Lightning can strike twice in the same place, sometimes it takes 41 years to pull it off.

John Calvert, driving one of the four brand new Cobra Jet Mustangs purchased and brought to the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona by Ford collector Brent Hajek, maneuvered his way to the Stock eliminator crown, defeating the E/Stock Automatic Camaro of Tommy Gaynor. This marked the second time a factory Cobra Jet package has won the NHRA Winternationals since Al Joniec pulled off the feat in 1968.

Lightning can strike twice in the same place, sometimes it takes 41 years to pull it off.

John Calvert, driving one of the four brand new Cobra Jet Mustangs purchased and brought to the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona by Ford collector Brent Hajek, maneuvered his way to the Stock eliminator crown, defeating the E/Stock Automatic Camaro of Tommy Gaynor. This marked the second time a factory Cobra Jet package has won the NHRA Winternationals since Al Joniec pulled off the feat in 1968.

This weekend four of those drivers were in attendance to show their support and as a gesture of goodwill, each one of the current drivers lettered their car with one of the legends' names.

Guess who was riding with Calvert? You guessed it, Joniec.

“I am really excited and I am really pleased at the result,” said Calvert. “The thing I am most pleased about is that Ford Racing thought about this project and reached out to the grassroots level of racing.  This wasn’t an easy race weekend; in fact I would say it was difficult.  The weather certainly created some consistency issues, especially with an iffy track.  Still, the Cobra Jet ran very well in the elimination rounds and we were able to bring home the trophy.”

No one was prouder than Hajek, the man who made it all happen.

“How cool is this? It was like a storybook ending that was meant to be,” said Hajek. “It is our first time entering a national event and we won!  This program was always about paying tribute and respect to the drivers from’68 who started the legend of the Cobra Jet. This was about upholding their honor and everyone involved with this project deserves a great deal of credit."

“The people at Ford Racing did an awesome job building these cars, and my guys deserve credit for getting the CJ’s race-ready in an unbelievably short amount of time. And credit also goes to the drivers, especially John Calvert, who brought this all the way home. I am so proud of this group and I hope the legends from ’68 -- Al [Joniec], Gas [Ronda], Hubert [Platt] and Randy [Ritchey] -- are proud of us.”

Running under the A/Stock classification, Calvert shifted his way to victory with a 10.14 elapsed time as Gaynor fouled.

Last fall, Ford Motorsports announced a special race-ready package of Cobra Jet Mustangs built for competition in the A/Stock and AA/Stock divisions. This was the first from the factory to the race track package made available by Ford in over four decades.