This past weekend, the Niles West Auto Club won the 36th Annual NHRA Summit Racing Series North Central Division Finals at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Driver, John Wheeler, a member of the class of 2012, clocked a 12.182 at 105 miles per hour in the Auto Club’s very own 1979 Dodge Aspen beating out the quicker rival on speed.  At the high school level, 32 cars were entered in the field representing 24 different tracks.  Niles West represented Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin.

“When they presented the trophy to us, they said that we have [got] to be the only stick shift car to ever win this event,” said sponsor Tim Richmond.

“From my view in the pits, I thought our performance was good.  I helped put 20psi in the tires which helped the car run better,” said junior Chris Feldman.

“Our performance was better than we thought,” said junior Conrad Celinski

“Surprisingly, [the race] went well.  Things went badly in the beginning, but we came together as a team and made it work.  We only expected to make it past the first round.  It was new territory for us after that.  After each round, everyone got more and more excited.  Everyone was helping out with getting the car prepped for the races.  After the final run, it took me a while until I realized I won.  Basically when the lady handed me the winning ticket, I knew.  It was so surreal when it happened.  We’ve been working so hard to get to this point and being a high school team was great since most of the other cars were professionally built,” said Niles West alum, class of 2012, John Wheeler.

The members of the club will have their picture put into the next edition of National Dragster magazine scheduled to come out in the next few weeks.