Photos by Zak Hawthorne, Ron Lewis, and James Drew
11/8/05

There was a lot of drama leading up to the NHRA Finals at Pomona. The Funny Car points race was up for grabs and it looked like John Force would not be the champion. As it turned out, the final rounds were anticlimactic as the winners in all four classes were handed their wins, three of them by red-lights by their opponents. But along the way, there was plenty of action and emotion.

FUNNY CAR

The chase for the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship came down to the final race of the 23-event season, the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway.

And, of the three drivers in contention for the crown (Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps and John Force), it was Scelzi who emerged the victor in the tightest battle for a Funny Car crown in NHRA's long history.

The Fresno, CA, native clinched his first Funny Car championship to go with his three Top Fuel titles and became only the second driver to have won in both nitro classes. Kenny Bernstein is the first. It was also the first championship win for a non-John Force Racing team member since 1992.

Scelzi gave his young crew chief Mike Neff much of the credit.

"Three years ago in Las Vegas, Mike and I had a long talk about what his goals were, what my goals were and where we were going to try to make this whole program go at Don Schumacher Racing," said Scelzi in the winner's circle. "And I told Mike Neff that I wanted [him] from even before Don Schumacher hired me. I said if I could pick the guys and the team it would be the Oakley/Mopar Dodge with Mike Neff and all those guys because Mike Neff will win a championship.

"Big emotional swings," he said of his battle for the title with teammate Ron Capps and his crew chief Ed McCulloch. "Ace and Capps have done a great job. Capps was driving good, my driving has been a little off. Our car is fast, my big concern was not letting these guys down, because they believe in you so much.