Bell Proves He’s Among the Best With IHRA Junior Dragster World Championship

Ryan Bell felt going into last weekend that he was one of the best Junior Dragster racers in the country.

Bell proved it at Alabama International Raceway last Saturday when he beat a stacked field of competitors to come away with the Junior Dragster title at the IHRA SuperSeries World Finals.

“This means the world to me. I’m truly blessed to have this opportunity with the crew that I have,” Bell said. “I feel my home track, Elk Creek Dragway, helped prepare me for this race with all the great competition. This showed me that I can stick right with the best of them.”

When he’s talking about the best of them, there were IHRA-member track champions, IHRA division champions and IHRA Sportsman Spectacular winners who qualified for the IHRA SuperSeries World Finals. In the final round, Bell faced 2024 IHRA World Champion Tate Hildebrandt from Edinburg Motorsports Park.

Bell had the better reaction time, a .023 to .081 for Hildebrandt, and then posted a run of 7.595 seconds at 81.95 mph. Hildebrandt completed his run in 8.029 seconds and 78.34 mph.

He was rewarded with a $10,000 big check, a commemorative IHRA champion’s medal, a special IHRA Ironman trophy and an IHRA Gold Card. Bell also claimed the Master Age Group bonus win. While the prizes were awesome in the teenager’s opinion, the fact that so many other great racers were in the field made it even better.

Ty Janousek, another Texan who has won several high-profile races, including the Race of Champions at the IHRA Division 4 (Renegades) Team Finals, was eliminated in the semifinals. Before that, Bell had a .011 reaction time to dispatch Patrick Seally in the quarterfinal round, and stayed consistent to beat Tristan Enox in round three.

The Virginia teenager, who drives a 2007 Halfscale, qualified for the IHRA World Finals by winning the track championship at Elk Creek. A third-generation racer, he calls his dad, grandad and others on the team his racing heroes.

Bell felt the victory wasn’t just for himself, but for all those whom he faces at his home track.

“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you are, we have some of the best junior racers around,” Bell said. “And we’re all family.”

More IHRA champion and runner-up profiles are coming up. Keep up with this and the latest news at IHRA.com and through our social media pages.

Photos by: Hobbie Lee ProPhotography