If you’re looking for the thunder and lightning of Nitro Funny Car,
then you’ll most likely need to look elsewhere than the IHRA.
Aaron Polburn conveyed this grim reminder to the Funny Car teams in a
meeting on Friday at the IHRA World Finals in Rockingham, NC. He didn’t say the class was done but unless a major
sponsor is procured, it’s as good as done.
Point leader Terry Haddock isn’t sold on the reality of the
eliminator’s demise. The point leader believes this meeting was a
wake-up to the industry what lies ahead if major sponsorship isn’t
obtained.
“I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom,” Haddock said Friday after the
meeting. “I think they are fishing for a sponsor, kind of like we all
are. We just have to wait until the first race to see what happens. I
think you will also see major changes on the other side, NHRA, as well.
We have a current NHRA legal car right now, so we’ll go run over there
or we’ll run Top Fuel over here, it doesn’t matter.”