Drag Illustrated Issue 110, June 2016 | Page 46

Dirt Bird’s the Word ‘B y the time the cops showed up they said it was probably already chopped up. And it was only gone two hours. I feel like the car is already destroyed. I figure the trailer will show up because it’s a special order trailer. The truck is a dime a dozen. It’s probably in Mexico.” David “Bird” Jones was just 16 years old when he earned his first $10,000 paycheck at a drag race. And although he continued a fairly illustrious career in bracket racing, he’s only risen to prominence in the last two years as he’s made the switch to street and grudge racing. His name spread like wildfire when he was called out by a host of the Street Outlaws characters in 2015, successfully beating them all. Unfortunately, his name went viral again in May of 2016 when his truck, trailer and ‘67 Chevrolet Camaro were stolen from a hotel parking lot in Forest Hill, Texas. “I thought I was in the nice part of town, but I was about five miles from there,” Jones told. He pieced together details of the theft from hotel cameras. “I got to the hotel at 12:30. It was gone at 2:36. Mitch Clary from Overkill Motorsports 46 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com Facetimed me at five o’clock in the morning. I looked out the window and it was gone. I ran to the front desk, thinking they had it towed. I don’t think I know personally anybody smart enough to steal a truck that quick. It’s somebody that either followed me or was watching that location. There was no glass on the ground so they had to be able to get in the truck and get it started within three minutes. Obviously it’s no crack addict because nobody’s snitched. I figured for 20 grand somebody would roll,” Jones said with a few extra expletives. The “Bird’s the Word” Camaro had already had a rough go of it the last few months. Jones had wrecked it testing at a bracket race earlier in March. He and a team at TNT front halved the car and put a new roof on it in three and half weeks, just in time for American Outlaws Live. In test runs there Bird had an intense nitrous backfire that shot flames the length of the car. He did, however, make a couple of good passes, beating Monza from Street Outlaws in round one before losing to eventual winner, Birdman, in round two. It was just days later when the car was stolen. “I made the best pass I’d ever made in the car. I turned it all the way up. It was either gonna backfire again or haul ass. And it hauled ass, but Birdman - I mean, he’s on a whole different level. But that’s who sold me the car I got now, so it all worked out.” With no car and little hope of finding it, Jones sought every option to get ready for filming of Street Outlaws: New Orleans in early June. He has a Pro Mod style grudge car he’s building, but Issue 110 PHOTOS: RANDY HALL, DRAG ILLUSTRATED ARCHIVES By Sadie Floyd