high performer award

M A G A Z I N E

PRESENTED BY The High Performer Award is given to the individual who has contributed unselfishly to the overall betterment of the sport of Drag Racing.

DANNY GRACIA

16 Drag Racing Edge

Growing up in the heydays of drag rac-ing in southern California, Danny Gracia was every bit the car guy as anyone else. In fact, rumor has it, he “borrowed” his father’s truck at nine-years old to take it for a spin around the neighborhood. And what a neighborhood it was.

Gracia lived down the block from Jack Davis. Davis had worked at Hooker Headers and as such would take a young Gracia to the races, which began a life-long love of race cars. In his early teens, Gracia attended a tech school learning how to weld which ultimately earned him employment at Hooker building head-ers. A gas explosion in 1965, leveled the Hooker facility and needing a job, Gracia found employment at a body shop as a painter.

By the mid-‘70s, he had established himself as a skilled painter, painting

and even building numerous race cars. In 1976, he formed Danny’s Paint Shop which is still run today by his oldest son, Robert, while younger son Jeff works for In-N-Out Burger heiress Lynsi Snyder on her race cars and car collection. In the 1980s, it wasn’t uncommon to find nu-merous west coast race cars painted by Danny’s Paint Shop.

Seemingly interested in the Stock and Super Stock classes, Gracia began help-ing out at the races in a technical position on the NHRA Division 7 level. It wasn’t too long before they realized his knowl-edge of many technical subjects. With

“Some people move up through the ranks of business through their man-agement skills,” said Bob Lang who has worked extensively with Gracia. “While Danny did possess those, it was his wide hands-on knowledge of all aspects re-garding cars in general which enabled him to excel.”

Dave Ley is another of the group who worked with Gracia in the Tech Depart-ment, and said. “Danny never acted like your boss. He was more just a best friend, a friend who had mutual respect for what we did and for the racers alike. He might have at times appeared to be firm, but with a heart bigger than a house, you always knew Danny had your back.”

Married to his wife Helen of 53 years, today Gracia spends much of his time continuing to enjoy life, a life which has earned him the moniker of a Hedman Hedders High Performer.

an almost encyclopedic and photograph-ic memory, Gracia knows what engines came in what car and what was avail-able. It’s that information which has led him to become one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to technical issues in our sport.

Living and working in what was a very rich car culture had its ben-efits. Meeting and hanging out with a number of the movers and shak-ers in our sport enabled Gracia to move up through the ranks, even-tually named as the National Tech Director of the NHRA in the mid-‘90s, a position he held until 2018.