Dirt
Adversity Paves Robbie
Massey’s Road to Success
By Lisa Collier
D
uring Robbie Massey’s tenure
in the junior dragster ranks he got
fairly accustomed to winning. He
was named champion in Division 5
for IHRA and NHRA. He won the Western Conference Finals at age 13. He racked up a couple
of track championships
at Iowa’s Eddyville Raceway Park and when he
dabbled in Outlaw 330
he won a points championship there as well.
With a father well
versed in racing, Massey
had a built-in mentor.
Bob Massey built door
cars for years and tuned
Top Alcohol Funny Car
legend Vern Moats.
As soon as he was old
enough, Robbie began
taking notes from both
his father and Moats.
“I grew up watching
[my dad],” says Massey.
“Before I could walk I
was around the shop.
We really enjoyed racing
juniors together.”
But when Massey aged
out of juniors, it looked as
though his drag racing career might be over. With
no clear next steps, he sought every angle for an
open door to jump into a full size car.
“That year I was off, I was really going crazy.
Every summer since I was eight years old all my
weekends would be booked with races. It was my
life and all I knew, so when I thought we were
going to be done, it was kind of a culture shock. I
love competing and I have the type of personality
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
that I need something to put all that energy and
emotion towards or else I really start to lose my
mind,” Massey laughs.
“I caught wind General Motors was coming out
with that COPO Camaro,” the Karl Performance
employee continues. He put in an application
and was picked to purchase the car specifically
designed to NHRA racing specs. “Of course, I
didn’t have all that money laying around. I went
up and talked to [employer] Carl, who has supported us all through juniors. My dad and him
have been friends for a long time, as well, so when
I told him the situation and that we were chosen
for one, he was all for getting it, and I would be
the one to drive it.”
Carl Moyer, owner of Karl Chevrolet and Karl
Performance, was a regular on the IHRA tour,
fielding a classic red 1957 Chevy in Pro Mod,
amongst several other world-class doorslammers,
and even sponsoring the organization for periods
until he abruptly retired after a qualifying run at
the 2001 President’s Cup Nationals. He had been
thinking about retiring for some time and a solid
performance that season helped the sale of his
car to Bob Rieger. Moyer has stayed involved with
various forms of motorsports since, including
Massey’s program.
Massey was out of racing for just one season
in between juniors and his move into the Camaro. “We came out with a 2012 COPO Camaro
427 naturally aspirated,” explains Massey, who
continued his racing with
the help of his father and
stepmother, Shelly. “We
were a little naïve to
think we could just jump
right in. We weren’t very
sure what the Stock class
was all about. I found out
very soon that that class
is pretty prestigious. We
basically had to learn
everything the hard way
because we would drag
the car across the country to national and divisional races, which left
no time to test, because
all our available time off
work was taken traveling to races.
“We chased our tail at
that thing for a couple of
years. Put a new motor in
it. Basically, it was just a
couple years of constant
adversity. We weren’t having as much fun as we
used to in juniors. It was frustrating. I like to win
so whenever we would lose for something stupid
we could have found in testing it was frustrating for us.”
Despite the frustrations, Massey did win Stock
at an NHRA divisional event, as well as a few
bracket races, while piloting the Camaro. Last
year, the Masseys made the decision to step away
Issue 110
PHOTO: DENIS CURRIER
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