{"id":103331,"date":"2026-04-06T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/di-classic-whether-working-or-racing-lifes-a-blast-for-glenn-butcher\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:44:06","slug":"di-classic-whether-working-or-racing-lifes-a-blast-for-glenn-butcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/di-classic-whether-working-or-racing-lifes-a-blast-for-glenn-butcher\/","title":{"rendered":"DI CLASSIC: Whether Working or Racing, Life\u2019s A Blast For Glenn Butcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>As Drag Illustrated celebrates its 20th anniversary and approaches the milestone 200th issue, we\u2019re diving into the archives and republishing some of favorite features from 190-plus issues of the magazine. This cover story by Ian Tocher on Glenn Butcher, who won the 2024 PDRA Elite Top Sportsman world championship, is from DI #89 in July of 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the off season and most of Glenn Butcher\u2019s race shop has been turned into a basketball court, complete with baskets at both ends and free-throw marks on the floor. His new \u201969 Camaro Top Sportsman car, along with the race rig, is neatly squeezed into one end of the 104-by-52-foot structure while Butcher and several friends engage in a spirited game of hoops. Right now it\u2019s basketball; next weekend it might be floor hockey or maybe set up for the epic, annual New Year\u2019s Eve party that draws guests each year from several surrounding states and Canada. More often than not, though, it\u2019s just a place to hang out and down a few adult beverages while bench racing and watching the snow fly until it\u2019s time to race again.<\/p>\n<p>Butcher grew up on this land. He built a house nearly 10 years ago on 22 acres of lush farmland that used to be part a 104-acre tract worked by his father, Fred, and mom Geraldine, where they had already raised three boys and a girl before Glenn came along, 14 years after his sister.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people said I had a lot of parents growing up, but my siblings were already gone and out of the house pretty much by the time I started to get into any kind of major age,\u201d Butcher recalls. \u201cMy parents always said that I was a mistake, but I always told them that I was planned because they wanted somebody to mow the grass and pull the weeds and pick the beans and shuck the corn. So I think I was well planned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His dad passed away nearly six years ago, as did two of his brothers even before that, but at 86 Butcher\u2019s mother still lives nearby in the original farmhouse. His brother Jerry and sister Connie also have their own homes on the family compound, as Butcher affectionately calls the repurposed farm in Doylestown, Ohio, just a few minutes southwest of Akron.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll but a few years of my life when I lived in an apartment with my wife, I\u2019ve pretty much lived on the same property,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty much out in the country. We used to have two traffic lights, but the bulb burned out in one of them so they thought it was cheaper to just put up four stop signs. So that\u2019s the small town where I am. We used to be a two-light town; now we\u2019re a one-light town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Butcher family\u2019s presence in Doylestown dates back to the 1930s, when Glenn\u2019s grandfather started up Ken L. Butcher and Son, an early excavating company that dug basements using a flip scraper pulled by a team of horses. After his grandfather\u2019s death in the early-\u201850s, Butcher\u2019s father took a few years to regroup before reinventing the business. Fred Butcher recognized the opportunity of tearing down the buildings from a previous century to make way for the modernization of America in 1955, taking Butcher and Son Inc. from a basement and sewer excavator to a demolition company.<\/p>\n<p>By the early 1960s, Butcher and Son had advanced to demolishing several of the original rubber-tire factories around Akron, including large sections of Mohawk Tire and Rubber, Firestone and General Tire. \u201cHe was one of the pioneers of that in our area,\u201d Butcher says with obvious pride. \u201cSo it\u2019s what I grew up with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, he didn\u2019t head straight to work in the family business. After graduating from high school, Butcher attended the University of Akron, where despite \u201cnever wanting to sit at a desk and count beans,\u201d he took the time to earn an accounting degree. And though not his vocation, Butcher\u2019s accounting expertise certainly comes in handy in his role now heading up the history-laden enterprise.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1198\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_09A_6052.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93157\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBasically we do commercial, residential and industrial demolition; I always quote anything but an outhouse,\u201d Butcher says, laughing. \u201cWe do a lot of residential demos for big packages where we\u2019ll do, say 150 homes in one community throughout the year, or we do big factories or schools or small commercial buildings as well for building a new corner store or a new Taco Bell or McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kind of roam all over, where we might spend a couple of months on a job or a couple of hours. We could demo a house, have it backfilled to where in eight hours you wouldn\u2019t even know it had been there. It doesn\u2019t take long to make a house disappear,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do some explosive demolition as well, smokestacks or larger structure buildings. Most of our stuff is done commercially, but we do get the joy of blowing up a few things here and there,\u201d Butcher adds with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s a really cool thing. Every day is different. You can\u2019t demo the same building twice, and the technology and the engineering aspect behind it to make sure everything falls in the right spot or goes the right way can be fairly dangerous, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like so many of his peers Butcher also followed his father\u2019s footsteps into racing. But unlike most he never got to see his dad actually compete.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1192\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_IGT_0476.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93148\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMy dad was always big into roundy-round racing, asphalt. He never drove, but he owned four cars and he would have different drivers for the four cars. He always ran Buicks, just local stuff around here in Ohio. I guess it would have been from the late-\u201850s up until the early-\u201870s, so I never got to go to the track with him or anything like that; I\u2019ve only seen pictures,\u201d says Butcher, who was born in 1972.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy brothers were a lot older, so they were into it a bit, but that whole era, my mom eventually put an end to it. I was so far behind that whole growth of the family; it was just completely different when it was time for me, completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of his mother\u2019s wishes, Butcher says his brothers still got into a little drag racing as he became a young teenager. He remembers them heading to the track along with some cousins who raced and he would occasionally be allowed to tag along. By the time he reached his 16th birthday, Butcher says he felt more than ready to hit the strip himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mom had bought a brand-new mini Caravan in \u201885. It was maroon with wood paneling on the side. So I would pretend that I was going to go to the movies or something and we would go down to Dragway 42 and do the Friday-night street racing with the minivan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never did win anything with it; I think I was a little too scared to win. I wouldn\u2019t have been able to bring home the trophy if I had won one, and that\u2019s all you got was a trophy. So I wouldn\u2019t have been allowed to bring it home because if my mom would have found out we were racing her minivan she wouldn\u2019t have been too happy about it. She\u2019s 86 now and she still doesn\u2019t know,\u201d Butcher claims. \u201cI\u2019m still scared of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_Old_Camaro_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93152\"><\/figure>\n<p>Late in 1988, Butcher purchased a brand-new Camaro and started racing it, but almost immediately he felt the need to go faster and bought his first \u201969 Camaro with a 350 backed up by a Muncie four-speed rock crusher transmission. \u201cAll it did was blow the tires off,\u201d he says. But the fix seemed obvious\u2014make the switch to slicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, we couldn\u2019t get the slicks on, so we tried air shocks to raise the car up enough so I could get them on. But the first time we throw the slicks in the back of the Camaro and I drive it to the race track and we pump the air shocks way up to get the slicks on I didn\u2019t even pass tech because I didn\u2019t have a driveshaft loop on the car,\u201d Butcher recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo then we put the regular tires back on, blow them off. You tried everything to get by. I ended up putting the drive shaft loop on and doing the whole thing again, but that still never worked. It still just wanted to blow the tires off. That\u2019s when I said, \u2018Well, we got to get a chassis car,\u2019 and I ended up selling that car to buy my first chassis car, another \u201969 Camaro, just a back-half car with a 396 in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was 1991, the same year one more lasting benefit came from Butcher\u2019s college days, as he met Linda Yebaile, a pretty 20-year-old transportation management student who five years later would become his wife.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe had never been to the race track, didn\u2019t know what a race track was, never even heard of a race track, didn\u2019t even know there was such a thing as drag racing. She was big into hockey, so we would go to hockey games together and I said well, you got to come to the race track with me. So she started going to the race track and learning, kind of watching and learning,\u201d Butcher says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, he ran the \u201969 in local bracket action for another year before picking up his first tube-chassis car in 1992, this time a \u201968 Camaro. \u201cIt was a box-tube-chassis car, but nonetheless, a tube car,\u201d Butcher says. He raced in local Quick-8s and Super Pro with it, eventually running a career-best 7.98 to that point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_Old_Camaro_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93151\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s when we started experimenting a little bit with nitrous, too, so I got rid of the \u201968 and got me a real chromoly tube car. I bought a \u201963 Corvette and that\u2019s kind of where my paint scheme came from,\u201d Butcher says of the red-with-flames motif his cars have sported ever since.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBelieve it or not, Spitzer built that car. I think it was one of the only door cars they ever made. It was an okay car, but it wasn\u2019t outstanding. But I didn\u2019t know. When I bought the thing, I was looking for a name-brand car and I\u2019d seen Spitzer\u2019s name before so I ran and picked it up in Cincinnati. A guy had bought it and never even got the chance to race it, so it was pretty much a brand-new car. Very, very few runs on it; I think he may have made a couple passes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also had a real good motor, which made a world of difference. Then we finally started having Marco Abruzzi build me a good transmission and we had a car that would actually work pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_63Corvette_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93154\"><\/figure>\n<p>Butcher\u2019s first Top Sportsman experience came in 2002 with the Vette, but he admits it wasn\u2019t a particularly well-orchestrated debut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIHRA had a divisional race at Dragway 42 back then, which we didn\u2019t go there a lot, but that would be our closest track to home, so I just said let\u2019s go. So we hopped in the truck and went down there, showed up on Saturday. We didn\u2019t even have the car because I didn\u2019t know what it took to race the class completely at that time. I wasn\u2019t sure. So I started asking around, what do I need to do? We race Quick-8 stuff here and there, what do we need to have to race Top Sportsman? And we talked to who to this day has become an extremely, extremely good friend of mine, and that\u2019s Billy Thoman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just walked up to Billy and said, \u2018Billy, what do you need to run this class?\u2019 He told me, well, you got to have this, you got to have that, you got to have an engine diaper. I said an engine diaper, what\u2019s that? I was pretty na\u00efve so I asked him, where do you get one of these? He says, well, they can be hard to find.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it just so happens that Carl from Stroud was at the race track for the divisional\u2014which is unheard of\u2014but because IHRA went from 42 to Norwalk, it was just back-to-back races, so he was there and I got the engine diaper on Saturday. Didn\u2019t have the car; it was still at the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we ran home, put everything on the car, loaded it up in the trailer. We were up all night getting everything prepped and ready and went back, and said we\u2019re racing tomorrow. So we went back on Sunday morning, got teched in and it just so happens that we didn\u2019t even get a time run, so we just dialed the car off of what we normally would do and went out and won our first round. I think we won second round that day, too. We were so ecstatic. Just the fact that we were racing that thing in Top Sportsman was really, really cool. So that was our first experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_LateModelCorvette.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93153\"><\/figure>\n<p>When the 2003 IHRA season came around, Butcher was ready to attack it with gusto. He drew up a plan to hit as many national events as possible and says it led to the first time he really felt successful as a drag racer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got to win quite a few races with it, won a lot of rounds,\u201d Butcher remembers fondly. \u201cWe\u2019d done fairly well in the Quick 8 stuff, but that was our first time doing pretty good in the bracket racing, when we really knew we could compete and had the right stuff to compete.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost everything we raced back then was all IHRA stuff,\u201d he continues. \u201cI did win my first NHRA divisional race at National Trail in \u201804 with that car and I think I was one of the first IHRA racers to win an NHRA Wally. And when you won the Wally back then it was like, wow, because there was a division between IHRA Top Sportsman and NHRA Top Sportsman. Everybody looked at the NHRA as inferior back then because it was just kind of starting up and IHRA was where it was at. That\u2019s all changed now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the late-2000s, Butcher was perennially near the top of the IHRA points list, recording a stretch of four consecutive top-10 finishes in a Garret Livingston-built \u201968 Camaro he took delivery of early in \u201808, Butcher\u2019s first made-to-order car.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery part about it was exactly how I wanted it, constructed and built. Garret knows me, he knows I\u2019m a little eccentric and I like a little bit of bling. So that car had everything but curb feelers. It was exotic and really cool and a great car,\u201d Butcher says. \u201cAnd it was mine. It was the first one that I had helped design or helped lay out the way I wanted it, and it just became a part of me, part of my family, like one of the kids.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it was an incredible race car,\u201d he stresses. \u201cButch Peterson, who helps me out a lot with the chassis, he named the car \u2018Big Red\u2019 and Chris Holbrook built me a brand-new 706 for that thing; Marco built me a killer transmission; that car was just incredible. We won the second race out with it. It was very competitive, always consistent. The worst thing that car had was its driver. If the driver was any good, Big Red was going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1196\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_DSB_4479.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93150\"><\/figure>\n<p>As the decade ended, though, Butcher sensed a change in IHRA culture that had him looking for Top Sportsman alternatives beyond the rival NHRA. Coincidentally, he was among a group of four drivers invited in May 2011 to participate in the first-ever appearance of Top Sportsman at an ADRL event. The four-car display at Pennsylvania\u2019s Maple Grove Raceway was an exhibition only, but two months later at Martin, Michigan, Butcher went into the record books as the first winner of an official ADRL Top Sportsman event.<\/p>\n<p>He continued with the ADRL through its inaugural partial season and ran the full schedule in 2012 before parting with his beloved \u201968\u2014immediately after making it to the final round of the year-ending ADRL World Finals at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sold it to Chris Gulitti and before the finals I said if I win it, I\u2019m not selling; if I lose, you\u2019ve got to come pick it up on the return road. Well, I lost but I felt guilty so I towed it back to the pits for him,\u201d Butcher says. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t watch him load it. I went to the winners circle and congratulated everybody, but I wouldn\u2019t come back until it was trailered with the door shut. I couldn\u2019t do it; I just couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Butcher knew, though, he had something new coming, something he hoped would be equally impressive and certainly every bit as personal. As one of the last two cars completed in Livingston\u2019s shop before he merged it into Larry Jeffers\u2019 chassis organization early in 2013, Butcher\u2019s current ride set a new standard when it debuted during the X-DRL event last April at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s way exotic. It\u2019s got everything, a machine-gun-barrel steering wheel, LED lights throughout the whole thing, titanium slip-jointed tube, skulls and flames pressed right into the titanium firewall. The whole back half of the car is titanium. We put all this titanium in it so that we could put 200 pounds of chrome weight bars in the car,\u201d Butcher says, explaining it also left open the option to someday step up from Top Sportsman to the flyweight Pro Nitrous division.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the titanium and common custom touches, though, Butcher\u2019s current \u201969 Camaro includes a special hinged-door compartment in the driver\u2019s door and a unique padded seat that flips up and locks in place horizontally so he has a more comfortable perch while riding the roll cage to and from the staging lanes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like wearing my fire suit to the starting line, so I usually go up in shorts and flip-flops and then I put everything on when the car in front of me is in the burnout box. I wait until the last minute. Then, before the other guy gets out of the car, I\u2019m usually back in my flip-flops. So I had Garret make a little compartment in the door to put my flip-flops in and when I get to the other end, I can pop them out and throw them on,\u201d Butcher explains.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1013\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_IGT_3599.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93143\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve also got a horn in the car; every race car should have a horn,\u201d he states. \u201cI love to pick on the Safety Safari guys when you\u2019re coming around the corner at the top end. I\u2019ll drive at them and beep the horn and act like I don\u2019t have any control. And they always jump back and then they laugh; they can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve got a horn. But it comes in handy sometimes, too. I\u2019ve used it a couple of times just to get someone\u2019s attention when I\u2019m sitting in the lanes or the burnout box.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So far with the new car Butcher won a Quick-4 race at Norwalk last year, as well as recorded a couple of runner-up finishes and several semi-final appearances in NHRA Top Sportsman competition. \u201cUnfortunately this car has not yet seen a full-blown national event or divisional final, but it\u2019s so close,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>This season Butcher plans to stick relatively close to his Ohio home, with a few PDRA races on the schedule along with some NHRA national and divisional events that permit him to run a new two-car team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy boy, Max, he started Junior Dragster racing so we\u2019re trying to compete for time between him and me both. I think he hated me for two years from when he was eight because I didn\u2019t buy him a car right away. But this year we bought him a brand-new, turnkey Half Scale dragster when he turned 10,\u201d Butcher says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Late this June in Michigan, both Butchers made their 2014 PDRA debuts, with Glenn qualifying ninth in Top Sportsman and falling in the second round, while in his first race ever Max started from the number-four spot in Top Junior Dragster before a two-thousandths-of-a-second red light ended his day in the semi finals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMax is all about racing; that\u2019s all he knows and loves,\u201d Butcher says. \u201cHe was still in the womb when he made his first trips to the track and there\u2019s probably been 10 passes that he hasn\u2019t seen me make since he\u2019s been born. I don\u2019t like going without him and he doesn\u2019t like when he doesn\u2019t go with me. He definitely has a passion and a knowledge for it and he\u2019s already really, really smart about racing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1192\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_IGT_1399.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93145\"><\/figure>\n<p>Butcher obviously is thrilled to have his son racing as a teammate, but if not for his wife, he insists, there would be no Butcher Racing team. Whether it\u2019s making a late-night run to the grocery store and packing the rig before heading out to the track, or making sandwiches and keeping everyone happy and hydrated along the way, or performing basic maintenance between round, Butcher says Linda is always on top of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I don\u2019t make it easy,\u201d he admits. \u201cThey say it looks like I\u2019m trying to run for president of Top Sportsman sometimes, because once we get to the lanes I like to talk. I walk up through the lanes and I\u2019m looking and talking to people and she\u2019s back with the car, without a driver, still maintaining the bottles and the tire pressures and everything else, and I\u2019m up there fist pumping guys and talking and checking out the racing surface and this and that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen I show up just in time for her to yell at me about getting in the car; it\u2019s time to go. So she has a huge role. Without her, I don\u2019t know what I would do. Other than steer the car, she does everything else. Once we get out there, there\u2019s complete comfort and confidence for me in what she\u2019s doing behind the car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Butcher also credits Linda\u2019s mother, Titi (\u201cShe\u2019s from Venezuela and that\u2019s Spanish for grandmother.\u201d), for her contributions to the team, both at the track and when they return home. \u201cWhen we come home from the track she does all the laundry from the truck, cleans the grills, gets the coolers ready. She\u2019s a big part at the track as well, big support. She\u2019s always willing to pack the parachutes, but I won\u2019t let her do that job. That\u2019s one thing I want to do myself. It\u2019s not quite jumping out of an airplane, but it\u2019s close enough that I don\u2019t want to have anyone to blame if it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1012\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Butcher_IGT_1015.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93146\"><\/figure>\n<p>And while his wife\u2019s race-day effort is absolutely critical to his on-track success, Butcher insists it\u2019s not the most important factor in keeping him out there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that she\u2019s willing to be involved is one thing, but supporting it, supporting me, is so crucial because it\u2019s an expensive, dumb hobby. It really is. We spend a lot of money to maybe win back a little. Nobody is making money at this,\u201d he points out. \u201cSo when I hear somebody say something like, \u2018Oh, I see she got a new pair of shoes,\u2019 I say she can have as many shoes as she wants. How are you going to say no, you can\u2019t have a new pair of shoes or whatever when you\u2019re going out there spending all this money just to get to the track?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBack in the bracket racing days there wasn\u2019t much for her to do, but when we slipped into Top Sportsman, it was completely different,\u201d he continues. \u201cThere was a lot more involvement, a lot more need for somebody to help. And she was right there. She loved it and it became a passion of hers as well. So it\u2019s been really, really cool. Without Linda, I wouldn\u2019t race. If my family didn\u2019t go with me to the track, I wouldn\u2019t go. It would be hard to leave them at home and just take a bunch of guys with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Butcher says that sense of family extends even beyond his wife and son and seven-year-old daughter Lyla, \u201cmy biggest cheerleader, by far.\u201d An extended family is largely responsible for keeping him interested and involved in racing, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing; we have a great group of racers in all the classes, but especially in the Top Sportsman class it seems there are so many racers that if you\u2019re ever in need of anything they\u2019ll be right there. We have cookouts or eat together, spend time in the evening together, even talk on the phone throughout the week,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re all just a bunch of car guys that travel from place to place and just hang out. It\u2019s like a family reunion every time you go to the track. You know everybody and everybody knows you. The kids all hang out together, ride scooters, talk. It\u2019s an awesome, fun family place; it really is. It really is all about family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And fun. Butcher is having fun, regardless of what the results sheet may say at the end of a weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love Top Sportsman because I like going fast and I like the bracket race end of it. I like hitting the tree and racing to the finish line. I like that whole double combination; everything has got to be right and the driver has got to be right,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not about who has the most money and who can find a way to make the car the fastest; it\u2019s about the combination. I think it takes more involvement of the driver than any other class. To bracket race a door car at over 200 miles an hour, I think that\u2019s incredible. It\u2019s also really, really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-modified-info\">This story was originally published on April 6, 2026. <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\" width=\"20px\" alt=\"Drag Illustrated\"><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/di-classic-whether-working-or-racing-lifes-a-blast-for-glenn-butcher\/\">DI CLASSIC: Whether Working or Racing, Life\u2019s A Blast For Glenn Butcher<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/\">Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Drag Illustrated celebrates its 20th anniversary and approaches the milestone 200th issue, we\u2019re diving into the archives and republishing some of favorite features from 190-plus issues of the magazine. This cover story by Ian Tocher on Glenn Butcher, who won the 2024 PDRA Elite Top Sportsman world championship, is from DI #89 in July [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}