John Smith rode his “Jungle Jim” tribute Vega Funny Car to an upset victory during the IHRA’s 2nd to last event of the season — the San Antonio Nationals held in Texas.

It was the first career IHRA victory for Smith who prevailed over a feisty AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car presented by Aeromotive class, that featured 10 entrants for the 8-car qualified field.

After defeating his brother Mike Smith (driver of the “blue version” Jungle Jim tribute Vega) in round one and then invading Canadian rookie racer Ryan Hodgson in the 2nd round, Smith faced off against the event’s low qualifier, Paul Romine, driver of the Man-O-War Ford Mustang for the title.

Smith won that match in rather dominant fashion when he recorded a winning 5.755 secs at 254.09 mph to 5.937 secs 225.11 decision.

Smith’s win came from the number two qualified position (5.741 secs) which was second only to Romine’s low ET of the meet effort 5.709 secs.

(Runner-up Paul Romine set Low ET of the event)

The competitive event field featured two strong efforts by Canadian cars both from Alberta.

The afore mentioned Ryan Hodgson made his first career IHRA start in the AMSOIL NFC division with a solid #5 qualifier at 5.865 secs at 256.70 mph. Ryan then took his Troy Lee Designs Camaro to a huge upset win over IHRA points leader Jason Rupert in round #1 winning a 5.865 secs to 5.907 secs clash.

Tim Boychuk’s “Happy Hour” Firebird, which is tuned by legendary Twig Zeigler, also qualified deep in the field with a 5.867 secs before losing out to Mark “Mr. Explosive” Sanders in round #1.

(Both Ryan Hodgson & Tim Boychuk ran well during the IHRA’s San Antonio Nationals)

One of the main topics of the event was the fact that Ohio’s Mike McIntire Jr. failed to qualify for his first-ever Nitro Jam event since he started racing full-time in 2014. That combined with current points leader Jason Rupert’s early round loss to Hodgson means the overall championship is still up for grabs heading into the final round Summit World Finals at Memphis October 9-10th.

Posted by: Bruce Biegler
Photos by: Bryan Epps (BME Photography)