This weekend’s Auto Club Finals, the 57th iteration of this race, will be special for more reasons than the exciting prospect of crowning champions in NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series’ Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle categories. The tension for those three battles is somewhere near the stratosphere, but there’s a heck of a lot more going on at Auto Club Raceway and the entire Fairplex that pertains to drag racing.
Krista Baldwin, the granddaughter of The Greek, Chris Karamesines, has been racing his former Top Fuel enclosed cockpit dragster for the past two seasons, doing the races she can afford to do. Racing a nitro car is expensive, as we all know. Baldwin is taking a special tack this weekend, honoring her late father, Bobby Baldwin, by using the same blue and white color scheme made notorious by her dad in the late 1990s and into the current century.
This weekend marks the first time Baldwin is racing at her home track in Pomona, Calif., thanks to the participation of McLeod Racing and Lucas Oil. She also has a new sponsor, Mainline Sales, backing her in a very tight class, where 18 cars are entered and only 16 get to compete on Sunday. Associate partners include AB&I Foundry, Green Engineering, Largo Concrete Fire Safe Group, APSS and Four Seasons Landscape.
Born in Upland, Calif., just a few short miles from the Fairplex facility, she’s had nitro on her mind (and in her veins) from childhood. Her father, Bobby Baldwin was an independent Top Fuel racer from the 1980s through to 2001. He owned a land grading business in Upland, but grew up just over the hill on Fairplex Drive. Ever since his childhood, Bobby Baldwin never missed a Winternationals or a World Finals – either as a spectator or as a competitor.
“I grew up at Pomona,” Krista Baldwin related. “My childhood was all about watching my dad and grandpa race Top Fuel, but I especially remember being with my dad at Pomona. One of his last races that he attended was the 50th anniversary race in July of 2001, held at Pomona. To return to my hometown with a Top Fuel car, is a complete dream come true,” she said. “I have sat in the stands at 24-24 for 29 years, and now I am actually competing in Top Fuel! I would fantasize, as a kid, what it will be like to race Pomona and now I get to actually experience it!”
In September of 2001, Bobby Baldwin suffered a brain aneurysm and passed. After the shock wore off, his daughter became determined to find a way to drive a Top Fuel dragster, emulating her father. In 2020, she jumped in her grandfather’s dragster to license; in 2021, she competed in five events. This year, Krista Baldwin acquired the team from her grandfather and she expanded her schedule to eight NHRA National events and two match races.
With the growth of her race team, Baldwin looked to her father’s – and grandfather’s – past successes and was able to secure the help of her long-time friend, crew chief Scott Graham, who performed crew chief duties for her father. “Coming home with the home team is a huge win,” Baldwin said. “I have been with Scott since I was born, and now we have the opportunity to work together, like how he and my dad used to work together. We have made some huge changes to the car and the tune-up, and we are on the right path to the elusive 3.7-second run. Hopefully, we will achieve that this weekend in front of our friends and family.”
Krista Baldwin isn’t the only multi-generation racer looking forward and recognizing their pasts during this weekend’s season finale. Travis Shumake is honoring his father’s upset win at the 1982 World Finals, when Funny Car legend Billy Meyer brought Tripp Shumake to the World Finals as a “blocker” to defeat championship contenders Don Prudhomme and Frank Hawley, The single-race deal and eventual Cinderella story ended with Tripp Shumake in the finals against Kenny Bernstein, after taking out both Hawley and Prudhomme earlier in the day. This was the very last World Finals at Orange County International Raceway, held 40 years ago, before the race segued to its current site at Fairplex Pomona.
This weekend, Travis Shumake will wrap up a successful first season racing a Randy Meyers-owned and tuned Top Alcohol Dragster. He has support from Envision RISE, an evolutionary platform that utilizes Organizational Change Management (OCM), Human Resource Management (HRM), and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) to create a powerful integration and understanding between organizations and their workforce.
This second-generation driver will be channeling the spirit of his popular father and the surprise success of his 1982 win, with a throwback paint scheme, helmet and crew uniforms. “I grew up watching VHS of my dad’s magical day at the World Finals. I still watch it,” Travis Shumake admitted. “I’m just as proud of his other wins and accomplishments, like being in both the Cragar Five-Second Club and the 250-MPH Club, but having the TV coverage and interviews make this race special.
“He’s been gone 23 years this Sunday, and his finish line interview with Steve Evans is the only place I can go to hear his voice,” Travis said of his father, Tripp. “I get to hear him, see him, and now I’m hoping for my own finish line interview with Amanda Busick. Makes the hairs stand up on my neck!”
Shumake states he’s racing for more than to honor his father. “I’m here to win and wouldn’t mind facing off with one of the drivers in the hunt for the championship. We’ve got the car! Between me, Hunter (Green), Fiona (Crisp) and Matt (Sackman), this Randy Meyer “Team B” car has been turning on win lights all season long. If the points stayed with the car, this beast would be deep in the points battle.”
Lucas Oil Sportsman qualifying began on Thursday with two runs; there is a final qualifying run on Friday at 2PM PT, while Saturday begins Shumake’s quest for victory. The first round of eliminations is set for 10:15AM on Saturday, November 12th.
Leave a Reply