Friday Night Drags, presented by ACDelco, is underway at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and two local racers are burning rubber on the drag strip: Phil White of Peachtree City and Wes German of Fayetteville.

White drives one of the most impressive — and fastest — cars on the strip, a sleek-looking replica of a yellow 1965 Shelby Cobra that he built himself in 2002.

“There was a kit company in Wareham, Massachusetts, called Factory Five Racing,” White said. “I picked up the kit for about $10,000, took six months to build it and here you have about a $30,000 to $35,000 car. It looks just like a half a million dollar car.”

All the hard work and money White has put into his car has resulted in a vehicle that has hit 137 mph, and he thinks it could go even faster.

“I’ve had it at 137 mph clocked by a state trooper, and that’s the fastest that I have ever had it,” said White, an air traffic controller of 22 years. “It was a state trooper friend of mine that clocked me. It was on a closed straightaway that was at the Indianapolis air traffic control tower. There is a two-and-a-half-mile road there, and he came out and clocked me at 137 mph, and [it] started floating and dancing, and I said, ‘That’s enough.’

“It’s got more in it, but I don’t know.”

White grew infatuated with Shelby Cobras as a teenager living with his family in Florida, and it was love at first sight.

“As a young kid in the ’60s, 17 or 18 years old, we lived in south Florida and there was several of these [Shelby Cobras] down running around,” White said. “So, I saw one. I decided when I was older that I was going to have one.”

It also was around that time that White became interested in racing.

“When I was 16 years old, I had a chance to race on a dirt track and got the bug, and then got out of high school and went into the military, and I took a job with the government,” White said. “When I got in the military, it took up all my time, so I didn’t get back into racing till I got a little older and got back the time to do it.”

White got back into racing in 2006, one year after moving to Georgia from Indiana, and he is in his second season as a drag racer at AMS. He also races his Cobra in Sports Car Club of America events and autocross competitions.

White said he particularly enjoys racing at AMS.

“For the $7 to get in and the $20 to come out and race, these guys [at AMS] do a bang-up job,” White said. “To come out and drag race your car and know you’re not going to get a ticket, it’s a pretty safe situation out here — they have a technical staff, they have safety crews — it’s just a lot of fun for $20 to come out and race and $7 to come out and watch on a Friday night. You can’t get much better than that.”

German also is tearing up the drag strip at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The 10-year veteran of racing, at 67 years old, is one of the oldest AMS Friday Night Drag drivers.

His racing career began due to teasing he received about his truck, a 1982 Ford F-100.

“People always said, ‘You have a little bit of a noisy truck. Why don’t you ever race it?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s just a truck.’

“We were at Atlanta Raceway and heard it’s only $20 to race. I went out and did it, so then people like to laugh, so I gave them a laugh. But I had fun, so I got into it.”

When German bought his truck 15 years ago, he never intended to race it.

“I bought it from a friend primarily to haul away things from the house that were no longer needed,” German said. “I was teased into racing, and that got me away from my haul-it-all truck and investing in engine parts and transmissions and rear ends and just all manner of things to make it go faster.”

German’s investments have turned into a truck that can reach 110 mph, a speed that suits him just fine.

“It’s evolved over those years to making it go fast, and right now it goes as fast as I want it,” German said. “There are some folks and friends at the race track that tell me, ‘You can make it go faster if you did this, this and this.’ But I think 110 mph is fast enough for an old guy like me.”

German does not let his age hold him down, nor does he plan to hang up his helmet and retire from racing any time soon.

“When you get to be my age, you know what your limitations are, and I will know when my time is up here, too.” German said. “But right now, as long as I’m fast and I can react the same as the 20-something-year-olds and the 30-year-olds, then I think that I’m OK.”

German has raced at AMS since it opened two years ago, the Atlanta Dragway and South Silver Dollar Dragway.

For more information on Friday Night Drags and AMS, please visit www.atlantamotorspeedway.com.

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