Written by Chris Kahlich

Only one thousandth of a second makes a winner in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car races, and just one of a thousand things can go wrong with the car. ARC Specialties Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Steve Burck knows this. The Corpus Christi native comes from a rich lineage of Texas drag racers who grew up learning how to build cars up from nothing before eventually working their way into the driver’s seat.

Every week Burck can be found along with crew chief Tony Garanzuay working on his car behind Burck’s welding supply business, Welding House. Garanzuay (Major, US Army, Retired) is a retired Master Army Aviator from San Antonio, TX with a long history as a drag racer and crew chief for several other teams before joining up with Burck. The two carefully check through each component of the Top Alcohol Funny Car to ensure one of those thousands of issues that can occur in a car does not happen during money time.

Corpus Christi is a Texas coastal city steeped in racing history. Just a few roads down from Burck’s shop is RPM, the precision machine shop of Burck’s racing mentor, the Travelin’ Texan Bill Rogers. With ARC Specialties, an automated welding company as Burck’s primary sponsor, it’s almost fitting as Team Burck was able to take a break from their shop behind Welding House to hop over to Rogers’ shop and chat about Burck’s past and present.

Burck’s Early Days with the Travelin’ Texan

From the age of 12, Burck would ride his bike for miles to the race track in Corpus Christi to watch drag racers, including the Travelin’ Texan Bill Rogers. At 17 Burck discovered Rogers lived in a nearby neighborhood and started coming by Rogers’ garage to learn about racing and help in any way he could. He was, as they say, bit by the bug.

While reminiscing of old times at Roger’s shop, Burck and Rogers explained how getting hooked into racing often starts by taking on all the grunt work in the garage. “Sanding, painting, grinding, bolting, cleaning, loading, driving. You did everything. And that’s how you learned, and then you would get invited to the races,” explained Rogers.

“You know, why they would invite you to the races is because they couldn’t find anybody else that would do it.” added Burck. “But when you’re the inviter you’re thinking ‘ here is this punk, I can’t get anybody else, I might as well ask him.’ And of course the punk was always like ‘OH YEAH! I’M IN!’”

Burck spent four  years of his young adulthood crewing for Rogers before moving on, but returned to racing 20 years later as a driver in the late 90’s when Rogers’ son Steve Rogers, who also raced, was called for duty in the Army and someone needed to drive his car. “I never sat around for years thinking I would one day get into it. It just sort of sneaks up on you. Heck we didn’t even have to change the name on the car window,” joked Burck. It wasn’t long after that Burck bought his own car, gathered a crew, and began racing.

Behind Every Strong Racer Is a Great Crew Chief

Burck struck up a friendship with his now longtime crew chief Garanzuay at a race in Dallas when Garanzuay was then a crew member for Kebin Kinsley’s Alcohol Funny Car. “I told him (Steve) ‘HEY! I know that car’”, said Garanzuay. “That’s Mic Steele’s car. I built that car.”

In a following race in Houston at the O’Reilly Nationals, Burck’s car suffered an unfortunate mechanical mishap during eliminations.  Coinciding with the event, Kinsley’s crew needed to borrow a transmission to make their run, and Garanzuay knew just who to ask who had the same gear ratio. Burck’s good deed that day was not forgotten, and when Garanzuay moved to San Antonio, he began heading Team Burck.

“If it wasn’t for Tony, I’d probably quit”, explained Burck. “Soon as he’s done, I’m done. There’s not anyone else like him.”

“Oh,  I’ve got a long time to go,” added Garanzuay. “With Steve, ARC Specialties, and TIGERFLOW (another Burck sponsor), I get to work with the best equipment in the world.”

Have to Admit It’s Getting Better

Team Burck has charted improvement year by year and has worked their way up into a short list of strong competitors. In 2009 Burck won his first Wally in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Houston Raceway Park (now Royal Purple Raceway). He followed this accomplishment with his strongest placing in Pomona in 2010, and just recently took runner-up in his first finals appearance at the 24th annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals. Looking forward, Burck remains optimistic and focused, “We’ve beaten most of  the big guys at least once, so we know we are capable.”

Advice to Future Generations

Each race has its fair mix of kids running around under the grand stands, throwing rocks at each other while their parents race.  “Guys like Will Hanna, Callaways, Hansons”, listed Burck, are the ones who he considers the “real” racers.  Burck has always felt somewhat like an outsider compared to those racers. Regardless of how and when a youngster gets bit by the racing bug, Burck offers his best racing advice, “Just don’t get frazzled and stay calm. You can get saucer-eyes from getting too excited, but guys down for the 8 count can come back and win it.”