Earl Datweiler

Earl began his drag racing career running bracket cars shortly after high school. After several '55 Chevy's, Corvettes and a hemi powered Dodge Coronet, Earl built his first NHRA Comp Eliminator in 1978. It had always been Earls dream to race at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, as he had been attending since 1962 as a spectator.

In the late '70s Earl partnered with long time friend Bruce Albers to build a B/Econo dragster. They ran that car successfully until 1981 when Bruce retired and then Earls son Todd took over the duties of Crew Chief. 1982 was another very successful year for Earl until the U.S. Nationals when he suffered a devastating wreck during competition. In 1983 Earl built another B/Econo dragster and campaigned the car for a season finally selling it at seasons. Earl took the entire 1984 season off from racing to build a new Top Alcohol dragster and he campaigned that car with great success until 1991 acquiring many Divisional wins. (See accomplishments at right...)

After several more Divisional wins, Earl turned the driving duties over to his son Todd in 1992 and 1993. After the 1993 season the Datweilers retired from racing.

In 1999 Todd and Earl returned to the racing scene assisting Todd's 5 year old son, Trey, who started racing Quarter Midgets. In 2001 Earl and Todd decided to build an A/Fuel dragster to return to NHRA competition.

Earl is very involved in this venture and he is able to figure out how to generate the funding needed to do all that we do. He's also an active owner in that he also handles the bottom end of the race engine maintenance between rounds. He does all of this in addition to handling sales at our trailer manufacturing plant T&E Enterprises.

Todd Datweiler is the A/Fuel Driver as well as being a co-owner of Datweiler Motorsports.

Todd began going to the races as a baby with his father. As Todd got older it developed into a family activity as Todd began working on Earl's cars at a very young age. By age 16 he was crew chief on the families NHRA Comp Eliminator B/Econo dragster which held the national record.

In 1984, at the age of 18, Todd entered the driving arena piloting John Ogg's Super Comp dragster. In 1985 Earl and Todd built an NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster with Earl handling the driving chores and Todd bolstering the cars performance as crew chief. Todd and Earls hard work and dedication paid off in the following years.

In 1987 the Datweilers won the Sports Nationals in Bowling Green Kentucky and in 1988 the Datweilers won 3 divisional races and were runner up at the 2 others. They also won the Memphis national event and were runners up at the Columbus national event that year. 1988 also produced a divisional championship and 3rd ranking in the national standings. To top things off, Todd also won the 1988 Division 3 Pro-Mechanic of the Year award. 1989-91 produced several more wins for the team and at the end of 1991 Earl retired from driving. Todd subsequently took over the driving duties for the team and went on to win divisional races, the Brainard National event and the prestigious NHRA All Star Invitational.

At the end of the 1993 season Todd and Earl took a sabbatical from racing to concentrate on business and Todd and his wife Debbie started a family. Todd and Debbie were blessed with a couple of youngsters (Trey and Tate) who in the years ahead would prove that racing truly is a family affair. The Datweilers returned to racing in 1999 fielding a Quarter Midget car driven by Todd's 5 year old son Trey. Once again Todd was in the crew chief position!

In 2002 the Datweilers built an A/Fuel dragster for their return to NHRA competition. Todd currently drives the A/Fuel car. Todd's sons (Trey and Tate) ran QMA Quarter Midgets through the 2005 racing season. Following the 2005 season Trey moved up to 600cc Mini Sprints and Tate switched to Junior Sprints.