TA/FC racer Daniel Oliver set to go.

Daniel Oliver set to go in TA/FC
Daniel Oliver, 29 year old crew member of the Randy Goodwin Racing owned machine, earned his TA/FC license on October 19, 2008, at The Strip At Las Vegas running 5.96 at 247 miles per hour on the tricky track surface. Earlier in the year, Daniel cruised to a 5.84 at 250 miles per hour when Randy made good on a promise to let Daniel "make a few laps" in the funny car for all his hard work for the team over the years.

Daniel is the son of Greg Oliver, longtime friend of Randy Goodwin. Daniel's first trip to the drags was as an infant in the back of the tow vehicle while his Dad drove Mike Buonocore's Top Gas West dragster at places like Orange County International Raceway. Daniel started working on various drag racing machines owned by Randy and his Dad as soon as he was old enough to hold a tool in his hand. As an 11 year old kid, Daniel assumed the clutch duties and other responsibilities normally done by people much older on Randy's TA/FC.

In the 2000's, Greg and Daniel built and campaigned a Super Comp and Super Eliminator Dragster for a few years, with Daniel winning his very first club race event. Daniel went on to win more events but eventually decided he wanted to step up. Daniel went to work for Jerry Darien as the clutch specialist on the Courtney Force driven Darien and Meadows A/Fuel Dragster in 2007 in an effort to gain A/Fuel experience until the team decided they needed full time help. As a tech for Verizon Wireless, Daniel did not want to leave his position and eventually had to leave the team. Daniel returned to crew on Randy's TA/FC for the 2008 season.

After Randy's former driver crashed the race car at Pacific Raceways in Seattle sidelining the team, Randy offered Daniel the opportunity to drive for the remainder of the 2008 season. Once repairs were made, with one full run left to complete Daniel's license upgrade from Super Comp to Top Alcohol Funny Car, the team headed for Las Vegas where they completed the licensing project.

Two races remain for 2008 which includes the Las Vegas Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event October 7-9, and the Auto Club Finals at Pomona, California, October 13-16. The team is optimistic.

"I hope to see Daniel progress and get comfortable in the car. Right now he looks like a guy who has 20 to 30 laps already. He gets the RPM's right up and stages immediately, he knows where the groove is, and he has about 500 or more laps down the quarter mile along with a few wins under his belt in the Super classes, so he knows how to drag race. I'm completely confident in his abilities," said Randy. "Jay Payne came by and offered him some good advice at Las Vegas, and If I know Daniel he was paying attention to Jay."