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Yesterday
Few racers are fortunate enough to have their names associated with landmark achievements in motorsports. Jim Epler will forever be remembered as the first Funny Car driver to break the 300-mph barrier with his historic 300.40- mph run in Topeka in October 1993.
Epler was also one of the more successful Funny Car campaigners of that period with five NHRA national event victories in 14 final-round appearances and five top 10 finishes.
Epler's racing career was unusual in that he did not follow the traditional progression from street and bracket cars to the Pro ranks. "I first got interested in racing when I was in the motorcycle business in the early 1980s while living in Portland, Ore.," said Epler. "I then switched to blown alcohol hydro boats, which I raced from 1984 to 1986. I finally got involved in drag racing the next year when I put my boat motor into a Top Alcohol Funny Car I purchased from Hank Johnson. I was working with Walt Austin and his family at the time and figured moving to drag racing would be a very easy transition. I was in for a rude awakening, however, as it took us about two years before we started to run good."
While competing on a part-time basis, Epler won a divisional event and once qualified for the Allstars competition in Columbus. "I decided to move up to the Pro ranks," said Epler, "because even though we weren't running that well with the alcohol entry, a nitro car would give us more exposure and help us get sponsorship."
After running just four events in 1991, Epler hooked up with Mike Kloeber over the winter and hired him as his crew chief. "I always had a lot of respect for Mike, and I even had him work at my computer business, Compumart, which was the largest Mac-only operation at the time."
The new combination provided instant results with...