UNOH Grad Bill Haskins is Living the Nitro Dream

Posted on Friday, November 24, 2017

Photo Courtesy: Drag Illustrated

Written By: Dan Hodgdon, Drag Illustrated

Bill Haskins’ life has been defined by the Dodge Charger. Today he works for Don Schumacher Racing, serving as the cylinder head specialist on the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car driven by Matt Hagan on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Haskins’ story is one of inspiration and proof that hard work can achieve dreams. Yet his love affair with cars began long before he was ever able to drive, starting with a ’68 Dodge Charger that was rescued from the woods.

Haskins grew up in upstate New York, in the town of Elmira. When he was 13 years old, his dad, Bill Sr.,     (a longtime car buff who has registered over 400 cars) bought that ’68 Charger from a salvage yard and told his young son it should be ready by the time prom rolled around in high school.

Today Haskins, 28, laughs at the thought that the car still isn’t finished, but it’s put him on a career trajectory which has taken him to the very top of the drag racing world, working on cars which he says feature a “vulgar display of power.” Haskins took auto body in high school to learn how to paint cars, and then attended the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) in Lima to further study auto repair in general, all with the Charger in the back of his mind. He’s owned a variety of vehicles in his life, many of them parts cars which he used as a resource to work on his pride and joy.

“I had to wheel and deal. I didn’t have enough money to go out and buy a finished product, so I had to scour through the junkyards and pull pieces off old wrecked cars sitting in the weeds and rip the parts off that I needed, sell the shell and put the parts on my car,” he says.

He admits he knew little about drag racing upon enrolling in UNOH, with the Watkins Glen road course being the closest track to his New York hometown. But one fateful Labor Day Weekend, Haskins was bitten by the drag racing bug.

“My roommate and I heard an ad on the radio for the U.S. Nationals and we were bored,” Haskins remembers. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, let’s go to that.’ I saw these cars make a pass and right then and there I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.”

Read the rest of Bill Haskin's story at DragIllustrated.com

Category: Applied Technologies

Keywords: Bill Haskins, NHRA, Drag Club, Alumni