From Deseret News archives:
Funny Car Fever strikes track
The bizarre designs varied from long to short and skinny to fat, from convertible to closed roof and colorful to bland, in this drag racing event. Pontiacs, Camaros and Corvettes were among the body styles racers put their engines in, for one-on-one battles. The only funny thing about these elimination matches was the silly speeds, up to 230 mph, at which racers were driving.
"The Nitro Thunder Racing Team got up to 226, they were thrilled," said Bob Eames, track announcer.
One of the more entertaining spectacles of the night was the Jelly Belly wheel-stander, a 1931 Chevrolet fire-engine that would stand on its two rear wheels and hightail it for a quarter-mile down the straightaway at 100 mph. The JB wheel-stander was there for entertainment purposes, not to race, and has been doing this gig for years all across America and in such places as Germany and Japan.
"I cashed in my wife's profit sharing, life insurance policy, borrowed some money from my father and that's what started this whole thing," said Ed Jones, a k a the Jelly Belly Man, after he was done throwing candies out to the crowd. "That was 31 years ago."
Jones used to race his Camaro on what is now Rocky Mountain Raceway, back in the 1970s, but retired to become a wheel-stander. Think of him like Willy Wonka crossed with Evil Knievel.
This is the 11th year the funny car races have taken place at Rocky Mountain Raceway. Funny cars, as they're called, can run off of racing gas, nitro-methane and even alcohol. Funny car racing became an official class in the early 1970s and has been going strong ever since.
The cars look like regular vehicles, only with a tweak. The bodies are based on normal production vehicles, only they are more aerodynamic. It almost looks as if someone has stretched the vehicles horizontally. The funny cars open up like a crocodile's mouth for entrance by the drivers. The bodies then shut and drivers zoom off leaving nothing but clouds of smoke in the rearview.
The Rocky Mountain Raceway record for fastest funny car stands at 309 mph. That likely will never be matched, says Mike Eames one of the announcers at the raceway, because the cars no longer run on 100 percent nitro methane. It's more like 85 percent now, in order to make the cars safer and less volatile.
There were many different classes and cars racing Saturday night, so what makes the funny cars the most popular with fans?
"The nitro methane (the cars run on), some people nickname it the 'nectar of the gods,' because they love the way it smells," said Mark Pittman the public relations director at the track and former drag bike racer. "It burns the eyes and makes skeleton-shaking noise."
E-mail: nstorey@desnews.com
