Hey, Hollywood, Joe C. Maynard's NHRA Journey Should Be a Movie

• Joe C. Maynard, a former four-year chief warrant officer and 20-year Army veteran, has made 13 passes in his life in a Top Alcohol Dragster.
• He is also the proud owner of two Wally trophies after just two events.
• Maynard attended drag racing school in November, which marked his first time in a dragster.

Someone needs to call Hollywood.

Fast.

On the other hand, Joe C. Maynard has a story that might be too good, or at least a little too unbelievable, even for the big screen.

Maynard is not your typical NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver. Oh, he's a pilot, okay, a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot who spent 20 years in the military before retiring from active duty in 2016. Last fall, Maynard, the son of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series owner Joe Maynard thought he would try to race a Top Alcohol Dragster.

To say it caught on pretty quickly is an understatement for the young racing season.

Less than five months removed from attendance Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School, the former chief warrant officer, high-level technical and tactical expert, has completed 13 trips in his life aboard a Top Alcohol Dragster. He is also already the proud owner of two Wally trophies.

NHRA rookie Joe C. Maynard raced against a pair of Wallys in his Top Alcohol Dragster at Gainesville.

He actually won both events last weekend in a Samsel Racing A/Fuel Dragster backed by JCM Racing and Leatherwood Distillery in Gainesville, Fla., as rain shortened the Baby Gators event by a week more early. Maynard took care of business securing victory in the delayed Baby Gators defeating Mike Coughlin in the semifinals and Matthew Cummings in the final for his first career Wally Trophy.

Maynard then won the 55th Gatornationals event at the same Gainesville track, where he beat Dan Dietrich, Angelle Sampey, Jackie Fricke and Jeffrey Veale. The victory over Veale in the final came thanks to Maynard's 13th career lucky pass in a Top Alcohol Dragster.

Was Maynard surprised by Wally's two-day affair? Of course.

How about being shocked or overwhelmed by the pressure of the moment? Certainly not.

“I was a helicopter instructor pilot in the Army, for combat maneuvers, for all kinds of things,” Maynard said. Automotive Week. “I've done eight combat tours, been through them. And so when I look at NHRA, I'm like, 'Man, we're not curing cancer, we're not saving the world. We're a traveling circus.

“It takes half the pressure off because you know the worst that could happen is you might get hurt. Nobody's taken a shot at me (at NHRA) yet. No pressure.”

Joe C. Maynard is still learning the NHRA game.

Maynard, 45, says he's proof that it's never too late to try something new. He's also interested in what he says is a small advantage he might have over, say, even three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, who ran the full Top Alcohol Dragster program last year, or even the three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Sampey, who also makes the move to the Top Alcohol Dragster class following his illustrious NHRA career.

Neither Stewart nor Sampey managed a 2-for-2 score in their first two Top Alcohol events.

“Tony had to unlearn a lot of things, and I don’t have to unlearn anything,” Maynard said.

Maynard attended Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School in November, which marked his first time in a drag racer. He wasn't exactly a natural and even wondered if he would be able to complete the licensing phase during his first tryout, scheduled in Las Vegas just a few weeks after the drag course.

“I didn't do very well, I'll be honest with you,” Maynard said of his early sessions with Hawley. “And I said to Frank, 'Look, you're the godfather of racing, and I'll listen to you. Look, don't hide anything. Don't protect my feelings. Tell me, do you think I'm ready?' '”

Hawley's response was something of a reality check.

“Frank said, 'If you were my son, I'd tell you you should probably come back and take another class.'

“So I thought about it. And I thought, 'Well, if I wait any longer, that means I'm going to have to wait a whole year before I can do a drunken drag ride.'”

Maynard eventually ran it through the family and decided to go to Las Vegas and try to get the license that would allow him to race in the NHRA.

“In Vegas, I did three full runs, I never even tried to do half track, I never even did a launch, nothing,” Maynard said. “I did three full races. And it went great. And boom, I got my license, and (NHRA veterans) Chad Green and Justin Ashley signed my license form in Vegas, and then that was it.

“And then here we are in the season, and I did a test on Wednesday before the Baby Gators, and I screwed it up. I didn't even turn my gas on. And then once I got to game time In Q1, I just focused, put everything in. I literally sit in this car and meditate.

Maynard had raced before, but nothing could prepare him for his Top Alcohol effort. He gave track racing a boost at home for a season in Clarksville, Tenn., where he won the Pure Mini class at Clarksville Speedway a few years ago, driving what he describes as “an Escort broken from 2002. We worked on this thing all the time. time.”

But that was it for his racing experience, not counting the challenges between lampposts and his friends when he was in high school more than a quarter of a century ago.

This isn't exactly the typical course of a winning Wally racer.

“I'm telling you. It's hard for me to believe it,” Maynard said. “This isn't supposed to happen. There's no way it's going to happen. To leave (Gainesville) with two wins in just my first two races is just incredible and impossible without something else.”

“I'm sure a lot of it is thanks to my mother, who I know was with me this weekend,” Maynard added, referring to his mother Cathi Maynard, who died in June 2023 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. “Being able to have my dad here at the start line with me all weekend, my kids watching me at home; it's been really special, and I couldn't ask for a better start to my NHRA career.”

Mike Pryson covered auto racing for Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and National Associated Press Sports Editors awards for coverage of auto racing and was named Michigan Auto 2000. Racing Fan Clubs Michigan Motor Sports Writer of the Year. Originally from Michigan, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that Disneyland and endless summers weren't up to the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and the long, cold winters of the Motor City.