Jeff “The Surfer” Diehl knows the challenges he faces to compete in NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series as a nitro Funny Car driver.

Diehl’s passion for the sport can’t be questioned. On a limited budget, the California native matches up with the sports powerhouse teams every chance he gets, and 2017 will be no different.

“We’re going to make a go at it like we always do,” Diehl said. “I sold my old truck and trailer and bought a new truck and trailer. That’s going to be a good asset for me. I’ve also got some new (Funny Car) bodies I haven’t mounted yet. I have some Camry bodies, but I haven’t had time with that accident we were in.”

Jeff, and wife/back-up girl, Leeza, were involved in a non-racing automobile accident in which the couple was fortunate to have walked away with their lives.

The weekend following the NHRA Northwest Nationals (Aug. 5-7) in Seattle, the Diehls were rear-ended by an eighteen wheeler just outside of Sacramento, Ca.

They were on the way to their son Trevor's wedding when the Dodge Caravan they were driving was struck by the truck traveling at an estimated 55 mph.

“I was going to physical therapy and I’m starting to feel better,” Diehl said. “We’ve been having trouble with (Leeza). She just can’t seem to shake the headaches and the pain and she can’t do much of the physical therapy and we have to get her straight, but we’re going to go racing.”

Jeff said he has finally started doing some race preparations for the upcoming season.

“Tony Shortall, my crew chief, is out here now and we’re going through everything,” Diehl said. “We haven’t really touched the car since Seattle because we got in that accident right after (that race). We finally just unloaded the car two weeks ago and we hurt some stuff, but we’re fixing it all right now. We have a pretty good arsenal of stuff and we are just going to go out there and pick up where we left off.”

At Seattle, Diehl had his best outing – ever. He made it all the way to the semifinals for the first time in his career before losing to eventual race champion Ron Capps. Diehl also clocked a career-best 4.021-second elapsed time at a personal-best 316.45 mph in his second-round defeat of Cruz Pedregon.

“That was really, really cool and good for the team,” said Diehl about his Seattle performance.

Diehl made his NHRA nitro Funny Car debut in 2006 – competing in two races. He rejoined the NHRA national circuit in 2009 and has been competing on the tour every year since. A year ago, Diehl appeared in 12 races and finished a career-best 14th in the points standings.

“I’m hard-headed - that’s one of my problems,” Diehl said. “I also don’t like people telling me I can’t do something. I grew up around drag racing and it’s the ultimate thing for me. I love the mechanics of it. I like to drive it. The only thing we have trouble is finding a marketing partner. We are working hard on that and we have a couple of things going right now, but we’re not giving up. I do have a lot of people who help me. A lot of the big teams out there sell me stuff at a price that I can afford. Not only do the big teams help me, but I also have a handful of smaller sponsors that help and it keeps me going down the road.”

Diehl said he plans on going to Pomona, Calif. (Feb. 9-12), Phoenix (Feb. 24-26) and Gainesville, Fla. (March 16-19), and then decide what’s next.

“If the car keeps performing, that’s the key,” Diehl said. “If we don’t have any catastrophic explosions or things go wrong and the car keeps qualifying then we will run a lot more races this year. We will only miss about three or four races. I want to win one these things (races) on no money and I think we can do it. If I just get running a little more consistent. I think this thing will run like 3.95s to 4.0s all the time pretty soon here and once you do that and you get past that first round, I think we can win one of these things.”