Since the early 1990’s, the Mooneyes brand from Moon Equipment Co. has been associated with Jim Dunn Racing.  This weekend during the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals in Pomona the Mooneyes Funny Car will once again have its popular black and white graphics on the Dunn’s Nitro Funny Car.

Jim Dunn Racing is thrilled to be competing again at their home track in Pomona.  Their race shop is just minutes from the Fairplex and the team didn’t get to race in its own backyard earlier this year due to the pandemic.  Funny Car driver Jim Campbell and the team have been riding a positive streak lately with the Funny Car running consistently, and reaching its quickest elapsed time of the season last weekend in Sonoma. 

Once a person runs 300 miles per hour, it’s tough to slow down. Just ask Alex Laughlin.

Laughlin made the decision, on July 27, 2021, to be precise, to pursue a run exclusively at Top Fuel drag racing. 

“My time at Elite was great and I appreciate them welcoming me in 2017 with open arms,” Laughlin said. “Having teammates like Erica and Jeg was a dream come true, and I got to learn from the best. Especially in my early times over there, they all made me feel like family, and we did pretty much everything together. 

Rumors are rumors, and recently one has been making the rounds.

Scuttlebutt suggests Palm Beach International Raceway [PBIR] has been sold reportedly to Walmart.

Not so, according to a source close to the situation.

Leah Pruett and Don Schumacher Racing are pleased to announce the Sparkling Ice® brand has expanded its ongoing relationship with Pruett and drag racing’s winningest organization to include the primary sponsorship of Pruett’s Top Fuel dragster at two events during the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. Sparkling Ice Spiked® hard seltzer branding will prominently flank the sides of Pruett’s 11,000-horsepower machine at the rescheduled NHRA Winternationals (Pomona 1), the final leg of the three-race Western Swing, and the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., the fifth of seven Countdown to the Championship events.
 

The Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association (NEOPMA) summer break will come to an end this week as the eighth-mile Pro Mod group heads to New York’s Empire Dragway for the inaugural Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Challenge, July 30-31. A field of over 20 Pro Mod drivers will be on hand to put on a show for the local fans. 
 
“This is going to be a super race with lots of new racers, a great facility, fantastic track prep, warm hospitality and increased payouts,” said John Mazzorana, founder and president, NEOPMA. “We expect about 20-plus cars. Some will come early for testing and should be prepared for lots of great racing and fun.”

 About 45 miles or so south of Sonoma, nitro was alive and well in the area. Long before there was were the luxury suites or spacious paved pits of Sonoma Raceway, there was Fremont Dragway. Originally built on land leased from Southern Pacific Railroad, the parcel land was originally a small airfield for the United States Navy.

The drag strip boomed in the early to mid-1970s when legendary promoter Bill Doner kept the facility packed with the finest Funny Car talent of the era. A few years later, the track joined the NHRA tour by hosting the Golden Gate Nationals. By 1988, the gates closed for good, and the facility became commercial and residential property.  

Iconic Funny Car driver John Force was a regular at Fremont in the early days of his storied career. The 16-time champion didn’t recall accolades he earned because he didn’t earn anything significant. He was the only professional driver in competition at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals who raced at the drag strip. 

Steve Torrence and car chief Bobby Lagana reveled in the applause from grandstands of fans Sunday afternoon for winning the Top Fuel final round at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals.

But they were true heroes when almost nobody was looking, after the winners-circle picture-taking was finished, the TV cameras were packed away, and the crowd had gone home from Sonoma Raceway.

This Capco Contractors Dragster team that had earned three straight Top Fuel championships, that leads the points by a wide margin, that an hour or so before had pocketed its sixth victory in the year’s first nine events . . . that team set aside its celebration to help the father-son photographer team of Mike and Jeff Burghardt fix a flat tire on their passenger car.

Beal Racing, an NHRA top fuel dragster team driven by Brandon Welch, will make its 2021 competition debut July 30, 2021, in Pomona at the rescheduled Winternationals with primary sponsorship from Pittsburgh Power, a national leader in diesel performance engineering, to promote its Max Mileage™ Fuel Borne Catalyst. The sponsorship will rebrand the team’s dragster as the Max Mileage™ Top Fuel Dragster beginning at the Winternationals and continue in Las Vegas and Pomona in the fall.

The Pittsburgh Power brand is known by over-the-road truckers nationwide for being at the forefront of diesel performance. Founder Bruce Mallinson is a popular voice in the trucking industry due to his prolific authorship of technical articles in truck magazines, and his weekly radio show on Sirius XM. Max Mileage™ is Pittsburgh Power’s proprietary liquid fuel additive that’s proven to increase horsepower and fuel mileage in diesel engines both on- and off-road.

Friday Night’s qualifying showcased what looked like a Reunion of Nostalgia Funny Cars at Bakersfield.

Former teammates Jason Rupert and Steven Densham lined up alongside one another during the Q1 session. 

Just like his Nostalgia Funny Car alumni Steven Densham and Jason Rupert will attest, Tony Jurado learned that a Camping World Drag Racing Series Funny Car is absolutely sensory overload. 

“The thrill is there,” Jurado said. “It’s cool being here. I’ve always wanted to do this, but there’s a lot to drive in these fuel cars. I have a ton of respect for those drivers, the guys who drive these cars. It’s a difficult learning curve, and we’re getting through it. But absolutely, it’s awesome.”

Jurado got off to a tough start in Friday’s Q-1 session, crossing the centerline and taking out timing cones. He was able to get a run on the board in Saturday’s opening session with a 4.597, 195.31. In the final session on Saturday, Jurado realized a dream by running a personal best 4.176, 270.86, to claim the final spot in the field.