Interview with NHRA Lead TV Announcer Brian Lohnes

Brian Lohnes began announcing drag races while attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Starting first at Lebanon Valley Dragway, Lohnes truly established his career while working for more than a decade at New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire as an announcer, a tech inspector, race director and track official.

While growing his role in the sport, Lohnes concurrently worked as a journalist for drag racing and automotive enthusiast publications. Starting BangShift.com in 2008 was the culmination of this end of his career and that popular website continues today.

Lohnes became a traveling national event announcer with the IHRA series in the early 2000s, where he called the majority of events for a period of more than half a decade. Brian’s first event with the NHRA was the 2014 Amalie Oil Gatornationals. His television work began the following season, serving as a top-end reporter for E3 Spark Plugs pro-modified programming.

His role within the NHRA has grown from that point as he progressed to announce every national event as well as working more deeply with the television production team. Lohnes continues to announce some specialty, outlaw and small tire drag racing events on weekends away from the NHRA Mello Yello series tour.

He makes his home in eastern Massachusetts along with his wife Kerri and two sons, Tom and Jack.