Photos courtesy of Randy Meyer Racing
A groundswell of change is coming to the NHRA’s Top Alcohol Funny Car division in 2025. Earlier in the week, the Bartone Brothers and defending NHRA series champion Shawn Bellemeur announced they had begun testing an A/Funny Car (injected-nitro) combination.
Days later comes another significant revelation.
Defending Top Alcohol Dragster champion Julie Nataas will take her injected-nitro combination from the rail, put it in a Funny Car, and race it for team owner Randy Meyer.
The car will make its NHRA debut at the Baby Gators NHRA Division 2 event in Gainesville, Fla., and hang around to run it at the NHRA Gatornationals.
“The A/Fuel Funny Car has been Randy’s project for the past few years, and I’ve been fortunate to be the test driver,” Nataas said in a prepared statement from the team. “So when he asked if I wanted to make some more runs, I couldn’t say no. The car was flying in testing this past week, and I’m excited to keep gaining Funny Car seat time and see what this A/Fuel Funny Car can do in Gainesville while I work on the next steps in my career.”
Nataas is quickly checking items off her list of things to do in drag racing, having also licensed to run Top Fuel and making her debut as part of Scrappers Racing last September at the NHRA Midwest Nationals.
Bellemeur recently cranked out a 5.288 elapsed time in testing at Gainesville, Nataas has run as quick at 5.38 seconds.
RELATED STORY – ENCORE: THE INJECTED NITRO FUNNY CAR COMBINATION HAS RICH HISTORY – Four days ago, in an attempt to inspire participation within its Top Alcohol Dragster division, the NHRA’s Tech department reached out to its participants about the feasibility of including the injected-nitro combination into its exclusive supercharged alcohol category.
The request for input, which was posted on December 9, 2020, on the sanctioning body’s www.nhraracer.com website, established early in the message it was looking for ways to enhance competition and participation in the class.
It was not a proclamation of the future.
Meyer, who has tested the combination at Funny Car Chaos events, believes it’s ripe for picking at the NHRA level. It will be the first known time in the history of the Top Alcohol divisions that two defending champions in the Dragster and Funny Car eliminators have competed against one another.
“This combination is unlike anything else in NHRA competition right now, and the time is right for us to bring it out,” Meyer said. “We’ve been developing the A/Fuel Funny Car to create a more accessible and cost-effective way for drivers to get into the Funny Car class while still delivering performance. Testing has shown great momentum, and Gainesville will be the perfect place to showcase what this car can do.”
Nataas will compete with a 2016 Murf McKinney-built chassis, previously raced in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car campaigned by Brian Hough in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car. The Funny Car has been modified to accept the new combination.
“I’ve been building a lot of pieces and modifying a lot of stuff to make my combination fit,” Meyer said. “The car was never made for nitro or A/Fuel, so we had to do heavy modifications to get it to where I wanted it. We’re looking forward to going out and having some fun with this in NHRA.”
Meyer is quick to credit several people who have donated parts and technology to get the project off the ground.
“I just want to thank the handful of people who’ve donated parts and helped me on this deal,” Meyer said. “They want to see what it can do and what the potential is. There are a lot of people watching to see what happens.”
NHRA announced the inclusion of a legal injected-nitro combination at the end of July 2022 to inspire an increase of entries in the eliminator challenged for entries. The injected-nitro combination is not new to NHRA competition, as it was a viable combination in the old Pro Comp Eliminator, where Dragsters and Funny Cars ran as one. When NHRA spit the combinations, the injected nitro combination did not carry over in the Funny Car portion.
