2007 NHRA NATIONAL EVENT SCHEDULE
Listen to Trackside Interviews with Champions, Drivers and Crew Chiefs
Robert Hight
Hillary Will
Bob Vandergriff
Dave Connolly
Ed Iskenderian
Cory McClenathan
Robert Hight
Jim Yates
Tony Bartone
Hillary Will
Whit Bazemore
Byron Hines
STORY BY LORI KELSO PHOTOS BY JIM KELSO
Bruce hit the kill switch and
nothing happened. He reached for the fuel shut-off and nothing happened.
As he sat in the car with no other options available to him, he held on to
the brake as the motor melted itself down when his son, Scott, grabbed the
wires and yanked them off the distributor. With a racer’s insight he started Phoenix Custom Apparel, February 1st, 2000. He bought the remnants of a production operation in El Paso, Texas, and began producing apparel in a 2000 square-foot warehouse space. With the sales division headquartered in Denver the commute became a real burden all too soon. So Bruce started hunting for a building in Denver to house his entire operation and about the time he located his present address, another apparel manufacturer that just happened to be closing their Denver plant and laid off all their employees. A stroke of “luck” or “destiny” as we like to call it, Bruce hired nearly the entire crew, and with nearly 20,000 square feet of space and new equipment his business tripled overnight.
Being a racer himself, Bruce does his own R&D, testing his products on himself and crew. Each new fabric is put through the paces. No one changes into a “work” shirt to lie on the ground and work on the car. He finds out first hand how durable a fabric is, if it breathes when it’s hot, how well it prints, embroiders and so on. Bruce has also added fire suits to his line with unique designs that help keep the suit in place yet allowing it to be flexible so you can move easily in it. He is constantly looking for better performing Nomex that meets SFI criteria but is lightweight and flexible. He showed me a sample with a Thermal Protection Performance rating of 25 that was nearly as lightweight as a jacket you might see on a Sportsman competitor.
Phoenix Custom Apparel is on the “cutting edge” in first class, high tech, high quality apparel. With the advent of sublimation shirts, like the ones you’ve seen on Joe Amato’s team, the sky is the limit in design. Of course the design end of it can get pricey but Bruce plans to add a line of “stock” sublimation shirts that you can customize with embroidery to make these affordable to all; and the standard screen print and embroidered shirts are always available with many options to suit your budget.
With a list of Sportsman and Pro racing teams outfitted by this company including such high profile teams as Larry Morgan, Whit Bazemore, Joe Amato, and the list goes on and on and on, it’s the decades of experience of their management and production personnel and the quality of their product that make them the number one choice for racers on any kind of budget. |
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The
inspiration came on the starting line at Firebird International Raceway just
outside Phoenix, Arizona, in late January of 1997. Bruce Bowler ran through
all the points he recently learned at drag racing school trying to get the
Taks Toys A/Fuel dragster to shut down. He’d just finished a massive
burnout and was ready to stage the car but before he could put the car into
forward gear the engine winged to 9500 rpm and he held the brake with all he
had. With the car in reverse and many people in the background he knew it
was a potentially disastrous situation. 
The engine finally quit and they were done testing for this excursion.
Without major sponsorship and no spare motor, Phoenix Motorsports was born.
It was in these moments Bruce realized how easy it would have been to have
serious life threatening experience for himself and others around him and
came to the conclusion to continue in this sport to make it a policy to
always have the good stuff. Racing since 1958, Bruce has driven
everything from stockers to wheel-standing altereds down the quarter mile.
In the mid 1960’s he managed Rocky Mountain Raceway in Denver and in 1968
became the Division 6 Director for NHRA.
Phoenix
Custom Apparel started out making crew shirts and NHRA winner’s jackets. It
was the 250-plus order of NHRA PowerAde lightning bolt uniforms utilizing
the high tech process of sublimation that put the business on the map.
Bruce
has 25 to 30 people in his employ including his son, Matt, who works in the
art department, daughters Mary, his Production Manager and Jeanne, an
Administrator along with son-in-law Eric who is Vice President of sales.
Phoenix
Custom Apparel is the premier manufacturer of auto racing team and specialty
corporate apparel. Experts in the field of digitized and computerized
design and manufacturing, with their own embroidery and sewing equipment,
they design, computerize and totally manufacture all types of shirts, pants,
jackets, hats and most any specialized apparel desired.
