Inland Empire Youth Drag Racing Program

03/30/2026

We will not be meeting Sunday April 5th so that people can celebrate Easter with family. Our regular Sunday meetings resume April 12th.

03/28/2026

We will be doing Jr street orientation, Junior dragster licensing and a jdrl test and tune for current JDRL license holders Saturday April 25th. We will begin at 9am. This event is for junior racers only! There is no cost for tech card. There is a licensing fee to nhra when submitted.

03/17/2026

Progress reports for 3/8 and 3/15

Week of 3/8
Several worked together on installing the hvac block off plate. One hole was stripped so Jacob climbed in the engine compartment to hold the nut while one of the girls put the last bolt in. Some young students cleaned the block before they installed the new cam bearings. Youth cleaned piston ring grooves in preparation for assembly of the rotating assembly while others cleaned up the crankshaft. Another group worked on
buttoning up the rear axle and filling it with gear oil.
Nathan Johnson and Vincent Johnson installed the roll bar in the green camaro.

On Saturday march 14th Jacob got to drive his junior dragster in the st paddy parade for the track. Abby and Jacen helped carry signs and hand out candy. It was a little cold but a great time. Thank you kalispel tribe and northern quest for tons of candy to hand out. We got to tell alot of people about the track and the program.

On March 15 we had another great build day Thank you to everyone who came out and helped. We had a few new faces this week. Welcome everyone who joined us!

We got some work done on the green camaro and the Bigsmoke Junior Dragster.

Green camaro.
Jeremy Covell led the youth in getting rings gapped. Each piston was done by a different kid to give more the chance to be involved. They then wiped the block down with wd40 and wrapped it up so it will be safe until next week.

Dalton Olson dropped off a nice kirkey metal seat. Thank you Dalton.

Big smoke Junior dragster

Dean and Tyler with help from Jacen, Jacob, Aiden, Mathew, Abby and Nick, Bella, Madeline, and Zaydin replaced the steering shaft, got the steering hooked up, replaced bearings in the front tires.

Aiden, Mathew, Zaydin, Madison and Bella took rear tires off to check for rear bearing number. It was determined best to take axle apart to clean it all up and hopefully order bearings.

Alvan-Laura Behar stopped by and brought snacks. Alvan looked at the junior and is willing to add the helmet bars we need.

Other youth removed seat and old seatbelts.

Nick went through and got a pretty extensive list of things it will need for the Bigsmoke Junior

We had a special guest appearance by Chilenova since it was at the track for the st paddy parade. It was fun to watch the young kids get excited about that BBC rumble and the blower whine.

Jim Penix and Kari Penix donated some fuses and switches etc..and a very nice ignition/toggle switch setup. Thank you Jim and Kari.

All in all another great build day. Things are coming together. Thank you to everyone who showed up today. Id love to see your pics too. We are building a great team!

If youre interested in joining us we meet each Sunday at 1pm at the shop at Qlispé Raceway Park.

03/10/2026

03/04/2026

Shake and Bake Jake trying out the purple junior. Jake has his own Junior but has been helping the youth program each week. Thank you Shake and Bake Jake.

03/03/2026

03/03/2026

Stoic first time in the purple junior.

03/03/2026

Progress report 3/1

RJ Nomee , Colby Miller and Stoic hauled in the Big Smoke Junior. The process of cleaning it up and seeing what all it needed was started. Jacen sanded parts. Stoic helped unload.

95 camaro
Brian Jennen brought engine parts. Hill Billy Bling and some of the kids got the block cleaned and painted. They got some of the covers painted. And they got the crank, pistons and rods cleaned up to get ready for installation. Great job guys!!!

Alvan-Laura Behar brought the powerglide back and rebuilt it with the youth. Trevor and Chad Gothmann were big help with that. Thank you Alvan, Chad, Trevor and all who helped.

Jake Giubbini brought by some goodies for the 95 :dash, battery master, master fuse holder, key switch/tumbler, Toggle switche and ordered a fuse block

3rd Gen Camaro
Rj, Braxton, Sarena, Nick, Leroy Giubbini , Vincent, Colby and others changed distributor, plug wires, etc.

Purple Junior
Angie Weaver , Abby and Rain reinstalled seat cover. Jay Lake and Tyler Garcia set peddles. Jadrien, Abby, Trevor, Stoic and Jacen trying it out without motor. Shake n Bake Jake got a little hit in with the motor. Keith the mad scientist worked on the body. Its almost ready.

This past week the Miss Shifters All Girls Car Club donated a running driving Honda to the program. If your club would like to help out with cars or parts or $$$ please get ahold of Angie Weaver or Brian Jennen or RJ Nomee. Next week the youth will start cleaning that car up and evaluating its needs. It runs and drives but needs a few things. Great for the youth to learn with.

Also we had a special visit Sunday Scott Major who works with NHRA safet safari. We are lucky to have him as a mentor.

We have an updated parts list. We still have a couple cars to bring into the stable to get their needs on paper. We accept parts that arent going to work for our cars too. We plan to start selling some of those to raise funds for the parts we will be able to use. So if you have parts on the shelf taking up space please consider donating to our program. These youth have been very eager to learn every aspect of getting these cars track ready.

If you have time and would like to be a mentor we meet each Sunday at 1pm at the qlispe raceway park shop. Its a great time and so rewarding to see the youth being hands on with these builds.

If you are a youth and are interested in being a part of our program come check it out. We have alot of fun. Youll be learning from some of the most amazing racers around. No experience needed!

The next meeting will be Sunday March 8th at 1pm at the shop at Qlispé Raceway Park.