When Nico Thanos was a kid, he used to watch his brother drag race.
Sunday at Northland Dodge Motorsports Park, the roles were revered.
While the 26-year-old Nico was on the track pouring the revs to his souped-up 1991 Honda Accord, his 45-year-old brother George was standing close by with his smart phone recording his race on video. The light went green and Thanos hit the throttle, smoking his tires well down the track as he found third gear.
George, making his return to racing after a 12-year absence, couldn't have been any more proud of his younger brother on his very first day at the track as a driver. Nico couldn't stop smiling as he returned to the pits and climbed out of his car to join his family's celebration after climbing the ladder one more notch in Sunday's bracket racing eliminations.
"This car has been a love-hate relationship with me but it's strictly love now," said Thanos. "I've always thought of getting rid of it, but not now. I love it.
"It's an awesome feeling, it's exhilarating. You jump in the car and you're shaking. I love it. I never thought I'd be doing it when I was 10 or 11 watching [George] race. I'd never done it before and I'm happy. I wasn't going to do it today but I had nothing to lose."
Nico's first reaction time was 0.847 of a second and by his second run he'd dropped that to 0.647. A perfect reaction time is half a second. He got through the first round of eliminations and had to adjust his dial-in time from 16.10 to 15.57 when he broke out of his bracket with his second pass of the day. But because his opponent red-lit and left the start line too early, Nico advanced.
"It was an awesome run, good strong flow all the way through and it was his fastest of run of the day so I'm happy," said George.
In the semifinals against John Venderweir of Prince George and his Mazda pickup, Venderweir crossed the finish line ahead of Thanos but it turned out Venderweir red-lit as well and he was knocked out of contention. Thanos, whose car started faltering due to electrical issues attributed to a faulty coil, went on to lose in the sportsman class final to Todd Johnson of Grande Prairie, Alta.
George hadn't raced in 12 years before he returned to the strip Sunday. A hip injury he suffered at work kept him out of the driver's seat all that time. But with his younger brother taking a stab at racing he decided the time was right to get back behind the wheel of his white 1980 Chevy Malibu.
"I just had the car sitting there and we haven't done anything to it, we just fire it up and go, so we're pretty happy," George said. "That's what brought me back racing, just to get everybody together and teach my brother the tricks.
"I love the speed and I love the challenge of racing. It was the hardest thing ever for me to give it up."
George was rookie of the year driving the Malibu in the sportsman class in 1999 and also won the Sears Craftsman point series that year. He upped the ante in 2001 when he installed a 350 cubic-inch fully-bored small block engine and entered the pro class, which allowed him to run 11.5-second quarter-mile passes.
He made two qualifying passes Sunday, then ran 11.946 seconds in the first elimination round, a bit too quick for his 12-second dial-in time. In bracket racing, drivers are disqualified if they get to the finish line with an elapsed time quicker than their dial-in time, set during qualifying.
Both drivers plan to return to the track when the Friday Night Street Legal series racing resumes at NDMP on August 8.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
