One of Canadian drag racing favourite transplants did a terrific job as a substitute driver last weekend during the NHRA Route 66 Nationals – near Chicago.

For Jeff Arend, who is a native of Toronto, but who now resides with his wife Windy & daughter Jenna in La Verne CA., his reputation precedes him.   During last weekend’s event Jeff’s very inherent talents earned him the designated driver slot for Ohio’s Jim Head as he did a stint driving that team’s potent “Big Show” Ford Mustang.

Head was looking for a competent driver for that high profile annual race after his regular driver Jonnie Lindberg, who is from Sweden, was away travelling internationally.

Head’s first choice for that slot was Jeff Arend — knowing well that it is anything but easy for a driver to simply jump into an unfamiliar race car.  But Head who’s reputation is for being one of the most calculated people in the sport of drag racing also knew if anyone could do that — it would be Jeff Arend.  Jim Head’s notion was soon proven to be correct.

Despite being fitted into the Mustang only the day before the event and sitting in pretty unfamiliar territory — Jeff Arend coaxed the car to a pretty amazing run of 3.985 secs at 321.12 mph during his very first run down the Route 66 Raceway surface on Friday night.  Simply put — that is something that rarely happens in drag racing — especially within the unforgiving spectrum of fuel Funny Cars.

“It really all came together pretty fast,” said Jeff Arend, who is employed at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School.  “I was at Boise Idaho racing Don Nelson’s nitro Nostalgia car when Jim Head gave me a call.  The Chicago race was an open weekend for me — so we did the one race deal.”

Jim Head & Jeff Arend

“On Thursday we fitted his chassis with my seat insert and I got to sit in the car for the first time,” he added.  “Over the years I’ve raced and seen a lot of Funny Cars — but Jim’s car has a lot of things I’ve never seen before and that I had to get used to quickly.  His car has some amazing aspects — you can sure tell he is an engineer – that’s for sure.”

“I was really pleased with the first run on Friday.  The Mustang body was easy to see out of and his team had the car set up beautifully — it ran straight and smooth.  That “3” was my first sub 4-seconds run since 2016 when I drove Alexis Dejoria’s car.”

Jeff Arend’s run Friday held up well and put him #13 entering Sunday’s eliminations — where he also made an impact.  In round #1 he upset Shawn Langdon and then in the second round lost a pretty darn close tussle to heavily favoured Jack Beckman by a 3.962 secs 329.75 mph to 4.028 secs 317.49 mph count.

While this race appearance for Jeff may prove to be singular at this point in time — his Chicago event effort was for sure attention resonating throughout the class.  It is just the latest entry for Jeff Arend’s impressive resume — which has now seen him drive a very long series of both high and low profile Funny Cars during his career — and I expect it will not be his last.

Post and photos by Bruce Biegler