This supposed change of heart leads one to ask, “What caliber of big show Top Fuel cars will the IHRA be able to attract? Will Top Fuel be an open show or just a four-car booked in deal as it was in the past? What will this do to the stature of the (nostalgia) nitro funny cars that are currently the headlining act of the IHRA series.

This leads to the question of is Mr. Dunn’s role with the IHRA. Is it really as the president or is he more of a figurehead? Someone who has name recognition with more of the general public and with past and possible future marketing partners for the IHRA.

We will be reaching out to Mr. Dunn in the next couple of weeks to get his personal take on the current state of the IHRA and their plans moving forward.

Outside of all of the political hullaballoo going on, there has been some actual testing runs being made in the early part of the season.

Tim Boychuk and Jim Murphy made a stop at the NHRA Spring Training stop in Phoenix and both were very excited about how their cars ran after the winter.

“We made a couple of very nice runs this weekend and didn’t hurt a thing. We had some issues that had plagued us over the past year and those are now solved,” said a very happy Jim Murphy.

Boychuk, whose team had about three seasons worth of bad luck over the past year and a half, was also pleased with what his team accomplished at Phoenix. “We made this into a bracket car. Four laps in the seventies and never hurt a part, and never ran it to the stripe.”

Jason Rupert at the Winternationals. (Tim Marshall photo)

Nostalgia Funny Car’s version of Don Prudhomme, Jason Rupert, looks to be on it again. Rupert unveiled his Rupert and Littlefield, U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds tribute car “Rolling Thunder” at the Winternationals as part of an exhibition class and ran a very nice 5.79 at just 231 mph. It looks as though the title for the IHRA funny car racers this year will once again have to go through Rupert, Littlefield and Schwartz.

Less than a month and it will be time for Bakersfield. We will see you then.