They’ve been called many names throughout their 50-year existence – including some that are unprintable in a family publication – and they will be the center of celebration during this season’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Welcome to Funny Cars, a class many consider to be an extension of the Southern California car culture.
The “cars” are short-wheelbase, high-horsepower, nitro-fueled speed machines that resemble, to a point, factory models. However, it’s a far stretch from reality. Throughout the existence of the class, they have been referred to as “monsters” by not only drivers, but crew members as well.
The Funny Car numbers are close to the Top Fuel dragsters, which many people associate with the sport. Last November, on the same Fairplex strip that is hosting the season-opening Winternationals this weekend, Jack Beckman set the national record with a 1,000-foot run of 3.885 seconds; in fact, eight of the top 10 runs of all-time were set during the Auto Club Finals. During the same event, Matt Hagen set the unofficial speed record with a run at 331.45 mph.
In comparison, the Top Fuel records are 3.680 second for time, set by Antron Brown, and 332.75 mph by Spencer Massey, both at Brainerd, Minn., last August.
But why were the label Funny Cars?
“They’d had the rear wheels moved considerably up the shaft chassis. They also increased the size of the rear tires, greatly oversized from stock,” said Graham Light, NHRA senior vice president of racing. “And looking at the cars they looked close to stock, but not quite. Hence the name Funny Cars.
“The name just kind of stuck.”
With the class celebrating its 50th anniversary of competition, many of the great names are being recalled this year. Of course, the biggest name in the class is John Force, who has won 16 championships and survived a horrific crash in 2007 in Ennis, Tex., that nearly claimed his life. Despite missing the final five races of that season, Force still managed a seventh-place finish in the standings.
Of the previous 49 season, John Force Racing has claimed 18 championships with Tony Pedregon and Robert High also finishing first for the team. JFR has also accounted for more than 36 percent of all wins in a class that has also featured such greats as Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, Frank Hawley and the late Raymond Beadle, among others.
In fact, Force has been the most dominant performer in the class with 143 national event victories, nearly more than the next four drivers combined: Ron Capps (44), Tony Pedregon (43), Robert Hight (36) and Cruz Pedregon (35).
Force campaigned by himself for years before adding drivers to his roster. After Pedregon, Hight, his son-in-law, and daughter Ashley, his team also has included youngest daughter Courtney Force. Brittany Force competes in Top Fuel.
With his win in 2015, Force also became the oldest to finish first at 66 years of age, and one month. In 1991, Worsham was the youngest winner at 21, two months. However, former Force racer Gary Densham is the oldest competitor at 69, 50 years old than Billy Meyers’ age when he first started in 1973.
The first Winternationals Funny Car champ was Clair Sanders, part of the first two-car team with “Jungle” Jim Liberman. The NHRA national tour was rather limited at the time but the Pomona win allowed the team to set up a lucrative match-race schedule for the rest of the year.
“That’s how we made our living,” said Sanders. “In May, June, July it seemed like we were racing every other day.”
Two-time champion Hagan races for Don Schumacher, among the sport’s pioneers.
“The first Funny Car drivers like Don really risked it all for me to have this opportunity today. They did so much innovation to make it this safe for us,” said Hagan. “Those pioneers really had a chance to lose their life every time they climbed into a Funny Car. You have to respect that and give praise where praise is due. They got us to where we are today.
“Don’s been around forever, and he’s the man. He was a driver when Funny Cars started and he’s still getting things done as an owner.”
Teammate Capps competes in nostaglia Funny Car, but enjoys the class.
“Any change they’ve made to make them look more like passenger cars have been good,” said Capps. “I still love jumping in nostalgia Funny Cars the past decade because of my love for Funny Cars and the way they were and currently are in nostalgia Funny Cars without side windows and not the huge rear spoilers that we use today that give them a Batmobile look. Those are changes that they let get away from them. But I understand that’s how we’re getting big speeds and low Ets.
“I love the old-school look from the late ’60s and through the early ’80s That was golden era for Funny Cars.”
It was in 1966 that Fran Hernandez, at the time Mercury’s racing director, combined a one-piece fiberglass body with a steel tube chassis, the forerunner to the Funny Car. They were initially called floppers as the result of the body being dropped on the chassis.
There sanctioning body is celebrating the anniversary of the class. Today, there will be a question-and-answer session featuring Prudhomme, Bernstein, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch, Al Segrini, class innovator Tom Prock, Gas Ronda and the very first Winternationals Funny Car winner, Clare Sanders.
Also, Hot Rod Junction will have historic Funny Car on display, including the famed Jungle Jim Chevy Nova, the Gas Ronda Mustang, the Mickey Thompson Mustang, Force’s Brute Force Monza and Brute Force Vega, Larry Fullerton’s Maverick, the Chi-Town Hustler, the Beach City Corvette, the Willie Borsch Mustang and the Vels-Parnelli Jones Mustang.
And if that wasn’t quite enough, exhibition runs featuring the Candies and Hughes Barracuda, the Fighting Irish ’71 Camaro, the Stone Woods and Cook vintage Mustang and the Bays & Rupert ’69 Chevy Camaro will be featured during the event.
