Typically, car enthusiasts tend to gravitate to one form of motorsport or another. When it comes time to build their car, it has already been decided what that car will be used for. Straight line performance and road course handling don’t really go hand-in-hand, and for Randy Wheeler, the decision had to be made whether to build his 2014 Camaro to attack autocross courses or chase every tenth of a second on the drag strip. His decision has garnered him a world record for a manual 5th-gen Camaro.
As a do-it-yourself type of guy, Randy Wheeler does a lot of his own wrenching. However, he relies on Ryan and the team at Gwatney Performance Innovations for the big jobs and tuning.
First Taste Of Love
Growing up in a military family, Wheeler has lived all over the United States. Spending time living in eastern North Carolina placed him deep in NASCAR country. Naturally, Wheeler spent many weekends watching Dale Earnhardt Sr and Junior. He was instantly hooked on fast cars and has been a die-hard “Chevy Guy” ever since.
Although Wheeler’s Camaro is a world record holder, he still enjoys driving it on the street.
Wheeler grew up enthusiastically watching racing. It wasn’t until 2016 that he was able to get involved in racing his own vehicle. By then, he had joined the Marine Corp, started a family of his own, and settled down to make Fort Smith, Arkansas, his home. There, he came upon Reaction Motorsports, a local autocross group that gave Wheeler his first taste of racing. A year later, he ventured to the local drag strip and quickly realized that quarter-mile racing was where he belonged. Although, he continued to compete in autocross events up through 2018. Eventually, the decision to continue building the car for one discipline or the other was necessary.
Straight line racing is one of my love languages.- Randy Wheeler
Once he made his first pass down the quarter-mile, Wheeler knew that’s where he wanted to be. However, he didn’t think at the time that he would one day own the world record for a manual 5th-gen Camaro.
The Path To Greatness Takes A Team
Wheeler gave up autocross to pursue making the necessary modifications to help the car get down the quarter-mile as fast as possible. Going quickly around curves and going fast in a straight line require different plans of attack. With his decision made, a game plan was put together. Over the course of five years, modifications were made in incremental steps. Wheeler says he enjoys the…
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