The Garbers’ 1979 jet-black Jeep toes the line at the red light. The trans-brake is set and with a push of a button, the 700-horsepower engine rumbles to life. With a flip of a switch, nitrous oxide trickles into the carburetor to boost the motor’s output to over 1,000 horsepower. The gas pedal is pushed to the floor and the driver’s heart pumps in frantic anticipation. When the light flicks green, the trans-brake is snapped off and the Jeep roars down the dirt track, debris flying in its wake, covering the 300-foot track in just 3.68 seconds.
That is the weekend life of Paul and Natashia Garber, of Newcastle. The husband-and-wife team are the leaders of the pack on the Fast Track in three different classes at Barnyard All Terrain in Livermore. While the Garbers compete at several different venues in the state and New England, only the Livermore facility keeps a point system for the season that stretches from May to October.
In Fast Track, Paul is ranked first in Class 5, with Natashia close behind in second. Paul and Natashia are tied for first in Class 6, and in Class 3 Paul is seeded second and Natashia third.
Midway through the season, the Garbers have collectively won 23 trophies, mostly first and second places with a few thirds sprinkled in. “We have a ton of (trophies). Our friends tell us we need a trophy room. We say we do; it’s called a garage,” Natashia said.
Fast Track competition, like drag racing, is all about speed. The fastest truck down the 300-foot track is the winner. The Garbers compete in Class 3 Pro Stock, Class 5 Modified, and Class 6 Super Modified. The biggest difference in Class 3 and 5 is the tires, while Class 6 allows power boosters like nitrous. In all three classes, the body has to be stock-appearing.
The Garbers run two types of DOT tires (road legal). The second set has every other rubber lug cut off to lighten the truck.
The Garbers also compete in Deep Mud (Class 4) with a second rig, a 1979 Jeep painted blaze orange. Natashia is ranked sixth and Paul 12th in the event. The winner of Deep Mud is the fastest time, or in the case where no truck makes it all the way through the pit, the winner is the one that traveled the farthest distance. The depth of the Deep Mud pits depends on the class, which is largely determined by the tire size. The larger the tire, the deeper the mud.
“I’ve always been interested in motor sports and engines. We got into it early in 2000. It just looked like it would be fun,” Paul said of getting started in the sport. In 2001 they purchased their black Jeep, which had been used for both Fast Track and Deep Mud.
“He was into diesel (truck) pulls, so we bought it so I could play in the mud,” Natashia said of getting her start in Deep Mud competitions. Natashia owns Aura Hair Salon in Boothbay Harbor. She is a girly girl during the week and, when asked what they call her on the weekends, she responded, “A girly girl with a Jeep.”
“Racing is an adrenaline rush. I like being one of the only girls that does it. A lot of girls do Deep Mud, but not a lot of girls drive Fast Track,” Natashia said.
As Paul is “a horsepower guy,” they built up the Jeep for Fast Track. “I’ve always liked fast track,” Paul said.
The dashboard of the Jeep looks like an airplane cockpit with its numerous gauges and switches. Each switch has a fine-tuned purpose to make the Jeep perform to its maximum capacity. All systems in it are pre-set. “The more stuff you can run consistently, the better off you are,” Paul said.
One switch controls the fuel pump, another the water pump, and another the fans. The radiator is mounted in the back seat area of the vehicle to put more weight on the rear wheels. “The more weight you can shift to the back the better,” Paul said.
“When you pull up to the line and stage you hit the trans-brake. It locks the car so you can’t roll through the lights. You put the car on the floor and when you snap the trans-brake off (like letting the clutch out in a manual) the engine is set at a pre-determined rpm. It does the same thing every time, the same rpm every time,” Paul said.
The truck runs so consistently that often only 1/100 of a second separates Paul and Natashia on their runs.
“That shows how consistent the truck is,” Paul said.
When asked why the local fairs do not do Fast Track, Paul said the track is 300 feet long and you need “that far to shut down.” In reality,a 1,000 foot straightaway is needed for the race. “Most fairs do not have that kind of space,” Paul added.
Paul does most of the work on the Jeeps with the help of Natashia. The paint work was done by R.W. Glidden, his friend Maurice Hyson helps him a lot, and the engine was built by Bob Stevens, of Finish Line Racing Engines in Augusta. “He is the premier engine builder in the state. He does a lot of for truck pulls too,” Paul said. “And lobster boat racing engines,” Natashia added.
A good week means Paul, who owns Paul Garber Residential Building Contractors, does not have to do any work on the Jeeps, but if something breaks, the Garbers could spend 20 hours after work at night getting the Jeep fixed up for the next competition.
“Some events are held back-to-back, but lots of times events are spread out, with two or three weeks between. There is a lot of breakage, and that gives us time to fix it. There are a lot of variables of things that can happen,” Paul said.
The Garbers sign a waiver at each event they compete in. At The Trucks Gone Wild event on Saturday at Barnyard All Terrain in Livermore, 470 trucks registered for the event.
It is hard for track owners to get insurance, so safety is a big concern. The Garbers’ Jeep is outfitted with a six-point roll cage and a five-point harness. They have a kill switch within reach and a master kill switch on the rear of the vehicle. They also wear helmets and fire suits. All vehicles have to pass a safety inspection before they compete, including inspections of the brakes and neutral safety switch.
Natashia has had a couple of close calls, including doing a wheelie at the start and almost rolling the Jeep over backward at Oxford while using nitrous. “It was too much too quick. The track was too grippy. The sand track is meant to be loose, but I was down to hard pack,” Natashia said. She almost rolled the Jeep during a Deep Mud competition when she got too high on the lip of the pit.
“They are pretty big on safety,” Paul said of the venues that host the runs. “If the track is getting rough, they will stop and groom it. Nobody minds.”
“One cool thing about it is the people,” Paul said. “It’s the community,” Natashia added.
“It is the same people. We have a lot of fun. We all have campers. Half of it is the camping and hanging out with everyone,” Paul said of the camaraderie and friendships that develop over the season and years at the events.
