Parker’s nickname for them is Fish ‘n’ Chips, as their ride to Indiana was a 1987 Mercedes that Pope converted to run on recycled vegetable oil. Team members Jeff Pope and Clyde Carlson made the night-long drive to pick up the transmission. I contacted Jeremy Jones at RPM Transmission, and he pulled the strings to make it happen.” “I was so fearful that it would fail that I made the decision roughly six weeks ago to install a Turbo 400 in it. “The whole time before, I was running a stock 6L80 transmission, which is finicky to say the least,” Parker said. This year’s attempt at the record, like 2020, had more than its share of late-stage challenges to overcome. I know that what we just did was major, but it’s hard to understand how to celebrate it because as a racer you just move on to the next race. … I’ve always considered myself a humble person, so it really hasn’t quite set in with me. “You’re a racer, and when the race is over, you just get in the truck and come home. I’ve been fighting for this record for almost five years, and the fight’s over,” said Parker, who lives in Columbus, Georgia. “I put a post up on Facebook that I feel like a boxer that just went 12 rounds because I can finally put my gloves down. Not surprisingly – at least to Parker – there wasn’t much of a celebration of his achievement … not yet, anyway. ![]() Parker’s record-setting blast down the runway outside Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, came two years after he fell short due to performance issues and high winds. ![]() It broke the mark of 200.9 mph set in 2014 by England’s Mike Newman, who was born blind. His two-run average of 211 mph at Spaceport America on March 31, 2022, came 10 years to the day from when he lost his sight in a Pro Mod crash. Last Thursday, Parker became the fastest blind racer of all time. Now, he’s a blind racer who’s earned a place in the Guinness World Records. ![]() Dan Parker once described himself by saying, “I’m not a blind man trying to race, I’m a racer who went blind.”
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