This 2015 drag racing season has included a renaissance of sorts for one of Canada’s most famous drag racing team names…
Welland Ontario-based Larry Dobbs, who is truly an “ironman” amongst Canadian drag racing history, is feeling very much rejouvinated in recent times. One of the original two “Kardiac Kids”, Larry’s Top Alcohol Funny Car team effort experienced both a significant rise in enthusiasm and in performance during this past season’s campaign.
Larry and his son Kevin, have be toying with a much improved race car combination and have also greatly benefited from the rising skills from their promising new driver which they helped to introduce to the sport, Tyler Scott.
Larry Dobbs has been active – non stop – in TAFC class racing since 1982!
Mechanically, for the beginning of the 2015 season, Larry introduced a number of major changes to his combination, including a more modern Chevy Monte Carlo body (formally raced by Mickey Ferro) along with other key components and a new strategic tuning direction.
“In fact this body is actually a bit heavier — but it makes up for that because it’s a lot sleeker,” Larry confided.
“Before this year we had so much tire shake and the result was a lot of wasted passes,” Dobbs added. “That was frustrating and expensive.”
“But the biggest thing for us has been going with one of the Leanders clutch systems from Sweden,” Larry continued. “That combined with some new Hoosier Tires (which have a much stiffer sidewall) has made an enormous difference. The car is now much easier to tune and the tire shake has stopped. Now it really is a totally different race car — and we can focus on how to make the car go forward performance wise.”
The rekindled Kardiac Kids TAFC has produced vastly improved performances in 2015
Larry’s optimism also includes his new driver Tyler (whom is 24 years old) from Exeter Ontario.
“Now that we have given him a car that is more manageable – Tyler has been doing an excellent job driving,” Larry continued. We’ve had some strong performances locally (won the NDRA Canadian championship series) and also at NHRA Lucas Oil regional and national event races and the car has gone the quickest and fastest it ever has.”
Dobb’s team has also been buoyed by valued renewed sponsorship support that includes their primary Napier Sports Tents along with newcomers Huron Products, Jim Scott Enterprises and Harmon Heavy Vehicles.
But maybe surprisingly for the team — Larry has not elected to absolutely vacate the race car drivers cockpit. That position is something he has been familiar with since his first year racing started back in 1982.
Larry Dobbs, Tyler Scott & Kevin Dobbs
“I did stop driving full time about two years ago — but I keep my license current,” he added. “Being outside the car tuning it and watching it is fun and I do admit it’s easier to focus and concentrate on that from there. But I’ve been doing this a long time — and I really still like the adrenaline rush from driving.”
The latest version of the Kardiac Kids has made very serious steps back into the drag racing TAFC class limelight during 2015 and that momentum is for certain something they plan to carry forward into next season.
For more information on the race team’s valued sponsor Napier Sports Tents and their products click: HERE
Post and photos by: Bruce Biegler
