The unstoppable postseason dominance of J.R. Todd and the DHL/WIX Filters team continued with their sixth final round appearance in the past seven events and fourth in a row. Much like their most recent attempt in Las Vegas, the DHL/WIX team was once again able to guide their Toyota Camry to the winner’s circle in Pomona.

It wasn’t Todd’s event win that clinched his championship, as his first Funny Car title was decided when Robert Hight was eliminated in the first round. Todd became the first African-American Funny Car world champion in NHRA history, but his day of dominance had just begun.

After struggling through his first two qualifying runs on Friday, Todd got dialed in on Saturday and used a 3.987 at 327.82 to vault into the No. 4 qualifying spot in the last qualifying run of the weekend.

In round one of eliminations, Todd matched up against Jim Campbell, and despite already being crowned the champion, he used a 3.938 at 315.64 to earn the victory. His day wasn’t done there, though, as he knew he wanted to close out the year with another victory.

After the first round win, Bob Tasca lined up against Todd in the quarterfinals. The DHL/WIX Camry was again up to the task, powering to a 3.952 at 321.50 as Tasca put up a nice side-by-side, but is 3.962 at 323.12 wasn’t enough to emerge victorious.

In the semifinals, Todd paired up with No. 1 qualifier Ron Capps, and the two had one of the closest side-by-side runs of the day with Todd again turning on the win lights with a 3.889 at 328.14 to a 3.932 at 316.97.

In his fourth consecutive final round and eighth of the year, Todd emerged victorious over Tommy Johnson Jr. for his career-best sixth victory of the 2019 season.

“People kept asking, ‘what do you need to do to clinch?’,” Todd stated. “I’m like, we need to win the race. We need to not worry about what we need to clinch it. Seeing Robert smoke the tires first round was instant relief. My crew was racing smart and the Yella Fellas do an awesome job preparing the thing today. They stayed focused all day long because there were a lot of distractions around our pit area and they did their job. The other teams at Kalitta Motorsports came over to help and I can’t thank them enough. It’s a huge family over there and we’ve all got each other’s backs and it’s awesome to have that kind of support.”

(Highly skilled driver JR Todd won both the final event battle and also the season war within NHRA fuel FC racing)

Todd’s dominant season saw him participate in 23 of 24 possible rounds in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship, as his dominant stretch will go down in NHRA history books as a memorable title run.

Posted by Joseph Anderson

(Tommy Johnson Jr. ended his strong 2018 season campaign with a runner-up finish at the Auto Club Finals)

Event Essentials:   NHRA Auto Club Finals (Nov. 8-11th, 2018) 

(Ron Capps sped to both low ET and top speed at Pomona – while qualifying the DSR Racing/Napa Dodge on the pole)

(Versatile racer Ray Martin (from Anchorage Alaska) tried his hand in FC racing for the first time – driving the Worsham Racing Toyota. He qualified on the bump (4.183 secs)

(“Fast Jack” Beckman ended his ’18 season on strong note – qualifying #2 and placing in the final four on Sunday)

(Canadian native Jeff Arend drove again for the Australian-based team of Peter & Helen Russo. Jeff qualified with a 4.116 secs lap.)

Photos by Randy Anderson

To view additional Funny Car racing images from the NHRA Auto Club Finals link to our event photo gallery:  HERE