Following the Straight and Narrow

A family-built chevy strengthens the ties that bind.

- Rod Short

There’s an old joke: If God didn’t like drag racing, then the Bible wouldn’t say we should follow the straight and narrow. We’re not certain that’s necessarily true, but it sure hasn’t prevented the Robinson family team from finding success with two IHRA divisional championships along the way.

“After aging out of junior dragsters, I needed a car, and my dad had this 1955 Chevy that had been sitting since before I was born,” Matt Robinson told us about the car’s background. “He traded for it when he was 16 and drove it on the street until he went into the army. In 1975, he and my mom were married and drove away from the church in the same car. A year later, he decided to make the ’55 into his dream race car, and he raced it until 1984.

“Dad gave me the car when I turned 16, and we both worked to tear it down completely and update it,” Matt continued. “I raced it at Farmington Dragway while I was studying mechanical engineering at North Carolina State and actually won a bracket race just a few months after debuting the car.”