During the last three NHRA national events nitro Funny Car driver Ron Capps struggled, not making it past the second round in his Don Schumacher Racing NAPA Dodge.

Well, Capps’ fortunes changed in a big way at the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.

Capps had a fabulous event, taking the No. 1 qualifying position, and then capping things with a race victory Monday at New England Dragway.

Capps beat his DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the finals. Capps clocked a 3.923-second time at 325.61 mph to defeat Johnson Jr.’s 3.947-second lap at 322.11 mph.

“We did what we had not done in a long time and that was gather up those qualifying points,” Capps said. “We’ve tried to work on that, even the last couple of years. We lost a championship one year (2012) by a pretty close margin (by two points to Jack Beckman) and had we qualified a little better and gained some of those points, but it’s a tough thing for a crew chief. (Rahn) Tobler (Capps’ crew chief), I’m proud of him. This weekend he let it all hang out and we gathered up almost all of the qualifying points and we were low ET and we won the race, which is great.”

This was Capps’ 47th career win and his second this season as he also won the season-opening Winternationals. Capps moved up to third place in the points standings – 7 in back of second-place Beckman – and 22 behind leader Courtney Force.

What’s more, he now has two wins at Epping as he also was victorious at New England Dragway in 2014. He qualified No. 1 at the 2016 New England Nationals with a track record 3.865-seccond run.

During Capps’ victory parade, he beat Dave Richards, Courtney Force, John Force and Johnson Jr.

“To win here twice at New England Dragway is cool, and how about the fans who showed up (Monday),” Capps said. “To see some of the racing they saw today, you will not see every weekend. It was just side-by-side nail biters, it was just a fun day. We knocked off some big cars and made a big jump in the points and I’m proud of Tobler and Eric (Lane) our assistant crew chief, and really everybody.”

Little did Capps know, but he made history at the 2016 New England Nationals as he became the first nitro Funny Car driver to run in the 3-second range – 8 total runs - throughout qualifying and eliminations at an NHRA national event.

“That’s cool,” Capps said. “I guarantee Tobler’s a little upset we didn’t run an 80 in the final. “J.C. (John Collins, Johnson Jr.’s crew chief), it was sort of like the Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi up there because J.C. was Tobler’s assistant for many, many years and when Don (Shumacher) put him on that car you could see a lot of thinking in J.C. come out. He was extremely proud he got lane choice in front of us and Tobler went up there a little bit like, ‘hey we will show you.’ It was fun to race them and it was fun to go up there and not have to worry about any games being played. T.J. and I pre-staged and when we staged our lights blinked at almost the same time. It was a great race.”
 

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