If you’re looking for the thunder and lightning of Nitro Funny Car, then you’ll most likely need to look elsewhere than the IHRA.

Aaron Polburn conveyed this grim reminder to the Funny Car teams in a meeting on Friday at the IHRA World Finals in Rockingham, NC. He didn’t say the class was done but unless a major sponsor is procured, it’s as good as done.

Point leader Terry Haddock isn’t sold on the reality of the eliminator’s demise. The point leader believes this meeting was a wake-up to the industry what lies ahead if major sponsorship isn’t obtained.

“I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom,” Haddock said Friday after the meeting. “I think they are fishing for a sponsor, kind of like we all are. We just have to wait until the first race to see what happens. I think you will also see major changes on the other side, NHRA, as well. We have a current NHRA legal car right now, so we’ll go run over there or we’ll run Top Fuel over here, it doesn’t matter.”

If you’re looking for the thunder and lightning of Nitro Funny Car, then you’ll most likely need to look elsewhere than the IHRA.

Aaron Polburn conveyed this grim reminder to the Funny Car teams in a meeting on Friday at the IHRA World Finals in Rockingham, NC. He didn’t say the class was done but unless a major sponsor is procured, it’s as good as done.

Point leader Terry Haddock isn’t sold on the reality of the eliminator’s demise. The point leader believes this meeting was a wake-up to the industry what lies ahead if major sponsorship isn’t obtained.

“I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom,” Haddock said Friday after the meeting. “I think they are fishing for a sponsor, kind of like we all are. We just have to wait until the first race to see what happens. I think you will also see major changes on the other side, NHRA, as well. We have a current NHRA legal car right now, so we’ll go run over there or we’ll run Top Fuel over here, it doesn’t matter.”

Matt Hagan, who is in his first season running nitro Funny Car, said the IHRA series provided him with the opportunity to learn the ropes of driving in a more relaxed atmosphere.

“It really saddens me, I hope they can work something out soon to get them back going again,” Hagan said. “It’s a great part of the sport, it gives a great venue for these guys to get out here and do what we love to do. To see that taken away from us, it’s tough. I understand there has to be sponsorship to support it and with the economy the way it is today, it’s even worse.

“I understand that it’s not that they’re doing anything intentionally, it’s just the money isn’t there. Hopefully these guys can get in here and work something out and if they can’t maybe everybody just needs to take their Funny Car stuff and put it in a dragster.”

The odds clearly remain in Haddock’s favor to score the championship and if that accolade comes to pass, he could go down in history as the last to win a Funny Car championship in IHRA.

“It does disappoint me because if we do become fortunate enough to win the championship it would be a shame not to get to carry the No. 1 for a year when you work so hard to get it,” Haddock surmised. “But we’re racers and we’ll keep racing. It is what it is.”

Hagan will likely end up racing on the NHRA side and prior to the meeting had already prepared for the likelihood by securing plans to run elsewhere.

“We have a lot of things in the works,” Hagan said. “These are things that we’re trying to patch up and get going. We’re going to do what we have to do to try and win the championship. Once we do that, then we can move onto other things.”

The other things are?

“Right now I can’t say,” Hagan said. “We just have a lot of things in the works.”

The IHRA's Pro Funny Car division was part of the original professional program presented by the sanctioning body in 1971. This eliminator ran alongside of Top Fuel dragster until the dragsters were dropped in 1984. Funny Car ran exclusively as the nitro representative until 1987 when Top Fuel returned. In 1991, the class was dropped in mid-season due to lack of participation.

The Funny Car division returned in 2006 at the urging of major sanctioning body sponsor Evan Knoll but his financial woes led to the demise of the class.