It's far from a drag
SUMMIT TWP — John Marten has drag raced his way onto television.
Marten, 48, of Summit Township will be drag racing his 1968 Chevelle as part of a reality show titled "Pinks All Out" at 8 p.m. Nov. 11 on the Speed Channel.
A drag racer since 1986, he qualified for the show during an event at Norwalk Raceway Park in Ohio.
"This TV series hits race tracks all over the country," Marten said. "The Norwalk Raceway Website had a limited time frame in which you could log on and try to get picked for this one.
"They got about 10,000 hits in a limited amount of time. It blew out Internet and telephone service in Norwalk for a while."
Marten registered and was one of 145 drivers selected to compete at the track the weekend of Aug. 27 and 28.
Cars raced two at a time until 32 were selected for the show, which was taped the same weekend.
"I've never done all that well in this sport, but I love it," Marten said. "We changed a lot of things with the car just before this competition and never really got the chance to see how the car would perform.
"It all just worked out that weekend," he added.
Marten was one of 32 drag racers selected to compete on the show. Those 32 came within a 17th of a second of each other during the qualifying competition.
Tom Stotish of Franklin Township, a longtime friend of Marten's, built the engine and worked with Marten on the changes.
"I race a 1968 Chevelle, also, so I tried to use my setup as something to work toward," Stotish said. "All cars are different and it wasn't going to be exactly the same, but we had a good idea of what we wanted to do.
"We changed from a stock suspension to a ladder bar. We only had three test sessions after the changes because we had motor problems and an issue with the fuel pump we had to address.
"Come race day, somehow, everything worked perfectly. We didn't touch anything once qualifiers started," Stotish added.
While Marten signed a form agreeing not to reveal the results of the 32-car competition before the show is televised, he did concede to say "we did very well."
"There's a real thrilling end to it," Stotish said.
Marten's average speed was 133 mph as the car covered the quarter-mile track in 10.3 seconds.
Marten described himself as a lifelong "car nut" who used to be involved in street racing.
"I was one of the bad kids," he said. "I took a car from cruising to street racing to drag strips."
Now he's on TV for what stacks up to be a memorable appearance.
"It will be worth watching," Marten said.
