The Nitro Moose is officially loose.
After some trials and tribulations, Dylan Winefsky obtained his nitro Funny Car driver’s license in his family-owned Winefsky Racing’s Nitro Moose Funny Car Monday at Firebird Motorsports Park in Phoenix.
“Well, it’s something different, for sure. There’s no other feeling in the world like it,” Dylan said about driving a nitro Funny Car. “Right about 600 feet, when it goes one-to-one, your ass just gets planted back in the seat again and it just starts taking off again for the last 400 feet.”
Winefsky got his start in the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League as soon as it was legal, and after eight years in the half-scale dragster ranks, he earned his Super Comp license at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School.
From there, he acquired an Advanced E.T. license in his family’s de-tuned Fuel Altered, and under the advice and guidance of nitro legend Johnny West, he then licensed in an NHRA Nostalgia Funny Car.
“Yeah, but this is something that you can’t prepare yourself for. It’s just something that you have to experience for yourself to get a true feeling for it,” Winefsky said.
Jon Capps, the brother of Ron Capps, three-time NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion, drove Winefsky Racing’s Nitro Moose Funny Car at the Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park last weekend. Jon qualified No. 15 with a 4.656-second elapsed time and then lost in the first round to Bob Tasca III.
Tasca clocked a 3.949-second time to outlast Capps who came across the finish line in 4.570 seconds.
“It shouldn’t, but it is,” Winefsky acknowledged that a nitro fuel altered, and nitro Funny Car are not the same. “Steering and everything’s very different because you’ve got more downforce. So, it steers a lot easier. Your procedures are all still the same though. It’s a different animal. (The biggest difference with a Funny Car) is when it puts a hole out, it wants to go to whatever side has the hole out. So the biggest thing is keeping on top of steering it. This was my biggest issue.”
As Dylan was going through the licensing process, he received help from fuel altered driver Kevin Knowles, his father, Robert Winefsky and NHRA stars Dan Wilkerson and Del Worsham signed off on Dylan’s license.
Jon Capps and Ron Capps also aided Dylan in getting his license in Phoenix. Ron Capps had an eventful weekend driving capped by his high-speed explosion at Firebird Motorsports Park which sent Capps into the retaining wall in the first round of eliminations at the Arizona Nationals Sunday morning, destroying Capps’ NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car.
Capps emerged from the wreckage unscathed, though, in a testament to the safety advancements in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series nitro ranks.
“In a way, yeah, I was (wondering what I was getting myself into),” Dylan said after watching Ron crash and him being scheduled to get his license the next day.
During his licensing laps, Dylan’s first run was 4.45 seconds at 281 mph, followed by a 4.42-second pass at 287 mph.
“Yeah, they did,” said Dylan when asked if his crew had his Funny Car tuned down for him. “Johnny (West’s) thing was he wanted to get the car down the track because in his eyes, he wanted to get it down the track a few times, and then we’ll just start progressively going after it a little more each time.”
Dylan realizes clocking 3.80s, 3.90s and 4.0s, is going to be a work in progress for his team.
“It’ll take a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to take all that much,” Dylan said. “We have got a lot of good parts on the car, parts that are more than capable of going 3.80, 3.90s, but the biggest thing is funding. That’s going to be our big issue is going to be funding to be able to do that.”
Dylan said he will make his driving debut in the Nitro Moose Funny Car at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 11-13.
“Other than Seattle and Sonoma and Pomona, those are the only West Coast races and we needed a little bit of time in between Phoenix and Pomona to service everything,” Dylan said. “So, Vegas was the next choice. This year, we’ll probably do Vegas, the 4-Wides, and then Vegas in the fall, possibly Pomona. There’s talk about maybe going to Seattle and Sonoma, but we’re not really sure yet.”
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