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Drag Racing Doc
By Randy Southerlande

The dull roar of two supercharged hemi V-8 engines rises through the air of the track. Two low-slung racers stretch out to the starting line like alien creatures. A single driver is belted into a seat at the rear in front of large thick tires and flaring rear wings.

A series of starter lights—the Christmas tree—flashes, tires spin and the two vehicles seem shot from a standing start down the field in a blur of motion. Their engines generate more than 7,000 horses pushing the cars from 0 to 100 in less than an eighth of a second. By the time they reach the end of the quarter-mile course these drag racers are traveling at almost 300 miles per hour.

As the red dragster’s driver climbs out of the cramped seat, he’s greeted by John “Doc” Sipple, the car’s owner, a formidable driver in his own right and a full-time chiropractor.

Doc Sipple doesn’t race anymore, but he’s there to watch his cars compete and bask in the glory of drag racing’s toughest events. So is his family because, you see, racing is a family affair here. Son Mike is crew chief, and every member of the family—wife and daughter included—has raced his or her own cars.

What draws a DC to the world of high speed cars? Drag racers certainly need care as accelerating subjects the human body to more than 5.7 times their weight. Doc has done more than his share of adjusting of both his own crew and anyone who needs it during a race.

Yet, his love of racing, with its speed and danger, goes way back to a teenage infatuation with cars, engines and how to make them go faster. Living in Ohio, his father was a Ford employee who was always working on cars in his shop.

“That’s actually where I started when I was 16, building my first high-performance motor,” he recalls. “I had the knowledge from Dad and the rest of it was things that I acquired through time.”

His natural skill with engines soon drew a string of people to his door clamoring for the youngster to work on their cars to boost performance and speed. Sipple was more than happy to comply since it gave him the chance to work on different types and sizes of engines.

It wasn’t enough to work on engines; he also wanted to make them go faster himself. He entered his first race in Kentucky, and a love of the sport was born.

While his passion was cars, he had to find a way to make a living and hopefully support his hobby. He had been working at the Ford plant when he injured his back. A local DC got him through the painful injury and back on his feet.

Sipple admired the doctor’s mechanical skills and saw a connection between engines and fine-tuning the human body. Palmer College of Chiropractic was not far away in Iowa and he could even continuing working for Ford there.

“I found a job as a troubleshooter on new Pontiacs and Cadillacs and worked with them all the way through school,” he says.

His time at Palmer passed quickly and soon it was time to set out on his own. The question was where to set up a practice. He wanted to stay in the Ohio and Kentucky area.

“We weren’t sure where we wanted to go and we just simply prayed a lot about it and I just told Doris, my wife, let’s just travel across Kentucky and see what’s available,” he recalls.

The first stop was Berea in South Central Kentucky. After arriving in the historic small town, Sipple knew this was the place he needed to be.

At first glance Berea might not have looked like a good place to hang out a shingle even if there was not competition. There had once been seven doctors there, but all had left.

Sipple focused on how to find patients. And, they came from the moment he opened his doors. Most had heard about the personable young DC with the growing family and they liked what they saw.

The woman who owned a local restaurant pulled out the phone book and put a checkmark beside the name of everybody who was sick—over 300 people.

“I had a lady come to my office and say ‘I’ve waited eight years for you, you better be good,’” he recalls. “I said what do you mean? She said, ‘You get me well and I’ll take care of the rest.’ And it worked almost like that.”

During those early years, Sipple didn’t have time for cars. He was building a practice and raising a family, which already included three kids. Yet the roar of the engines and the lure of the track was never very far from his mind.

A few years later, when the practice was thriving, he discovered a race track nearby. Watching the cars speed by he realized that he was hooked once again.

He leased the facility for the next 10 years. Soon his kids—there were now five—were working there, mowing grass, working in the concession stands and keeping the track running. He also started building high performance cars again. Before long all of his children were racing—at the same time.

When the lease on the track expired, he began looking at racing again. This time his interest turned to what he called “the ultimate drive down the track”—Top Fuel. By blending 90 percent nitromethane with 10 percent methanol, instead of gasoline, drag racers could achieve spectacular speeds.

Racing at this level is demanding on both car and driver. Between races each part of the vehicle—from clutch to heads—is worked on by a separate mechanic. With each pass the crew completely dismantles the motor, checks parts and ensures there are no cracks in the engine before putting everything back together again.

This jump into a new arena promised even more thrills, but Sipple’s driving days were cut short when he suffered a heart attack. After recovering, he realized that the rigors of driving the fast dragsters were not something he could continue doing. It was a hard blow to accept.

“You know I didn’t think I could accept not driving,” he says now. But, as he watched the cars fly down the track he soon came to realize that he was glad he wasn’t driving them anymore. Better to leave it to younger men such as Kevin Jones.

The scrappy young Canadian produced the first big win for Sipple Motorsports when the car took the IHRA Skull Shine Sooner Nationals in Tulsa, Okla. After a rain out, delays, a slow qualifying with just one second to spare and equipment problems that almost disqualified them, the Sipple car beat out a tough competitive field to win. It was exciting for Doc Sipple who, for the first time ever, wasn’t on the track. He had stayed behind, but couldn’t hold back a cheer when the victory was announced.

“I was excited,” he says. “Everybody was so excited and I was standing there looking at this thing on the TV.”

He also got to hear an announcer proclaim this is “Doc Sipple’s comeback!” Even though he hadn’t been in the car it was an acknowledgement of the years he had devoted to the sport—both as a racer and a chiropractor. Many drivers, pit crew members and even hanger’s on had been adjusted on his table at the track. On many trips he even brought associates along to do the adjusting. During one particular race a few years ago, the team adjusted more than 300 people in a single day.

“I’ve never refused to adjust them or anyone,” he says.

For Sipple it was an acknowledgement of many years of work and a promise that there was more to come. The victory has helped the team gain exposure and support from sponsors. That’s important since racing is an expensive sport. For Sipple all the accolades are wonderful, but in many way it’s not the most important thing.

Racing has created a bond that has bound the family together through years and generations. “I don’t think we could have got any closer,” he says.

Life is a little slower now, but when he watches the dragsters he can still hear the roar and feel the power of moving down a straight track.