Before he made his first Funny Car pass in competition, class newcomer Rich Townsend called his Nitroholic Racing Toyota a “very happy car, very happy car, very pleasant to drive.” The Camry wasn’t perfect, but it produced a 4.242-second pass – not as quick as two of his three test passes at Phoenix last week - at 258.91 mph. That was good enough for the early No. 13 spot. So following his first run, the Oakdale, Calif., native could take pride in seeing his name ahead of John Force’s and Tommy Johnson Jr.’s on the time sheet.

Townsend made a few passes at Bakersfield to get acclimated to his former Tony Pedregon car, then went next door to Arizona and ran a 4.09-second elapsed time in its first appearance off the trailer at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. He also clocked a 4.13 and a 4.30 – “but both of those passes had a hole out,” he said. He said that was a positive sign because “we didn’t hurt any parts, just scuffed a few pistons and so forth.”

So naturally before qualifying for the Lucas Oil Winternationals started, it’s no wonder Townsend said, “You know, I can’t wait just to go out there and hit the gas and get rid of the butterflies. It’s not so much about driving the car, it’s more just all the hype and everybody else is around, the fans and stuff. We have a pretty decent following with our Nitroholic, and they’re just ecstatic to see us out here.”

Word that Townsend, a successful Nostalgia Funny Car builder and racer, would race in the Funny Car class emerged last August. But Townsend said, “Actually, for a big show car, it came together pretty quick. We’ve been on it about six, seven months here. But with Lance Larsen being involved with this, the transition came very quickly. And he’s done a great job in assembling the right parts, the pieces, getting the crew in shape, helping me learn how to drive. We have really high expectations for myself and the car.”

Steering ability, he said, seems to be the biggest difference between his Nostalgia car and the Funny Car.

“The only thing that’s kind of new to me from our Nostalgia car is the fact that when this thing puts a cylinder out, you can have as much steering wheel as you want in it, and the nose of the car doesn’t point, the whole car just slides sideways because of that force being relieved on one side. So it’s something new, but I’m pretty good at catching it quick here,” Townsend said.

“The Nostalgia car’s kind of fun to drive, because you can drive it all around the track a little bit. This thing is accelerating so fast and [has] so much power, once it kind of moves, it gets out of the groove,” he said. “If you lose it, basically for a team like us, I can’t afford to tear it up or hurt it. We got to abort, which is the smart thing to do,  anyway. Nobody needs to be a hero out here.”

Townsend said he and business partner Dustin Davis “have enough in the coffers to go to six to eight races, but we have had quite a few marketing partners that are interested, so if we can kind of keep going forward, maybe we can get some people that would want to step up for a couple different races. We’ll see. We’re very fortunate: we have a very good volunteer crew. A lot of them have day jobs, so that kind of makes it a little tough, too. But they all want to be here. The camaraderie is great. We’re very family-oriented. You see all the kids here, the dogs, everything. So, that means a lot to me.”