Eckman Getting Back Up To Speed, Literally And Figuratively

Jerry Eckman was up on the roof.
 
His home in Newark, Ohio, had a leak around the chimney, and the Pro Stock veteran driver and mechanic was up there, helping the roofing specialist find and fix the problem.
 
So he wasn’t hanging his Christmas lights.
 
“Oh, no, that’d be too easy,” Eckman said with a laugh.
 
“Nothing comes easy!” he said.
 
And Eckman would know.
 
This fall, first in September at Indianapolis and then in early November at the National Hot Rod Association season finale at Pomona, Calif., Eckman was back behind the wheel, racing for the first time in a decade and a half, enjoying the sensation he had missed while serving an indefinite suspension from competition.
 
Eckman had been, in essence, the fall guy in a shady 1997 incident that involved his former business partner Bill Orndorff at National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio. It involved a bottle of nitrous oxide and an explosion that clearly caught the sanctioning body’s attention. Though he contends he definitely was not the instigator, Eckman admitted that his culpability in the matter centered on ignoring red flags, rationalizing them away, and not exercising the better judgment he knows he had.
 
What’s important, is that he has been remorseful for his own halfhearted agreement not to defy Orndorff and that he has paid the price that others, he believe, escaped.
 
He also has supported the NHRA: “NHRA does a good job policing things. They’ve got good tech people, and they do things on a level playing field. It’s good for everybody concerned.”

<br />NHRA does a good job policing things. They’ve got good tech people, and they do things on a level playing field. It’s good for everybody concerned.

So Eckman clearly knows his way around a Pro Stock car, knows the nuts and bolts of it, loves the sport and the class, and knows how to drive one of the factory hot rods.
 
But he approached Steve Kent’s ’09 Pontiac GXP at Pomona like he was handling a newborn baby: carefully, respectfully, and as though he didn’t want to upset it in any way. He wasn’t just prepping the parts and pieces for another qualifying run at the recent Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif.’s Auto Club Raceway.

He was the driver — with a special mission that made him doubly proud to be behind the wheel for only the second time in 15 years. Himself a Vietnam War veteran, Eckman was carrying a remembrance of Army Spc. Bradley N. Shilling, 22, of Stanwood, Mich., who was killed Nov. 18, 2006, during combat operations in Baghdad while serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Affixed to the dashboard of the car were likenesses of three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients who served in the Vietnam War.

 
“It’s such an honor for me,” Eckman, clearly humbled, said of the chance to represent veterans on behalf of the Hot Rods for Heroes program.
 
Kent had told Eckman, “You’re my favorite veteran. I’m going hunting and you’re driving my car, representing the veterans.” With that, Eckman reprised his driving role from the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, which marked his first return to the sport since 1997.

 So this chance from Steve Kent that showed faith in him, that meant redemption, was a huge Thanksgiving celebration for Eckman weeks before the official holiday. It was a combination of Thanksgiving and Veterans Day observation.
 
It also ushered in the modern Pro Stock era for the appreciative and astounded Eckman. “It feels fast!” he said of the GXP, his eyes gleaming like a young boy with a new toy. “It’s a lot faster than when I left!
 
“We were in the low 6.90s (for elapsed times). We were going 198 (mph), hadn’t broken the 200 mark. My first run in this was a 6.68, 205. Oh my God — I felt like I was picked up by a jet flying by with a grappling hook!”
 
The chassis, Eckman said, “actually feels better” than he remembered them.
 
“The cars are a lot more stable than when I raced,” he said. “All the chassis are really well-built now, with safety in mind. A lot of safety things have been implemented since I drove. The seat is poured around your body so you fit tight in it.”
 
To bring some perspective to the time warp Eckman is experiencing, the HANS Device is a new piece of technology to him. “It’s a little confining when you first get in it, because you’re not used to all that claustrophobia where you can’t move, can’t do this . . . I’ve gotten used to it. That doesn’t bother me. It’s the speed I’m still getting used to.”

 
He said it’s hard to imagine that a run, from a complete stop, is over by the time a person can count to six. “And you’re doing 210 [mph]!” he said. “It’s hard to comprehend that. It’s pretty awesome.”
 

What might have been even more awesome was that Eckman made the field at Pomona in the No. 13 slot. He lost to first-round opponent V Gaines.
 

“It was real special to me,” Eckman said. “I told myself, ‘I’ve got to get this car down the track and get it qualified. Having this honor bestowed on me, I’ve got to do that.’ “

Eckman has for his entire drag-racing career been a mechanic, even when he drove, and he said the sport’s crew members and crew chiefs are underrated.
 

“There’s so much more technology now with the advent of the computers that have come into play here — and the tuning abilities. You’ve got to be really able to read the computers and know what to do. The guys really have got to be sharp,” he said.
 
Pro Stock cars long have had onboard computers, but today’s diagnostic hardware includes sensors that check the fuel-to-air ratio and the tune-up — and much more sophisticated equipment.

 
Eckman remained in drag racing all those 15 years. He worked for Kenny Koretsky and Tom Hammonds before hiring on with Kent and Rodger Brogdon.
 
“I just stayed out here with the race teams, using my skills,” he said. “So I’ve been staying busy out here, although I longed for that feeling of driving again.. I never thought it would come to pass, not after all this time.

“It was always in the back of my mind to do that again, but as I got older and time went on, I had to erase that. I erased that dream, you know?” Eckman said. “And lo and behold, here’s Steve, making that possible again.”

When the NHRA gave him the green light to renew his competition license, Eckman said, “I just jumped at the chance. It was very exciting, very thrilling.” He said he was nervous and eager all at the same time.
 
What also encouraged him was the positive response from the drag-racing community.

Steve [Kent] has been really kind to me. He let me have these couple of races. This is a million-dollar operation. He calls me out of a 15-year hiatus to come back and get behind the wheel.

“Everything I have ever seen — Facebook, anything like that — was all positive,” he said.
 
Eckman did say he knew of a small number of negative reactions, but that those detractors didn’t bother him.
 
“They don’t know the ins and outs of everything that happened. There was very little negative response, very little. I did see one comment. One guy wrote, ‘Once a cheater, always a cheater.’ A guy responded to him and said, ‘You don’t know anything about what happened or how it happened.’
 
“Fifteen years is long enough,” he said.  
 
Eckman calls the Indianapolis and Pomona opportunities “token races,” figuring his magic-carpet ride wouldn’t last long. But despite the culture-shock of driving a Pro Stock car again, Eckman clearly was delighted.
 
“I called him afterwards and thanked him for giving me the opportunity” he said, “and his response was, ‘Oh, we’ll do it again next year!’ It sounds encouraging.
 
“It’s been terrific. Steve [Kent] has been really kind to me. He let me have these couple of races. This is a million-dollar operation. He calls me out of a 15-year hiatus to come back and get behind the wheel.
 
“That’s a special guy,” Eckman said. “I don’t know how to thank a man like that. What do you do?”
 
You make sure you’re up-to-date with the latest technology and prepared to race. Judging by Eckman’s performance at Pomona, he was.
 
And if Santa should slide down that repaired chimney, Eckman no doubt would ask him sweetly for a third car in Kent’s operation so he could be season-long teammates of Kent and Brogdon in 2013. Eckman said Kent hasn’t mentioned such a thing, but he added, “That’s certainly a good idea!”
 
After all, Christmas is a time for wishing and for miracles.