On the evening of Saturday, April 5th, Connor McGee was celebrating in the winner’s circle with his family after earning his third career victory in Super Street at the season-opening Summit Racing Equipment PDRA East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech. By Monday morning, he was back in class studying for an accounting and economics degree at the university where he also plays on the men’s volleyball team and works in the admissions department. Office work at the family business, Brian’s Heating & Cooling LLC., along with projects in the race shop, add up to one full plate for McGee, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #194, the WSOPM Issue, in May/June of 2025.
McGee grew up going to the track with his father, Brian, who raced in drag radial events throughout the Southeast. Connor and his younger brother, Spencer, got into Jr. Dragster racing, where Connor finished third in PDRA’s Pro Jr. Dragster program in 2019 on the strength of a win at Maryland. A couple years later, McGee made the move up to Super Street with a Mustang that his dad drove early in his racing career. A few races into 2023, the McGees swapped their nitrous-fed, Fulton-built, 440-cubic-inch engine into the ’90 Mustang that Connor currently drives. It was originally built in 2014 for Brian to run in Outlaw Drag Radial.
Racing has always been a family sport for the McGees, but especially now that Brian, Connor, and Spencer all race. It’s rare for all three to compete on the same weekend, with Brian racing in Pro 275 at drag radial events and Connor and Spencer competing on the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series tour. Whether it’s a local test session or a PDRA national event, it’s always a family outing, though.
“I think it’s a good thing that all three of us – and my mom [Melissa] gets down there and helps too – it’s a good thing that we can all bond over,” McGee says. “I think that’s probably the biggest thing me and my dad do together as a father-son relationship is working on the cars. I’m spending days and hours on end with him just working on the race car, learning how the tuning works and how certain parts work in the motor.
“My brother too, both of us together, learning from Dad, it’s cool,” McGee continues. “It’s nice to have someone that I can trust and have a good relationship with that’s right there by my side, always supporting me. You can see in all the videos how excited he gets whenever we win. It’s definitely a big family affair that we all enjoy doing together.”
When Connor started racing Jr. Dragsters, it wasn’t just something fun to do on the weekends. It was a training ground for his eventual move up to a big car, allowing for a smooth transition to the small-tire Mustang.
“Racing Jr. Dragsters prepared me for just being familiar with how racing works,” McGee says. “I’ve seen people go from not racing at all, just straight to a big car, and I can see there’s issues with that, with just not knowing how a car fully works. I guess growing up around a big car also helps. But it prepares you for the aspect of being a driver and learning how your body reacts and how it is going down the racetrack and just kind of being prepared for all the adrenaline rushes and mental battles you face as a driver. Since I’ve done that since I was 9 when I started racing Jrs., I’ve just prepared for bigger moments like driving the big car and final rounds. Especially the final at GALOT. That was a stressful one.”
At GALOT, McGee qualified No. 2 behind fellow young gun Austin Vincent and made his way to the final round to meet yet another young gun, Matt Schalow, who qualified third and knocked out Vincent in the semis. Schalow moved first in his nitrous-fed ’00 Camaro, but McGee got around him with low E.T. of race day, a 4.629 at 149.83 mph, to beat Schalow’s 4.663 at 157.52 mph by three thousandths of a second.
“We missed a race last year and we weren’t sure if we were really going to be competitive,” said McGee, who won twice in 2024, in his winner’s circle interview. “We proved that to ourselves last year. This year, we’re definitely here to win and stay competitive. This win definitely puts that fire in the whole team. We set the bar and can’t go much higher, but we’ll keep chipping at it to hopefully end up with the championship.”
McGee’s two wins last season put him third in the final Super Street points standings. First-round exits at three of the seven races where Super Street was contested prevented him from finishing better. With support from his family, partners like Driven Racing Oil, and friends Jalen Burbage of JBR Solutions and Kameron Koch helping in the pits and on the starting line, McGee is motivated to consistently turn on win lights this season to contend for a PDRA Super Street presented by Brian’s Heating & Cooling LLC. world championship.
“I kinda want to not go into every race thinking, ‘I have to win this,’ because I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself,” McGee says. “You’re not gonna win everything, no matter how you think it’s gonna go. I go into every event with a positive mindset and have set some goals. Of course you want to win all the time, but just be consistent. That’s something we really didn’t have last year. We won at Bristol and then I screwed up at GALOT 2 and we lost first round. Rather than having such an up-and-down kind of year, we’re trying to be more consistent, trying not to lose first round all year, trying to go to the semis as much as we can, and trying to win as much as we can.”
The post Books and Burnouts: College Student Connor McGee Pursues Greatness in PDRA Super Street first appeared on Drag Illustrated.