This time where would be no extracurricular activities, as Murphy would leave the starting line first by nearly a tenth of a second, and would need that as his 5.64, 245.18 would just cover Dunlap’s 5.61 at 257.63.

In the semifinal Murphy had a fuel line malfunction. “As the car got close to the finish line all of a sudden I had a face full of fuel, and it forced me to shut off early, but we had enough to get by Bill,” he said.

The final would determine who would win both the race and the championship. At the green it was Bartone out first, as Murphy again suffered a fuel leak and wisely shut the car off. “You know how confident I was in winning this third championship? I got confident when that little yellow light on the guard rail came on after I crossed the finish line, in the final,” stated Bartone just before boarding his plane for the trip back to New York.

This has to be classified as a successful season for the Top Fuel contingent. Many may say that taking the fields from 16 cars to 8 was a sign of weakness. I disagree. Sometimes one needs to prune a bush or a tree to make it healthy. This pruning seems to have worked as all year there were full fields at all the events except the one in Idaho.

The CHRR had fifteen good cars on the grounds There were three quality cars that were absent for this event, but did attend the March Meet. Therefore, it might be possible there could be shows with sixteen cars again. Only time will tell.

Funny Car in 2016 was more about drama to some extent. There was the new body that was developed by Ron Hodgson and Victory Race Cars towards the end of the 2015 season. Some called it a Pro Mod/big show Funny Car body.