Lawson , Singleton and ‘ Man O ’ War II ’ secure Funny Car Chaos season title By Craig Cook

A runner-up finish to Lance Van Hauen in the ‘ A ’ Field , combined with early exits from his closest competitors , earned Lawson his very first FCC championship by the slimmest of margins – a one-point advantage over Kirk Williams .

“ Certain things had to fall in line , and they did fall in line ,” Lawson says . “ At the end of the day , the good Lord blessed us with a championship . We may have lost the battle , but we won the whole war , and this one counts .”

Lawson entered the Championship Finals in third place , seven points behind Williams and four back of Wayne Hoffman . When rain forced the cancellation of all racing Friday night , and Lawson ’ s “ Man O ’ War II ” Mustang Funny Car shut off roughly 250 feet into his run during the first qualifying session on Saturday , the pressure was on . On his final qualifying attempt , Lawson ran a 3.868 to bump into the ‘ A ’ Field at No . 6 , setting up a season-defining first-round matchup against Williams .

Lawson made his best pass of the weekend , running a 3.768 at 200.71 MPH . Williams , meanwhile , went - . 004 red , giving Lawson the opening he desperately needed . When Hoffman fell in the second round of the ‘ B ’ Field , Lawson could sense the title was nearly his .

“ The stars were lining up , but I kept telling

everyone , ‘ We can ’ t count our chickens before they hatch ,’” says Lawson . “ Once we got past the semis , we were in pretty good shape . And we all stayed up there to see what happened with Wayne . When he got put out , that was a huge relief . At that point , I told everyone I thought it was done as long as we took the tree [ in the finals ].”

In the final round , Lawson unfortunately had a . 110 reaction time – his worst of the weekend – and while he ran a 3.799 , he lost on a holeshot to Van Hauen ’ s slower 3.812 . While Lawson admitted he was initially upset with himself , the ensuing championship celebration with his team in the winner ’ s circle quickly made up for it .

Making Lawson ’ s championship run even more impressive is the unique structure to the FCC format , which creates incredibly close points battles . Depending on car count , the qualified fields are broken down into three or four 8-car groups , with each field earning the same amount of points . In Lawson ’ s case , despite defeating Williams in round one , he could only watch and wait to see

Hoffman ’ s fate in the ‘ B ’ Field .

“ It ’ s stressful , because everybody ’ s in different fields ,” Lawson says . “ They ’ re able to accrue the same amount of points that we can . There ’ s so many scenarios that can happen with the structure ; but I like the fact that your budget doesn ’ t matter . Anyone can win a championship , which is why it ’ s so appealing to everybody . On the same token , when you ’ re running for a championship , it ’ s like , ‘ Ugh , I need someone to take him or her out .’ You can ’ t do anything about it when they ’ re in a different field .”

Helping Lawson fulfill his quest for a championship was Ken Singleton , who won back-toback-to-back FCC championships from 2019- 2021 . After suffering a horrific crash in 2022 , Singleton joined Lawson ’ s team later that same year , and has tuned the Man O ’ War II full-time the past two seasons . That championship pedigree quickly paid dividends this season .

“ He ’ s had a huge effect ,” says Lawson of Singleton . “ He told me from the get-go , ‘ You ’ re not far off ,’ which made me feel good . When he came in , I flat-out asked him , ‘ What do I need to do to win a championship ?’ And I did exactly what he told me I needed to do – from a new car to the latest and greatest cylinder heads . He ’ s been a huge asset . He ’ s just got the tune-up figured out in this series . I can make the thing run , but I can ’ t make it run like he does . And that ’ s what it takes to go to the next level .”

With the 2024 championship secured , don ’ t expect Lawson or his team to slow down any time soon . He knows Singleton has three-peated as FCC champion , and he ’ d like to join the club – with Singleton also doing it again , this time as a tuner .

“ I ’ ve already been on the phone and we ’ re getting stuff going ,” Lawson says . “ We ’ re upgrading things to improve the program , looking at what we need to do for the next year or two to defend this deal . I would love to repeat what Ken ’ s done . We ’ ll be out there ready to rock ‘ n ’ roll .” DI

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE MCHUGH