A Winning Venture Perspective « DragRaceCanada.com

A Winning Venture Perspective

by editor on Oct.14, 2025, under Editor's Extra

BC-based racer becomes newest Canadian NHRA Nationals level event champ….

Darrell Stobbe achieved a lifelong dream last Sunday when he was crowned as the Super Stock eliminator winner for NHRA’s Texas Fall Nationals.

The dedicated racer (from Abbotsford BC), has long been a long time fan favourite for Super Stock class “Bowtie brand” enthusiasts with his meticulously prepped and maintained and totally rare 1964 Chevelle (300) SS/JA.

2025 Jegs AllStars — NHRA Northwest Division Team

Darrell (and his son Alex) had ventured way down for the the Texas race (4-day tow) with an initial priority being to proudly represent their NHRA Division 6 for the Jegs AllStars event. That is a very special, high profile by invitation only, annual Sportsman racing event which was part of the Texas Fall Nationals weekend schedule.

While Darrell did bow out in the Super Stock first round for that competition (featured on Friday) – losing a double breakout decision to Minnesota’s Jason DeForrest — he more the made up for any disappointment by late Sunday.

Stobbe collected his first NHRA nationals level event “Big Wally” when he prevailed over a 65-car field and 7 rounds for that class racing tournament. In the final, using a superior RT (.007) his run of 10.260 (10.25 dial in) at 126.75 mph held off home state Texan driver Harvey Emmons Jr., who ran a 9.496 secs (9.48 dial in) at 124.70 mph.

Darrell & Alex Stobbe celebrated a first NHRA national event title after a big win over Harvey Emmons Jr., in the championship final round (below) at NHRA Dallas.

Darrell’s first NHRA Nationals win came in his 3rd career final round appearance – he place R/UP at Seattle 2016 and then for the Pomona Winternationals title in 2024.

But like the iconic radio voice of the late Paul Harvey used to say, “and now for the rest of the story”.

“Yeah — it was a really fun and interesting week,” Darrell Stobbe said. “We were predominantly there because of the Jegs All-Stars. NHRA had arranged to also have a Monday-Tuesday Divisional Four race, and then the Jegs race and then the national event. So it really was a unique — three for one trip.”

This race episode wasn’t without its challenges however, as Darrell explained.

“We had a little bit of trouble on the get-go. Before we left some transmission trouble had Dave Smith from Pro Trans sending us parts Air Mail (from Texas ironically) and Jim Mantle helping me put it all together. That was a lot of legwork because I had to go to Vancouver Island on a ferry ride away on Tuesday — the day before we left.”

“Then I got home very late that night worked to put it in Wednesday morning. Then when we got the car running we noticed a dripping under the car and realised I had a cracked fuel line. So we ended up having to do a panic replacement for that to – right before we left.”

“After travelling down and once racing started we had a couple of good qualifying rounds for the divisional — but then I went out first round on Tuesday. The car ran quite a bit slower than I thought it would, but I just initially chalked it up to the different and humid environment, not used to this kind of air.”

“But after I made two qualifiers for the national event and then after first round on Friday morning I made a routine valve adjustment and noticed I had a broken spring. We fixed that in time for going into the second round. I knew the car would probably run faster so we had to deal with that and we made our way through. I had won a good Heads Up race with Mike McClure and that helped me establish a baseline again after winging it a bit up to that point. Saturday night we were being hot-lapped by NHRA at the end of the day after the Pros ran. That was a good thing – but now it was turning dark. So while Alex did all the routine maintenance — I went into the trailer and turned off the light and intently used our practice tree. The reason for the practice tree use is because it is totally different from a daylight read to a night read. I generally don’t use the practice tree other than for a couple warm ups. But I went hard on the practice tree — so when we went up for round six — I think I was more confident I could cut a reasonable light. That turned out to be a very decent .018 — in the dark.”

“Come Sunday, that was a very long day waiting for that final round. But as a racer, it seems that once you get into the car all those nerves seem to just go away and you just do your thing – which I did.”

“Overall it was a Super fun road trip that my son Alex and I will talk about forever!” Darrell smiled. “He’s getting married (November 22) so it was special he was able to make time to come and do this big road trip.” (Congrats Alex!)

Darrell was also totally impressed by his first career Jegs AllStars event experience.

“The Jegs thing was really well done and credit to those guys — they made it really fun for us,” he added. “We went to Waxahachie and they had a real nice venue and all the NHRA pro drivers attending were mixed with us Jegs All-Stars in with them. We were lucky enough to hang out with Leah Stewart! That was fun — she even agreed to ask me for my autograph for a fun photo op!” (Photo Below).