Pat Ellerholz

Supercharged Thunder

This car is dedicated to the Memory of

Brian "Skip" Ellerholz.

Hero Card / Press Releases

My introduction into the sport of Drag Racing began at a very early age. My father Brian “Skip” Ellerholz drag raced A/Gas Anglia’s through the Great Lakes area during the late 1960’s and early 70’s. So my fascination with race cars and speed was part of my life since I could barely stand up. When my father retired from racing in 1972, we proceeded to spend a lot of time together on anything that had a motor on it, from mini-bikes, go-carts, dune buggies, motor cross bikes, hydroplanes and jet boats

If it had a motor, I was trying to drive it! Just prior to my 15th Birthday, my dad and I purchased an old 74 Z-28 Camaro and began to restore every piece of it together. It was a great project to learn about cars, teach me how to respect a car and showed me how much fun they can be to drive.

In 1982, I began to take the car to Milan Dragway for the high school drag races and then started to bracket race the car. It only ran in the 14’s, but at the time, it was a lot of fun and started to keep me off the street racing side of things. When I turned 18, I took my dad out to Milan for the Northern Nationals and about a month later we had an old 1923 T-Bucket chassis sitting in the garage. We spent the winter building the car and motor and started the next summer running in the 10 second range. We spent the next couple of years progressively running faster and eventually running in the mid to high eight second zone. Not too bad for a young kid attending college and having some fun in the summer time with his dad.

In 1988 we watched the Supercharged Outlaws run a show at Milan Dragway and they had only two rules, have a supercharger on the car and go 7.90’s. What a great time that was traveling around the Great Lakes running in this exhibition group. Our first win was at the second race we attend and we beat Dean Skuza in the finals in Buffalo, NY. In 1991 my dad and I spent a full year in the garage building a 1933 Willy's body for the chassis, it was quite a project. After several years with the Outlaws, several of the guys decided to start a new group and the Supercharged Warriors were born. The cars were a little nicer and the group ran a little faster. Same rules though, run a supercharger and put on a wild show for the fans. We managed to win many races, including the 1998 Drivers Championship!

Although my father has since past away from a racing accident in the early 1990’s, I still continue to race with all my friends during the summer. I currently have my wife Tina and my two sons Brian and Joey involved with my racing program and still have a couple of old friends help on the car.

I have really accomplished all I ever set out to do in a race car and with the current expenses to run these types of cars, this is probably as fast as I will ever run. I plan to retire here one day with some great memories, some great life long friends and I’ll probably put the car up on jack stands in my garage as time remembered with my dad!