Alexis DeJoria continued to build momentum with John Force Racing at the NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, driving her Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car to a quarterfinal finish Sunday afternoon. In pursuit of the 1,000th NHRA Funny Car Wally, DeJoria picked up championship bonus points in qualifying and posted a solid showing in eliminations. She leaves the third of 20 races on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour ranked seventh in the Funny Car points standings.
After a tricky first qualifying session on Friday, DeJoria bounced back in the second session with a 3.989-second pass at 328.30 mph to jump up to the provisional No. 2 spot. It was also the second-quickest pass of the session, earning two championship bonus points for DeJoria. She followed that up on Saturday with a 3.998 E.T. at 324.83 mph in the third session and her quickest pass of qualifying, a 3.979 E.T. at 328.46 mph, in the final session. With the confidence that comes with making three quick and consistent runs in qualifying, DeJoria went into eliminations in the No. 7 position.
DeJoria and crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg kept their momentum rolling in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday. DeJoria grabbed a slight starting line advantage over Dave Richards and powered to her quickest pass of the event, a 3.906-second performance at 330.07 mph, to move on to the quarterfinals with lane choice. When Funny Car’s second round kicked off, DeJoria moved first off the starting line against Ron Capps before losing traction early. Though she pedaled the Bandero Café machine in an attempt to chase down Capps, DeJoria ultimately lifted off the throttle as Capps posted low E.T. of the round.
“I had a starting line advantage, which was good,” DeJoria said. “We had a very consistent car this weekend and made it down the track more times than not. I have a lot of faith in our abilities, and I’m very much looking forward to our future as a team. We have a really good, consistent car. We know exactly what the issue was with that last run and we’re just going to take that information and move forward. We’re still gaining information and runs for this team and for this race car. We learned this weekend that you live and learn and you move on and you use that to your advantage the next time. I’m really looking forward to Charlotte.”
DeJoria and the John Force Racing Bandero Café Funny Car team will return to action at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, April 24-26, at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.
