NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

For racers on the road, life is about flying from city to city and picking up some anonymous rental car at the airport to serve their basic transportation needs between the hotel and racetrack each day.

Then there’s Jeff Diehl, whose “rental car” this weekend is the envy of the pits, a Porsche GT3 RS — basically a racecar in street trim — that comes to him courtesy of his new marketing partner, Kevin Moore, owner of Speedtech Motorsports.

Moore owns a number of businesses in Northern California, including an exotic car brokership – his most recent acquisition is an ultra-race Lamborghini Aventador SVJ 63 -- and has raced everything from multi-engined tractor pullers to vintage sports cars. He’s getting into high-end show-car building business and is launching a ride-and-drive experience that will allow Everyday Joes to drive exotic cars around racetracks like Sonoma Raceway and Laguna Seca. All of this dovetails nicely with Diehl’s ongoing relationship with So-Cal Speed Shop, a legendary name in the high-performance world

“Kevin lives like 25 minutes from me in Gilroy [Calif.], so it really is working out good,” said Diehl, who with his wife Leeza lives in Monterey, Calif. “He’s a real car guy and gets it.”

Moore’s drag racing involvement goes back to the early 1980s, when he and his father attended West Coast national events and was the lucky winner of a Roland Leong/Hawaiian Punch mini car at the 1984 Winternationals.

“I’ve always been into cars and motorsports and my dad is a huge drag racing fam,” said Moore. “He’s 76 and still in good health but I wanted to get more deeply involved in a drag race car because of him and to do it while he can enjoy it.

“For me, it's always about the underdog. You can always hook your wagon to a four-time world champion, but it's not about that for me. It's about the underdog. My philosophy in life is that a lot of people just don't have the opportunity, but they have the drive, the will, and the ability if given the opportunity.

"It's a good synergistic partnership, too, with the exotic cars and road racing and with SoCal. This is just what everybody's about. We're talking about maybe doing some more things with So-Cal, and maybe potentially trying to get with NHRA to do some type of raffle of some ’32 Fords we’re building. There's so many reasons why this relationship works and why it makes sense.”

The partnership kicked off earlier this year in Sonoma, and Diehl and crew chief Tony Shortall are already starting to acquire some of the high-end parts and spares that they’ve always wanted to make their Funny Car run better. He’s already made the first three-second run of his career and also set a personal best for speed.

Through his deep connections, Moore is also helping Diehl search for marketing partners that would allow “the Surfer” to run the NHRA tour full-time and has already added a hospitality feature to the Diehl pit area,

With his varied motorsports background, it’s only natural that Moore would like to try his hand at wheeling a nitro Funny Car, and Diehl is more than happy to be his accomplice.

“I’ve got two cars and we’re working on buying a second trailer,” said Diehl. “We’ll probably start his licensing the Monday after the [upcoming Ford Performance NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. We’ll just try to get him acclimated and see where it goes. We want to send to see Frank Hawley’s [Drag Racing School] and if I need to, I can get a Nostalgia Funny Car just to give him some more seat time.

While Diehl would love to get back on the full tour, Moore is probably looking at just running a few West Coast races as his businesses allow.

“He wants to just maybe run like Pomona, Pomona, and Sonoma if we can get him acclimated,” said Diehl, “but he doesn't want to do anything stupid.”

“My tractor puts out 14,000 horsepower so I'm used to the noise and the communication you must have with your crew chief,” said Moore. “I have an outlaw-body Willys Pro Mod car that I drive on the street, so I'm used to some pretty radical stuff, but nothing like this, but it's fine. I respect the horsepower and the equipment and what it takes, I'm not going to be out here trying to prove a point. I'm out there to have fun. I'm not trying to walk away with a Wally or put myself or anybody else in danger.”

Diehl also hopes to be active in helping Moore with his other car-related businesses, helping manage the car-building and exotic car experiences, all to make him a more-rounded businessman racer and give him the opportunity to meet more car enthusiasts and possible marketing partners.

Not to overdo the “Surfer” metaphors, but there’s a big swell building and Diehl is ready to ride it for all it’s worth.