{"id":35442,"date":"2020-03-02T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=35442"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:06","slug":"father-and-son-mopar-drag-racing-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2020\/03\/father-and-son-mopar-drag-racing-duo.html","title":{"rendered":"Father and Son Mopar®<\/sub> Drag Racing Duo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s not too often that we\ncan do burnouts and go drag racing with our father. For \u201cGTX\u201d John Irving and\nhis son Jon, shutting down the competition on drag strips across the country is\njust a way of life. Known to family and friends as \u201cGTX\u201d John, this 71-year-old\nBoulder City, Nevada, resident and lifelong Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> enthusiast started playing with\nfast Mopar vehicles on the streets of L.A. in the 1960s and 1970s. He had a hopped-up 1967\nPlymouth GTX and that\u2019s where the \u201cGTX\u201d moniker became part of his identity. \u201cI\nhad a 1967 Plymouth HEMI GTX, one of the first ones in California. It ran\n11.56 @ 117 in the quarter-mile, pretty quick back then. I even drove it to school\nevery day,\u201d said John Irving. \u201cI started racing with Big Willie Robinson, he\nwas a legend out here in California and eventually throughout the rest of the\ncountry.\u201d John Irving\u2019s love of Mopars probably stemmed from his father, who also\nowned a 1967 Plymouth GTX and then a 1969 Dodge Charger 500. John\u2019s father was\npart owner of an Indy Car team that finished fourth at the 1967 Indy 500. Now you\ncan see how the family\u2019s DNA is made up of high-octane fuel and fast cars.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over time, John\u2019s life\nchanged, he got off the streets, started a business, and even became a mortgage\nbanker doing commercial loans. He also became a single parent to his son Jon. \u201cI\nbrought up Jon by myself since birth, he was practically raised on the\nracetrack,\u201d said the elder Irving. When Jon was just two years old, he won his\nfirst event racing BMX bikes. By the age of 10, Jon was driving Junior\nDragsters and finished second in his division. Now 30 years of age, Jon Irving\nhas the same passion for fast Mopars that has been passed down by his father\nand grandfather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"car<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy biggest influence was my dad, he was a single parent and I spent all day with him,\u201d said Jon Irving. \u201cEvery race we attended helped create my love of drag racing, it all came from him. I remember working on the racecars and handing him wrenches. I always learned something new every time I was helping him.\u201d The father-and-son drag racing duo began to make a name for themselves. About a decade ago, they built one of the fastest Mopar 340 cubic-inch small blocks built within the stringent NHRA Stock class rules. Their 1971 Dodge Demon 340 cracked the 10-second ET barrier that was unheard of at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"car<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lessons of engine\nbuilding, chassis prep and making the car work for the track conditions is\nwhat John Irving instilled in his son Jon. Just recently at the NHRA Arizona\nNationals, Jon drove his 400 cubic-inch big block-powered 1973 Plymouth Road\nRunner to the Stock Eliminator finals. He ran fast and consistent for\nsix rounds of intense competition, but had to settle for a runner-up finish. Jon\nwas looking to score his first win of the season, but came up short by a mere 0.024\nof a second. It\u2019s a tough loss, but Jon knows there\u2019s always another drag race\njust on the horizon thanks to his dad\u2019s teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Racing with your dad can\nalso be tough at times. Your father might be your mentor, crew chief and\nracing partner, but you\u2019re going to have different opinions. \u201cWe have many disagreements\nat times. My father is very old school and sets up the cars the same way he did\nback in the day. I’m new school and love trying new things and seeing if I can\nfind a few thousands of a second improvement somewhere,\u201d explained Jon Irving.\n\u201cWe also disagree about dialing the car. We have different driving styles and\nit shows when he tries to tell me what dial-in to put on the car during\neliminations.\u201d John Irving was quick to remind us of a recent race when his son\ndid not take his father\u2019s advice. \u201cLast July, at the NHRA Divisional Race in Sonoma, we were\nheading to the finals in Stock Eliminator. Jon overruled me on what to\ndial the car. He ended up not being able to run his dial-in number and lost the\nrace,\u201d said John Irving shaking his head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, the Irvings\nhave amassed a fleet of Mopar racecars that can race in various NHRA classes. These\ninclude a 1968 and 1969 Plymouth Valiant, a pair of 1971 Dodge Demon 340s, three\nPlymouth Dusters, a 1973 Plymouth Road Runner, a 1980 Dodge Aspen Station\nWagon and even a 1980 Dodge D-150 pickup truck. All these machines can be\npulled out of the Irvings’ race shop and are ready to compete at any time. It\u2019s also\nnot uncommon to see the Irvings switch up rides from race weekend to race weekend.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They say the family that\nraces together, stays together. For the Irvings, that\u2019s true. The skills that\nJohn has passed down to his son Jon will carry on for another generation. For\nthis family, drag racing is not just a hobby, it\u2019s a way of life. According to\nJohn Irving, \u201cIf I wasn’t drag racing a Mopar, I’d be dead and buried.\u201d That\nmight sound a bit extreme, but if you knew John Irving like we do, there\u2019s some\ntruth to that. Regardless, their 2020 NHRA drag racing season is off to a good\nstart. Whoever lines up next to them in the other lane better have their game\non, this father-and-son team and their fast Mopars mean business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"vehicle<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not too often that we can do burnouts and go drag racing with our father. For \u201cGTX\u201d John Irving and his son Jon, shutting down the competition on drag strips across the country is just a way of life. Known to family and friends as \u201cGTX\u201d John, this 71-year-old Boulder City, Nevada, resident and lifelong Mopar\u00ae enthusiast started playing with fast Mopar vehicles on the streets of L.A. in the 1960s and 1970s. He had a hopped-up 1967 Plymouth GTX and that\u2019s where the \u201cGTX\u201d moniker became part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":35460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[528,615],"class_list":["post-35442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/fatherandsonracingduofeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35442"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35466,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35442\/revisions\/35466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}