Comella Racing, Leicester, NY (2026)

05/10/2026

Got out of Columbus with the Win. Car was killer Friday and Saturday up until finals … at which point everything kinda took a dump. I sucked and the car sucked, but was able to cash in a “lucky pass” card and take the win. Nothing really to learn from this one except a reminder of how finicky race cars are and that anything is possible. So I guess we’ll close this chapter, cash the check, and move on to the next event.

I want to say thank you to IHRA for hosting and highlighting the Hemi cars this weekend. We had no less than 10 IHRA and track staff come over to say thank you for coming to race and at least another 10 spectators stop by to say they only came to see Hemi cars. I am always humbled and honored when people introduce themselves and say they just wanted to see the ‘Cuda in person. It’s really cool. It makes me feel very grateful to be able to do this.

Anyways, that’s it. We won. Got home safe. Time to tear all apart, fix all the broken stuff and get it back to Columbus in 3 weeks for race #2 of the IHRA series.

✌️

04/21/2026

Bobby and Walt were kind enough to invite me onto their podcast this evening to talk about the upcoming IHRA shootout series event in Columbus along with “all things Hemi”. Should be fun to catch up with those guys and spread some rumors 🤣

If you are interested they go live at 8:30pm this evening.

And yes ….. it’s WAAAAAAY past my bedtime. I’ll take a nice afternoon nap before logging on.

03/29/2026

Win #1 of 2026.

Next stop Alabama for first race of the IHRA Hemi Shootout series

01/22/2026

IHRA HEMI SHOOTOUT SERIES

Pretty much official now so I feel comfortable sharing that IHRA has finalized dates and info for the first ever 2026 IHRA Hemi Shootout Series. There will be a series of 4 events, each paying 10,000 dollars to win, contested at

1. Montgomery Alabama- May7-9
2. National Trails - June 18-20
3. Empire Dragway - July 23-25
4. Maple Grove ( Dutch classic ) - Oct 2-4

Dad and I had many conversations in the rig over the last 20 years about the future of Hemi Shootouts. We were both in agreement that there was 0% chance of a series like this ever coming to fruition. I’m happy to say we were both wrong. Who would have imagined that between the NHRA side and this new IHRA series we would be competing for over 70 THOUSAND dollars in first place prize money this year.…… I mean, I’m partial to these cars too, but at the end of the day, they are just sportsman Super Stock cars. It really is unbelievable. I hope everyone enjoys the racing you are about to see this year……. It should be really good.

In other news, here’s a sneak peek at the new look for the Cuda this year. The camo is going away. It served us well but with Warfish I and Warfish II both making appearances this year, we thought it was time to decrease the number of camo cars in circulation by one. It will be more of a ‘anime / cartoonish’ roof wrap incorporating the “Rochester Rocket” nickname that we seem to have inherited with flames coming down C-pillar and onto the trunk. The roof graphic is not quite finalized yet so stay tuned.

If you like show cars and fancy paint you’ll hate this wrap… but honestly that’s kind of the point.

* Graphic and wrap courtesy JRO Design

01/02/2026

2025 EXPENSE REPORT

We had more than one request for an end of year budget summary again in 2025. I didn’t plan on doing one but I think people are genuinely interested and I don’t mind sharing numbers, so here you go.

BREAKDOWN
- The event entry category is outrageous. That’s 6 divisionals, 3 national events, one IHRA event and the Dutch. No way around the entry fees, but it’s a BS expense.

- The travel category is all tolls. Another scam, but whatever.

- Fuel is kinda self explanatory but always amazed at what that number adds up to ( and that’s with a fleet card for diesel. Tack on another 20% for guys paying regular price at the pump )

- The race hauler was the unforeseen expense of the year. Had an AC leak in the rig which turned into a major repair along with the normal yearly maintenance expenses. The whole thing came out to nearly 7k to operate the rig.

- Race car expenses include parts and pieces, race fuel, oil, valve springs etc etc. The cuda doesn’t really cost us anything to run. I know guys hate hearing that, but it is what it is. The majority of the expense this year was from the Dart and that was all unforeseen stuff like a new rear end, two big transmission repairs and some broken drivetrain components.

On the income side, we didn’t bring in nearly the dollars like we generated over the last few years. Total race winnings plus some contingencies came up to 15,200.00. Losing Indy cost 15k and the postponement of Belle Rose was another potential 15k.

That brings the 2025 grand total net budget to 26k total cost. That averages out to 2,300.00 per event raced. Over the years I have tried to keep the “per event” cost closer to 1500 bucks per race but this year some unexpected costs plus low income drove the number up a bit.

2026 will have a few extra expenses. Both motors come out of the cars every 2 years for formal freshening with Charlie ……and this happens to be the year. I’m also redoing all the upholstery in the motor home this winter so that will cost a fortune. Hopefully Charlie Wescott accepts payment plans on motor freshenings.

Feel free to ask any questions. I’ll try to answer them best I can.

11/27/2025

Lots of comments from people about how cool it is that dad and I get to race together. Figured no better time than Thanksgiving to share some cool pics from over the years. I am guilty of taking it all a little too serious and not having fun in the moment, so lookin at these photos has been a good reminder of what it’s really all about. We have been really fortunate to have done some cool stuff with both cars. We’ve gotten a chance to travel the country and be successful. But at the end of the day, none of it is means anything to me if I didn’t have dad, the dogs and Krystal in the motor home. It’s only fun because I get to do it with them.

I have a million photos in my phone, but I tried to choose a few that were attached to cool memories that I could share. I hope everyone enjoys, but most of all I hope everyone takes a minute to be grateful for whatever it is you’re doing today with your friends and family. Time goes by really fast…. Don’t waste it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Ps…. Last one is my absolute favorite

11/25/2025

Really not much to write home about in 2025. Abysmal year with the Dart. Plagued with a bunch of non maintenance related, odd breakages. The racing we did do, though, was pretty good. I think we lost five or six races by less than .008 Super tight racing just couldn’t win the close ones. Really close loss in the semis at Norwalk nationals against Pete D’Agnolo was probably highlight of the season. I thought for sure that was our event. lol.

For those that like carnage here’s list of stuff we broke
- oil pump
- Air bottle regulator
- 2 transmissions ( case broke on one and other one was my fault. Under filled it with oil. )
- Rocker / pushrod / lifter at Numedia. Took it home three hours away Thursday night, fixed it all day Friday and drove back Saturday 4am only to lose close one first round. )
- Broke the steering box off cross member at maple grove. That one was fun to fix.
- Broke rear end ( and probably 3rd transmission ) at Cecil County.

Cuda program was just ok this year. Won IHRA Columbus event hosted by John Holt and won Dutch hosted by Koretsky family but got beat at Indy for first time since 2020. What I learned from that experience is that I have more of an ego than I originally cared to admit. Losing to Jimmy hurt pretty bad. I can’t speak for dad but I didn’t sleep literally for 2 weeks thinking about it and pretty much thought about it 24/7 for the next month. Jimmy made a killer pass and I sucked….. is what it is. I hate losing WAY more than I like winning. Anyways, we’ll get everything all cleaned up and put away for the winter. I love getting updates from dad that guys are working on their stuff and they can make theirs go faster and have a lot left in it. What you see from us is what we got. It won’t go any faster. No more 60 foot left in it, no more 1/8 mile MPH left in it and no more ET left. So there ya go, good luck.

Didn’t take a lot of photos this year cuz too busy fixing broken stuff at the track. Included some random pics from the year as well as some hot rod projects we got going at the shop. Enjoy. See ya in 2026.

10/26/2025

That’s 4 in a row and 5 overall here at the Dutch ( 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 )

Tough racing with no room for mistakes this week. This car has a narrow tuning window with atmospheric conditions and track conditions what they were. I think we left a fair amount of ET on the table to make the car reliable and tunable, but that’s fine. The win is what counts…

08/22/2025

Another year, another birthday…… That makes 84 for those keeping track.

Top pic is 1963, first year with a race car at Indy. Bottom pic 2024, still racing.

Thats 61 years at indy. Happy Birthday Dad!

07/14/2025

Sure felt like we were there longer than 3 days, but able to get in / get out with a Win and the big check.

- Thank you Charlie Wescott for the power. We were talking earlier in the week. Been doing business now together for 20 years.

- Thank you to the Holt family and John Holt Racecars for the big race purse. 10k to win is a lot of money to put up. Thank you…. It’s very much appreciated.

- Last but not least, thank you IHRA. If you wanna go race and be treated the way sportsman racers should be treated, go run an IHRA event this year. Trust me, you’ll notice the difference.

Thanks again to everyone who reached out. See ya at the next one. ✌️

07/05/2025

Here ya go ….. Weather was junk, car was good

Temp 85.6
DA 3655
Grains 103
Barometer 29.08

Comella Racing

05/10/2026

04/21/2026

03/29/2026

01/22/2026

01/02/2026

11/27/2025

11/25/2025

10/26/2025

08/22/2025

07/14/2025

07/05/2025

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