FUNNY CAR

(Ron Lewis photo)

Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS team with crew chief Rahn Tobler took center stage Sunday to start a new racing season and a new era with the Fox television network by winning the NHRA Circle K Winternationals.

The 45th Funny Car title for Capps, who is the second winningest driver in the category, received a money-saving perk by winning the season-opener of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

(Ron Lewis photo)

"Now I can give the Wally (trophy) to my wife for Valentine's Day," he said of Shelley, who attended with their children Taylor and Caden from their home in Carlsbad near San Diego.

Capps and the NAPA team were dominant all weekend during the first of 24 NHRA national events with seven of his eight runs in the 3-second range including all four in qualifying that helped him earn the No. 2 spot.

After beating Jeff Diehl and Chad Head in the first two rounds, Capps eliminated former world champion Robert Hight and then used a better reaction time at the start of the final round to top reigning world champion Del Worsham. Capps left the starting line first and finished the run in 3.981 seconds at 324.28 mph to overcome Worsham's slightly better 3.978 (321.81).

"I have the best team in the business and they gave me a great racecar," Capps said.

Capps beat Worsham using a holeshot to win a race for the 34th time in his career and the fifth time in a final round. Capps put an almost insurmountable .02 holeshot on Worsham and never looked back. His Rahn Tobler-tuned car recorded a 3.981/324.28 lap with a .052 RT to Worsham's quicker but losing 3.962/324.36 coupled with a .071 RT. Worsham's incremental times: 60ft-0.893 sec., 330ft-2.276, 660ft-3.210/276.86 mph.MOV: 0.0008 seconds (approximately 5 inches). Capps' incremental times: 60ft-0.887 sec., 330ft-2.280, 660ft-3.227/274.50 mph.

"There's no holeshot win without having the car we did. All four runs in the 3's in qualifying, I don't think anyone else did that. I was quietly looking at that. I knew we had a good racecar.

"Tobler and I have grown so much together. It's like a marriage. He really keeps me in line on race day. We had a heckuva day."

Capps is the second all-time winningest Funny Car driver and increased his win total to 45, and improved on last year's performance at Pomona when he was runner-up to DSR teammate Matt Hagan. The win is Capps' third at Pomona with all coming in the Winternationals.

"There's a lot of pressure when you're given a great car like I have with the NAPA guys. You're the last piece of that puzzle. It's sort of like 'hey, everything's good, here ya go' and you do not want to mess it up. It's nice when you don't mess it up."