One of the Maritime provinces most recognized and longest participating drag racers has a new toy to play with for 2015……
New Brunswick’s James Cowie, recently debuted a Corvette roadster Super Gas car, the latest addition to his long running Lobo Racing team. James made his competition debut with that Don Davis-built car during March when he campaigned it for the first time during the recent NHRA events (LODRS and Nationals) held at Gainesville Florida.
For Cowie, who amazingly, has been active in drag racing since 1972, and who has raced in a multitude of indexed Sportsman classes during his career, the newly acquired Corvette is also affording him a return to the Super Gas 9.90 category.
“I picked up the Corvette from the previous owner (Lance Kreiger) in Pennsylvania, last January,” James revealed. “I then took it to North Carolina – put my own motor program in it — and finished it. The car has taken me a little bit of time to get used to. It has a shifter on a timer instead of RPM and for me that was a bit of a learning curve. I had to overcome some old muscle memory (he laughed). But actually I got the car to run 9.93 (secs) on just it’s third run ever – so that was a pretty good start.”
“As you know I’ve been running mostly in the Super Comp (8.90) class with my dragster (since 2000),” he continued. “But I did run a Super Gas Grand Prix before this a few years ago.”
James Cowie has remained active in Canadian drag racing since 1972
Cowie’s Corvette which features a 2004 version replica flip-top carbon fibre body is very typical for modern day Super Gas class racing.
“The design is really easy to work on — but to be honest the reason I bought this configuration is because of the improved visibility,” he added. “It’s also a lot safer and easier to get in an out of. The ride is super nice.”
James, who is often accompanied to races by his girlfriend Nancy, plans to continue forward in 2015 racing both the Corvette and Super Comp dragster primarily within the NHRA’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing divisional series as well as at select NHRA national event races.
Cowie owns and operates a very successful company which repairs logging equipment and forestry machinery based in Miramichi. “I will have some scheduling conflicts because of work demands in mid season,” he admitted. “But I plan to be out there as often as I can again.”
The “Lobo Racing” S/C dragster has been raced since 2000
The Cowie race team expands beyond only these two cars however. James also has a 1984 Camaro which he runs in Super Street and his two sons Trevor and Tyson also campaign cars (another dragster and a Corvette) also within NHRA’s popular Lucas Oil Drag Racing series index classes.
The “Lobo Racing” name is for sure a familiar one with racing fans and he explained the origin of that moniker.
“When I started racing way back when — I did everything – at the shop and the track – always on my own,” he revealed. “Someone said once that I was like a lone wolf — and the Spanish translation for that is “lobo”. That name just stuck.”
Post and photos by: Bruce Biegler
