Local racer wins national title

FAST TIMES—Joe Roubicek, left, celebrates with his crew chief, Dusty Fotos, after Roubicek’s win in the Super Gas category at the CARQUEST Auto Parts National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) nationals in Seattle last month. The front end of racecar driver Joe Roubicek’s Corvette is engulfed in flames.

The yellow, fiery tendrils curl past the stern-faced Indian chief painted on the hood’s scoop, coil over the racecar’s black paint and stop just short of the rear wheels.

But if you think Roubicek, a Westlake Village resident, or his crew chief Dusty Fotos is diving for a fire extinguisher to save the 1963 split-window Corvette parked in Roubicek’s warehouse, think again.

The flames are part of the paint job Roubicek had specially designed for his heavily modified racer built and painted in 2001. All the cars in Roubicek’s Newbury Park garage share the same searing design.

After nearly seven years of racing these finely-tuned automobiles, Roubicek won his first national title at The CARQUEST Auto Parts National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) nationals in Seattle, Wash. Roubicek won in the Super Gas division, beating out over 130 competitors during seven rounds of elimination racing between July 22 and 24.

Although the ’63 had engine problems 15 minutes before the final race, Roubicek held on to clench the title with a finish time of 10.159 seconds.

Finish times between cars are so close that the racecars are monitored by special light sensors built into the track. Joe won his race by .234 of a second.

“In our sport, we lose many races by just thousandths of a second,” Roubicek said. “I’ve lost a race by .00004 of a second . . . It takes longer to blink an eye than it does for us to lose a race.”

In a Super Gas racing elimination round, two cars compete side by side. When there is an odd number of cars on the track, the last driver gets the track alone for that round. A perfect run is 9.9 seconds, and a driver cannot win with any time below 9.9 seconds. Because of that rule, Super Gas racing is just as much a matter of precision driving as it is horsepower.

To help Super Gas racers make the exacting times, sophisticated on-board computers can calibrate the engine’s response point to compensate for a driver’s reaction to the green light. In Super Gas, a quality start can make or break a race.

Roubicek lost in the NHRA finals in Pomona last year because he started .004 of a second too soon.

“Once two cars are sitting on the line, (the drivers) pad the gas and within one or two seconds, three yellow lights flash . . . and then a green light signals the start of the race,” Fotos said in his New Orleans-tinged accent. “The second Joe sees those yellows flash, he lets the button go because (by) the time your brain tells your finger to let the button go, they’ve gone from yellow to green.”

The computers are also used to adjust the engine as the weather changes during the day. Records from past races are kept as well. The records chart both weather and start times, helping the race team maintain quality starts. Because there is such a slim margin for error, winning a national title is extremely challenging. It’s not uncommon for some racers to compete for 20 to 30 years in the NHRA before winning a major title.

In 2003 at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., Roubicek won in the Super Comp division, driving his 1,300-horsepower

— P 15 dragster.

Roubicek says it’s a common misconception that NHRA racing is dangerous.

“It’s one of the safest sports around,” Roubicek said. “You’re driving in a straight line, and you’re not bumping into other cars.”

Fotos remembers the crash Roubicek almost had in one of their first races in the Corvette. According to Fotos, Roubicek hit a slick section of track, which caused his car to wobble and then turn completely around.

“Joe was going 150 miles per hour backwards when he crossed the finish line,” Fotos said. “When I saw him heading for the wall, I just hit the ground. I couldn’t even watch. My legs just gave out on me.”

Inside the spinning car, Roubicek remained calm. Instead of pushing the brake pedal to the floor, which would have made the car spin even faster, Roubicek pumped the brakes and brought the car back around to avoid the wall.

“It happened so fast, there was no time to be scared,” Roubicek said.

Roubicek and Fotos have known each other for over 16 years and worked on cars together for more than seven. Fotos, a selftaught mechanic, maintains the Corvette, Roubicek’s dragster and his daughter’s mini-dragster.

“If I didn’t have Dusty, there’s no way I could be racing,” Roubicek said.

Most repairs are done in the warehouse attached to the Newbury Park office where Roubicek runs his property management business. Roubicek owns a number of apartment buildings throughout Southern California. His profession not only pays for the race cars, but allows him to travel to over 20 races a year.

Fotos manages one of Roubicek’s apartment buildings and runs his own appliance repair company.

Roubicek, born in Venezuela, is the fourth son in a family of five boys. He also had a sister who passed away in 1984. Roubicek’s competitive nature and need for speed started young and was born out of the lifelong sibling rivalry with his brothers.

Roubicek has lived in Westlake Village for the past seven years with his wife, Dian, and their daughters, Rachel, 13, and Erika, 9.

Rachel races the mini-dragster, and Roubicek said Erika has already begun asking him when she can take her place behind the wheel.

Regardless of which Roubicek is on the track, one thing is certain—they’ll always be fired up.