Our call should not be to have lived long....
but to have lived enough!
Cory has had a love of racing his whole life. His parents have taken Cory to the drag races since he was 2 years old. Even at this young age he was excited to see the cars "go fast". During those days at Sacramento Raceway, John Force raced his Coca Cola funny car on special events. One of Cory's favorite memories was getting John to sign a T-shirt for him at the track.
On Cory's 13th birthday he wanted to build his own truck so his present was a 53 Chevy pick up that needed a lot of work. But Cory wanted to make it a hot rod and have it finished by the time he got his drivers license. Cory and his dad took the old truck and added a Camaro front clip and a 396 big block Chevy along with a new firewall, tailgate, and many other items that were in need of repair. Well it wasn't quite finished by his 16th birthday but he did finish it in time to drive it his senior year in high school. In fact when he drove it to school he would set off all the car alarms in the parking lot because it was so loud. Everyone always knew when Cory arrived at school!
One of the first things he wanted to do was take it to the drag strip and see how fast it could run. Most people didn't pay much attention to it in the staging lanes thinking it was just another "old truck" but after they saw it go down the track in about 12.5 seconds they all came up to ask what was under the hood. Now Cory has updated the motor to a 454 big block.
Cory also began to crew for and helped his good friend Don Seale on race cars that he had built. Don showed Cory the
tricks for building race cars and soon he was helping fabricate and build them along side Don. They had a 55 Chevy Pro Mod car that they traveled the circuit with and Cory's good friend Harry Andersen drove. One day Don said to Cory, "Let's build a funny car." A Funny Car! That's what Cory had always wanted was to be a Funny Car driver and go 200 MPH.
So they began the journey and 14 months later, "Battle Born" was ready to take to the track. Cory worked hard to get his NHRA advanced ET license and they joined the California Independent Funny Car Association (CIFCA) and so began Cory's career as a Funny Car Driver.
Cory loved racing so much that when he wasn't working on or driving the funny car he was watching his friends compete in their cars at the circle tracks running, midgets, sprint cars and mini-sprints. Since the funny car only had a few races a year Cory decided to buy a mini-sprint and race it when there was down time from the funny car. That way he could always be at the races...
Cory knew very little about dirt track racing and his buddy Scotty Males had been crew chief for a couple 
different World of Outlaw sprint car drivers and he told Cory he would show him the ropes.
The first year they got started with only a couple of races left in the season but it got them some much needed experience for the next season. Scotty drove the car and tried to show Cory everything he needed to know about the car and setup. Cory learned a lot that season. They won a feature race at Placerville Speedway and finished in 10th place in the championship. Not bad for their maiden year.
The following season Cory decided he was ready to drive so Scotty was there to give him pointers and help him crew chief the car. Midyear Scotty finished the sprint car he was building for himself so Cory learned to crew chief and drive at the same time as Scotty was racing his car at different tracks. On the nights that the two of them met up at the same track we all had a great time helping each other out.
Cory's rookie year was a busy one....he helps crew and drives the funny car, he is crew chief for his dad's F-dragster and raced full time in the mini-sprint. With all of this going on Cory only missed driving one point race in the mini-sprint due to racing conflicts so Cory drove the funny car and Scotty filled in for the mini-sprint.
Cory had a very successful year. He won the honor of "Rookie of the Year" and finished 4th in the points for the Championship for the Bay Cities Racing Association Midget Lite Division, finished 11th in the points for the funny car in CIFCA and helped his dad get his license in NHRA to drive the dragster.
3rd Place In Driver and Owner Championship
Bay Cities Racing Associaton 2011
Mechanic of the Year
Bay Cities Racing Associaton 2009
Rookie of the Year
Bay Cities Racing Associaton 2008 4th Place in Championship 2008
