NORWALK, Ohio (September 16, 2011) – Throughout history, comeback stories have been a favorite among the sports world.
When a person has off the field issues, suffers injuries or flat out retires only to get another shot at glory later in life, it seems fans always embrace the story of a comeback.
Enter Peter Gallen.
In the late 80s and early 90s Gallen was on top of the Funny Car world. A rising star in the Funny Car ranks, Gallen had an undeniable talent for wielding these terrifying beasts down the quarter-mile and pushing each car to the brink and back again. For nearly a decade Gallen dominated, piling up wins, national records, championships and even a "driver of the year" award culminating with an unthinkable dip into the five-second zone in 1989.
Then, just as quickly and improbable as it all began, Gallen hung up his helmet and gloves for good in the early 90s, trading in 200 mph runs and weekends at the track for business trips and diaper changes. Over the next two decades Gallen proved a very successful business man and an even more successful family man, but his desire for the sport of drag racing never waned.
Finally, in 2008 – a full 20 years after breaking the five-second barrier for the first time – Gallen decided that he had had enough and opted to get back into the sport. With a renewed passion and a brand new ride, Gallen returned to the track in the spring of 2009 piloting, for the first time in his career, a nitro-burning flopper with his familiar "Poverty Stricken" moniker adorning the side.
From the top of the Funny Car world, to giving it all up to raise a family and coming full circle in 2011 with multiple records, a shiny new IHRA Nitro Jam championship trophy and the fastest pass in nostalgia racing history, Gallen has already proven one of the greatest comeback stories in drag racing history in just his three years back on the scene.
"It was a storybook year. It just seems like every year my team just gets better and better and that just makes it easier on me to go out there and do my thing," Gallen said. "When I got back behind the wheel for the first time a few years ago it just came natural. It felt like I had never been out of the car when we decided to give this another go.
"More than anything I wanted to get back behind the wheel, if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I still had it. I wanted to prove that I could still compete with the best."
It is safe to say that Gallen has done just that.
In 2011 Gallen dominated the Nitro Jam Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car circuit with an astonishing eight wins, an 86 percent round win record and the fastest pass in nostalgia funny car history on his final pass of the 2011 season, a very quick 5.557 at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in August.
All total, Gallen has compiled 15 wins in two seasons with the Nitro Jam circuit and holds both ends of the class record all while proving, from coast to coast, that he is one of the best nostalgia racers in the game today.
"When I reflect back it is the hard work that my crew puts in to give me a safe racecar and that parlays into the car being consistent and fast," Gallen said. "After finishing runner-up to (Steve) Nichols last year, we made it our goal to step it up and win it all this year."
Despite that goal, Gallen's 2011 season actually began rather unimpressively with the car failing to fire in its first pass of the year as Nitro Jam's newest star "Mr. Explsove" Mark Sanders and IHRA legend Paul Romine owned the weekend. It was a weekend to forget for Gallen, but one that provided the motivation the team needed to own the rest of the year.
"Our first year with Nitro Jam we had the same thing happen. The car didn't start on the first run which is just something you can't have happen when you travel that far with so much on the line,"
Gallen said. "I was like 'are you kidding me?' I knew this team was a lot better than that so we had a meeting, we talked about it and we said that we are not going to let something like this happen again.
"We went back out that second run and had one of the best laps of the weekend. The next night I simply screwed up against Romine by backing the car down a little too much. When I lost to Romine I swore that was not going to happen again."
And it never did.
In all of 2011 Gallen lost only four rounds, two of which came at that first race. Gallen followed his rough opener with an event sweep in Baton Rouge and he never looked back again. Gallen won eight times in 2011 including a pair of wins in Tucson and San Antonio, two very important victories in Gallen's career.
"We were really happy to go out west as a measuring stick. Just to run in that different air and against the competition they have out there was really something we needed," Gallen said. "To run the Boychuks of the world and some of those guys out there was important to show us where we are compared with the rest of the world. We fared well and got some great experience."
While Gallen did not make the trip to Salt Lake City and Edmonton, by the time the Nitro Jam series returned to Grand Bend in July Gallen had all but sealed up his first championship. And when the IHRA traveled to Martin in August Gallen was already crowned series champion.
With the title already wrapped up entering the final race of the year, Gallen set out to add icing to the cake by lowering his own national record for the second time. Little did he know that his goal of lowering the record would eventually turn into one of the top stories of 2011.
Battling through a rainy and miserable weekend at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Gallen eventually did lower the mark in the class to an impressive 5.709, but he wasn't done quite yet. In his final pass of the 2011 season, Gallen wrapped up the weekend sweep with what has essentially become known as the "lap heard round the world" as the "Poverty Stricken" Vega blasted down the quarter-mile with a 5.557, 251.67 lap – officially the quickest pass in the history of nostalgia funny car racing.
"We came to Martin to set the record and break into the 60s. We had the championship already locked up before we ever loaded this car on the trailer and coming here we just wanted to put the icing on the cake with a statement run this weekend," Gallen said following the victory. "We left a lot on the track on Friday and knew we could better those numbers which was our goal today. Even I was blown away when I saw what we ran. That thing carried the front end nearly half the track and was really getting after it. What a way to end the season."
Thanks to weekend sweeps in Baton Rouge and Martin and victories at six of the nine events, Gallen was able to amass 501 points, 227 points better than second place Mike McIntire.
In the runner-up spot was McIntire in the "McAttack" Camaro who finished a deceptive distance behind Gallen. McIntire kept pace with the "Poverty Stricken" team throughout the season, but a scary accident in Grand Bend left the team on the sideline the remainder of the season. Prior to that McIntire racked up six finals and one win on his way to the runner-up spot.
In third place was the always consistent Greg Jacobsmeyer in the "Allstar Dodge," followed by Washington native "Mr. Explosive" Mark Sanders and John Dunn in the "Dunn and Gone" Duster.
With nearly two dozen drivers going for an Ironman throughout the season, a total of eight proved successful. Behind Gallen's eight wins, Canadian Tim Boychuk and James Day had a pair of wins apiece, while McIntire, Sanders, Rick Krafft, Todd Lesenko and Paul Romine all hoisted Ironman trophies.
In just three years Gallen has gone from sitting at home itching to get back behind the wheel to being one of the fastest nostalgia pilots in the world. His 15 wins and 47-10 round record in two years is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition and his showing out west shows that Gallen is not only the top dog in IHRA racing, but one of the best in the world of nostalgia funny car racing as well.
"I would love to thank my wife Ashbey, obviously my children and of course my crew. My sponsors for the year were Ford 8 and 9 inch rears, he comes to the races and supports us 100 percent, Zac's Hamburgers and Krando Metal Products. Without these guys helping us we wouldn't have been able to do what we do," Gallen said. "My crew, Bob Rosetti, he has a lot of experience and John Benigni, my main guy, he is one of the best out there.
"I also want to mention the charity we are involved with. We do a lot with Designing for Hope. They are involved in building bedrooms for terminally ill children and they are growing by leaps and bounds. They are very important to us. I just want to thank everyone for a great year."
