Ken Lowe Top Alcohol Dragster

US Nationals Indy 1986.jpg (31327 bytes)
I raced this car from its debut in late 1985 after the front engine car (see here) all the way to late 1988 when I parked the car to get ready for the 1989 season. I won the 1986 UDRA Championship and the 1987 UDRA Championship and the 1987 NHRA Division III Championship. 1988 was a hard year for us as some members of the team made mistakes that cost several races and thus the Championships for that season. This put us on the back foot financially.
Edgewater Dragway, Cincinnati Ohio 1987.jpg (19026 bytes)
Hero photos
Cordiva Dragway, Cordovia Ill - 1987.jpg (20425 bytes)
Hero photos - Tim Osgood is on the far right, he was one of the partners in the front engine TAD. Rob Helton is next to him.
US 131 Dragway Milan Michigan 1986.jpg (13132 bytes)

Xenia, Ohio 1988.jpg (22601 bytes)
With UDRA we races at some pretty old race tracks. This is at Kilcare in Xenia Ohio, don't ya love the single lane guard rail?? It scares me and I'm fearless!!!
The fans are all on thier feet so they don't miss any of the action when the UDRA show is in town.
Byron Dragway 1986.jpg (25964 bytes)
I'm the little guy in the middle with the blue shirt. My crew are in the red shirts on the left. The worlds best track announcer Brent Kepner is on the far right.
You get to use some parts over and over. The injector on the car here in 1986 is the same one on the Drag Race School car today in 2001.
You see if you decide that you will drag race for the rest of your life you get to use your parts for a very long time. Along time ago some one asked me once "What will you do when you quit drag racing?" After a little thought my response was "When I die" because I will do this drag race stuff as long as I draw a breath.

After the US Nationals in 1988 when Drazey debuet his new supercharger I decided for financial reasons to sit out for a while and see what was going happen. I started assisting other racers with thier tune up's and doing more fuel systems. Once I saw what the new PSI blowers and then the high helix roots blower did I knew my old TAD car was no longer cutting edge so I sold it. The move to Oz in 1992 and the preperation leading up to it took a lot of time and money so I continued to assist other racers. I never say that I don't own a race car (even if at the time I don't) I always say I am between race cars beacuse I will have another one. Getting started in Oz was a challange and I built several cars for other racers and put together car 50 as a dispaly car. After that I put an engine in the car and created the Drag Race School I guess this would be my next car. After that we have the second and third DRS cars and the TAD car Mark Brew and I raced. I supplied the car and Mark supplied the engine and trans.

Industrial show with TAD car.jpg (18243 bytes)
I owned a pump company at the time and used the race car as a "hook" at trade shows. Often I would find that there would be several different companys selling similar products at the shows and I would help the customers remember our exibit with a nice race car (that did not take up too much space) and a pretty girl to talk to. Frequently I would order two booths and get three because we had a draw card that would make the show more interesting. The quality and detail of the race car implied to the customers a certian performance standard that we promoted as the quality level of our products.

Our products perform!!.jpg (14864 bytes)
Quality car - quality products.

Performance car - performance products. Our salesmen await to serve you.

Have a look at the next car here.

Do the nostalgia tour here