Drag Illustrated Issue 160, September 2020 | Page 75

TUNING AND DRIVING AT A HIGH LEVEL HAS MADE MARINIS BETTER AT BOTH . ALONG WITH AN INCREDIBLE WORK ETHIC , IT ’ S PUT MARINIS IN ELITE COMPANY .
That ’ s just the tip of the iceberg , but there ’ s never an idle moment for Marinis when going fast is the goal . He ’ s constantly on the phone with Musi , talking improvements and set-ups and things they want to change . They ’ ll butt heads and hang up on each other , but a couple hours later , they ’ ll be back on the phone , picking apart everything in the quest to stay a step ahead , forging an impressive legacy along the way .
“ The competition is so close your brain has to be in overdrive the whole time ,” Marinis says . “ When we leave the track , the wheels are still turning on the way home , planning for the next week and the next race .
“ Things have definitely evolved and you have to look at all aspects of it . Every single aspect has become critical . Your bottles are filled to the ounce . You want the last check on the tires right as the thing is hitting the water box . There ’ s so much stuff on these cars now , it ’ s crazy .
“ But again , if you want to be up front you have to be locked in on every aspect of it .”
September 2020

Like the classic racing story , Marinis ’ need for speed started when he was young .

But when he ’ s asked if getting involved with the sport was a family thing , Marinis quickly states , “ No , no . Definitely not a family thing . They wanted me to do anything but racing , you know .”
That directive came from his parents , but his brother ’ s ’ 69 Firebird gave him other ideas .
He marveled at the car and , suddenly , just as he was becoming a teenager , Marinis ’ life revolved around working on that Firebird .
“ Every day when he came home from school , we ’ d be doing something on the car – cam shafts , radiators , and probably when I was 14 we put our first nitrous plate system on that car ,” Marinis remembers .
That same year , he started making passes in the car – two years before he even had his driver ’ s license . The hook was in and it wasn ’ t leaving . “ My brother would just stick me in the car , and
I ’ ve been racing ever since ,” Marinis says .
Nitrous has always been his go-to , but he ’ s left no stone unturned in trying to make anything – and he means anything – go fast .
When he owned a tow truck and body shop in the late ‘ 90s , Marinis boldly claims he “ definitely had nitrous oxide on one of my tow trucks .”
It ’ s always been about making things faster and it certainly isn ’ t limited to cars , either .
“ I ’ ve raced dirt bikes , jet skis , cars , everything ,” Marinis says . “ It ’ s always been about racing and trying to go faster . You name it , I ’ m trying to make it faster .”
He ’ s accomplished that on multiple fronts , first moving onto the national stage thanks to his success in the orange Mustang .
It ’ s a car that ’ s served him well and even after selling it in 2018 , it ’ s still a car he drives , tunes and maintains the engines .
But despite a busy schedule in so many areas , Green is currently his No . 1 priority .
Green bolted onto the NHRA Pro Mod scene
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