|
How do you stay positive in the pits, and how do you set the tone as the team leader? Boggs: I think it comes from all of us – we’ re hard to get down. If it’ s my fault, I’ m the first one to say I screwed up, and Sean, he’ ll come back for a look at the computer and he’ ll say,“ No sense looking at the computer”- now this only happens about once or twice a year – but one run he said,“ Boy, I screwed that one up.” The guys, if they make a mistake, they admit it –“ Look, let’ s not be chasing something for two weeks here when I know I messed this up.” We’ ve got confidence in each other and that we’ re gonna come out on the good side of it, and Tony does too.
I wouldn’ t say it’ s just me. It’ s the whole team together. We just jell. When things get tough, we just get tougher.
Now, looking ahead to 2025, new car, new setup with the injected nitro Funny Car – how and when did all of this come about? Bellemeur: It was a no-brainer for Steve Boggs. Steve’ s history goes back, obviously, decades in the sport, and one of the things that he has been successful in in many different cars over many different decades is the injected nitro combination.
He had joked about if NHRA ever let this combination in to alcohol Funny Car, we’ ve got to build one right away because as he puts it,“ I’ ve got stuff from 25 years ago I’ ve wanted to try.” So, when NHRA allowed the injected nitro combination in, instantly he went to Tony and said,“ We need to build one of these.”
At 80-plus years old, seeing Steve still excited about a new project was really cool. We wanted to get the thing done so he could get to work on it. Finally, in mid last year, we got it most of the way done. We got to the shop in New York and fired it up and ran on nitro. It was a really cool feeling.
Our bottom-end mechanic, Garrett Bateman, obviously drives an injected nitro car out here on the
|
West Coast, so he’ s heavily involved in this. Once we got over the frustration of actually getting the darn thing built – Murf McKinney provided an immaculate race car, as he always does – it was one of those things where Steve kept a real close eye on a couple of the competitors that are out there currently running it and made some adjustments to our car based off of what he thought that it would need and based off of the performance of the cars that are currently running.
There’ s no mistaking his talent and his success over the years, so the fact that he has new ideas and a combination that is new to a class in NHRA drag racing is really exciting to be a part of. I’ m excited to learn from the best that probably ever did it. It’ s a neat project that’ s in its infancy, and we’ ll just kind of see where it goes.
Where and when did the idea for the injected nitro Funny Car start for you, Steve? Boggs: I was tuning Rick Jackson’ s car, Morgan Lucas’ A / Fuel car, and the year Mitch Myers set the national record and won the 2004 championship. So that’ s when I wanted to build this injected [ Funny Car ].
Tony used to say they change the
|
rules once in a while. So, we haven’ t had a rule change in over 20 years, I said. I know it. He said,“ Man, you’ re the first one to figure out a rule change, and they’ ve all caught up.”
Do you think this also plays into the state of the Top Alcohol Funny Car class? Boggs: Around 2001, and I can’ t give you the exact year, right in there somewhere, the car count was down. Well, the car count’ s always down, but it was down more than normal back then. So, NHRA decided to bring IHRA roots-blower alcohol Funny Cars because they had, I don’ t know, 15 or 16 of them, to race with us. It was a disaster, and they changed the rules, but they never changed them back.
Well, let me tell you how good that worked out for them. It wasn’ t a year and a half that they had, excuse my French, shit canned that whole thing. So, we needed something that we could work on. You can only buy the best parts, change the tune-up, and run them up and down the track so much.
So, it sounds like you needed a challenge? Boggs: Yes, and the guys, too. I have
|
experience with injected nitro. I like it because it’ s a challenge. I mean, it’ s got down to the blown alcohol car, and what am I going to do to it? NHRA has let it almost get boring, and they wonder why the car count is going away. They won’ t run us in front of a crowd.
This ties into my next question – where do you see the future of alcohol drag racing going, and what do you think of the state of the classes now? Boggs: They don’ t run us in front of the crowd. We’ ve got the second quickest and fastest category at a national event. We’ ve got the quickest and fastest cars that run a quarter mile, and they don’ t do anything with us.
I’ m not saying that I don’ t like the alcohol car. I’ m not saying that at all, but they haven’ t done anything to make it exciting for us. Change the rules, make them faster. Give us more blower. Give us something.
I thought this [ injected nitro Funny Car ] might not be too hard to get running. I had no idea the sixth time we step on the throttle, it’ s going to go 5.28 at 283. The car ran a little better than I expected and I’ ve made some changes to some of the engine things that I’ ve
|