Talk to Brady Kalivoda, driver of the Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel Dragster, and you'd think he'd been born with a race car steering wheel in his hand and nitromethane in his blood.

Actually, that's not just PR spin. Brady has drag racing genes. His Dad, former NHRA national record holder, Dick Kalivoda, was a veteran modified roadster and Top Fuel driver in the 1960s. Dick's first ride, the Kalivoda and Hamlin B/MR, is in the permanent collection at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. Dick's final ride, before he hung up his fire suit for good at the end of the 1970 season, was a three-year hitch driving the famed "Joker" Top Fuel car.

While Dick had quit racing by the time Brady was born in 1973, he stayed close to the sport. Brady went to the races with his Dad for the first time when he was four and after that, he went often. As the son of a former driver, he watched Top Fuel greats of the 70s and 80sÐGarlits, Muldowney, Beck, Kalitta and othersÐwith an understanding and interest rare among even the most die-hard young race fans.

After high school, in 1992 at age 19, he got a Super Comp license at Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School. By 1994, he was going to Central Washington University and piloting a front-motor, A/Fuel Dragster owned by his Dad, a friend, John Tusa, and himself. Brady won the first Northwest Nostalgia Top Eliminator event he entered in that car then went on to several more wins during the next three seasons.

2000 found Brady Kalivoda assembling engines for Don Schumacher Racing on Tony Schumacher's U.S. Army Top Fueler. Brady helped the Tony Schumacher team stay near the top in points that year and win four races including the U.S. Nationals.

"If you had to describe the ideal, young person to represent drag racing, you'd be hard-pressed to find a someone better than Brady Kalivoda. He's a good-looking, clean-cut, respectful kid with a wonderful personality and a great outlook on life. Plus, there's not too many guys who've worked harder to find a ride. I'm confident," Miller concludes, "we got the right person in the BME Top Fuel car."

Brady is ecstatic about his selection as BME's new driver. "Bill has long run one of the cleanest, tightest ships in drag racing." Kalivoda explains. "By that, I mean his stuff is always immaculate, from the parts on the car to the cleanliness of the BME pit area at the races. He always has top-notch equipment and presents his team very well. By far, this will be most well-prepared, safest, and quickest Top Fuel dragster I've had the opportunity to drive."

Brady Kalivoda and the BME Race Team are involved in a key, drag-racing-related, off-track activity. Brady works with the NHRA and the United States Army on the Youth and Education Services (YES) program. Created in 1989 to connect education and drag racing, YES is a partnership of NHRA and the Army. The themes promoted by YES are: the need for continued education, the relevance of establishing clear, attainable goals, awareness of career options and the value of Army training. YES develops track site and classroom programs which reach thousands of students annually with a variety of services and offerings which help young people achieve career goals. Brady Kalivoda's usual role with YES is at National Events where he joins Tony Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel car, other professional drivers and Army personnel in giving seminars to groups of high- or middle-school students. In these seminars, Brady talks about his education, how he picked his career, being a part of the BME Race Team, what it's like to drive a Top Fuel Dragster then takes questions from the kids.