By his own count, he’s strapped into his 12,000 horsepower blowtorch on wheels well over 250 in his now ten-year long career as the driver of the famous “Terminal Velocity” Jet Dragster.

“Never raced anything else but jets,” says Tony Franco from Oxnard, CA. On cross-examination the 46-year-old does cop to ” …a little street racing, you know, in High School.”

That would be at Channel Islands High in Oxnard where he grew up and where his “day job” is running his own very successful recycling company.

Ok, the first thing that we need to get out-of-the-way right away is the oldest answer in the book for racers: Three hundred and sixteen miles per hour at 4.89 seconds. That’s zero to 316 in 1,320 feet in under 5 seconds.

That’s fast and as Tony tells it:  “A jolt.”

In truth, each pass under “full AB” (full afterburner) is not really felt like brutal acceleration, it’s more like being shot out of a cannon, or being on the wrong end of a dynamite explosion.

But that’s all part of the kind of show that Tony Franco and his crew have traveled the Western United States to put on. Single exhibition runs, match races, or show pops on the front straightaway of an oval track on a Saturday night… It’s all in a night’s work of this colorful team and machine.

Tony Franco will be Sal Sigala’s guest on Fan2Fan NHRA Talk tonight March 18th at 9:15pm ET. Call 347-996-5176 to interact with Tony Franco and ask your questions.