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Photos:<\/strong> Courtesy of NHRA<\/p>\n Ron Capps rolls into next week\u2019s Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway in Gainesville, Florida with such voracity for winning this season that it\u2019s no wonder why he\u2019s already leading the NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car points standings.<\/p>\n The reason for Capps\u2019 excitement and diligence is all due to the competition he faces every round as a knock down fight to finish and it\u2019s only the third race.\u00a0 With the rise of technology, catching up with more teams and those individuals exercising their knowledge are bringing the heat every round.\u00a0 You can\u2019t even depend on a good reaction time anymore, it\u2019s that\u2019s close.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d said the 45-time Funny Car champion, Capps.\u00a0 \u201cEvery year we discuss about how it gets tougher and tougher.\u00a0 You almost think it\u2019s not possible and then, well, obviously, you saw what happened last year with Jimmy Prock (crew chief for Jack Beckman) and with the swooped-back headers.\u00a0 That took the performance of Funny Car instantly a tenth-of a second lower, which is something you don\u2019t see in any kind of motorsports of a big jump like that, so that is huge.\u00a0 That just kind of bunched everybody together.\u00a0 Of course, I would say, it\u2019s the toughest drag racing class out there, but I\u2019m sure I would offend some of the sportsman and Pro Stock guys on how close that is.\u00a0 As far as the Funny Car category and the history, it\u2019s got to be the closest it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Capps proved his mettle at Pomona, winning the season-opening Winternationals on a hole shot against last year\u2019s Funny Car champion, Del Worsham.\u00a0 That round win alone was worth the price of admission seeing these two Californians battle it out for the Wally.\u00a0 With all the chatter after Phoenix surrounding Leah Pritchett and Brittany Force, it also pays to mention the latest\u00a0Southern California rivalry of Worsham and Capps much like the cross town clashes of the 1980s and ’90s, mimicking that between Don \u2018the Snake\u2019 Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein’s Bud King race cars.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, if that\u2019s something that\u2019s going to start a rivalry, I love it,\u201d beamed Capps.\u00a0 \u201cThose guys bring out the best in me, for sure, Del does.\u00a0 He\u2019s a throwback to the old days, in my eyes.\u00a0 You don\u2019t see many of them.\u00a0 Tim Wilkerson, who won last week, is another one who can do it all.\u00a0 Del can tune and drive reminding me of the Don Prudhommes and Don Garlits as the guys that would tie their firesuits around their waist, tune the car and then jump in and drive it.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way I grew up.\u00a0 I don\u2019t get to work on them any more so when I race Del, you\u2019re racing a racer, it\u2019s not just a driver.\u00a0 I would love to race him all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, in the Funny Car finals at the Winternationals, Capps got that chance, he was feeling the pressure in front of both driver\u2019s hometown crowd, and he was so devoted in keeping his focus strong.\u00a0 It was the only way he knew how to beat Del in getting to the finish line first.\u00a0 What resulted was one of the closest side-by-side races of all time with Capps squeezing out an incredible eight-ten thousandth (.0008) of a second win over the champ or about four inches.\u00a0 It was only after the pass did he realize he had won, but had won it off the starting line, which was thrilling to Capps in beating his good friend and nemesis.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to drive it and if you\u2019re the underdog like us at Pomona, that\u2019s the only way I could have gone into the final round against Del.\u00a0 I figured, \u2018hey, this is do or die\u2019, ‘I gotta be my best\u2019.\u00a0 And it was, \u2018well, it was better.\u2019\u00a0 When you look at it, you have two cars going over 320 mph and the race decided by 4 inches and that\u2019s just crazy.\u00a0 It was the first race on FOX, first race of the season and it was so close.\u00a0 It\u2019s the 50th<\/sup> anniversary season of the Funny Car.\u00a0 That was cool for me because, obviously, I\u2019m a big fan of Funny Car, itself.\u00a0 That was big being the first winner of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"010-RonCapps-Sunday-Pomona1[1]\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/010-RonCapps-Sunday-Pomona11-183x300.jpg\")
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\u201cYou\u2019re talking about last year\u2019s World Champion that was unbelievable in the Countdown last year,\u201d said Capps.\u00a0 \u201cWhat that team did was fun for the fans to watch, but brutal as a competitor.\u00a0 We knew how good they were going to be in the finals at Pomona and I know how good Del is on the tree.\u00a0 You put those deals together and I figured the way we had run all day that I knew Rahn (crew chief Tobler) would give me a good race car, but that was a reaction time that was mostly out of fear.\u00a0 It was the fear of getting stepped on by a competitor and that\u2019s the way you have to drive these things.\u00a0 You hear about it from the (Sprint) Cup guys and the World of Outlaws guys and that is, you have to get on top of the wheel.\u00a0 You hear that all the time.<\/p>\n
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