Ron Capps has moved to the top for NHRA’s Camping World Funny Car championship points standings.

Capps won a heated battle for class supremacy when he prevailed for the Lucas Oil Winternationals title – a race which has been traditionally held in February – but deferred to mid-summer this season due to the worldwide pandemic.
 
After earning his fourth No.1 qualifier position of the first ten NHRA Camping World Series season events this season, Capps powered his DSR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat through the elimination rounds with consistent 4.1-second runs and wins over Bob Bode, Bob Tasca and longtime rival John Force to advance to his second final round appearance of the season after his runner-up finish at the Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil in Houston.
 
A three-time winner at Pomona (1998, 2009, 2016), Capps earned his 66th career Funny Car win against No. 7 seed J.R. Todd by running him with a 4.151 sec./253.09 mph effort to beat his opponent’s 4.289/249.16 pass. The victory, the 2019 NHRA Funny Car world champion’s first of the 2021 season, puts him into the points lead.

“I was hoping a win was coming,” Capps said. “This team, time and time again, they’ve given me one of the coolest cars to drive and this (weekend) was one of the most extreme conditions we’ve ever had. To do it at Pomona in the summer, with all my friends and family here, I can’t even tell you how amazing it is.” 

Event Essentials: Lucas Oil Winternationals  (July 30-Aug 1st 2021) 

Posted with files by Bruce Biegler & Pat Caporali
Photos by Bob Johnson and courtesy of Auto Imagery