The Funny Car Nationals presented by Discount Tire to be held Sept. 6-7 at historic U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, features the 5-second, 250-mph nitro funny cars of the Mickey Thompson Tires DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge presented by COMP Cams.
Going into this penultimate series event, racer Shawn Bowen from Grand Blanc, Mich., driving the “Violator” Pontiac Firebird (above), is leading the points over Texas racer Ronny Young and the legendary “Blue Max” Plymouth Arrow.
Six race teams still have a mathematical chance to win the series championship, in the tightest competition in the series’ five-year history.
All of the top eight in DRO series points, including defending National Champion John Hale in the Mike Burkhart tribute Camaro and defending IHRA World Champion and track record holder Peter Gallen in the “Poverty Stricken” Chevrolet Monza have committed to this weekend’s race.
DRO speed and ET records were set at last year’s event and there is no reason to doubt that the “fastest track in Michigan” won’t deliver record performances from the nitro burning funny cars of the DRO series.
There will be two complete rounds of qualifying Friday night at 7 and 9 p.m. Final eliminations are Saturday night. For more information go to www.us131msp.com.
This story was originally published on September 3, 2013.