Jeff Lambert is the Founder and President of Armed Forces Racing and competes in the foot brake class during the Contingency Connection points series at Greer Dragway in Greer, SC. He races a 1964 Ford Galaxie. The Galaxie has a 460 CID engine, C6 transmission, with a coil over ladder bar setup in the rear, and Competitive Suspension Solutions tuned AFCO shocks in the front. Jeff races about 25 weekends a year to include the Greer points races as well as some of the big money bracket racing series to include the World Footbrake Challenge and The Great American Bracket Race. Jeff has won a track championship and is proud of a personal record of winning at least one race every year he has raced since 2005. His best season was in 2017 where he was in 6 finals at 6 different tracks in as many weeks while winning 4 of them. If you ask Jeff what his great achievement in racing is, he will always tell you it was forming Armed Forces Racing.
Armed Forces Racing became incorporated as a 501 C3 non-profit organization in 2017 but its history reaches further back than that. Founder and President Jeff Lambert started a restoration project on his drag car, a 1964 Ford Galaxie, in 2014 as a tribute car to our military. Jeff is a veteran of the United States Navy and wanted to restore his car and have it say thank you to his fellow veterans for protecting the freedoms we enjoy each day. During the restoration of the Galaxie, a Vietnam Veteran named Rick Ferrel, showed up at the garage and started helping and the two became best friends. It was apparent that the project car they were working on was more than just a car, it was therapy for them both. Jeff and Rick are both disabled veterans and the comradery, mission, and purpose this car provided them was what prompted the creation of Armed Forces Racing. Armed Forces Racing now provides that same mission, purpose, and comradery to veterans through drag racing experiences. These experiences include learning to build race cars, building race engines and transmissions, as well as on track experiences. The on-track experiences allow the veterans to be part of the crew, learning what it takes to be a crew chief, as well as ride a longs and the veteran getting to drive the cars during test and tune nights at Shadyside Dragway. After some experience in the cars the veteran can graduate to actually getting to race the car during the season at Greer Dragway. In 2019 alone AFR has provided either a ride along or the driving experience to over 40 veterans and 3 veterans got to actually experience racing against other racers in the footbrake class.
All on track experiences are given in a 1992 Mustang GT named Project DD214. DD214 was built by all veterans and was actually donated by an Air Force Veteran. A lot of the parts used to build Project DD214 was from the Contingency Connection catalogs won by veterans winning races! In fact, a lot of the parts AFR purchases to build project cars are from the Contingency Connection books. AFR has a responsibility as a non-profit to be good stewards of the money given to us by donors and the Contingency Connection coupons provides great deals that allows for that stewardship. AFR used over 10 coupons just in the building of Project DD214 from companies like Melling, MSD, K&N Filters, and Autometer. Armed Forces Racing has some really great projects cars in the works like a 1964 Fairlane named Project Purple Heart as a special tribute to our Purple Heart Veterans. Also, they are building a 1940 Ford Coupe Gasser as a tribute to our Vietnam Veterans and 1993 Mustang GT name Project Team Patriot. All these cars will be built from all the great companies that support the grass roots racer through the Contingency Connection.
If you are a veteran and would like to be part of the drag racing experience, you can contact Armed Forces Racing through their website, www.armedforcesracing.org, or their Facebook page, @armedforcesracing. Check out their video honoring their Contingency Connection sponsors here. The great companies that sponsor Armed Forces Racing: Contingency Connection Greer Dragway Shadyside Dragway K&N Filters Hoosier Racing Tire Pro1 Safety Siebert Performance J&L Fleet Service
Portatree Timing Systems Risk Racing Competitive Suspension Solutions Woody’s Drum Pumps Quick Performance This Is Bracket Racing Coupons we used from Contingency Connection: Melling Cloyes Autometer Clevite Eagle Diamond Pistons Yella Terra Trans-Dapt Performance Canton Procar Seats by Scat Hedman Hedders
