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The latest update as of March 23, 2022

The news of the Randy Meyer team competing in an injected nitro-burning Funny Car at this week's Funny Car Chaos Classic is certainly making the rounds, with the announcement being bannered on the NHRA website, Competition Plus, and Drag Illustrated, among others, including this humble little corner of the internet. Thanks to Bob Snyder for getting us the news as soon as it was posted on the Meyer website, even before it appeared on the major websites.

As a followup to yesterday's story on Competition Plus, they've reloaded a story about the history of the injected nitro Funny Car as it developed and ultimately, was deleted from the rulebooks of all the sanctioning bodies. It brought back memories of all the sanctioning bodies that tried, and eventually failed, to compete with the NHRA. The International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) (still alive, but realistically, in name only), the American Hot Rod Association (AHRA), the United Drag Racers Association (UDRA). There were even PRO and PRA, racer-led organizations that held a couple of big events in 1972 and 1973, then quickly imploded.

Yes, there are new bodies in existence, but they are regionally based and don't have a wide range of classes. The Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) started in the Southeast and featured Pro Mod and Pro Stock cars, but to diversify their shows, added several other classes, including bikes, dragsters, and others. The Mid-West Drag Racing Series was, until last year, almost exclusively focused on Pro Mod and Pro Stock, but with an infusion of sponsorship money from J&A Services, were able to add an Alcohol Funny Car class. There's a couple of dozen other, narrowly focused, regionally based associations, all producing some good racing, but nothing remotely approaching the size and status of the NHRA.

And that's where we loop back to the start of this report, with a story of how injected nitro funny cars existed in NHRA competition, why they don't currently, but how they just might be coming back. Here's the story from Competition Plus, titled THE INJECTED NITRO FUNNY CAR COMBINATION HAS RICH HISTORY.

It will be very interesting to see how the Meyer experiment goes. There's lots of reasons why it might not work as it appears that they have yet to test this car. However, that may be a little misleading, as Randy Meyer is one of the pre-eminent injected fuel racers anywhere, and never appears without a solid tuneup in his cars. To think that they wouldn't be fully prepared to be competitive right out of the trailer would be foolish. Putting a driver with no experience in a Funny Car behind the wheel might be the only flaw in his plan, but I'm certain that Julie Nataas is ready to tackle whatever task she is given.

At the very least, the appearance of this A/FC is certainly going to add some spice and excitement to the mix at this year's Funny Car Chaos Classic, starting in less than 24 hours at the Texas Motorplex. A quick check of the entry list now shows 58 Funny Cars and 13 Fuel Altereds. Even if the numbers don't quite match last year's "Woodstock", it's still going to be one helluva drag race. As they used to say (maybe still do...) BE THERE!!!

At this point, the only options to see the race are to attend in person, or subscribe to FLO Racing, at a cost of $150 (USD) on a yearly basis. While they do offer lots of racing, the only serious drag racing they provide is the Funny Car Chaos series, but they don't offer individual events, as does NHRA on their NHRA.tv website. Too bad that a free livestream wasn't available, as has been done for many events in recent years, but "monetizing content" seems to be the way to go in the current internet world.

NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster & Funny Car

With a late rush of entries over the past few days, there are now 21 cars/drivers on the entry list for the upcoming NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at Las Vegas. It's five blown alky cars and 16 injected nitro entries, but this is one of the largest fields in the past few years. The last race at Vegas, last season's Dodge//SRT Nationals attracted 23 entries for the penultimate event on the 2021 schedule, a race with major championship implications. Other than that event, the 2019 U.S. Nationals (Indy) with 22 entries topped the entry list for next week's race at The Strip. It's a good sign for a class that is seeing fewer blown, and more injected cars all the time.

In sharp contrast to the numbers in T/AD, the alcohol Funny Car entry list is still struggling, with just ten cars entered as of this morning. This will mark the third race this year with less than a full field of TA/FCs. Last season saw only two full fields (17 entries each), with the second Vegas race and Indy being the only full shows. The participation numbers have fallen a long way from the 22 entries at the 2020 U.S. Nationals, which was the high water mark for alky Funny Cars in the past few seasons.