With the close of qualifying under the lights Saturday evening at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series fields of the 2016 are set, and racers will do battle Sunday for not only the Auto Club NHRA Finals titles but also season championships in Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
With cooler temperatures thanks to intermittent cloud cover, the conditions were ripe for record performances, and the racers certainly held up their end, both on the scoreboards and in the drama department.
Here's a look at the day's top stories:
1. Capps clinches first season championship
Funny Car racer Ron Capps, a four-time championship bridesmaid, finally won his first season championship after two decades of trying and close misses, sealing the title with a strong qualifying performance [story].
2. Todd breaks Top Fuel track record en route to No. 1
J.R. Todd collected his first No. 1 qualifying berth of the season with a track record 3.680-second blast - tied for the fifth quickest in class history - in Q3. The old track record was 3.700.
3. Record-quick field of Funny Cars
For the third time this season, the Funny Car field established a record-quick bump spot, with 16 drivers all qualified at 4.029 or better, breaking the 4.045 mark set two weeks ago in Las Vegas. The Pomona field also sports 15 three-second qualifiers - a record as well. The old mark was 14, also set two weeks ago in Las Vegas.
4. Line increases Pro Stock lead
Jason Line came into the event leading teammate Greg Anderson by 19 points and accomplished the first phase of his championship mission by pushing that lead to more than 20 points - 23, to be exact - meaning that Anderson will need to go two rounds further than Line on Sunday to take the points lead from him.
5. Savoie set for championship run Sunday
Jerry Savoie moved one step closer to his first championship in Pro Stock Motorcycle, finishing off a solid qualifying effort Saturday by taking the No. 1 spot, and will hold the points lead heading into Sunday. Challengers Eddie Krawiec (-4 points) or Andrew Hines (-11) will have to go at least one round further than Savoie Sunday to take the lead from him.
Funny Car | Pro Stock | Pro Stock Motorcycle | Etc.
While he certainly would like to do well on the racetrack this weekend, Clay Millican says this has already been a successful weekend for him, thanks to an amazing gesture by others yesterday.
'Yesterday, normal Friday at the racetrack, show up, start to get my stuff ready to go, I'm in the trailer, and someone walks in and says, 'Hey, you need to come outside, you and Donna,' ' said Millican. 'We walk outside, and AC/DC 'Thunderstruck' was playing, and there was this huge group of guys that literally put together and gave to us [this off-road vehicle]. Obviously, it was a pretty fricking emotional morning to say the least for a group of guys to do all of that for Donna and me. You know, [late son] Dalton drove the Blue Thunder monster truck, so it was really, really awesome. That thing is a magazine-quality Polaris Razor. It's hard to imagine that some people that have businesses and have lives that they spent the time and the money and went together and did something like that. I mean, that's crazy. Amazing people do amazing things. That thing's cool. It's an incredible machine. That's a heck of a deal for a group of people to get together and do that, and a lot of these people I didn't even know. Some of them I did. Some of them I didn't.'
On the track, Millican had a bit of a tough Friday, smoking the tires on both attempts, but though he admit his team missed the tune-up on the first run, Millican says the second tire-smoker happened due to his team taking a risk.
'The second run was 100 percent 'We are going to qualify No. 1,' ' said Millican, who ran 3.76 and 3.78 today. 'We set it up very similar to what we did in Vegas when we went 3.68, and it was on that run up until the track said, 'I'm not doing this.' Everything was perfect. Engine rpm, driveshaft is an exact overlay of our 3.68 run from Vegas, and the track wasn't there to take what we were trying to do. Today, we obviously will have to back up a little bit and just make sure we go down the racetrack and get qualified, and then we'll see what happens in Q4 because that's what we did in Vegas.'
After struggling mightily in Las Vegas, where Richie Crampton (pictured) got in on his last run and Morgan Lucas failed to qualify, Morgan Lucas Racing made a change coming into this event.
'We're trying to follow suit with a lot of the teams right now and put the all-in-one valve on the car,' said Lucas. 'Richie got to test it Monday after Las Vegas and ran really well with it, so that was our first crack at it.'
Out of the gate, that appeared to be a good choice for the team because Lucas opened the weekend with a 3.89 that was slowed a bit by a dropped cylinder. After struggling Friday, Crampton rebounded in a big way today, powering to a 3.73 that was among the four quickest times of Q3.
'Man, that thing was flying early, but heck of a run,' said Crampton, who posted another 3.73 in the final session. 'Good job by Aaron Brooks. I can't thank my Lucas Oil guys enough - I love them all to death - and I can't thank the Lucas family enough for everything as well.'
It has been a weekend of career-best runs for several teams, including the Rapisarda entry driven by Wayne Newby. Newby qualified with a 3.766 that was a new personal best for him, and his speed of 326.79 mph is a best for his team here in the United States. Newby, who made runs of 3.79 and 3.81 today, qualified 11th.
The solid qualifying effort caps a very busy few weeks for Newby and his entire Rapisarda team. The team ran the Las Vegas event two weeks ago, then hopped on a plane back to Australia to compete at an event last weekend at Sydney Dragway. After winning that race, Newby and the Rapisarda bunch flew back to the United States to take part in NHRA's season finale.
After a throwaway Friday, during which he posted a best of 4.70 seconds, Doug Kalitta's car came to life today, particularly in the final session. In Q4, Kalitta powered to a 3.709 that was the quickest time of that session and moved him up to second behind teammate J.R. Todd.
'Very nice,' said Kalitta after the run. 'We're trying to keep up with that SealMaster car. You know, Connie's [Kalitta] been doing a great job on that thing, and obviously so is Jim O. [Oberhofer] on this Mac Tools car. We're pretty excited about tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes.'
This is the first time since the Dallas event in 2014 that the Kalitta cars have qualified in the top two spots in the Top Fuel field.
Another driver who stepped up in the final session was Shawn Langdon, who posted a 3.713 that was the second-quickest run of the round and moved him up to the No. 3 starting spot.
'That's about what we were hoping for,' said Langdon, who faces Tripp Tatum in the first round. 'Phil [Shuler] and Todd [Okuhara], they've been doing a little homework this weekend, trying to pick up a couple hundredths here. We've been making good runs, but we've just been a tick off, you know, fourth or fifth quick of the sessions, but 3.71, that's a great run for the Red Fuel team.'
Further proving that he intends to once again be a thorn in the side of the rest of the Top Fuel field tomorrow, J.R. Todd shot to the top of the order during the final day of qualifying and did so in impressive fashion, powering to a 3.680 in the third round of qualifying. It was the quickest run of Todd's career and tied for the fifth-quickest in NHRA history.
'I thought maybe you would see a run like that last night or this last session in Q4, not in the middle of the day like that with the sun on the track and the temperature up,' said Todd. 'That surprised me when I went by the scoreboard and looked up and saw it said 3.68. That was pretty impressive by Connie [Kalitta] and Rob [Flynn] and all the guys on the SealMaster Toyota team. That thing's been trying to run well for a really long time, and here the last handful of races, it's really come together, and hopefully we're going in the right direction for 2017.'
Though excited to qualify No. 1 for the first time this season, Todd's mood was tempered a bit at the end of the day due to a massive engine explosion on his final attempt of the weekend (see animated gif below).
'That thing blew up pretty big,' said Todd. 'I'm not sure what happened out there. The guys are back in the pits taking it apart right now, and we'll figure it out and get all new parts and pieces together for tomorrow first round and see what happens, but I think we've got a good shot. The thing was running OK. It wasn't running as good as it was earlier today, and all of a sudden, it just darted left, and the next thing I know, bang. That was a pretty big one. I haven't seen one that big. There's some stuff broken that I've never broken before driving a car, so that's a first for me.'
John Hale made the highlight reels yesterday when his Mooneyes-adorned entry went into a massive wheelstand on his second qualifying attempt, and though it produced sparks when it came back down, no major damage was done to the car.
'These guys looked at everything on the car, all the welds, all the tubing. They looked real hard to find something, but they couldn't find anything,' said Hale. 'The front tires only had a couple of runs on them, but it came down pretty hard on them, so we put another set of front tires on there just to be safe. The belly pan, of course, when it came down, it drug the ground - that's the sparks you saw - and when the belly pan came down and hit the track, it came up and pushed the oil pan in a little bit, so we have a different belly pan and a new oil pan on it.
'We're also making some adjustments on the rear spoiler of the car to counteract that from happening again. We're making aerodynamic adjustments as well mechanical adjustments in the bellhousing to keep the front end down.'
Though he kept his car planted to the track today, unfortunately for Hale, Saturday did not go much better than Friday. Hale struggled on his final two passes, recording a best of 4.39 and coming up short of making the field.
After some struggles in the pits that prevented him from making an attempt yesterday, Jim Campbell made the call for both passes today, and he had a solid overall day, including tying his career-best time of 3.977 on his first attempt. That good run, however, was not without a little drama because the team found a problem right before it fired up to make the pass.
'We got lucky that time,' said crew chief and car owner Chuck Worsham. 'We found a little problem right before we ran the car. The mag clamp had a pin bent, and it wasn't holding one of the mags right, and it kept retarding. That got us in Vegas, too, but we fixed it.'
After smoking the tires on her Traxxas entry under the lights last night, Courtney Force rebounded in a big way in the third session today, powering to a 3.86 that was the best run of that round.
'That's pretty awesome,' said Force, whose run earned her the No. 2 starting spot and a first-round match with Jim Campbell. 'It's great to have a run like that in the middle of the day. I mean, we struggled a little bit yesterday, but to lay a 3.86 down like that, I'm really proud of this Traxxas Chevy Camaro team, and we're going to push a little harder tonight. I'm really excited to be out here at my home track. That puts us into a good position going into tomorrow.'
No matter how much he accomplishes in his career - and that now officially includes winning a world championship - Ron Capps will forever be a fan at heart, so when he had a chance to put together his own mini celebration of the 50 Years of Funny Car, Capps jumped at the opportunity.
'I brought the boots out here to sort of go back in time and wear the boots like they did when I was a kid,' said Capps. 'I had these made when I drove the nostalgia car at the Heritage Series at Famoso at the March Meet. I had them made a couple years ago, and I raced James Day, a good friend of mine, and he beat us, and he kept telling me that he wanted the boots. I did it because I was going to race a nostalgia car, and these are the boots that I saw Ed McCulloch wear and Don 'the Snake' Prudhomme and Don Schumacher when I was a kid, so I had them made by Impact. I gave them to James, and he won the March Meet this year, driving a Nostalgia Funny Car. I called him the other day and said, 'Can I borrow those back, just for a couple days?' and he was here in like 10 minutes, brought 'em over and handed them to me, and it's been really fun to put these on.
'I don't think [Matt] Hagan's old enough to know what they wore back then because he called them my dancing boots, and I'm like, 'Dude, do you realize what Funny Car drivers wore when I was a kid?' The older drivers dug it. [John] Force rode up, and he was just shaking his head. He thought he still had some in his closet.'
It might be fair to say that the happiest driver and team of the final qualifying round were Dave Richards and his crew after they joined the three-second club with an amazing 3.975 pass at 316.60 mph.
'Wow, I'm like shaking I'm so happy,' said Richards, who qualified No. 14 with his career-best pass. 'I can't believe that we just qualified here. Just to be racing out here in California is awesome. I mean, we're from Florida, and the only reason we are out here is because of Brian and Janie Mahoney, and that one was for you, Janie.'
Crew chief Paul Smith echoed Richards' excitement, saying, 'That's great. We've been trying and trying and trying. The Richards family has been doing a great job.'
With Richards' three-second run, that brought the total number of threes in the field to 15, eclipsing Las Vegas' 14 as the most ever.
Two weeks after setting a new best for a Funny Car bump at 4.045, the mark has been eclipsed here in Pomona. John Bojec anchors the new quickest field in history with his 4.029. Bojec, who recorded that time in the first session Friday, and his crew will have a little extra work to prepare for the first round against No. 1 qualifier Jack Beckman tomorrow after their Speed City entry suffered a big engine explosion shortly after leaving the starting line in Q4.
It was a wild and tough ending to qualifying for Robert Hight and John Force, both of whom had issues as they ran side by side in the final session. Hight took out the finish-line cones on what likely would have been a No. 1 pass at the time - the scoreboards read 3.85 - and Force's car made contact with the wall shortly after he crossed the finish line. Neither Hight nor Force got a time for their final pass because Hight was ahead of Force when he clipped the cones.
After watching his teammate Ron Capps officially clinch the 2016 world championship two pairs in front of him and grab the lion's share of the day's headlines, Jack Beckman stole a tiny bit of the spotlight when he powered to a 3.825, the second-quickest time in history, to solidify his hold on the No. 1 starting spot.
'It's just a number, but it's interesting how excited people can get over a number,' said Beckman of his elapsed time. 'The people were fanatical. When we pulled back into our pits, the people were six deep because they knew we had done something special. I was one-tenth of a team that just did something special.'
As he and crew chief Jimmy Prock noted Friday when they were the provisional low qualifier, Beckman's team switched to a six-disc clutch this weekend, and though they are sitting No. 1, Beckman says there is also a level of cautiousness with this new combo.
'The Achilles heel of the six-disc clutch is the first feet of the racetrack,' he said. '[This weekend] we went fast, we went No. 1, we smoked the tires instantly, and we went quicker than anyone's ever run at this track, so it's a little bit of feast or famine. We're going to have to be very careful that we don't smoke the tires tomorrow. Being the No. 1 qualifier should give us an advantage in the first round, but it won't if the car won't go the first five feet. We're still in a pretty steep learning curve and don't know exactly why it did what it did in Q3, but we know the direction ahead to get it safer.'
Sunday's eliminations at the Auto Club NHRA Finals will mark the last race for Shane Gray as a full-time Pro Stock driver as he will be putting his son Tanner in the cockpit for the 2017 season. 'I'm doing this primarily because Tanner wants to start driving,' said the elder Gray. "He's already made a few runs with one of our cars with [crew chief] Dave Connolly and me helping him. Tanner has already made it to the eighth-mile with a best time of 4.21. He will be driving one of the other cars in our shop, and we have another new Haas car on order. Our plans are to finish his licensing procedures at Bradenton [Fla.] on Dec. 13."
Whatever the outcome of Sunday's eliminations, Gray is very pleased with the performance of the Gray Motorsports team. 'We've already won three of the five Countdown events this season, and we plan to continue working with Drew Skillman and Alex Laughlin next year. I am also leaving the door open to perhaps run three or more events in 2017 myself.'
Drew Skillman, who made the midseason switch from Freeman Motorsports to Gray Motorsports prior to the ninth event of the year in Epping, said that he was very pleased with the results of his decision. He won the Brainerd race and reached the winner's circle at the Dallas Countdown to the Championship event.
Said Skillman, 'It was a very challenging year, especially at the start when all of us were trying to play catch-up with the KB Racing team. Now it appears that the category as a whole has narrowed the gap, and I like to think that Gray Motorsports has contributed a lot to that. Every aspect of the car had to be addressed to make this happen, and Shane and his team did an excellent job in enabling us to achieve our goals. I am definitely looking forward to running with them in 2017."
After sitting out nine national events between the Charlotte four-wide and Chicago races, Matt Hartford returned to the NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock circuit in Denver and scored a semifinal finish in Sonoma. He has since acquitted himself well with power supplied by legendary Warren Johnson and plans to continue with engines prepared by "the Professor" in 2017. 'Our relationship is too good for us to change anything,' said Hartford. "We'll also be teamed up with Nitro Fish and Total Seal for sponsorship help next year. None of this would be possible without the help of Kenny Koretsky.'
Veteran racer Kenny Delco made a significant gain in Saturday's final round of qualifying as he improved from a previous best of 6.664 to a 6.593 to jump from 14th to eighth in the qualifying order. It was his first top-half qualifying performance during 2016, a season in which he has made the program at all 13 races that he has attended. Delco also has two semifinal finishes, in Atlanta and Englishtown.
Aaron Strong, still on a cloud after his first victory from the Seattle event (the rained-out final of which was run at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals), is looking forward to 2017 with considerable enthusiasm.
'Our plans are to run at least 10 races next year,' said Strong. 'That could expand depending on how well we do and how the funding goes. For instance, this year, we had only scheduled eight events and ended up racing at 11.
'I think the biggest thing we learned this year was how to be more professional, especially with our preparation, how we work through problems, and other things like that.'
The Milton, Wash., campaigner was still overwhelmed by the reaction of the local fans at the Seattle event. 'It was just amazing. The crowd just kept getting louder and louder as we continued to go rounds. That sure gives us incentive to go out and do something like that again.'
While many Pro Stock teams expressed initial apprehension after last year's announcement about the switch from the traditional carburetors to fuel injection for 2016, Deric Kramer said that his group actually embraced the idea.
'Our team consists of a younger group of guys, and we were excited about the concept. It's not like any of us were experts on fuel injection, but we each have more of an f.i. mindset. And I think that helped us at the beginning of the year when we were able to leave the line better than a lot of the teams, with the exception of KB Racing. We only had six dyno pulls during the winter, so it wasn't like we had that much R&D work done. I just think that it was our approach that made the difference."
Jason Line, left, accomplished his goal of building his lead over KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson to at least 21 points when he ended up with a margin of 23 by qualifying No. 1 with a 6.545. That put Anderson in the position of having to go at least two rounds further than Line to overtake him and win the title.
Said Line, 'It could be a big deal or it could be nothing, but I'd rather be 23 points ahead instead of 19. Our first run this morning was really good, better even than we thought it would be, so we're very happy with that. We're [qualified] No. 1 and 3, so we could meet in the final. I'd be really happy with that because obviously if we get there, it would already be over, but ultimately that's the storybook ending to our great season. We've had the two best cars all season, and to battle it out in the final would be pretty cool.'
The expansion of his lead does give Line some breathing room, but knowing the unpredictable nature of Pro Stock racing, he is not taking anything for granted.
'It's not a [comfortable lead], but it's a round, and because there's a lot of things that can happen - the last couple of races have not gone as we anticipated - so if something does go bad, at least it's a bit of a cushion. It's better than nothing,' said Line.
Should Line win, it would be his third NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock world title, having previously earned crowns in 2006 and 2011, both of which he clinched at the next-to-last race of the year in Las Vegas.
'I feel good about it. I've been in spots similar to this, and hopefully they prepare you for this. It's going to be a fun day and exciting to watch. I'm happy because no matter what, KB Racing is going to win the championship.'
Steve Johnson, who is the top-ranking Pro Stock Motorcycle rider in terms of longevity and who has raced on his own for his 30-year career, is contemplating a change of approach for the 2017 campaign.
Said Johnson, 'My plans are to either acquire another rider to form a team or join an existing team myself. If you look around and see the success of operations such as Don Schumacher, John Force, KB Racing, Vance & Hines, and other multiple-vehicle operations, they get the biggest amount of wins because of their capability to acquire more data.
"With another rider working with me, I'll be able to acquire information for eight runs at each race, rather than just four. I'm proud of what I've been able to do on my own, but the trend to having multiple-entry teams is very obvious, and I'm going to need to do this in order to remain competitive. I still have a very fantastic attitude towards NHRA because this is the place I want to be."
After qualifying no worse than ninth during the 2016 season, LE Tonglet finished in the No. 11 position for the Auto Club NHRA Finals. Said Tonglet, 'The problem started at Las Vegas, where the bike slowed down, and we couldn't find the reason. We changed engines, and that didn't help, so now we're thinking that it may be something like an electrical problem, a fuel-system issue, or something else like that. I'm just glad that this didn't happen earlier this year."
In any case, Tonglet is looking forward to 2017, when he will join with Jerry Savoie to form a two-bike team. 'I'm not only excited about being able to share the extra data but also being able to work with a racer of Jerry's caliber. I really think it's going to be a good thing for both of us.'
Melissa Surber will be completing her first full season as a rookie in NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock Motorcycle competition and is looking forward to racing with her father, James, in 2017. 'My dad wanted to focus on helping me during my first full rookie campaign, and now he feels comfortable about resuming his riding career himself,' said Surber.
Surber credits her father with helping steer her to the two-wheel category. 'I started out in Jr. Dragster and originally wanted to move up to a doorslammer, but Dad felt that it would be better for me to ride a motorcycle because of his background with the bikes. I'm glad that I went along with his advice because I really enjoy it. In fact, I feel more comfortable now to be on a bike rather than strapped up in a car.'
Longtime Pro Stock Motorcycle campaigner Chip Ellis came through when he needed it the most. He drove Junior Pippin's Buell to his best time of the event, 6.862, which was not only the quickest time of the fourth qualifying session but also moved him from ninth into the top half of the field in the No. 6 position. This was especially gratifying for Ellis, who had been plagued with engine issues during the Countdown to the Championship, in which his bike repeatedly shut down prematurely.
Though he is not in contention for this year's NHRA Mello Yello title, Ellis said that he could definitely empathize with the pressure on this year's contenders, Jerry Savoie, Eddie Krawiec, and Andrew Hines. 'I was battling it out with Matt Smith for the title in 2007, and we went all the way to the final round to decide who got the title,' said Ellis. "I went a 6.95 but was beaten by Matt's 6.94. It hurt losing such a close race, but I also felt fortunate that I was able to go down to the last race of the last event and still had a shot at winning the crown.'
Saturday's qualifying ended on a frustrating note for teammates Karen Stoffer and Jim Underdahl, who both missed making the program in the final qualifying round. Stoffer came the closest with a 6.998 that placed her in the 17th spot, just .023-second behind Angie Smith's 6.965. Underdahl ended up 19th with a best of 7.007.
This was only the third DNQ of 2016 for Stoffer, who also failed to make the field for the PSM season opener in Gainesville and in Norwalk.
Eddie Krawiec helped his cause temporarily with a booming 6.828 with his Harley-Davidson V-Rod during Saturday's first qualifying session that enabled him to move back into a tie with Jerry Savoie for the points lead but slipped back to second when Savoie came back to outrun Krawiec in the final round, 6.825 to 6.891.
Of his 6.828 blast, Krawiec said, 'We had trouble with the track on Friday, so we just had to scale it back to tune our bike for the track. The racing surface did get better as the weekend went along and more rubber was applied to the track, but most of our improvement came from tuning for the conditions that we had to run on. What we tried for the final round obviously didn't work, so we'll have to focus our efforts to get back to where we were and hopefully do well in Sunday's eliminations."
It has been an extremely abnormal weekend for defending NHRA Mello Yello world champion Andrew Hines, who went through four rounds of qualifying without earning any bonus points. Hines was no better than seventh on Friday, but he came closer during Saturday's first session when he tied Hector Arana Jr. for third with a 6.856 but was knocked to fourth because of Arana's swifter speed. In the final qualifying round, Arana again nipped Hines for the No. 3 position, 6.883 to 6.884.
This weekend's exciting qualifying set the stage for an epic showdown between three riders who are separated by just 11 points. Jerry Savoie not only claimed the No. 1 spot with his fourth-round qualifying effort of 6.825, but he also put himself ahead by five and 11 points, respectively, over Harley-Davidson V-Rod campaigners Eddie Krawiec and defending champ Andrew Hines. This is significant because if all three riders go out in the same round, Savoie will win the title.
Savoie, however, is not interested in mathematical possibilities but rather on how he has to focus for race day. Said Savoie, 'Whatever happened here today and yesterday is all behind us. Tomorrow is another day, and we'll take it round by round. Unless we all lose together in the semi's, it's going to go down to the final round. Just stay focused and don't get nervous.'
Savoie had been aiming for a 6.79 all weekend but settled for his 6.82. 'You're always going to hear this from a rider - it could have been quicker, it could have been faster.'
Savoie indicated that he embraces the high-stakes scenario. 'If you let the pressure get to you, you're not a champion. I'm going to go out there and do what we did today. It's a puzzle: the bike is one piece, the clutch is one piece, the tire is one piece, the track is one piece, and I'm a piece of the puzzle. When all of those pieces come together, you win championships. Last year we weren't champions, and we might not be this year either, but we've sure got them worried.'
Jeff Strickland became just the second driver in NHRA history to win two national championships in the same season, clinching the Stock eliminator title Saturday at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, adding it to the Top Dragster title that he clinched last weekend in Las Vegas.
Strickland clinched the Stock title in dramatic fashion at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, defeating the only man with a chance to pass him in the standings, two-time national champ Brad Burton, in a head-to-head match.
At the wheel of his FS/C COPO Camaro, Strickland had a better reaction time than Burton and ran within .003-second of his dial-in to chase down Burton for the win and the championship. Had he beaten Strickland, Burton would have had to have won in the fourth round to take the points lead from Strickland.
The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California hosted its annual Night of Champions affair Friday. Former Funny Car world champ Jack Beckman was the emcee for a panel of Funny Car experts that included, from left, Paul Lee, Roland Leong, Tom 'the Mongoose' McEwen, and 'Jungle Pam' Hardy.
The NHRA Membership Hospitality Tent offers NHRA members not only a great place to relax and purchase snacks and beverages but also a front-row seat to the action in Funny Car racer Tim Wilkerson's pit area.
The pit area at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona was packed with fans eager to get a close-up look at the machines and interact with the drivers as the season winds to a close.
The popular Hot Rod Junction allows fans access to a wide variety of hot rods and customs as well as some restored and re-created Funny Cars.
Race fans may remember Grace Porter (nee Howell), who raced in the Sportsman classes and in Pro Stock for a short time. Now married to Australian Pro Stock racer Scott Porter, she has been racing Pro Stocks with him Down Under but competed this weekend in Super Stock with an SS/BM Mustang. Porter, who plans to compete next year in Comp with her Pro Stock-style machine, reached round four today before fouling out against Jim Grossi.
The grandstands were packed for the Mello Yello qualifying sessions as fans took in all the action of the 2016 season finale.
The traditional Mello Yello autograph session was a real treat for fans as it was stocked with Funny Car royalty, including Tom 'the Mongoose' McEwen, Don 'the Snake' Prudhomme, Roland Leong, Ed 'the Ace' McCulloch, Kenny Bernstein, 'Jungle Pam' Hardy, and Del Worsham.
Fans flocked to the Auto Club stage to listen to Auto Club-backed Funny Car driver Robert Hight and teammates Brittany, Courtney, and John Force talk about their seasons and the event.
Hight and NHRA's Alan Reinhart taught the popular Nitro School class to eager fans, who learned all about the inner workings of a nitro-powered machine.
Friday Notebook