Tim Anderson, who is the President of industry leading California-based Racepak will step from his Rancho Santa Margarita boardroom into the  confines of a nitro-burning Nostalgia Funny Car cockpit this coming season.

Tim has made plans to become a new rookie driver within the NHRA’s super popular co-production Hot Rod Heritage Drag Racing series’ Nostalgia Funny Car class. Working in close conjunction with Canadian native Todd Paton (who is the Operations and Sales Manager at Racepak), Tim will assume the controls of a early 1970’s bodied Dodge Challenger which is now nearing final stages of assembly.

(Tim Anderson & Todd Paton)

“We first acquired the chassis back in 2016,” Tim revealed. “It was a Pleuger that started life as one of the Oakley cars driven by Scotty Cannon. After that it moved through various owners before we obtained it from Cruz Pedregon. Cruz did run this chassis as the “California Charger”. For me it’s certainly going to be a big adjustment. I have drag raced a variety of bracket cars but to drive one has been a dream I’ve had since the first time I saw a Nitro Funny Car – probably back around 1973. I knew right then that the was the only drag racing type car I wanted to drive. The current NFC class provides what I consider the only (and probably last chance) for a regular guy to drive a nitro funny car.”

Tim’s licensing process and graduation into the class category will be aptly overseen by Todd Paton, who in addition to being a Top Fuel licensed driver has also accrued experience driving in the Nostalgia FC class (driving cars for Bob & Steve McIntire and Doug Cadman).

“The goal is to put the car together by early January in hopes of making a couple of test sessions prior to the March Meet, Todd revealed. “The plan is for me to make a few test runs in the car to make sure it goes straight and the motor and clutch are happy. Then we will concentrate on getting Tim his license and some seat time so he feels comfortable in the car. It’s funny — this time the roles will be reversed, because Tim used to work on McIntire’s “Crusher” NFC when I first drove it. I can’t wait to see Tim after the first time down the track!

Tim and Todd report that the Funny Car’s motor program will include some components from within the Paton Racing Top Fuel dragster camp.

“It’s a 500 CID “big show” motor,” Todd added. “It has higher compression pistons to make enough power with the smaller superchargers and fuel pumps that are mandatory in the nostalgia funny car class. This way, if we need parts — I were we can “borrow” from (he laughed).”

An interesting aspect too for the new Funny Car is that it will in fact be used to no only promote the Racepak Company name – it will also act as a rolling test bed for their data recording and information gathering prototype products.

“Yes for use the race car will be utilized to test a number of upcoming Racepak products,” Tim added. “As we say in-house: if it will live on a nitro car — it will live on anything!”

If all goes according to plan – fans can look for the team’s competition debut during the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series March Meet (March 2-4) at Bakersfield. After that some additional West Coast events will be scheduled.

Post and photos by Bruce Biegler