While all the attention in NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series circles is on the new champions crowned during the 59th In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, held the second weekend of November on the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, there are quite a few stories to talk about regarding drag racing in general and in the four categories that comprise this series: Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Even before the weekend’s competition began, there was plenty to talk about, particularly the reveal of local Lions Automobilia Foundation and Museum Hall of Fame Class of 2024. The eight members of this class were celebrated at a dinner that brought many to this fabulous museum, begun by the late Fred Lorenzen. The class of J.C. Agajanian, Jack Chrisman, Steve Gibbs, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Wally Parks, Carroll Shelby and Bill Stroppe enveloped the full realm of racing, from dragstrips to Indianapolis to the desert and beyond.
Family members were invited to the stage by MC Jack Beckman and hostess Tami Lorenzen-Fanselow, Fred’s daughter. Beckman went on to win the Pomona race late Sunday against his fellow “substitute” teammate at John Force Racing, Austin Prock. Beckman, whose ability to enthrall a crowd is superb, kept everyone entranced as family representatives talked about the influence these eight giants of the sport had upon them. It was a superb evening and set the tone for the balance of the week.
At the Pomona track, for one racer in each class, it was a magical season, one capped by a world title and all the praise and financial gain that goes with a championship. For other over-achievers, lack of success on the dragstrip – any dragstrip – during the 20-race 2024 campaign was palpable. Take, for instance, four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence, who came to the pre-race ceremonies with a scowl on his face and found himself on the sidelines after a single round, losing to first time competitor Gary Pritchett.
Torrence won a single race in 2024 and, for him that’s a real disappointment. The No. 2 qualifier in Pomona last weekend, with the third-quickest lap of his professional career, Torrence fell in the first round to one of his own team members, as clutch tech Pritchett was driving the second Scrappers dragster for the weekend. Pritchett beat the boss fair and square, ending the Texan’s bid for a fifth championship, albeit a long shot bid.
One of six drivers in contention for the title, Torrence came into this race tied for fourth place with 2023 titleholder Doug Kalitta of Kalitta Motorsports. After his first-round departure, the 41-year-old Texan fell to seventh place. It was just as tough a day for his father, Billy, coming into this race in 11th place, stayed in that spot after he, too, was gone after a single round. Pritchett, on the other hand, racing a black dragster with the name of his grandmother, racing star Bunny Burkett, had a solid debut in this tough class.
In that first, protracted round of Top Fuel, only two bouts of eliminations took place before the plane crash at top end that brought racing to a halt. Eight-time champ Tony Schumacher’s rail went back on the trailer after being beat by Clay Millican, while Jasmine Salinas shocked a few folks by taking out eventual tenth-place finisher Shawn Reed. The latter driver has improved tremendously under the care of Rob Wendland this year, considering at this time in 2023 he had nothing, “Not even a screwdriver,” he told me.
There really seems to be no, or maybe simply an expanded midfield in both nitro classes this season. Top Fuel was stronger than it’s been in a while, with Antron Brown pretty much clawing himself to the title. 2023 titleholder Doug Kalitta clawed his way back, as well, by going to the final round in Pomona. After failing to qualify for the 70th U.S. Nationals, it looked like Kalitta was out of the game, but the six-race playoffs helped him rebound. Justin Ashley will have to wait – something Kalitta really understands – before he gets a title if, in fact he does. Many have tried; few are fulfilled.
Yeah, Austin Prock owned Funny Car, but both John Force Racing team owner John Force, along with his eight-race replacement after that June Richmond crash, Jack Beckman took Force’s car and, after a nearly four-year layoff, produced two wins. Says a lot about the brain trust this crew has put together over the years, and the fact that Beckman was able to climb to second in the points – just where Force was sitting when he had his accident – says much about both Beckman’s capabilities despite the long layover, and how good John Force Racing really is. This was the seventh 1-2 season result for this team over its 29-year history.
It was a good but not great season for two drivers who had been partners for a long time. Ron Capps finished third overall in the Funny Car standings, Caps reached five final rounds over the course of this 20-race campaign and, while he didn’t win the title and failed to secure a Wally trophy in 2024, the three-time champion was pleased with his “very strong team,” he said. This was his 20th consecutive season earning a Top 10 final result. As for former squamate at Don Schumacher Racing, 2023 Funny Car champ Matt Hagan joined his Top Fuel teammate Tony Stewart in the semifinal round and earned fourth place in the overall standings. Just behind Capps by a measly 10 points.
The most exciting class outcome was saved for the final round of the day, when KB Titan Racing teammates Dallas Glenn (the leader coming into the round) and then-five-time champion Greg Anderson pulled up to the water box after race winners in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle had been crowned. To recap, those victors were newly-crowned Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, Funny Car super-sub Jack Beckman and Pro Stock Motoecycle’s six-time champ and 2024 bridesmaid Matt Smith on his Buell.
All that was left was to figure out whether Glenn or Anderson would get the final race- and championship-winning nod. Both went to the veteran in the left lane, Despite Glenn’s better reaction time, Anderson had him by the 60-foot mark and proceeded to earn a .022-second margin of victory. In other words, he won by the blink of an eye! Earning his 106th Pro Stock win and cementing his status as the driver with the most wins in his category, Anderson said this title meant more to him than any other he’s achieved. He now joins Erica Enders, his regular nemesis, as a six-time titleholder.
There was a lot more going on in Pro Stock than the battle between Anderson, Glenn and Elite Motorsports’ Aaron Stanfield, whose third-place result after a semifinal finish in Pomona helped Anderson to his sixth championship. Stanfield, who totaled six wins in ten final round battles – with only three first-round exits – went to the final round in four of the six Countdown to the Championship playoff battles and won twice! The quiet son of a quiet engine building father who is returning to the Pro Stock wars at Elite in 2025, Stanfield knows he can get the job done. Just not this year.
It wasn’t a runway for Gaige Herrera and Vance & Hines Motorsports (V&H) in 2024. Not the repeat of 2023 when Herrera ruled the two-wheeled class from start to finish. Despite winning 11 times in a row, he was challenged by Matt Smith Racing’s (MSR) four-Buell squad and its lead rider, six-time champion Matt Smith, who made a vow to quit riding if he won a seventh championship. Partner Denso confirmed the North Carolina star will be back in 2025. But then, so will Herrera and, we expect, his first-year teammate Richard Gadson, who may not have won Rookie of the Year despite his third-place class finish. That award went to Tony Stewart, who showed he can race anything, anywhere, anyhow – even with no sleep!
Gadson is another quiet racer, whose actions on the track speak as loudly as his teammate’s. Herrera does most of his talking behind the handlebars and is pretty soft-spoken off the motorcycle. Both he and Gadson showed they can channel their efforts when needed to overcome even the mightiest challenges, like Matt and Angie Smith, Jianna Evaristo, John Hall and WAR Racing’s Chase Van Sant on his Suzuki. It was exciting to see Van Sant earn his first Wally trophy in Seattle, overcoming difficulties reading the tree.
While the final standings might not show just how competitive Pro Stock Motorcycle was in 2024, thanks to the dominance of both V&H and MSR, the fact that Hector Arana Jr. could win in this class using a Series 1 Buell – most of the V-Twin riders are on Series 2 equipment – and that veteran Suzuki rider Steve Johnson can still mix it up, rising in the points in the series finale when he had a semifinal result, losing to Matt Smith, alludes to the depth of the class. This year, WAR Racing’s Chris Bostick introduced the first PSM-equipped parachute on his white Suzuki motorcycle and he rode with more confidence than he has in the past. We’re not sure this equipment will become “normal” in PSM but, to this writer, it’s nice to see someone trying it out.
Were there disappointments in this 2024 season? Why of course. The most eventful was John Force’s mid-June accident that took the 16-time champion off the circuit for the balance of the year after he suffered a traumatic brain injury t Richmond. At the following race, in Norwalk, OH, fans lined up to sign a huge card for the GOAT, while the team’s cars paraded down the strip during Sunday morning’s track walk. Other disappointments were the heart issues of Top Fuel’s Mike Salinas that forced daughter Jasmine to race without the guidance of her father for much of the year – Mike will return at the Gatornationals next March.
Brittany Force’s fifth place finish in the standings was good for her, but she really didn’t get with the program until her dad, John, started turning the corner on his recovery. Josh Hart’s lack of competitiveness might be assuaged by his hiring of Jason McCulloch from the Torrence Racing team, where he’d been turning the knobs for Billy Torrence. Billy T, too, had a lackluster season, finishing 11th in the standings, while Hart was 12th. A welcome addition to the class is Ida Zetterstrom, racing alongside eight-time champion Tony Schumacher. They could be a force, together, in 2025. Ida made a spectacular debut with semifinal results in her first two races (Brainerd and Indy).
Bob Tasca III was never able to capitalize on his 240mph pass in Bradenton during the preseason PRO Superstar Shootout and, while he was fifth behind the JFR duo, Capps’ Toyota GR Supra and Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, as well as being the top Ford Mustang runner (which is expected of him), this had to be a season to forget for the Rhode Island racer. Same, too, for two-time champ Cruz Pedregon, whose Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat ended up being the caboose in the ten-car Funny Car playoff train.
Greg Anderson knows what it’s like to have to sit back and watch others succeed when you’re the reigning titleholder and, for Erica Enders it was an okay season, but finishing fourth in the title campaign wasn’t up to her usual standards. She is expected to try her hand in the Top Fuel nitro category in 2025; we’ll have to see if that takes anything away from her Pro Stock chances to be a seven-time titleholder, or enhances them. It was an okay year for Elite Motorsports, with six of its drivers in the Top 10, but settling for third and back isn’t why Richard Freeman brings so many cars to each track. OTOH, to see the comeback of Camrie Caruso from her early-season injuries, returning at Indy, and watch her show that she hadn’t “lost” it made her switch to KB Titan look like a very smart move.
Now, as everyone in the NHRA pits who didn’t win a title ruminates over what could have been, it’s time to prep for next year. While the regular season doesn’t start until the first weekend of March, there’s always the PRO Superstar Shootout in February to help racers get primed for the upcoming campaign. Open to Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock, the Shootout gives fans an idea of who might have a leg up once the points-paying season begins.
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