---

For half of his 30 years, Paul Schadt has been "addicted" to drag racing.

When he was 15, the Cromwell, Minnesota native went to Brainerd International Raceway for a weekend of racing with some friends. "I always liked muscle cars," Schadt said, "and once I got a taste of it, I was hooked."

Schadt, who now lives in rural Lindstrom, has been racing for about six years and picked up his biggest win at BIR over the Memorial Day weekend. He drove his 1972 Buick Gran Sport to a win in the Stock Eliminator Class.

It took Schadt only 11.317 seconds (114.94 mph) to cover the 1/4 mile in the finals to beat Ray Remington of Austin, Minnesota. Driving a 1967 Dodge Coronet, Remington covered the distance in 14.696 seconds (88.93 mph).

The win earned Schadt points in the NHRA Lucas Oil drag series and the first place purse. "But," the winner cautioned, "if you're in it for the money, you need to find something else to do. If you win, you might do a little better than break even on a weekend. It's expensive, but fun."

Schadt, a toolmaker in White Bear Lake, and wife Stacy, also a Cromwell area native, lived in Wyoming, Minnesota for eight years before buying 20 acres north of Lindstrom, where they've lived for the last year and a half. "We're happy here. Stacy's worked in Lindstrom for seven years and, in a few years, we'll have everything as we'd like it. We've planted a lot of trees and we've been watering them a lot," Schadt commented.

While living in Wyoming, Schadt bought a '66 Chevelle 396 and started racing about six years ago. "I was trying to drive it on the road, too, and it just got to be too much. I bought the Gran Sport (powered by a 455 cubic inch "Torquemaster") about a year ago and I plan to race it two or three times a season."

Every season, there are seven sponsored races at seven different sites in this drag series section. The section includes tracks in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas.

Drag Racing for Dummies

Drag racing isn't much like the dangerous and illegal street racing many of us are more familiar with.

In "Bracket Racing," every driver puts in his ET (estimated time) before the race begins. "Ideally, you'd like to come in as close to your ET as possible, without going under it, while beating your opponent across the finish line," Schadt explained.

The cars are handicapped. That is, if car number one has an ET of 11.3 seconds and car number two has an ET of 14.3 seconds, the driver of car one has to wait three seconds after the first car leaves. "That's the toughest part," Schadt commented. "It's really hard to sit there and wait. But, if both drivers leave when the tree comes down and the lights come on, both cars should finish at the same time.

"Temperature, humidity, elevation, everything affects the car's performance. Cool, dry weather is best. Everything else being equal, it all comes down to reaction time," Schadt continued.

The weight of the car is also factored in. For example, Schadt's car, including the driver must weigh in at 3800 pounds or more. To give the car more traction, a weight bar and weight box have been installed in the trunk, directly over the rear axle.

"The only time you get to race head-to-head is if you race against someone in your same class. I'm in the "G Stock Automatic" class. If I race against another G Stock car, we both get to leave at the same time and whoever gets there first is the winner," Schadt explained.

The cars burn high-octane racing fuel specially designed for high compression engines like the one in his Buick. "It costs about $10 per gallon, but I might only use four gallons in a weekend. For example, at Brainerd I ran in qualifying races on Friday and Saturday before the finals on Sunday. There were about 60 cars in my class and I think I ran six races," Schadt explained.

The drag racing community is a fairly close-knit group. "I bought my car from a racer from Louisiana, but it had been previously owned by a Forest Lake driver," Schadt said. "He was really happy to see the car back in the area."

In addition tending to his trees in dry weather, the drag racer enjoys doing "most of" the work on his car. "No stress! It's my way of relaxing," Schadt concluded.

---