As Keith Haney pulled his Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built, Pat Musi-powered “Black Widow” C7 Corvette into the waterbox alongside Tommy Franklin for the final round of Pro Nitrous at the Summit Racing Equipment PDRA East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech, he knew he wasn’t supposed to be here. Not just the final round – he wasn’t supposed to be at Darana Motorsports Park-Benson period.
Haney’s own Midwest Drag Racing Series was scheduled to have their season-opener at Xtreme Raceway Park the same weekend, but inclement weather forced them to delay the event until Nov. 6-7. The rescheduled race will now be the Ronnie Hobbs World Finals. With his own racing plans taken away, Haney pivoted. After a quick call to his tuner Brandon Switzer, Haney told his team they were headed to North Carolina to compete against the best nitrous cars PDRA has to offer.
“I don’t like sitting still,” Haney said with a chuckle. “I can’t go that long without racing.”
In a battle between series owners, it initially appeared like Haney would come in and snatch the 660 Man. A huge starting line advantage gave Haney a car-length lead almost immediately, but around halfway down the track a huge burst of fire out of the hood slowed him down just enough for Franklin’s “Jungle Rat 3.0” ’69 Camaro to drive past for the victory.
“I had him beat on the tree, .007 to his 089. He was nowhere to be found other than smelling the parachutes coming out the back of my car,” said Haney. “But we had her spicy. We didn’t come here to run a .66 in the finals. We came here to run a low .60. I come to win. I was ready. I did my job, he [Switzer] did his job – the motor just wasn’t happy with what we gave it. Everything’s still good. We got a hole in a piston, gotta replace a couple sleeves, but we gave it all we had.”
As a two-time MWDRS points champion, Haney is no stranger to final rounds. But this one felt a bit different. To understand how special it was, you have to go back to the Drag Illustrated Winter Series. Haney debuted the “Black Widow” in Bradenton at the U.S. Street Nationals with zero testing. He admits it wasn’t the plan, but parts breakage on his “Black Mamba” Camaro forced his hand.
“We made the decision to go to U.S. Street with the new car because we didn’t really have a choice,” Haney said. “The Mamba was broken pretty good – the whole back end –forcing us to bring the new car out. We normally go test for a week or two before the race with nobody even seeing us, but we didn’t have that opportunity for this one. The car didn’t get finished until the week of the race, and it just takes time to learn.”
Still trying to figure everything out with the new car, Haney didn’t perform as well at the Winter Series as he knows he’s capable of. And with Switzer not available to attend the MWDRS season-opener (nor the PDRA East Coast Nationals as it turned out), the duo knew they needed to test extensively. After a full day preparing the car, the team headed to Tulsa Raceway Park for three days of non-stop testing. For the first two days, the car still didn’t want to act right. But on the third day, things changed.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but I’ve owned Tulsa [Raceway Park] since 2011, and I have never tested a Pro Mod at that track,” said Haney. “Our last day, Brandon said, ‘We got to have everything right. I think I’ve got everything where I know it needs to be.’ That last day, we go 3.62 at 207 mph, and Brandon says, ‘We got a race car.’”
Unfortunately, as the weather forecast continued to worsen for his own event, Haney made the tough decision to call XRP owner Clyde Scott and tell him the race needed to be postponed. As both a businessman and a family man, Haney didn’t want to force teams to spend their time and money for traveling just to sit in the rain. Yet there was an opportunity gained from the unfortunate situation.
“I called Brandon and the guys and said, ‘I want to make some hits. I want to go race PDRA Pro Nitrous and see how I stand up with those guys.’ And immediately the guys said, ‘Yeah, whatever you want to do, boss.’ They want to race too. They enjoy success.”
Almost immediately, the team – Haney, Steve Cooks, Bobby Savedra III, Jordan Savedra, and Adam Engnes – made plans to head out to Benson, N.C. Severe thunderstorms were rolling through the Midwest as Haney was leaving with the rig – he admits if they’d left just 20 minutes later, they likely would’ve been caught up in a tornado that tore through Muskogee, Oklahoma.
By Thursday morning, it was time to see if all the hard work had paid off. Three test passes, three clean hits. The “Black Widow” was more consistent than it had ever been heading into Friday’s qualifying. Three qualifying sessions, and three more clean hits – including a 3.665 at 206.64 mph that landed Haney in the No. 6 spot out of 21 drivers. For the first time since debuting it at the Winter Series, Haney knew he had a hot rod.
“It took us a bit to figure it out, but I love driving this car,” said Haney. “I can see every single bit of the racetrack. Every single light that’s on the tree. I can see out of this Corvette body better than anything I’ve ever seen out of in my life. The car drives better than anything I’ve ever driven.
“And let’s talk about 21 nitrous cars,” Haney added. “The most they’ve had in a long time. Go pull up any sheet. I couldn’t tell you when they last had 21 nitrous cars. They outdid the Pro Boost category.”
On race day, Haney lined up against Billy Albert in round one and won with a 3.714 at 206.35 to Albert’s 3.747. He then lined up against another Brandon Switzer-tuned driver, PDRA Darlington winner Mike Achenbach, in the second round. Achenbach went -.011 on the tree, while Haney rolled to a 3.755 at 195.19.
“Once I let go of the button against Albert in that first round, I said, ‘This car can’t be beat,’” recalled Haney. “When I let go of the button and the front end come up and it did what it did, I said, ‘It can’t be beat. I think I can win this race.’”
A timing system malfunction with the Christmas tree plagued the semifinal pairing between Haney and Buddy Perkinson, causing Perkinson to leave the line late. PDRA officials determined the race needed to be ran again; however, after losing with a 3.691 at 204.79 to Haney’s 3.664 at 206.48, Perkinson declined the opportunity to rerun the race.
“I’ll admit it – I was mad that after I had won, basically crying on the top end like, I wasn’t supposed to do this,” Haney said. “And then all of a sudden, someone comes over and said something malfunctioned in the tree, we’re going to probably have to rerun. I said, ‘I am not re-running. I’ll go home.’ I was emotional.
“Buddy, being the sportsman he is, and his team are, they’re good people,” added Haney. “We’re parked next to each other. We’ve talked all weekend. They played with my dog. We’ve had a great time. Let me tell you, that’s real sportsmanship right there.”
While the final didn’t go Haney’s way – an especially tough loss considering it appeared to be all but won – it was a monumental step in his program with the new car. Nine consecutive passes with zero aborted runs throughout the weekend prior to the finals, reaction times that were on point in eliminations (.031, .033, .053, .007), and a car that will be a contender throughout the rest of 2026.
“We went from the outhouse to the penthouse in just three days,” Haney said with a smile. “The PDRA really showed good camaraderie for the sport with me coming here. We made more noise in drag racing…if you look on the internet, it’s everywhere. It’s been really good for the sport because you’ve seen them talking good about Midwest, and we always talk good about PDRA. I came to support this race because I believe in it and I care about the sport, and I feel like the Franklins care about the sport. I think we proved this weekend we’re something.”
The post “From the Outhouse to the Penthouse:” Keith Haney Discusses Impressive Showing at PDRA East Coast Nationals first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
