IT'S GREEN: DONA WINS GATEWAY DRAG RACE EVENT

GORDONVILLE, Mo. -- East of the arch, behind the wheel, under a Christmas tree and in front of his wife.

That's where Gordonville resident Jeff Dona picked up the biggest win in his drag-racing career this past weekend.

Dona picked up his first national win in the superstock category at the fourth annual Sears Craftsman Nationals held at the Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. -- just across the river from St. Louis. It was a race sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association.

"That was a real awesome experience," said Dona. "It was our biggest win by far."

Dona, a 30-year-old mechanic at Crown Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Nissan, has had his hand -- and right foot -- in racing since 1993, so to win on such a large stage was uplifting, especially considering he took home his biggest purse ever, a $14,000 prize.

Dona had to win six straight elimination races -- three on Friday and three on Saturday -- in a field that featured 42 cars.

Actually, Dona had to win seven races this time.

"In the first round, we had to re-run it because of a malfunction in the timing system," said Dona. "I knew we had won the race and the other guy knew it too, but we had to do it over. That was pretty tough and that got me fired up. I really drove hard after that."

Dona ended up defeating Ernie Penner by eight feet for first place.

Dona's car of choice is a '69 Camaro -- a superstock "J" Automatic. It runs the quarter-mile in just over 10 seconds and accelerates to about 127 or 128 miles per hour in that distance. In the superstock category, drivers take a stock-bodied car and use the same engine that came in that car. Drivers are allowed to modify the car, but are limited by rules set by the NHRA.

Though all the cars are fast, some models are faster than others. So each car is "handicapped" or "dialed in" to create a level playing field.

That said, races are won just as much at the starting line as they are in the garage and those with the quickest reflexes usually win the race.

So how does Dona practice?

"I've got my own tree I practice on," he said. "That's what they call the starting lights a Christmas tree. It's a matter of focus and a lot of concentration. You have to have a good reaction time and you have to dial in your car real well."

His practicing with the tree paid off.

A perfect "tree" time is .500 seconds. Anything faster is considered a false start. Dona averaged .516 this past weekend.

The difference in winning and losing in a drag race can be decided by thousandths of a second. So every minor detail is essential.

Racers are required to submit a dial time. They get two time trials and off those, they have to guess what time the car is going to run. If the driver beats his dial time, he forfeits the race. The idea is to come as close to the dial time without beating it.

A dial time takes in all factors, including the weather, and is very precise.

That's why when Dona speaks of winning races, he uses words in the plural first-person -- words such as we, us and our.

The significant other is his wife, Charlotte.

"It's just me and my wife," said Dona. "She sacrifices a lot for me. I couldn't do it without her, no way. We have to keep a close eye on the weather and she does a lot of that. We have to tune the car off the weather. A 5-mile-per-hour head wind can change it."

Dona, who said he gets a lot of help from Garrett Race Cars in Whitewater, races part-time, though he would like to go full-time.

"We're looking for more sponsorship to help us go a little more often," said Dona, who goes to about eight races a year -- four of them high-profile NHRA races like the Sears Craftsman Nationals and four smaller, divisional competitions. "A lot of people who run my category do it full-time for a living."

That makes Dona especially proud of his latest win.

"If I could go at it as much as they do, I think I could do even better," he said. "Right now I work on racing in the evenings and on the weekends."

He said he's satisfied for now to stay in the superstock category, but "It's everybody's dream to get into a big-time pro category."

Perhaps his latest and biggest win is a step in the right direction.