HAMPTON, Ga. — The names Lamar Chambers and Mike Chambers have become synonymous with racing excellence at Friday Night Drags. While several Griffin drivers have become fixtures at the popular local racing series held weekly during the summer months at Atlanta Motor Speedway, few have separated themselves from the pack as well as the father-son duo from Griffin.

They have teamed up to win four championships (two each), including the last three in a row in the Pro Four Division. And don’t look now, but Lamar Chambers is on track to win this year’s Sport Compact Division with his 1966 Volkswagen Beetle. The others titles have come in their 1957 Volkswagen Beetle.

Simply put, both have been a fixture since the local drag racing series started in 2007 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

For Mike Chambers it seemed like racing destiny was in the genes from day one.

“My dad raced in the Georgia Off Road Racing Association (GORRA) throughout the southeast in the late 1970’s which later became the Mickey Thompson Series,” Mike Chambers noted.

The sport caught the younger Chambers’ fancy. Soon he wanted to race, too.

“We’ve been racing together since the early 1980’s,” said Mike Chambers.

They started simple at first.

“We won remote control car national championships,” Mike Chambers added.

By the time he was in high school, they upped their ride.

“When I was 16 we started racing mini stock cars at Senoia and won three championships,” he said.

From there they ran late models for a few years.

“We decided to try drag racing when Senoia (Speedway) shut down,” he said.

Four championships later, the rest is history for the duo. They have won titles in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

For a short while, Mike’s brother, also became involved in the racing but has since left. Now Mike Chambers has noticed his son, Cameron, 10, might be catching the racing bug.

“He’s just now getting to where he likes to play with cars,” said Mike Chambers. “I’m hoping in another year or he can run in one of the junior divisions.”

Only time will tell if the racing heritage is passed down, again, from one generation to the next.