Gary Gardella has come a long way. Gardella and his Honda Civic hatchback first made noise on the east coast back in 2001, when both had a breakout rookie season in the IDRC series. After starting out with an 11.9 second debut run, Gardella surprised many of the dominant west coast teams with four wins and a best E.T. of 9.16 seconds that year. Since then, supported by one of the hardest work ethics in the sport, he’s established himself as one of the top Honda-based teams and the top independent sport compact drag racing team with two consecutive top-three finishes in the NHRA Hot Rod season points. Last year, he was only second to the GM Racing Pontiac Sunfire driven by Marty Ladwig. Maybe even more impressive though, Gardella had pushed Honda (FWD unibody) drag racing to the edge of a seven-second timeslip– to an 8.086, 180.66 mph clocking at the NHRA Springnationals. The closest Honda was almost six tenths away.

For 2005, the Honda drag racing community was shocked to hear that Gardella racing went 180 degrees and made the jump to an Ecotec-powered Chevy Cobalt racing program with factory GM support and Ecko Unlimited and Dupont Automotive Finishes backing. The Honda boards were instantly lit up with hundreds of positive and negative feedback for Gary “World’s Fastest Honda” Gardella. The off-season noise hadn’t even had a chance to die down yet when Gary finally unveiled the Cobalt a few weeks ago alongside the rest of the 2005 GM Racing sport compact program at a GM Racing press event in Southern California. Gary won’t have to line the GM-built Cobalt up with Ladwig’s Sunfire though – Ladwig moved into the seat of a Chevy Cobalt-skinned Pro FWD dragster (driven by Nelson Hoyos to Pro FWD championship last year). That doesn’t mean that Gardella will have a free ride to the top this year.

In fact, in an effort to stress that the main goal of the GM Racing Sport Compact program is to sell cars and parts through the GM Sport Compact Performance Build Book (a complete new book for 2005), GM announced that they will be only attending 5 NHRA races and 5 NDRA races this year – making it very unlikely we will see a three-peat performance by the GM Racing team in NHRA Hot Rod or ProFWD. The toughest competition for Gardella’s all new Cobalt might still be a GM-based ride though, as Ron Lummus and the Garret GT Turbos/Bothwell Racing Pontiac Sunfire showed last week at the NDRA season opener, when it clicked 7.9-second past Gardella and into the winner’s circle.

The new Cobalt is a race car that was built from the ground up using data learned over two championship seasons and three race cars under the Pontiac-based program. Built again by a subsidiary of Roush Racing, the Cobalt was actually subjected to a more conservative build to avoid some of the controversy that surrounded the last generation Pontiac Sunfire, which while legal many felt touched a lot of gray areas of the rule book. GM sees the conservative approach as in their best interest since one of the main goals of the program is to show other racers how easy (and relatively inexpensive) it is to build a low eight- second/high seven-second Cobalt racer of their own. GM is making it easy to the point where even one piece front ends (Hot Rod and Pro FWD) are joining the Performance Build Book with their own GM part numbers; the goal is to have almost every GM-manufactured part of Gary Gardella’s new Cobalt available to Joe Racer.

We caught up with Gary G. at the Fontana unveil, hooked him up to the polygraph, and shot him a hard ten that you won’t find anywhere else.

How do you feel about getting on the Chevy program?
Joining the Chevy team is a dream come true. Everybody knows my background; everybody knows me from Englishtown, Atco, my local area – I support them 110%. Everybody knows where I got my start, in my street car. The goal from day 1 was to start racing on my own and then get some factory support from somebody, whether it was Honda, Nissan, GM, Dodge, Ford – it didn’t matter if it was an American or import brand. I love racing and I’ll race anything. I’ll race lawnmowers if that’s what it takes. It just worked out that I ended up in sport compact drag racing and GM was the best opportunity for me and my team. I approached them and they listened and we had the same goals. It’s a dream come true, and hopefully we’ll have a championship season for them this year.

What would you say to your Honda fans?
It’s hard for me to say this but, I can’t say I’m sorry. A lot of these guys who may be upset at me – they know in the long run this is the best deal for me. Honda didn’t give me any support. I mean, I was out there representing for Honda guys for four years – pushing the motor program to the limits and doing everything I could possibly do to get their name out there and there was nothing. So I moved on. I want to do what’s best for the team. I want to make this a full-time job, I want to make this a living and I want to do what’s fun. What’s fun is drag racing. It’s not racing a Honda. And this way I can make a living out of it.

How long has this program been in the making?
It started at the NHRA Ennis race. I had heard about an opportunity. It had nothing to do with GM Racing approaching Gardella Racing. I heard about an opportunity and followed up on it through a friend, Jim Epler – somebody I really respect and look up to in all of drag racing. He had told me a little more about it and I jumped on it. Supposedly the deal was offered to some other drag racers and they turned it down – which to me is hard to believe. I mean it’s what we’re all out here for – motor support and factory support. You can’t beat that kind of support.

What’s the main difference between the Cobalt and your Civic?
Basically, efficiency. We can bring the car in after a pass and do a leakdown, check all the minor stuff that you usually have to check in a race car, and go back out racing – every single pass. With the Honda, we had to change the head gasket or the cylinder head, and once in a while the pistons. But right now, we’re just making passes. That’s what it’s about in drag racing – making rounds. You guys all saw Nelson and Marty last year. We’re not out here to be motor builders or anything – we’re here to drag race and you have to make rounds to do that.

What about the difference behind the wheel?
It’s crazy. Everybody in the tri-state area knows how I started. It was a street car, then as street car with a roll cage, and every year we would be changing things to get to the 8.1-second race car that we ran last year. It was never supposed to go that fast. We finally had the opportunity to build a race car with GM that is capable of going 7.6-7.7’s. It’s built for that, so the car is that much better of a race car than what we had. Basically, with the automatic – the Hydromatic – I can just put my hand on the shifter and shift it without holding on to the steering wheel. It’s that smooth – it’s unbelievable.

Tell me about your aspirations beyond this year – do you want to go to ProFWD or beyond?
My goal right now is to be involved in all aspects of the industry. When I say industry, I mean motorsports. I would love to own a drag car, a drift car, even a circle track car. I’m not talking today – I’m talking about the future. I want to be a team owner. I want to be the Don Prudhomme of the sport compact industry.

Tell me about your plans for the Gardella Racing Civic?
I get asked that question every week. On the real – we’re gonna dust it off once a week and take real good care of it. She’s my baby – she ain’t going no where. All these rumors about selling it to somebody are crazy. Everybody knows that the Gardella racing badge is still on it. Everybody knows that its home is in Jersey.

Not even for a big fat check with a lot of zeros?
Nah, I mean, I don’t have a family right now. I’m on my own so I don’t need a lot of money right now. I grew up with this car. I drove to high school with the car, so I’m not in a hurry to get rid of it. In fact, what I would like to see is it in the UrbanRacer.Com Museum one day [laughing]. That’s where it would belong – the Englishtown UrbanRacer.Com museum.

Alright, alright – we’ll have to look into that. Now that you’ve left the H-camp – who’s the king of Hondas?
Kenny Tran without a doubt. Kenny Tran has always been the man. I’ve always looked up to him – I’m real good friends with him. He’s always had the title. I was just lucky to be working with the right guys to be on top for the past few years with the record. I don’t even know if that record will be broken this year, but I think Kenny would be the one to do it. I still look up to Kenny – he’s definitely someone to on the look out for.

I know the championship isn’t your primary goal this year. What do you expect out of this year from your team?
Well we are looking for the championship in the NDRA this year. With the NHRA – we’re just looking to get to the bigger events. I think we’re just looking to keep getting our name out there. I know a couple of years back; we might have not run as professional as we should have. But right now, I’m just trying to show people – especially a lot of those around the tri-state area - that a kid that didn’t finish college can get this opportunity – that they can have their dreams come true of racing for a living if they work hard enough. I’m also doing this for the people who have supported me from day 1. I’m a big people person and I’ll do anything for my fans. This year, I’m gonna give back to the fans.

Alright, one more question. Are we gonna see you on the Honda boards anymore?
[Laughs] I keep telling them to change my ID (World’s Fastest Honda). I’ll be on there. I want to take that ID off but I still want to be known for that. I don’t think they’re touch it this year, so I feel like I’m gonna own it for awhile longer. But life goes on. I think found a team that I want to be with for a long time though. And with the show car we’re doing with GM, and maybe even with a drifting program or circle track program – I want to stay with GM.

Check back soon for GM 2005 Part II as we look into the rest of the new-look 2005 GM Racing sport compact efforts.