30 UNDER 30
“ I CAN BE HONEST AND SAY NITRO IS MY GOAL. THAT’ S BEEN ON MY BUCKET LIST SINCE I WAS A LITTLE KID. NITRO FUNNY CAR IS THE COOLEST CAR YOU CAN DRIVE, IN MY OPINION. NOW THAT I’ VE TRIED IT, I LOVE IT.”
30 UNDER 30
CALLING HIS SHOTS
Jonnie Lindberg came to the United States with every intention of breaking records, winning races, and claiming championships. In just three short years, he’ s accomplished all of that. The goal-oriented Swede now has his sights set on stepping up to nitro Funny Car racing, allowing him to set new goals at the sport’ s highest level. been on my bucket list since I was a little kid. Nitro Funny Car is the coolest car you can drive, in my opinion. Now that I’ ve tried it, I love it. Now I just need to work hard and go after it. I’ m pretty hard-headed, so I think we should manage to figure something out. We’ ll see what happens. Now I have my license. You never know; maybe [ the big teams ] will call me when they need a sub-in driver,” added Lindberg, who was reportedly on the short list of fill-in drivers for Alexis DeJoria when she missed the World Finals to recover from a concussion.
Lindberg won’ t just jump at any chance to race a fuel car next year, though. Being a field-filler or an also-ran doesn’ t appeal to the competitive Swede, who’ s actually won four consecutive world championships when his 2013 FIA title and brother Johan’ s 2014 FIA championship are taken into consideration. If he’ s going to make the ultimate step up to the high profile, multi-million-dollar nitro ranks, Lindberg wants to do it the right way. He wants to win.
“ Of course I want to race nitro, but I’ m not going to jump in a car that just qualifies and doesn’ t win a round. If I drive a nitro car, I want to be in a good car so I can be a top contender. I don’ t just want to do it to drive one. I’ d rather drive my
“ I CAN BE HONEST AND SAY NITRO IS MY GOAL. THAT’ S BEEN ON MY BUCKET LIST SINCE I WAS A LITTLE KID. NITRO FUNNY CAR IS THE COOLEST CAR YOU CAN DRIVE, IN MY OPINION. NOW THAT I’ VE TRIED IT, I LOVE IT.”
alcohol car and win. I love to drive my alcohol car, so if I don’ t get a nitro ride I’ ll just continue doing what I love here. Next year I plan on doing the same thing we did this year; try to go three in a row,” Lindberg confided.
Along with the temptation of going quicker and faster in a car that makes around 7,000 horsepower more than his current ride of choice comes the curiosity of how to make said car go so quick and fast. Lindberg already knows how to make a screw-blown, methanol-burning Funny Car go fast. There’ s no question about that. But does he know how to make a nitromethane-chugging fuel Funny Car get down the track? Maybe not yet, but Lindberg’ s history with steep learning curves suggests that it won’ t be long before he picks up the intricacies of applying an insane amount of power in less than four seconds at well over 300 mph.
“ I understand the basics of a nitro car. If I were to drive a nitro car I would probably want to be involved in the tuning. Maybe if I don’ t drive I would love to tune one too. I would love to drive and tune, just like Tim Wilkerson basically. He does really good. It works for me now to drive and tune my alcohol car, so why wouldn’ t it work in a nitro car?”
With a track record like his, who could argue with reasoning like that? DI
PHOTO: JOE McHUGH
76 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 115