Danny Gruninger was a pretty good golfer for Bear Creek High School, but he’s too busy these days to play much golf.
Gruninger, who graduated from Bear Creek in 2004, has been working hard to get his Dodge Stratus ready for the Pro Stock competition this weekend at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.
However, Gruninger did have time two months ago to make a hole-in-one on the 135-yard eighth hole at Foothills Golf Course and admits it’s hard to say whether driving a dragster or getting an ace is more exhilarating.
“There’s nothing like driving a 200 mph car,” Gruninger said. “I think having a hole-in-one was more of a ‘Wow, did I really just do that?’ When we are at the race track and make a pass, we pretty much know how we are going to run before we even go out to run.”
Gruninger, 23, is a product of Bandimere’s junior dragster program and made his Pro Stock debut at the Mile-High Nationals last summer. He competed in two other 2008 races but this year has switched from driving a Chevy Cobalt to the Stratus.
“We’ve run pretty good in practice, but not quite as good as we would’ve liked,” Gruninger said. “Definitely we have some potential there. Everything is new. The car is new, the motor is new to us and the whole setup is new to us. It’s just going to take us a few more runs to get in figured out.”
Gruninger could be matched this weekend at Bandimere against such drivers as Jeg Coughlin, Warren Johnson and Greg Anderson and it will be a challenge to qualify for eliminations.
“We really need to get the car to run good to half track,” Gruninger said.
If Gruninger’s Stratus runs well this weekend, he plans to continue racing on this summer’s NHRA Western swing that includes races in Seattle and Sonoma, Calif.