Outside the Office: The thrill of the race with Poplar Bluff's Jeff Libla

Jeff Libla is an adrenaline seeker. He is also president and general manager of Legacy Fasteners, a family-owned and operated business located in Poplar Bluff, Mo., that specializes in manufacturing nails for the pallet, crating and container industries.

Outside his job, he fills his free time with adventure in every form. Libla has skydived in the air above, caved in the ground below and dived in the deep sea. Still after “trying it all”, Libla’s favorite place to get an adrenaline rush is on the track — the drag racing track.

“Drag racing is my heart,” Libla said. “I think it’s because I started at such a young age. It’s just in my blood.”

As a 16-year-old, Libla first entered the world of drag-racing when he transformed an “old black 1955 Chevy” vehicle into a race car with his father, David Libla.

Libla says they built the car “from scratch” and raced it for three years at local drag strips. Drag racing became their father-son activity, and Libla said one of his favorite parts was building the motors and servicing them.

The father-son duo got a taste for speed and “wanted to go faster,” so Libla said they purchased their first Spitzer Dragster, which they started racing in circuits.

In 1992, Libla won the National Hot Rod Association Division 3 Jegs Super Quick Series championship. Libla said he raced in different drag racing circuits across the country up until 1999 when he had kids. He took a break from racing for about 16 years, before returning to the hobby in 2016.

“The kids got older and I was itching to go back to racing, so I got back in [the hobby], and I got back in really deep,” Libla said.

When he started racing again in 2016, he won his sixth race back, and was a runner-up or semifinalist in countless races since then. So far, he says he has “actually won” about four drag races. Libla competes in three main drag circuits: the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), which specializes in quarter-mile races; the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA), which specializes in eighth-mile races; and the Open Outlaw, another drag series that specializes in “fast as you can go” eighth-mile races.

In every drag race, drivers compete two at a time on a straight-line track. Libla says the races usually happen on weekends with qualifying rounds on Friday and Saturday, and final rounds on Saturday night or Sunday.

Libla said the last “big race” he won was the PDRA Elite Top Dragster Class in 2021. In racing, he said there are different classes of competition. Libla competes in the Top Dragster class which he describes as the “fastest class considered sportsman.” In simple terms, Libla is just a few classes below the professionals. This means Libla goes fast — really fast.

Libla owns three drag cars, but the main one he races with is the 2021 Miller Top Dragster. He competes in both the quarter- and eighth-mile drag races, but says he likes the shorter runs best. His current records for racing are 3.68 seconds at 200 mph in the eighth-mile, and 5.80 seconds at 240 mph in the quarter-mile. Going this fast in any vehicle is extremely dangerous, even if the vehicle is a drag car built for high speeds.

Libla says the best way to remain safe in a drag race is to take all the necessary precautions before getting on the track. This includes servicing the vehicle beforehand, staying up to date on parts and checking that everything down to the “nuts and bolts” are properly intact.

“When you go racing you've got to be focused, cause’ it could kill you in a minute,” Libla said. “You got a lot of maintenance work to do and upkeep and service to keep yourself safe, but it’s also the adrenaline rush [that makes it enjoyable]. It’s kind of like jumping out an airplane going skydiving, you know it’s really dangerous, but if you do everything right you know it’s safe too.”

Libla says all the racers wear fire resistant suits, similar to the gear firefighters wear, but made with a lighter material. If a drag car catches on fire during racing, Libla says the protective suit will give the driver “a few more seconds to escape before burning up.”

Libla has had a few scary experiences of his own while racing, such as going 100 feet off the racing track into a cornfield. Though drag racing is not without risk, Libla loves it. He says he enjoys the speed, especially at the start line of the race when the cars can go from zero to 60 mph in about 0.8 seconds.

“The starting line is where the greatest G-force is [experienced], and then [again] when you pull the parachutes and you stop,” Libla said. “It's probably like getting blasted off in a rocket. But we’re actually faster than that. I’d say the closest comparison you could have is a jet taking off on an aircraft carrier.”

When it comes down to it, Jeff says what he really loves about racing is the competitive nature of the sport and the friendships he has made along the way. Drag racing is a group sport in a way, as Libla has family and friends supporting him through every race.

His wife Tabatha and two boys, Mason and Blayne, help with maintenance between rounds, line the tracks, check tire pressure and everything in-between to keep their husband and dad safe while he’s drag racing. He says his two friends, Carl McElhaney and Bryan Browning, are also a big help on racing days.

“What you experience [in drag racing] is just the thrill of competing against the guy sitting next to you,” Libla says.