"The Rise of Ken Lowe"

Once just another bracket racer, Ken Lowe has moved to the top of the heap in Top Alcohol Dragster

It's just another classic example of "overnight success." Phone lines across the country buzzed the day after the United Drag Racers' Association's season opening Springnationals at Byron, Illinois in May, 1986.

"Who won Byron ?"   "Ken Lowe."   "Ken WHO ?"

"I dunno where he came from, but he sure did make everyone else look stupid out there!"

Indeeed, Ken Lowe seemed to come from nowhere. His rise to "hitter" status, however, came with drag racing's traditional prerequisite of two decades of obscurity. The Ohioan behind the wheel of the Landa Pressure Washers Rodeck alcohol dragster had obviously just been waiting to strike.

Ken Lowe's first "ride" came at age twelve in the rolling hills of Kentucky. His father had left him at a garage while chasing parts for the family tractor, and a friend of his father's asked Ken if he'd like to drive into town in a mildly hopped-up '55 Chevy Bel-Air. During the trip, the driver asked Ken if he'd like to "see what this old 'Shivvy' will do." After that initial stomp on the throttle and the accompanying snap of the neck, Ken was hooked.

Ken and his friends began building and rebuilding any car or engine they could find. When his family decided to junk their 1953 Chevy, Ken told his father that he could rebuild the well-worn cruiser to use as his own first car. The folks agreed, and within a year the car was battling the lights at the quarter-mile in Clay City, Kentucky, as a 15-second F/Gasser.

Within another few years, Ken stepped up to a heavyweight '55 Chevy body and built his first Hilborn-injected 283-cubic inch powerplant. The rig, classified in E/Gas, gave Ken a few low 14-second rides in the 1965 season, but the four-speed machine was constantly at a disadvantage because of its massive bulk. Regardless of Ken's continual weight-shaving modifications, the car was still less than competitive.

After thrashing on the '55 Chevy week in and week out, Ken and buddies Tommy Richardson and Danny McCord began eyeing drag racing's unlimited divisions and decided to build a dragster. Scrounging parts and pieces, all seemed to be falling together until the threesome realized that they had nowhere near enough tubing to build a long chassis. The solution ? Build an altered !

The '23 T-bucket used a 327 Chevy with the '55 Chevy's old Hilborn injectors and managed respectable 9.90's at over 145 mph in A/Altered trim; the combinations was strong enough on a local level at Clay City, Bowling Green, Bluegrass and other Kentucky strips to make a dent in the competition. The team was even looking forward to stepping up to national level action in 1968 until Ken received his induction notice in late 1967. In a flash, weekend racing was replaced with reconnaissance scout duty in Viet Nam.

During his military tour, Ken corresponded with chassis builder Mark Williams and planned his return with a professionally-built dragster chassis in mind. Upon his return from duty, Ken used his Army pay to purchase a new digger from M-W, and returned to the local scene in a Chevy-powered C/Dragster.

The 1969 season also saw Ken marry his current racing partner Jan, and the new "team" spent the next four years traveling to local and national events during the car's evolution into B/Dragster, A/Dragster and finally B/ Fuel Dragster trim with injected, nitro-burning small-block Chevy power.

The little digger was actually one of the Midwest's quickest B/Fuelers, hitting a best of 7.05 at over 194 mph at an NHRA WWCS meet at Bowling Green, KY in 1974, during the very first season of Pro Comp Eliminator's existence. In 1975, however, Ken moved back to his birthplace in Cincinatti, Ohio, to take a position with Landa Pressure Washers as a district salesman. When offered a distributorship for the product, Ken and Jan decided to sell the entire racing operation to a team in Virginia and concentrate on starting his own business.

The Lowe's franchise grew amazingly fast, and in 1978 Ken bought a crewcab and trailer with plans to go Top Fuel racing. When the expense of a new fuel operation began to approach ridiculous proportions, Ken and Jan decided to postpone the move to Top Fuel and return to sportsman class action. They purchased an ancient front-engine chassis from Cincinatti racer John Backus and dropped in an injected alcohol big-block Chevy to hit 8.30's at over 165 mph in bracket action.

The car itself was a piece of history. The chassis was the same which John Pusch and Don Cain had utilized to capture the 1966 AHRA and 1967 NHRA Top Gas National Championships. It was ironic that Ken would use the same car to create and then dominate the short-lived Top Gast East Circuit in 1981 and 1982. Forming a group of some 18 - 20 injected dragsters and altereds, the TGE-crew emulated the popular Top Gas organization on the west coast using a similar heads-up, no breakout format in qualified shows throughout the midwest. In 1981, Ken's classic digger won six of the TGE's ten events.

Still, Ken was disenchanted with sportsman racing. In 1982 he made the decision to enter the bizarre world of go-kart racing. Competing within the Ohio Valley Karting Associations's ranks, Ken Lowe's tremendous driving ability once again shone through. He won two of the association's season championships and developed quite a reputation for producing super-powerful kart motors on his own mini-dynomometer.

As it always seems to happen, though, Ken was persauded by Australian friend Roly Leahy to attend the 1984 U.S. Nationals. The bug bit again, and before Ken knew it he was back behind the wheel of the injected dragster.

In 1985, Ken put together a bone stock 427-inch supercharged alcohol engine for the digger, and the 10-year old chassis recorded a few 7.30's at over 191 mph. When the UDRA hosted a national event at nearby Edgewater Raceway Park, Ken made his first national event appearance in almost a decade. Although not a qualifier, the car drew plenty of crowd response. The same machine, using a "weak" Powerglide two-speed, eventually pounded out a 7.29 - 192 pass, carrying the front wheels 600 feet and smoking the front tires upon re-entry like a landing jet !

Ken ordered a set of Bac-Man aluminum cylinder heads and a new 14-71 supercharger for the coming season, but it was crewchief and partner Jan who advised Ken to "empty the garage" and sell his stock of blocks, heads, go-karts, and spares and build a "real car." Ken found a state-of-the-art rear-engined chassis at Johnny C. Davis' shop (the same John Davis who acts as crewchief for Jim Head's AA/FC operation) that was ready to run with a new Rodeck powerplant, and decided to hit the NHRA and UDRA national event trail

That's when it all started. The gleaming red and white masterpiece flew the Landa Pressure Washers colors right into the 16-car field at Ken's first appearance, the NHRA Gatornationals. A 6.62 qualifier -- a full half-second quicker than Ken had ever gone in the front-motored car -- was followed by a 6.55 - 211 shot in eliminations. At the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta, the chromed showpiece qualified third with a blistering 6.47 at 212 mph, but again lost early.

At the UDRA season opener, Lowe qualified second behind Al DaPozzo's 6.66 with a 6.68. Ken improved to a 6.66 during eliminations (over Larry Lay's Rodeck), and finally drove right into the winners' circle when Jeff Richardson's KB digger fouled in the final. Suddenly, Ken Lowe was an overnight sensation.

The UDRA Thunder Nationals at Martin, MI put Ken in a high-pressure (no pun intended) situation. Having won the first event of the season, the rest of the alky dragster fraternity was looking to prove that the victory was a fluke. Lowe qualified on the pole with a 6.63 - 206 effort that was twelve hundredths of a second quicker than the second qualifer, hit Low E.T. at a 6.50 -- the second quickest TAD run in UDRA history -- broke Lee Young's two-year old UDRA T/AD national speed record with 213.27 and 213.77 blasts, and beat '84 UDRA National Champ Tony Zizzo in the final. Suddenly, Lowe was no longer an overnight sensation. He was a holy terror.

At the next UDRA national event at Cordova, IL, Lowe could still not be stopped. His 6.63 - 213 led the "suicide qualifying" session, and solid 6.60's blasted the field all the way through Canadian final round opponent Al Kenny. The UDRA Hawkeye Nationals at Cedar Falls, IA saw the Landa Pressure Washers Rodeck again lead qualifying with a 6.52 - 204 and again march through the pack to the final against Zizzo. This time, however, the car shook the tires fiercely and buzzed the Rodeck hard enough to break the valve lifters. Zizzo won, and Ken Lowe had lost for the first time in four events.

The fifth event of the UDRA schedule stirred Ken to his finest form yet. The Buckeye Nationals, held at Ken's home track in Cincinatti, drew a packed house of fans accustomed to seeing the Landa team run big numbers. Despite qualifying second behind Keith Stark's KB-powered rig with a 6.52 at only 181 after pitching a blower belt, Lowe stepped up to the quickest TAD run in UDRA history in the opening round, stopping Earl Datweiler's KB with an astounding 6.46 - 214.79. The red and white crowd favorite plowed into the finale against Al DaPozzo, the winningest dragster driver in UDRA digger competition. With the crowd on their collective feet, the hometown boy did much more than just make good. Ken Lowe reset both ends of the UDRA national record and beat DaPozzo in the quickest and fastest side-by-side battle in UDRA alky digger history, 6.451 - 215.31 to 6.49 - 209.79. To add insult to injury, it was DaPozzo's three-year-old ET record that Lowe shattered on the run. It was also the fourth straight track record for the team in the still-young season.

By mid-season, Lowe's points lead in the UDRA/Coors Beer National Championship race was insurmountable. He went on to win a UDRA regional points event at Beaver Springs, PA, and faltered when a new shifter lock-out malfunction prevented him from even qualifying at the UDRA Hoosier Nationals in Munice, IN. Breakage again killed his chances at a UDRA points meet at Xenia, OH, but by August Ken had already secured the UDRA/Coors Beer National Championship in the Supercharged Dragster division.

Ken and Jan went on to the NHRA Division III Winston World Championship Series event at Central Michigan Dragway in Stanton, MI but an out-of-the-box 6.60 pass indicated problems to the Landa team. Ken thrashed through the night, completely disassembling the car, and made adjustments. The next morning, the Landa Pressure Washers Rodeck marched through the traps with a 6.32 at 218.44 miles per hour. At the time, it was the quickest and fastest Chevy-powered alcohol dragster run in history. Runs of 6.36 - 217.91 and 6.38 - 216.86 dumped Mike Kosky's Rodeck and longtime pal Don Woosley's KB (whom Lowe has known since high school), but Lowe's luck ran out on a foul against NHRA World Champ Bill Walsh in the final round.

The pace failed to slow, however, at the NHRA U.S. Nationals. In a field of more than forty alcohol dragsters, Lowe's qualifying attempts resulted in a string of 6.36 - 213.67, 6.43 - 216.55, and an awesome 6.339 - 218.92 which secured the number one qualifying position. Unfortunately, violent tire shake slowed the car to a 6.65 - 212 pace in the first round against eventual runner-up Gary Scelzi. The impression made, however, was a lasting one.

To complete the season, Ken was the star of the annual UDRA Awards Banquet, where the Landa Pressure Washers team was handed their National Championship, Best Engineered Car honors in the Supercharged Dragster division, and Rookie of the Year for 1986.

Although Ken and Jan plan on attending NHRA divisional and national events in 1987, they will campaign primarily on the UDRA circuit where, Ken says, the bottom line is more appealing. Likewise, Ken enjoys the UDRA one-day event schedule and the often cutthroat "suicide qualifying" format which allows one and only one qualifying shot for all competitors. Ken feels that the one-pass rule favors "the team that takes care of their operation and pays attention to detail." While that statement may be true, the same format also favors the team that can work under extreme pressure.

The Lowe's have proven their ability to deal with pressure. They have also proven that they can tangle with the best -- the absolute best -- and come up a winner nearly every time. While 1986 was the first full season of both exposure and recognition for Ken and Jan Lowe, to call them "rookies" seems unfair. After all, two decades of racing would seem to be more than enough dues for any team to pay for a National Championship. It would only figure, however, that after his domination in 1986, they'll all be talking about Ken Lowe, "the Old Pro," in 1987.

written by Bret Kepner from Super Stock & Drag Illustrated pages 32-34 / 86-88 - May, 1987 © LOPEZ PUBLICATIONS INC. 1987