Stahl wins PCMS Super Pro's first event

Stahl Family Racing, a family fleet of five racers from Glasgow has become a fixture at the Hi-Line Drag Strip during Phillips County Motorsports events summer after summer. The Glasgow based family's success continued last weekend in PCMS's opening points event last Sunday in Malta.

Neil Stahl, owner of Stahl Seed Cleaning, won the Box Super Pro with a dial in time of 5.29 seconds, a reaction time of .0375, an elapsed time of 5.3328 and a high speed of 130.43 mph.

Stahl's wife Ann also saw success finishing as No Box Pro's runner up with a dial in of 6.35, a reaction time of -.0233, an elapsed time 6.3384 and top speed of 109.04 mph.

Kyle Stahl, the thirteen year old son of the duo, finished as the junior dragster's runner up with a dial in time of 7.90, reaction time of -.480, elapsed time of 7.9673 and a top speed of 82.19.

Other racers in the winner's circle include Box Super Pro runner up Dustin Vipond of Swift Current, Sask., who had a dial in time of 5.26, reaction time of -.0079, elapsed time of 5.2807 and top speed of 130.13.

Denise Geisbrecht of Wymark, Sask., won the Sportsman class with a dial in of 7.55, a reaction time of .1040, elapsed time of 7.6544 and top speed of 86.62. The Sportsman runner up was Wolf Point's Joe Davis who had a dial in time of 9.02, reaction time of .1257, elapsed time of 9.2572 and a top speed of 78.36.

Paul Beck of Plentywood won the No Box Pro class with a dial in time of 7.01, a reaction time of .0094, elapsed time of 7.0080 and top speed of 96.92.

Glasgow's Garrett Lloyd won the Junior Dragster class with a dial in of 7.95, a reaction time of .0539, an elapsed time of 8.0041 and a top speed of 80.24.

Before Sunday's event kicked off, the PCN caught up with Neil Stahl, who has been listed in the winner's circle several times in the last few years.

"I've been racing since '92, when I graduated," Stahl said. "Then my wife and I took a break for a while."

Stahl saw success in 2003, when Billings opened the Yellowstone Drag Strip. He won the track championship that year in the Pro class.

When Malta opened its track up in 2008, the Stahl couple started racing once again.

This season the family has five members racing but the team will also aim to field two more cars this summer.

"We got two junior dragsters, we will have two dragsters, my wife and I and a friend of mine will be running my old Firebird," he said.

Stahl's car is a colorful carbon fiber bodied 92 Lumina, which was run before as an IHRA stock car.

"It was built to have an 800 inch motor in it so it works pretty well," Stahl said. "The headlights and taillights are the only factory pieces in the car."

As for the car's color, a flashy yellow, orange, green, purple, maroon and red was a reason Stahl loved the car.

"That's why I bought it," he said with a smile. "It was built in the 90's. The yellow and all the colors were the scheme in the 90's. A lot of cars in those days had those colors."

The colors aren't the only flashy thing about his car. When Stahl did a burnout in the burn pit, it seemed as though the car would just keep going down the track as if his brakes weren't strong enough to hold the ride.

"I can sit still and do the burnout but I got some new tires I was working with so I did the longer burnouts yesterday," he said. "Today I'll be back to the shorter burnouts."

He was hoping to get somewhere in the low five second range for his dial in time after test and tunes were done at the eighth of a mile track.

When he hits the quarter mile, he said that his car can reach the finish line in eight seconds.

He hadn't found much success last season but after winning the opening event, he seems to be on the rebound.

"I didn't run much last year," he said. "My boys and my wife do really well. This will be my wife's fifth year and she's got two state championships and a track championship already. She does pretty well and all my kids do pretty well."

Neil and Ann's youngest is Kyle, their middle child Alexis is seventeen and their oldest is nineteen year old Ron.

Neil took third in the PCMS Super Pro class two seasons ago, but went on to win the Super Summit Series and raced in Edmonton.

Even though his car reaches the 130-135 mph range at the Hi-Line Drag Strip, he knows it's not all about speed.

"It's more about how consistent the cars are, running your time every time and cutting the light," Stahl said. "It doesn't matter how fast you go. A lot of the times the slower cars end up in the winners circles."

Stahl's car just reached 163 in the quarter-mile in Swift Current, but Stahl claims he doesn't even feel it.

"In that car you don't even know it," he said. "It feels like you're going 60 miles per hour."

The Stahl family has become quite found of the Hi-Line Drag Strip.

"This is a fun track because everyone is like family here," Stahl said. "If anyone is broke everyone helps each other out. Yesterday we helped three guys get stuff going so they can race again. You're not worried about helping a competitor because everyone is here to have fun."