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
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