Reuben Standifer of Mount Airy always has liked race cars. With five brothers racing, it was only natural for the youngest to become involved in the sport.
Most of his brothers started drag racing on the streets before organized competition became popular, but Standifer settled for the safety of the 75-80 Dragway in Monrovia.
As soon as he turned 16, Standifer, 36, started racing with a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda. From the start, he concentrated on consistency first, speed second. And he has become one of the top runners in the area.
Standifer raced his Barracuda until 1985 when he took time out to build a house.
Four years later, he was ready to return and began looking for a new car to race. He found the car he wanted in northern Virginia, a 1968 Dodge Dart that had been sitting idle for a couple of years.
Although the car was ready to race, Standifer decided to update it. He spent 30 months completely stripping the car to the chassis, then rebuilding it with new parts, suspension and safety equipment.
Since returning to racing, Standifer has been a consistent top runner in Class I competition.
Throughout the 1994 season, Standifer's name appeared in the results from 75-80. He won two races and went to the semifinals and quarterfinals several times. He finished high enough in the point standings to make it to the Bracket Finals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.
"I dropped a valve earlier in the year that damaged my heads and caused me to miss five weeks," said Standifer. "If I hadn't missed that time, I would have finished much higher."
Thanks to the help from his brother-in-law, Nathan Etzler, also a top driver in Class I, Standifer was able to finish out the season.
"Nathan helps me out a lot," said Standifer. "He usually has a good bit of spares and he lets me use them."
While most of the drivers like to get to the track early to get as many timing runs as they can to dial in their car, Standifer's job as a produce manager for a Giant supermarket in Rockville keeps him from arriving in time for the extra runs.
Having to work most Saturday and Sunday mornings, Standifer rushes to the track in time to get one practice run if he is lucky, but he knows the car so well that he is still hard to beat.
"I pretty much can dial the car in depending on the weather," said Standifer. "I usually know what the car is going to run after checking the temperature and the humidity. I don't fool with the car, so I know what it is going to do. If the weather is hot, it will run two-tenths of a second slower. If the weather is right, it will do the quarter-mile in 10 seconds. I just dial what it is like that day."
Standifer's confidence comes from knowing the car. He never makes changes during the season because consistency is the key to doing well in bracket racing. Each week he adjusts the valves and changes the oil, then is ready to race.
The Dodge Dart is powered by a 500-horsepower, 440-cubic-inch engine, and the 2,800-pound car can reach the end of the track in 10 seconds flat.
"I like racing; I like the competition," said Standifer. "During the winter I will go over the motor, but don't plan on doing any changes, can't afford to. I would like to go faster, but that costs money."