Spectator bonus at the K&N Halloween Classic presented by Harland Sharp

October 21, 2009

In addition to the myriad of sportsman racers here this week we had an Alcohol Funny Car make a pass here this afternoon. A conversation back in the pits revealed some interesting and very cool information. The driver and owner of the newly refurbished machine is Bellefontaine, Ohio resident Todd Lamb, and that pass he made was the first time he had ever driven the car. It didn’t show at all! He made a practiced-looking burnout, staged, and took the light with a wheels-up launch that looked like anything but his first-ever pass!

Todd has some serious racing under his belt, but that has, for the most part, been on water. A veteran of drag boats and circle-racing boats, the quickest Todd had ever gone on a dragstrip before today was a 12-second street car! Since today's run was a shutoff pass on a 1/8 mile, speed and time was really irrelevant, but the starting line basics seem to come naturally to the novice driver.

A racing accident in the roundy-boats resulted in a broken neck in 2002 and understandably sidelined Todd from racing anything for some time. When the urge to get back in the saddle again became overwhelming, the choice was made to switch to a land-based ride. Most men would choose to start in something a bit more mundane than an Alcohol Funny Car. Todd Lamb obviously isn’t most men!

Back in real life, Todd is a real estate manager in Bellefontaine. The family consists of Todd, his wife, Karen, three sons, and one daughter. He plans on running the Alcohol car for 3 years, then making the jump to nitro. If today’s performance is any indicator of things to come, that shouldn’t be very hard to achieve. Todd plans on running the car here next spring at the Cavalcade of Stars. His goal is to take out Frank Manzo. Who knows?