Sean Bellemeur didn’t need popcorn to watch Del Worsham’s nitro-burning, Top Alcohol Funny Car experiment unfold.
The defending NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car champion, driver of the Bartone Brothers entry tuned by Steve Boggs, had seen this movie before. Different race car, different way of feeding it nitro, but a plot Bellemeur knew almost by heart.
Bring something different to Top Alcohol Funny Car. You run fast and do it efficiently. Then stand back while everybody decides whether you’ve just built the future or ruined the neighborhood.
Bellemeur and Boggs went through it with their injected-nitro Funny Car. They went fast enough to set records, fast enough to put 280 mph on the scoreboard, and fast enough to make people nervous about what might happen if Boggs kept finding more.
Then NHRA changed the rules.
So when Worsham rolled out his supercharged nitro “Junior” Funny Car, and driver Jacob Slater eventually blasted to a 5.452-second run at 291 mph at Brainerd, Bellemeur probably had a pretty good idea what the conversation was going to sound like.
“I think we’ll have a big show Funny Car before we’ll do that,” Bellemeur said when asked how long it would be before Bartone Brothers Racing built one. “It’s funny, that thing went out and ran good and everybody panicked.
“It really didn’t run any better ET-wise than the blown alcohol cars.”
Bellemeur’s right in that the 5.452 didn’t exactly reset the performance standard of Top Alcohol Funny Car. There were conventional blown-alcohol cars capable of running just as quick right alongside it.
But there was that other number that couldn’t be ignored – 291 miles per hour.
Nobody missed the 291. Slater’s speed was the eye-opener, even if the 5.452 wasn’t anything the blown-alcohol cars hadn’t already seen on the scoreboard.
Bellemeur understood the reaction because he and Boggs had stirred up the same conversation with the Bartone Brothers injected-nitro car. They went 5.330 at 281.42 mph at Gainesville, giving Bellemeur the NHRA record and the first official 280-mph run in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
That’s when the injected combination started making some people uncomfortable.
The concern was how much more Boggs might find and whether the injected cars eventually could put the traditional blown-alcohol combination out of business. NHRA responded by reducing the allowable nitromethane percentage.
The Bartone Brothers parked the injected car and went back to what they knew. Bellemeur and Boggs kept winning with the blown-alcohol car.
So Bellemeur wasn’t exactly shocked when Worsham’s 291 brought some of the same questions back.
“We got an injected nitro car sitting in the shop,” Bellemeur said. “We don’t need a blown fuel car sitting in the shop either. So no, we’re happy and business as usual.”
There was also a sense of déjà vu when Bellemeur first saw Worsham’s combination.
“Yep. And we said the same thing when we saw it,” Bellemeur said. “The concept is a decent one, I think, but they always say news is good news in some ways, being talked about and alcohol Funny Cars being talked about again. And that’s exciting.
“The car counts are coming around a little bit, but I don’t think you’ll see one with Bartone’s name on the side of it, that’s for sure.”
One major difference between Worsham’s experiment and what Bellemeur and Boggs did is this: Worsham wasn’t trying to build Godzilla. NHRA developed the supercharged nitro combination as a gateway between Top Alcohol Funny Car and the professional nitro ranks. Worsham has stayed true to the concept, using existing pieces instead of throwing the latest and greatest at it.
That’s also why Bellemeur isn’t ready to panic over 291-mph on a time slip.
“Well, again, NHRA looks primarily at performance in ET and it really didn’t run any better,” Bellemeur said. “I mean, he went .45, and there was a handful of .46s, and we went .42 on Monday [in testing].
“So from that aspect, yeah, the speed part of it is alarming, I guess.”
The .45 doesn’t bother Bellemeur nearly as much as what could come after it.
Worsham has approached the project as NHRA intended. But there is nothing stopping somebody from looking at what Worsham has learned and wondering what the same combination could do with new parts, new blowers and a Top Alcohol Funny Car championship as the objective.
That’s where Bellemeur sees the potential problem.
“Del’s doing it the right way,” Bellemeur said. “He’s taking stuff as kind of like a feeder step toward the big show, but what if somebody built one with all brand new parts and all brand new blowers?
“And I think that’s where you could get in trouble, but until somebody does, there’s really nothing to do about it.”
Bellemeur isn’t asking NHRA to hamstring Worsham’s car because it ran 291 mph. The NHRA’s actions in the past wouldn’t justify it based on speed.
At Indianapolis, Bellemeur qualified second with a 5.518 at 264.75 mph, behind Mick Steele’s 5.494. The traditional blown-alcohol combination isn’t exactly running like a wounded duck. At Brainerd, Slater in Worsham’s Toyota went 5.45 while Bellemeur went 5.42.
The 291 remains the sticking point in the situation and Boggs will be watching as closely as anyone.
Few tuners in Top Alcohol Funny Car have shown a greater willingness to look at a rulebook and find the gray areas than Boggs. The injected-nitro was classic Boggs in that he took an available combination, worked on it, and saw where the numbers led. In his case, it was a 5.330 and 281.42 and a parked combination.
“Steve is comfortable with where we’re at,” Bellemeur said. “We’ll see what comes with rule changes in the future and we’ll make a decision what’s the best car for us.”
Bellemeur won’t say that the injected-nitro program is dead quite yet. If NHRA makes changes that breathe life back into that combination to their liking, Boggs isn’t likely to let that set idle.
Right now, the Bartone Brothers Racing doesn’t need another experiment. They’re content to let Worsham live under the microscope for a while.
“Possibly, but again, that all hinges on the rules in NHRA,” Bellemeur said when asked whether Worsham’s program could inspire the return of the injected-nitro Bartone car. “But we’re hearing there may be some changes coming for next year.
“We haven’t heard what, but I know Steve’s wheels are always turning in his head so he’ll be ready for whatever comes our way, that’s for sure.”
