This weekend marks the first year of the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series. Out with the old, in with the new. Mission Foods has been a great partner since joining the series and putting up the dough for Saturday’s Mission #2Fast#Tasty events. Using Angelle Sampey as their ambassador, the company claimed naming rights for the entire series at the close of last year and the 55th Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in the city of the same name in Florida is their first outing as series sponsor.
The Gatornationals are now the start of the season and have always been a special race, because all four of the professional touring series: Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle compete at this event, where the bikes are normally absent from the Winternationals, which formerly started the season. In addition to those four, get ready for a boatload of action starting on Thursday with Lucas Oil sportsman racers taking to the track. The four Mission Foods classes will have two Friday and two Saturday qualifying sessions before eliminations begin Sunday morning.
With a standout entry of 26 cars and drivers to kick off its 10-race season, Congruity NHRA Pro Mod will be on the track first on Sunday for their initial round of eliminations before the other pro ranks take over at an early 10:30 in the morning.
The festivities actually started on Wednesday evening with the second annual FanFest and Kickoff Party from 6-9PM at Burnyzz Speed Shop in Ocala, and event started by Josh Hart, the Top Fuel racer who won his first pro race three years ago at the Gatornationals. “Last year’s event exceeded our expectations, from the fans who showed up and the number of cars for the car show,” Hart said. “This year we want to make it even bigger and better. This is one of the most historic motorsports events in the country and we’re excited to have it in our back yard and celebrate with everyone from Ocala and around central Florida.”
Hart will be joined by legends Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, by 16-time Funny Car champ John Force, former world champions Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, Brittany Force and Cruz Pedregon. Such nitro standouts as Hart, Justin Ashley, Clay Millican, rookie Ida Zetterstrom and Jacob McNeal, Bob Tasca III Austin Prock, Chad Green, Daniel Wilkerson, Dave Richards and Buddy Hull were expected to be on-site.
There have been some changes to the grid sheets for 2024 in every single pro class, and for Top Fuel, with a fresh air system now mandatory for open-air as well as closed cockpit cars, the minimum weight for dragsters is up to 2390 pounds. They’ll also have more robust front end geometry this year. With 17 Top Fuel entries, this will be a very competitive race for everyone.
For the first time in his professional career, Doug Kalitta comes to the first race of the season as reigning champion of the class, having secured his first Top Fuel national championship on the last pass of the last race of the 2023 season. Kalitta followed that exemplary achievement by winning the Top Fuel big money PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton three weeks ago, over Clay Millican, who looked exceptionally strong at that race.
Still, Air Doug will have to contend with some exceptional challengers, including eight-time Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher, four-time champ Steve Torrence, three-time champ Antron Brown and Brittany Force, who has earned two titles in her John Force Racing dragster.
With his wife Leah Pruett giving up her spot in the Top Fuel contingent as the duo work to start a family, Tony Stewart Racing team owner Tony Stewart takes over her dragster after a single season of Top Alcohol Dragster, where he finished second, just 21 points (or two rounds) behind Julie Nataas. He’ll be assisted by Pruett, who is going to be his strategist this year as he attempts to earn another big league championship to go with impressive titles in INDYCAR, NASCAR and USAC.
Steve Torrence’s dad, Billy, is returning to the class on a full-time basis, while anyone thinking they can be quicker than 2023 Gaatornationals winner Mike Salinas to the 1/8-mile will have to suck it up to get more than 300mph, as Salinas did last season. Tripp Tatum III won this race two years ago, surprising just about everyone in the pits and returns this year, while Shawn Langdon, continuing in Connie Kalitta’s dragster now has Brian Husen turning the knobs, which could help the former dragster champ regain his mojo. Some part-time racers on the entry list include Shawn Reed, Doug Foley, local Cody Krohn and Jacob Opatrny. Lex Joon isn’t on the entry list but has indicated he’s packed and traveling to Florida with wife Gerda, who was just announced as the crew chief for Travis Shumake’s dragster, starting his campaign at Phoenix during the NHRA Arizona Nationals, April 5-7.
“There are a bona fide 12 cars capable of taking this championship,” declared Antron Brown, who is trying for his fourth title and first as his team’s owner. “The Top Fuel class is ridiculous; we’re definitely raising the bar, and a strong start to the season definitely builds confidence,” for the 21-race run, he said. Langdon, who had his first run with Husen at Bradenton, said that event “really helped the transition” to working with his new crew chief.” Steve Torrence agrees with many in the Top Fuel pits who believe, “Friday sets the tone for how ou go out and race on Sunday,” he said.
These drivers will also take part in the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout on Saturday, an event that includes 2023 event champ Josh Hart, who assumes the final Callout position earned by Leah Pruett, who isn’t going to race at all this year after running at Bradenton. Hart won from the No. 8 spot last year, “And we will try and do it again. We learned lot at the end of the [2023] season and over the off-season. We will be ready,” he warned. Torrence has the No. 1 seed in this event, followed by Doug Kalitta, Mike Salinas, Brittany Force, Justin Ashley, Antron Brown, Shawn Langdon and Hart.
In Funny Car, four-time and reigning champ Matt Hagan is ready to mix it up again in his Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat as he tries for a fifth championship and a third straight Gatornationals victory. Hagan initially had difficulties at this track but turned it around at the start of the 2022 season in Gainesville, when he won his first Gatornathionals and the initial victory for Stewart’s nitro team. Only five drivers have three straight Gatornationals wins: John Force, Don Prudhomme, Warren Johnson, Jason Line and Eddie Krawiec – only Force, among those five, remains an active competitor. “It would be really unbelievable to be able to win Gainesville a third time,” Hagan said.
Hagan will have a bunch of former champs breathing down his neck, though, including the legendary John Force, winner of 155 races and 16 world titles, driving his Chevrolet Camaro SS. He’ll also have three-time titleholder Ron Capps and his Toyota GR Supra to contend with, as well as two-time champ Cruz Pedregon’s Charger and J.R. Todd, who has earned a single championship in this class and just had his DHL contract extended for the team’s GR Supra.
Missing in action? That would be three-time Funny Car champ and a 65-time race winner, Robert Hight of John Force Racing, who is taking a medical leave this year. The holder of the class’ elapsed time and speed national records will be missed, but his spot is being held by Austin Prock, who has been Brittany Force’s Top Fuel teammate the past two seasons. Prock showed his aptitude for the difficult-to-drive Floppers by winning the PRO Superstar Shootout, helped by his father Jimmy and brother Thomas, who are his co-crew chiefs.
The 17-car Funny Car class has many hungry racers who are capable of upsetting the proverbial apple cart with their capabilities, including Bob Tasca III and his Ford Mustang, the similar car of Chad Green, who won the season finale at Pomona last November and took the Funny Car vs Top Fuel grudge match (and $10,000 prize) at Bradenton. Daniel Wilkerson is racing this year rather than crew chiefng and showed well at Bradenton in his Mustang.Buddy Hull, who drove in Top Fuel last year, is now with Jim Dunn Racing and will debut in Funny Car. He’s joined by Paul Lee’s Charger, Terry Haddock’s Mustang, John Smith in a Charger, Blake Alexander in Jim Head’s Charger, Jim Campbell and Alexis DeJoria’s Supra.
Force, who has hinted at retirement for the past few years, still has some items on his to-do list and one of those items that could deal his retirement is to one-up Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who is hoping to play in the NBA with his son, Bronny. Force will keep on racing – and he’s still racing well – until he can compete in the same arena with granddaughter Autumn Hight, and grandsons Jacob and Noah Hood. He has raced against daughters Ashley and Courtney, both of whom are on the sidelines raising the next generation right now.
Beginning his 30th racing season, Capps, the three-time champ and four-time Gatornationals winner, is looking to tie his former boss, Prudhomme, who has five Gainesville Flopper titles. That would tie him for the second-winningest Funny Car racer in Gainesville history; “I’ve been lucky enough to be doing this for quite a while, and I don’t think we’ve seen the buzz or the excitement build-up like we have going into this year’s Gatornationals,” Capps said. “You could see, leaving the Bradenton event, that there are quite a few more cars that have a legitimate shot at not only trophies on Sunday but championship runs. We can’t wait to hit the track in Gainesville and try to win another trophy.”
Erica Enders is barreling towards more and more records in Pro Stock. Now the holder of six championships and the winner in class at Bradenton three weeks ago, she leads an invigorated Elite Motorsports army of Chevrolet Camaros – and the occasional Ford Mustang. With 23 cars on the Pro Stock entry list, getting into eliminations won’t be an easy task and, if anyone recalls, the start of Enders’ 2023 campaign was a dismal one; she was out after a single round last year in Gainesville. Still, after slapping the field at the PRO Superstar Shootout in Gainesville, Enders looks ready for another title year.
Elite Motorsports has a fleet of cars entered this year – as it did in 2023 – with some of their stars including five-time Pro Stock champ Jeg Coughlin Jr., his nephew Troy Coughlin Jr., who won this race in 2023, Aaron Stanfield and a slew of Cuadras: Cristian (in a Mustang), Fernando Jr. and David Cuadra, also driving a Mustang. Fernando Cuadra Sr is not on the entry list, but Elite is fielding Kelley Murphy, making an initial start in a Jim Butner-sponsored Elite Camaro.
Troy Coughlin Jr. has the bit between his teeth as he attempts to run the table at Gainesville a second straight year. He was the top qualifier in 2023 and earned the wi for Elite. He’ll be chasing his fifth Pro Stock career victory but he’ll have a huge battle on his hands. “Coming into the season opener as the defending winner,” Coughlin said, “that’s special. There might be a little added pressure to do well and maybe get that win again, but this class is so competitive, you can’t think you’re going to be able to repeat art a track a year later. It’s definitely going to be a fight!”
Not so fast to crown Elite titleholders again, said five-time champ Greg Anderson and the balance of his KB Titan team, which includes Matt Hartford, Dallas Glenn, Camrie Caruso, Brandon Foster, Deric Kramer and Eric Latino. Independents like Chris and Mason McGaha return with their Camaros, while Kenny Delco and Val Smeland are on this entry list, as is Alan Prusiensky, wielding the class’ sole Dodge Dart. Larry Morgan returns to a class where he’s had good success and Ontario, Canada-based, newly-licensed Sienna Wildgust, 17, makes her initial NHRA Pro Stock appearance at this track.
After whipping the Pro Stock Motorcycle field in 2023, Gaige Herrera leads the Vance & Hines contingent again in 2024, albeit with Richard Gadson as his teammate this year, both riding Suzuki Hayabusa3 motorcycles. It’s a very strong field coming to Florida, most of whom are testing Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to the weekend. There are 19 bikes on the entry list comprised of 10 Buell/EBR motorcycles and the balance a variety of Suzuki entries.
Six-time champion Matt Smith is returning to his Buell, while wife Angie is fully recovered from her massive Texas troubles and ready to roll on her Buell. Their teammate Jianna Evaristo is running a Buell for the first time in her competitive career, while the balance of Buell/EBR riders include Marc Ingwersen, returning champ Hector Arana and his first-to-200 son Hector Arana Jr., Bud Yoder II is on a Buell, as are John Hall, Ryan Oehler and Mark Paquette.
Steve Johnson will again attempt to earn his first Pro Stock Motorcycle title aboard his Suzuki, joined by Chase Van Sant, the NHRA’s 2023 Rookie of the Year and his new WAR Racing teammate Chris Bostick, Kelly Clontz, Wesley Wells, 2010 class champ LE Tonglet, Joey Gladstone riding solo for Reed Motorsports after Cory Reed had another procedure to help him heal from his difficult leg injury.
Another familiar face will be in the Top Alcohol Dragster ranks this season, with three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Angelle Sampey tackling the class with mentoring from Antron Brown and his Accelerate Program. Brown was her teammate at Don Schumacher Racing when both were rampaging through the PSM class. She had her first race close to home in Louisiana a couple of weeks ago and has been testing in advance of this week’s contest. The intent is to see this racer equal or better Tony Stewart’s 2023 results and move up to partner Brown on his AB Motorsports team. in the 2025 season.
The weather this weekend is “iffy” and that’s not unusual for Gainesville in March. the first Pep Boys Top Fuel All-Star Callout had to be postponed to Indy after a rainout and the weather systems crawling cross-country right now could land in central Florida’s lap. The worst of it is set for Saturday afternoon and into Sunday morning, but whether or not that occurs is anyone’s guess. Temps should be in the low 80s Friday and Saturday, but drop to the low 70s for Sunday. Thinking positive thoughts for everyone on-site, that rains stay away (or occur overnight) is all we can do, aside from applauding the NHRA’s vaunted Safety Safari if they’re called, once again, to keep moisture off the track and racing on it!
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