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IHRA: The Trinidad Rocket
Trinidad and Tobago's Sheldon Bissessar has always had the drive to be the fastest as he's proving in the IHRA Top Dragster category.
IHRA Media  | http://www.ihra.com  |  Posted February 13, 2010   Norwalk, OH
Bissessar is the fastest sportsman in IHRA today. (IHRA)
Sheldon Bissessar has always had the drive to be the fastest. From his early days racing at an airstrip in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago to his current gig as the world’s fastest sportsman in the IHRA Top Dragster ranks, Bissessar has always known drag racing was his future.

“I have always had a passion for speed with encouragement from my mother Stella Bissessar and from my family and friends,” said Bissessar. “I still remember my first car being a Ford Escort powered by a Ford Pinto 4 cylinder engine. It ran the quarter-mile in approximately 17 seconds and at the time that seemed really fast for me.”

Bissessar has since graduated from his days running the quarter-mile in double digits, currently holding the Top Dragster world record at 5.793 seconds at 238.76 miles per hour set earlier this year at Palm Beach International Raceway. Bissessar also made quite a splash at that event winning the inaugural Harland Sharp Elite 8 race in Top Dragster.

Now, with a new record in hand and the first of what he hopes is many Elite 8 victories, Bissessar is preparing for an exciting year behind the wheel of his PSTL, IRONMAN Chassis and Total Lubricants dragster traveling the newly redesigned Nitro Jam tour.

“The Elite 8 program is great and the IHRA is on a rebound. We want to ride the comeback waves with them,” said an ecstatic Bissessar. “If the new format sticks, it is going to turn into something really great.”

And Bissessar's journey to the top all began running the strips of Trinidad and Tobago.

As Bissessar’s passion for speed began to blossom at the old Walleferield airstrip and he started to dig deeper into the world of drag racing, Bissessar began to take notice that some of the fastest drivers in the world weren’t behind the wheel of a car. They were, in fact, in the cockpit of a dragster.

“I went from car to car in an attempt to become faster and move into higher brackets. As I continued racing legends like Joe Amato, Don ’The Snake’ Purdhomme and Eddie Hill became my inspiration. It was then that I decided I wanted to drive a dragster,” Bissessar recalled.

Bissessar began his venture into the world of dragsters with a mild steel chassis powered by a 350 small block Chevy running the quarter-mile 11 seconds at a time. Feeling the need to go faster still, Bissessar began experimenting with different combinations over the past decade before finally settling on the dragster he currently uses today - a former Top Alcohol Dragster powered by a blown 526 cubic inch Hemi previously owned by Jeff Veale.

With the power he needed, all that was left was to find a crew chief and Bissessar was ready for his assault on the drag racing world.

“I knew nothing about supercharged engines so it was necessary to take the next step and find a crew chief,” said Bissessar. “It was quite a search until I came in contact with Mr. Aaron Sipple, son of legendary Top Fuel driver ’Doc’ Sipple. After talking with him I knew that he was the man for this job.”

With car and crew chief in place Bissessar began competing in the Top Dragster category at IHRA national events beginning at Maryland International Raceway in 2005. Over the past five years Bissessar has competed at various events on the Nitro Jam tour, but heading into this season he wasn’t exactly sure how far sportsman racing could take him.

That is, of course, until he found out about the changes for the 2010 season.

Along with a brand new professional format, the International Hot Rod Association also decided to take its two quickest and fastest sportsman classes and give them the stage they deserve. Thus the Harland Sharp Elite 8 program was born.

Along with featuring the first round of Top Sportsman and Top Dragster eliminations during the professional rounds, IHRA also decided to bring back its popular Quick 8 program for the drivers in those classes to be run on the second day of competition.

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