Teen Arrive Alive Funny Car Nationals

And what seems to be shaping up to be the daddy of all nostalgia Funny Car races is the Teen Arrive Alive Funny Car Nationals to be held at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, Sept. 10-12. The event is being held in conjunction with the 20th Annual Missouri Illinois Dodge Dealers Monster Mopar Weekend. Lots of bracket classes, over 600 show cars, the legendary Hemi Under Glass wheel stander and the promoters hope to see 40, count ‘em! 40 nostalgia Funnies of all shapes, sizes and fuel choice! There are four classes for the Funnies, including injected alky, blown alky, VRA nitro, and non-VRA nitro. These guys are paying tow money and have a performance payout along with round money! Plus contingencies! Also, there are special awards like best burnout. It’s like a drag race lotto! All ya gotta do is get your car there, make some clean runs and have fun getting a little coin to throw back at your hot rod. Boy I would love to hit this one! (Hint to car owner). Here is the site with sponsor info and other good stuff: http://www.funnycarnationals.com/

Also of note is the reborn Nostalgia Funny Car Association; these guys want to run a summer series of a handful of races and call the Funny Car Nationals their “World“ finals. I like it. I want to be world champ. Their Web site is: http://www.nostalgiafunnycars.com/.

The Exploits of Mr. Pammy

Last and certainly the least are my exploits as a greenhorn nitro Funny shoe. When we last tuned out Mr. Pammy, he and his car owner Jeff Gaynor, Nitro Guru Mike Demarest and superman Randy Hoggard were going to a match race at Bakersfield. After my four runs at LACR, it was on to the big time. Two laps at a booked in show, thanks to Wes Close and his knights of Nitro bunch. I was a little nervous because at LACR I didn’t keep my foot in it the whole 1320. Everyone told me the track would be better and that indeed I would be able to stay with it.

Well, to cut to the chase, we did our burnout and Pammy got to back me up which was really cool. It was great to see her out in front of the car with that big smile but I later told her, “you're too close to the car; I can’t see your arm.” Anyway, we did the run and it felt slow, I almost shut off because it felt weak. Well it wasn’t really weak, it went 6.74 at 213. It just wasn’t moving around like it did the week before.

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We went back and serviced the deal. Mike and Jeff got after it a little and we went back up for another. This time it was dark. Real dark. Nathan Bugg asked me if I’ve ever driven at night. “Uh … no.” was my answer. Nevertheless, we went again. At that point, I was getting used to the cockpit filling with smoke on the burnout. Pammy backed me up again, but this time she's waaay down track so she won’t be too close to the car. Later I told her to forget what I said; I would rather have her too close than too far away. In we go and at yellow I leave. It’s dark in here; at the 330 cone the cockpit filled up with clutch dust! That’s new! It was REALLY dark. At about half track I shifted and the dust went away and I thought I could see. It moved around a little but I could still steer it back. So we went through the lights and it was REALLY DARK AGAIN. Where were the chute levers? After what seemed like an hour I found them and put them out. So I made the turn out going a little faster than I like but it didn’t go in the dirt! 6.69 at 215. And at night! I couldn’t see, but it was bitchin! And as you all know I’m sure, we went and did it again the following week in Vegas. Next stop, Pomona!