Agent Orange

He was slowed down for a while but Visalian Brad Thompson expects to be back to speed pretty soon.
But pholks, when Brad gets up to up to speed, we're really talking speed. Like 260 miles per hour in just a couple of seconds.

The tall Visalia drag race champion will test his “new” Agent Orange Top Fuel dragster at Famosa Raceway Feb. 28 in preparation for the 51st running of the legendary March Meet – the granddaddy of nostalgia drag racing.
Thompson was headed toward a repeat of his world title in top fuel dragster racing when a horrific crash at the Nightfire Nationals in Boise, Idaho Aug. 10 sent his fire-breathing 4,000-horsepower slingshot machine whirling out of control near the finish line.

The Visalia man, who teams with local contractor and racing entrepreneur Larry Bless in Thompson Bless Racing, survived the spectacular and horrifying crash but suffered serious injury. Despite considerable pleading with doctors after a couple of months following surgery, Thompson was not cleared to jump back into the rebuilt racer and defend his world title in a subsequent race in Bakersfield in the fall.

But recently, Thompson got doctors' permission to slam pedal to the metal once again at the upcoming March Meet. There was some frustration last fall when the crew worked hundreds of hours putting old, new and retooled body, frame and engine parts back together before the fall Bakersfield meet.

At breakfast this last weekend at a Visalia café, Thompson, with a couple of his dedicated racing crew, told me he was more than eager to fire up the orange monster during testing at the Formosa strip. I hadn't seen Brad in a couple months but it was evident he was in a lot better shape than the last few times we talked. No neck brace, no complaints about pain and no verbal frustration about not yet having medical clearance to race again.

The racing community and lots of others have been keeping pretty close tabs on Visalia's speed king, something which Brad and his crew and supporters are quick to acknowledge and are very thankful.

The reassembled Agent Orange is expected to be fast as ever, if not more, but there are a couple of significant changes which non-expert racing watchers probably wouldn't notice.

The most notable, the experts say, is what they term the “suspended driver's seat,” a carbon fiber seat suspended roughly three inches from the chassis frame rails crating a rear impact zone. The bulk of Brad's injuries resulted from the rear impact as the car spun out of control with it impacting the track guard rail tail first. The new device also has been fitted with molded-body foam incorporating additional padding for the tall Thompson. The chassis is now three inches longer than the original. All this is enclosed in a tubular roll cage device, which wraps around the rear chassis halfway between the upper and lower frame rails, and a couple other modifications designed by crew chief Steve Faria.

All this, of course pholks, comes from hundreds, make that thousands of hours of work which seems like a lot for a ride which lasts only a couple seconds.

But with 4,000 horse power, burning rubber, fuel and an ear-shattering roar sending you down a quarter-mile track at more than 260 miles per hour, it would seem to me that those hours certainly are well spent.

And just in case any of you are wondering whether I asked Brad for a ride, I'll let you guess the answer.

Miles can be reached at mshuper@valleyvoicenewspaper.com