Championship Drag Racing

NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(April 6-9)

EVENT HOME
   Tickets
   Event schedule
   Results
   Team Reports
   Audio Broadcast
   Photo Galleries
   Video highlights
   Entry List
   Driver Appearances

Driver Profile

Mark Pawuk Pawuk Racing Pontiac GTO

Las Vegas, prerace: Mark “Cowboy” Pawuk’s team has been burning the midnight oil since last weekend’s O’Reilly Spring Nationals in Houston. Immediately following the event Pawuk sold his 2006 Pontiac GTO to a group of competitors from south of the border. That resulted in crew chief Marcus Bowen, test driver/mechanic Craig Hankinson and mechanic Robert Morrow working well into Sunday evening removing all of the hardware not sold with the car.

Once that job was completed the team jumped into the Freightliner/High Tech hauler and headed back to Ohio to Ron Krisher’s shop where they picked up his spare Jerry Haas-built Chevrolet Cobalt. They’re currently on their way back out to Las Vegas for the Sumitracing.com Nationals, where they’ll install Pawuk’s hardware in the car prior to the beginning of qualifying on Friday afternoon.

“I can’t begin to thank Ron enough for his generosity,” Pawuk said on Tuesday. “We’ve been working together on engines for a while now, but this goes way beyond that. Ron knew we were searching for a replacement for our GTO, and he stepped right up to the plate like the professional he is. But make no mistake about it, this is more about friendship than it is about business, and it’s something I’m not likely to forget.

“If the tables are ever turned, and I can return the favor, Ron knows that I’m the first person he should call.”

Pawuk is continuing the search for a permanent Pontiac GTO replacement, and will continue to utilize Krisher’s Cobalt until that search proves successful.

“We’ve got a few leads that we’re following up on right now,” he said. “I’ve had preliminary conversations with one car owner, and if we can reach an agreement we might be able to return to a GTO even before the Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, but at this point it’s just too early to tell.

“For this coming weekend’s race Ron’s Cobalt will continue to fly primarily Valvoline livery, and I’d like to thank them for allowing us to become at least temporary members of their team.

“We’ll certainly be applying the logos of our regular sponsors, including Enerco-Mr. Heater, Summit Racing, Comp Cams and Goodyear, to the car, and we’re just hoping for a better result than we came up with in our last outing.”

E-mail this article   Print this article