The new Hadman chassis driven by Gary Scelzi couldn’t find the combination throughout the Houston weekend, but in post-Gainesville testing, everything went perfect. At least that’s the report Ron Capps submitted.

Capps and Scelzi often test for one another on the weekends following national events. The routine for Capps kept him running at a break-neck pace throughout the day. He’d make a run, catch a scooter ride and hop in the second flopper already in the lanes.

The experience reminded Capps of two years ago when he not only tested his car, but also Scelzi’s and Bazemore’s. The new Hadman chassis driven by Gary Scelzi couldn’t find the combination throughout the Houston

weekend, but in post-Gainesville testing, everything went perfect. At least that’s the report Ron Capps submitted.

Capps and Scelzi often test for one another on the weekends following national events. The routine for Capps kept him running at a break-neck pace throughout the day. He’d make a run, catch a scooter ride and hop in the second flopper already in the lanes.

The experience reminded Capps of two years ago when he not only tested his car, but also Scelzi’s and Bazemore’s.

“A lot of the day I never took my helmet off,” Capps admitted. “It was pretty awesome.  I'd make a run and they'd scooter me back, I'd jump in another car make another run, jump on the scooter, make another run and go back.  I'd just leave my helmet on.  I felt like an Indy car driver out at testing.” 

The interesting part of the experience for Capps was in being able to relay information about the car to the respective driver. He used this experience to convey certain tidbits about the Hadman car to Scelzi.

“When Gary drove for me, he found certain things that he liked or disliked about mine that he could use on his car,” Capps said. “The Hadman car was a much different feeling car -- not worse or better, just different.  I seem to be pretty comfortable in that car.  It just reacted different.”

Scelzi’s Hadman frame isn’t a slip tube like Capps currently drives. This is just one of the many intricacies they discuss in post testing debrief.

“It was a real neat experience to be able to go down the track in a different car back-to-back like that,” Capps said. “Gary and I had long conversations about things that could help me, things that could help him with his car.”

 

Capps believes the day may soon approach when a different track will call for a

different chassis.
 
“You never know,” Capps said. “The slip tube was originally designed to keep the front end on the ground.  One thing I found with my car is the front end was light and bouncing around so it was a little bit slower to steer.  It was designed originally to have that front end firmly planted so you had more control as a driver, not necessarily a performance advantage because come race day on Sunday if it could keep you in the groove that much better then it was an advantage. 

”Guys have done different things with these chassis that help both of those aspects but you could see where on a certain terrible track where a slip tube could be made firm for that weekend or vice versa and then go to a different track.  You would have a Talledega car and a Bristol car.”

 

Capps doesn’t limit his testing prowess to driving for fellow Funny Car drivers Scelzi, Beckman or Toliver. He’s also driven Tony Schumacher’s U.S. Army dragster.

“I think that's the best part about this whole organization is that we can swap around,” Capps explained. “I would plan on doing it again but Alan Johnson put me in the Army car right after they set the national speed record two years ago.  I made a couple of test runs in it and Alan was laughing at me because he could read Army on both sides of it from the starting line. 

“I'm a Funny Car driver and we move around a lot but I didn't want to get out the gas.”