Justin Calkins

Hello, and welcome to my boring bio! Way back when I was single digits, my Father had a neat little hemi powered Jr Fueler that he campaigned for a short time while also crewing on a local Top Alcohol Funny Car. While joining him during the months I was not in school, I was a little sponge and would soak up all the operating procedures of a typical drag car. That developed into a love for mechanical things and drag racing in general. Right out of high school, I was fortunate enough to drive an altered for that same team.

Fast forward to my mid 20s, and I found myself crewing for Dale Suhr on his legendary “Orange Crate” Nostalgia Top Fuel dragster. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be around a fuel car, and I took full advantage of learning everything I could about the class. After three and a half seasons, I walked away from racing to switch focus to my teenage daughters.

You know what they say about Nitro, eventually we all come crawling back! In late 2022, the framework of what would become my AAFD Stats gig would start to take shape. It seemed to me that there was a lack of documentation for the NTF class history. I started cataloging run data for all points races dating back to the early 1990s. That led to taking over as the social media guy for the AAFD group in 2023 for the next two and a half seasons. And then the formation of my own AAFD News platform in 2025.

I don’t really know where all of this will take me, but I’m having a great time meeting all of the teams, chatting with the fans, and visiting new tracks along the way. One of the cool things that has come from all of this is that I am still able to crew on fuel cars from time to time. And, my pal Rick Bain has introduced me to the world of photography, which has added another feather in my cap. Thanks for following along, and I hope to see you all at the drags!!!