Story courtesy of Dennis Thayer
Third-generation drag racers Giada and Giovanni Oliver rocked the show at Monday night’s Drive-In event sponsored by Summit Racing Equipment in McDonough, Ga. The weekly event held at the Summit Racing Equipment’s location just south of Atlanta often attracts large crowds of car enthusiasts that come together to share their love of the automobile.
Along with highlighting Monday night’s regular weekly awards, Summit’s Retail Store Supervisor Reggie Triggs upped the night’s activities by inviting Giada and Giovanni for an autograph session and a live interview that was also streamed live by Summit.
Why Giada and Giovanni you ask, well the answer is simple. This month’s featured cars proudly on display on Summit’s two rotating stages in their entrance lobby are the duo’s NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League Jr. Dragsters.
The Summit display not only highlights the stars of the G2C2 Racing Team – named after their first and middles names, Giada Carmen and Giovanni Carmine – but the entire Jr. Drag Racing League program. The month-long display at Summit took over a year to come to realization and will highlight the program and the driver’s accomplishments until their next points race Labor Day weekend.
During the live interview 9-year-old Giada, the youngest of the Olivers, was asked how her mother, Kiley, took the news of her wanting to race. She quickly proclaimed that she was preceded in the Jr. drag racing world by her mother, who raced from 2005-2010. Giada was “thrown to the wolves” as explained by her family, as she began her racing career in 2023 at the “Baby Gators” Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional race in Gainesville, Fla. And while she has less than two full seasons of experience under belt, she’s already racked up multiple bracket series wins and a first-place finish at the GALOT Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional race in June.
At 11 years of age, the eldest of the Olivers, Giovanni, is making his own waves in the Intermediate age group. Gio, as he is known by friends and family, began racing in 2021 and has seen his own successes including a .000, multiple winner’s circles, and he stood alongside his sister with a win at the GALOT Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional race in June. Gio is also currently running for their local track championship.
The driving force behind the two youngest of the Oliver’s success today is their grandfather. John Oliver’s own passion for the sport is what motivates him to give his grandchildren every opportunity to be successful in drag racing. John has been around the drag racing scene for a long time and knows what possibilities await true talent, hard work, and a driving desire to succeed. John himself was a regular in the Sportsman class at Atlanta Dragway from 2000-2010.
While I think the kids at this point are just having fun and are really too young to understand the bigger picture, their grandfather has worked tirelessly over the last two decades and created a grassroots driver development program that is giving them every opportunity to truly succeed in drag racing.
While it’s too early to tell how exactly things will turn out, the Oliver family exemplifies the whole foundation of the Jr. Drag Racing League… to take families with dreams and give them the opportunity to turn those dreams into real life fairy tales.
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