MIKE NEFF
Crew Chief Behind the Wheel

Neff, who won his first NHRA Funny Car championship from outside the cockpit, hopes to win his next one from the inside as a member of John Force Racing’s Next Generation of professional drivers. 

A native of Hemet, Calif., where he grew up racing dirt bikes and off-road trucks, Neff is in his second season at the wheel of the Ford Drive One Mustang in which he hopes to give crew chief John Medlen his first tour victory since his son, Eric, lost his life in a testing accident at Gainesville, Fla., in March, 2007.

“I’m excited,” Neff said.  “There’s only one Eric (Medlen) and no one’s ever going to take his place, but to fill that spot and carry on where he left off is a real honor.  John Medlen was one of the main reasons I came over here – to work with him.”

“I have high expectations,” Neff said.  “I know the performance of the car will be there plus we should be better just because we have a year of experience behind us.  I know that if I do my job, we should be in the hunt (for the Full Throttle Funny Car championship).”

If he is able to achieve that goal, he would become only the second racer in history to win NHRA World Championships – in any category – as both driver and crew chief.  The first to do so was Dick LaHaie, who won as a driver in 1987 and later as crew chief to Scott Kalitta in 1994 and 1995.

Last year, the 41-year-old became the third different JFR driver in four years to win the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Road to the Future Award as the NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year. 

However, he first soared to prominence in 2005 when he tuned veteran Gary Scelzi to three victories while snapping JFR’s 12-year stranglehold on the NHRA Funny Car division.  Now, he’s trying to reclaim the title for drag racing’s most successful team.

Neff’s route to a ride in one of the world’s most powerful race cars was a circuitous one.  He got his first motorcycle at age four and began riding competitively in motocross at 13.  He grew up with the sons of former team owner Larry Minor, with whom he raced off road trucks.  When Minor was organizing a team to run a limited Top Fuel schedule in 1991, he hired Neff as a crew member to work with, among others, Dan Olson, currently the Director of Top Fuel and Funny Car Racing for the NHRA.

When Minor landed the McDonald’s sponsorship, Neff jumped at the chance to go racing as a full-time mechanic on the Funny Car in which Cruz Pedregon ultimately beat Force for the 1992 championship.

He worked on that car through the 1994 season, but when Joe Gibbs bought the McDonald’s team in ‘95, he moved over to the Top Fuel dragster then driven by Cory McClenathan.  As a Cory Mac crew member, he celebrated 22 victories over six years and a sweep of the difficult Western Swing (Denver, Seattle and Sonoma) in 1997.

When Gibbs opted out of the sport in 2001, Neff moved to Don Schumacher Racing as assistant crew chief on a Funny Car driven by Whit Bazemore.  He got his own car a year later, serving as crew chief to six-time former IHRA Pro Comp champion Scotty Cannon who subsequently gave up the seat to Scelzi. 

Although he played baseball and football and wrestled while a high school student, his passion was riding motorcycles and, later, working on off-road vehicles.  It was while working on off-road trucks at night at Minor’s shop that he learned to weld and fabricate, skills that would serve him well as a crew member and, later, crew chief.

“I would have liked to drive,” Neff said, “but it was never an option, you know.  It wasn’t something you’re going to go around talking about or asking about because it just didn’t look like anything that would be possible.”

Now, though, Neff is fully focused on his latest career change.

“I thought I could do it and I thought I could be good at it,” he said.  “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be (out here). I’m prepared to do whatever I’ve got to do to be good at it.  Failing is not an option.”

Neff got a head start on his drive to Rookie of the Year honors when he qualified a Medlen-tuned Ford for the final two races of 2007 (Las Vegas and Pomona).  He then took the JFR Mustang to the final round three times last year, starting twice from the No. 1 position while helping Medlen develop the Ford BOSS 500 nitro engine.

Last year, he became the first rookie to earn a berth in the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship.  Now he’s focused on improving on a ninth place finish.

“I was always the outdoors type – camping, water skiing, all that stuff,” he said of his childhood.  “I was always competitive.  The cool thing for me, growing up, was we had a high school motocross team and we competed every Friday night against other schools (at a track) in Corona.

“We’d race against Riverside, Corona, Norco.  There were probably six or seven different schools (and) our team did good.  I think we won the championship about every year.  I raced two classes and my twin brother (Mark) raced two.  Four motos a night.”

Although Neff now lives in Fishers, Ind., his brother still lives in Hemet where he owns a construction business and does ministry work.

“He goes to the Chino prison and tries to help those guys out, tries to find them jobs and teach ‘em a trade,” Neff said.  “He’s a really good dude.”

Although he came to JFR to drive, Neff already has made some mechanical contributions to the overall effort.  Like Hight, he is meticulous about everything, a throwback to his days as a crewman.

“Drivers today fly in and fly out,” he said.  “A lot of them don’t know what it takes to make these things run and how much money it costs.  I’d rather lift (get off the throttle) and not hurt anything.  I’m gonna be really conscious about not dinging it up.  I don’t need a glory run.

“I’m taking it as it comes,” he said, “but it’s an honor to be here.  These guys are the best Funny Car racers there have ever been.  Their cars run great.  They don’t really need much at all but hopefully I can add something that makes us just a little bit better – lighten things up a little bit or make things a little simpler.  That’s what John Medlen and I have been working on since I’ve been here.”

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