Will Martin plans to race in another place.
The second-generation drag racer, who made a name for himself in Nostalgia Funny Car racing, will now head over into the Top Alcohol Funny Car. This move is one he’s wanted to make for a while.
“I can remember as a kid running from my parent’s pits to the fence at Pomona, late at night to watch guys like Brad Anderson, Lou Gasparelli, Jett Field and others run their Top Alcohol Funny Cars,” said Martin, the son of former NHRA fuel racer John Martin of Jam-Air fame. “Thought they were so cool when I’d hear the drivers bringing the rpm’s up then dropping the clutch.”
Martin, along with wife Cindy, who serves as President of the team, with the move rebranded their team from Mach III Motorsports to Martin Family Motorsports [MFM]. Appropriately, they’re naming the new car as “Clean Slate.”
“We are starting over 110%,” Cindy said. “This program has no ties to anything from the past. New Car, New Team, New Truck and Trailer, and a very focused direction. While we respect what we have done historically, it has become very important for this project to reflect our young family. We enlisted our good friend Rod Burke of Burke Designs to create the rendering and all the logos, and we could not be more pleased with his creation.
“We had just completed a test session at Auto Club Famoso Raceway with the Speed Racer in September of 2017. My husband had just started to make the tuning decisions, and the car was showing results. “On the way home from that test session Will and I talked, and I heard him say how the class as a whole has changed.
“It was during that car ride home we decided that now was the time to make the switch and begin the process of chasing that unrealized dream.”
MFM will take delivery of a new VRC Gen4 Top Alcohol Funny Car, Victory Race Cars’ newest design during the first week of August,
“My last two cars were built in Indiana,” Martin explained. “While those cars were good, my involvement in the build process was always very minimal. The car I received was always the same as our competitors. How could we ever have a potential performance advantage if we do things the exact same way? This was a main deciding factor as to why we chose Victory. Their experience and innovation with John Force Racing and even back when they were building Alexis Dejoria’s Alcohol Cars made them stand out in the crowd.”
The new Funny Car will use Brad Anderson Enterprises engines for horsepower and a Molinari clutch.
“We are not cutting any corners and doing this with the best parts period,” Martin explained. “We may not have the volume of parts as the larger funded teams; however, we are hopeful to start small, create success and attract sponsorship to allow us to expand the program.”
The current plans are to shake the new car down at the first test session of 2019 and pick select events to hit in their first year.
“Growing up I respected Joe Pisano immensely,” Martin said. “His stuff was always immaculate. He did not run all the races rather he ran the races he wanted to. When he did, you knew he was coming, and he was coming to win. That is the model we are following with this program.”