Written by Jim Fox Photography by Jesse Fox (3G Video)
Learning to be a Mechanic
Personally, coming from a small family with only one sister, it is hard for me to imagine having thirteen aunts and uncles just on one side of the family. But that is the case for the driver of the Meltdown Firebird, Jason Hurley. His Mom was one of fourteen and nine of them were boys. All of them liked cars and were kind of wild, a couple of them drag raced on Friday night at the local track. Even though his Dad liked cars he wasn’t a mechanic and didn’t want to be. So as Jason was growing up his older brother and himself pretty much learned on their own how to work on cars, along with some help of nine uncles that all had different mechanical skills.
Growing up
Mom made them go to mass at the local Catholic Church. As soon as Jason was done with Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) he was done with church. He still loves to go to the old home place where they butchered their own meat and stored all the vegetables in the basement to feed fourteen kids. At age sixteen, when he could drive, Dad loaned him the family car, an Oldsmobile Delta 88. Jason’s brother had it first but it had been sitting for two years. He drove it about two weeks and the water pump went out, so he decided to change it himself. Dad wasn’t happy and hated the whole process but they got it done. Jason said,
“I knew if I wanted to be a mechanic I would need to learn on my own”.
Then he got a job as a mechanic, sort of, in a filling station and learned a lot from the owner and the mechanic with a combination of sixty years of experience.
The “66” F-100
The first vehicle he bought was a 1966 F-100. Learned a lot from that old truck, fabrication, how to make different stuff work, what not to do and some basic wiring. The old Ford started out with an in-line 6, went to a 360, then a 400 modified C-6. Three on the tree, to three on the floor to an automatic. Did his first engine swap in a week while his parents were on vacation and they didn’t know it was going to happen. His brother had bought a “78”Pontiac Trans Am and kept getting him involved with cars. At age seventeen Jason did his first race on the track at Bandimere in the “66” F-100, doing the quarter mile in 17 flat. He was hooked. Jason’s Dad was not in favor of him racing cars. Jason was born with half of his fifth lumbar vertebrae not attached to his pelvic bone. Well, it has not slowed Jason down.
Trying to Find
His next build was a “79” Fox Body Mustang notch back with a 400 cubic inch engine and a modified C-6. It was modified to the point that it was only a race car. Its fastest pass was a 13.2 but he hated having a dragstrip only car. He wanted to be able to drive it all the time so he changed it back to a street car and had a lot more fun. Sold that and his ‘66’ F-100 just before he got married. Jason did keep his 1993 Honda Shadow VT 1100 and raced it in his 20s. He also had a 2nd gen F body. That car was orange however it was originally blue. Jason had that car for at least 20 years, delivered pizza with it to pay the mortgage on the new house. The first time he built the F body was for his wedding, and he is not getting rid of that one. At this point in time Jason got bored with his current cars and couldn’t afford to build the drag car he wanted so he quit bracket racing and racing all together. Through this season of his life he focused on his career, life, and rode his motorcycles a lot. Which to this day he still has three of them.
Finding Who He Was
For the next ten to fifteen years Jason was wandering in his faith but knew there was something more. Finally he said, “I came to a really low part of life, depressed, felt like my whole life was falling apart around me”. His brother recommended a pastor that did Christian counseling. So Jason decided to seek help from this counselor and committed to do what he was told. He came out of that experience a whole different person. It was hard to face some of the demons, and even after that he struggled for another four to five years. Then his friend Trevor brought over a buddy for them to work on the buddy’s Jeep. The two of them started talking to Jason about this new version Bible app. It had guided prayers, daily devotions, Bible study plans that he could do at his own pace.
”That’s when my journey with Jesus as my Savior took off!!” “God told me you are not doing this racing thing for fun, I want you to have fun but I need you to do something else too."
Introduced to Drag and Drive
Jason became friends with a car guy that he worked with. This friend started talking about Race Week in 2016. Jason had no idea what drag and drive was but the more they talked he thought this sounds “freaking awesome”, so they decided to build race cars. Jason’s wife wouldn’t let him build a race bike but he could build a race car. So they got some good advice from another new friend, set a budget, which it cost twice that much but it was still a budget car.
“I want people to know that you can have friends that are not Christians. I am a Christian and need to be open and approachable, someone somebody can talk to without feeling like they are getting their head beat in.”
The Drag and Drive journey begins
Liking a challenge, drag and drive was what Jason was looking for. He is not loyal to any brand, whatever works and makes since at the time. In 2018 he ran in his first Race Week. They got the original Meltdown Firebird on the track for ten thousand dollars. It had a twin turbo big block Chevy, full roll cage, trans brake in a turbo 400 and after that it spiraled out of control. “There has been some hard frustrating times with our program, no doubt about it, times when I was out of money, out of energy, creativity. I would set down and pray through each and every one of them. The Lord answers in strange ways sometimes. God has brought me some great friends and inspirational people. They have prayed me through some tough times when I wanted to give up. Many of them are right here in the racing community. Church is only for one hour a week, what about all the rest of the hours, God should be involved in all of them.”
“Without My faith in Jesus I could not have accomplished what I have accomplished”
How Meltdown Firebird Got It’s Name
Before the firebird got its name they melted down the engine and found piston pieces in the oil pan. This was the first of many times they would face problems with the car. After that incident Bow Tie Pistons got involved. There second incident occurred they blew a hole through a piston. At this point they decided to put a Holly Dominator in it to hopefully control the engine better and not hurt things. At this same time another friend showed up and started tuning for him. Then for the 2019 season things went pretty good. In the winter of 2020 they started upgrading the transmission, and that lead to the night it got the name. The car was on the hoist, and the crew were working with the two step. The transmission got hot enough that the front seal let loose. The exhaust on the car went down off the headers, underneath the frame rail, then back up to the turbos. When the seal failed it shot ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) straight onto the down pipes and instantly caught fire. Flames were to the ceiling of the shop, and after what must have felt like an eternity they finally got a fire extinguisher and put it out. One of Jason’s friends were there and he said, between the melt down pistons and this meltdown it is going to cause him to have a meltdown. So Jason said “it will be called The Meltdown Firebird”. That all took place a week before Race Week and because of that it allowed them to meet another friend that actually got them a transmission in time for them to compete at that race week just after that fiery mess that gave the car its name.
The Future
This year they have signed up for both Rocky Mountain Race Weeks and with Bandimere shut down, Great bend still trying to figure out their situation and Pueblo down for repairs, both RMRWs will be in much lower altitude and they are excited to get to run on some new tracks to them. They are really excited to be going to Hot Rod by Havlicks in Iowa. This is not a drag and drive but it is back home and the entire family will be there cheering them on. If they do well in RMRW 1.0 and 2.0 they would like to go for the World Title Championship and run one or maybe two more drag and drive events to try and get that title, Street-n-Yeet could be a possibility. Who knows what could be in store, but we are sure excited to see how it all unfolds.
コメント