NHRA Funny Car
Ron Capps
Pinch-me moments, reality checks; whatever you want to call them, there have been and will continue to be plenty of those occasions for Ron Capps, who claimed his first Funny Car world championship in 2016. Capps’ career was a storied one that included everything but a world championship. In fact, winning the world title erases the one moniker he’ ll be happy to never hear again: most wins by a NHRA driver without a world championship.
“ It is a huge relief. It did get old hearing that,” Capps said.“ It’ s easy to get a little quirky when that’ s brought up by a reporter every time. I’ m glad to have that gone. It was such a relief to win, have the season over, get that monkey off my back with that.”
But there are plenty of firsts that Capps has already enjoyed – claiming the championship and giving his speech with his family in the front row at the awards ceremony among them – and plenty more to come. He will be the defending champion for the first time with the“ 1” sticker on the car for the first time, and he will enjoy a certain phrase each time he is introduced or pulls to the starting line in 2017.
“ I can’ t wait to defend it,” Capps said.“ I can’ t wait to hear Alan Reinhart announce our cars,‘ Here is the defending world champion’ s car coming up next.’ Things like that haven’ t sunk in yet. It’ s not just winning now and enjoying it, it’ s representing the sport next year, wherever I go, being announced as the 2016 champion. I’ m looking forward to soaking all that up.”
Capps insists he would have been perfectly content with a standout career that didn’ t include a championship, but not finishing the job in 2016 would have been a difficult pill to swallow. He won the season-opener in Pomona, the first of five wins that stretched his career mark to 50. It was a sign of consistency that nobody in the class could match, even as runs in the 3.80s improbably became the norm. Capps delivered plenty of those and took that consistency to a new level in the Countdown to the Championship. He laid down one killer run after another, advancing to at least the semifinals at the first five races. Capps embraced the pressure of the moment and the long-awaited championship was finally his.
“ I did question could we keep up this pace, because this year was by far the toughest in Funny Car,” Capps said.“ It was a torrid pace that( crew chief) Rahn Tobler put our car through. I think that just put a lot of pressure on other teams. I think that was the big key. The race car that was given to me by Tobler this season was unbelievable.”- JOSH HACHAT DI
NMCA WEST NOSTALGIA STREET CAR STEVE COX // NMCA WEST OPEN COMP BRENT CALVERT // NMCA WEST MUSTANG MADNESS BRENT CALVERT
January 2017 DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 103