Local team stages victory on Speed Channel's hit show

Van Burgess, owner of Jackson-based Burgess Performance, thought it would be fun to appear on the Speed Channel's hit show "PINKS," but he wasn't so sure if he wanted to risk losing his prized Mustang in the process.

Now in its third season, "PINKS" has become the Speed Channel's most watched show. The show features head-to-head, street-style drag racing, with the winner taking home the loser's car -- title and all.

"We heard they were going to be taping up at Gateway Raceway," Burgess said, referring to the track in Madison, Ill., just across the river from St. Louis. "There was a guy from St. Louis that I wanted to race. We had agreed that whoever lost would just give the other guy back his car."

However, Burgess found out from the producers of "PINKS" that the show didn't quite work that way.

"This show is as real as it gets," Burgess said. "When it's over, if you lose, you lose your car."

With reality having set in, Burgess decided against racing his Mustang. The producers of the show offered to place the team -- Jason Glueck and Jeff Baldwin assisted Burgess -- on a list of alternates for the taping, and Burgess decided to build a new car if the team was selected

On June 8, the call came.

"The producer called and said they had a guy drop and asked if we could shoot on the 28th of June," Burgess said.

The team had less than 20 days to build a high-performance drag-racing car from near scratch, a task that would require a lot of overtime.

They worked over a 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo to get it into racing shape.

"We literally pulled the car out of the weeds," Burgess said. "Jeff Baldwin built the motor, and we put in two stages of nitrous. It took a lot of work, but we pressed on.

"We put in a lot of late nights, but we never could have gotten it done without all of the help from our sponsors."

The team's sponsors included Yamnitz Body and Frame, Race Parts Direct, Dittmer Transmission, Nations Starter and Alternator Service, Jackson Tire, Custom Differentials, DeBrock Woodworking, and Baldwin Race Engines.

The team had the car up and running in time but did not have time to perform proper testing. Glueck, the driver, raced the car without knowing what the 600-horsepower machine was truly capable of doing.

"We're familiar with the Monte Carlo and this kind of set-up, but without testing the car, we had no idea how we were going to do," said Burgess, who served as the teams' negotiator at the show's taping.

In the best-of-five race format, Glueck piloted the Burgess Performance Monte Carlo to victory in each of the first three heats, in spite of conceding considerably favorable terms to the opponents in the negotiation process.

In the third heat, Team Burgess raced their small-block Chevy without using the nitrous oxide injection system against the opponents' car's two stages of nitrous and still managed to win.

"We built a nice car, Jason did what he had to do, and we won," said Burgess.

The team took home their opponents' 1980 Chevy Malibu wagon.

Speed Channel has not announced when the episode will air.