA level.

That brings us to our decision. A couple of years ago, Mike Janis Sr. had some heart issues that forced him to retire from racing. The Janis’s went to a different business model that basically provided turn key cars for two drivers. Mike Janis Jr. is the crew chief and Mike Janis Sr. provides consulting, coaching, test driving, and a lot of other valuable knowledge to the two cars.

Last year, Mike Janis Sr. got cleared to drive again after getting a procedure done to correct his heart issue. The Janis’s started building a new car for him to drive but they ended up selling it before they finished it.

It is our opinion that a driver with multiple national championships should be driving race cars. Traci and I had an idea how to make that happen. After some discussions with the Janis’s, they will take possession of the new 1967 Mustang, engine, and all hardware to finish it. This will give Mike  Sr. a world class car to finish his career with. It makes sense that our beautiful car gets the driver it deserves instead of sitting in a trailer and getting old. 

As with all things, I think God guides us in everything we do. The day we called to talk to the Janis’s, Mike Sr. had been thinking about our 67 Mustang. I think he had it on his heart just as Traci and I had it on ours. We would not have made it as far as we did without the hundreds of hours of guidance that Mikey gave us on text messages, phone calls, and at the track. It is only fitting that they make it do what it was supposed to do.

Traci and I are sad to close another chapter but super excited to see the car do what it is supposed to do. We don’t know all the details yet about when, where, and how this will happen but we are committed. I think the Janis’s are still figuring out this new plot twist but being the professionals that they are, they will figure it out.

Traci and I do not know what our racing future looks like yet. In the meantime, we will try to finish “The Resurrection Project” and do whatever we can with it. We will run “The Blue Banana” from time to time as well for now but we really don’t know if we even want to continue at a level below where we set our goals. 

Pray for us to get our heads wrapped around where we are at and do the best thing. In the meantime, there will be another bad ass car with Mike Janis Sr. behind the wheel. That just feels right! God has blessed us on our adventure and he will continue to do so in whatever direction we go. 

We can’t wait to see what the Janis’s do with the car. I am pretty sure of one thing, it will probably not be green! You will have to read my old updates if you don’t know that story!

We love you all for your support and we also love our Janis family. Exciting times are coming!