The 40th Annual AC Delco NHRA Gatornationals hits Gainesville Raceway next weekend, the third race in the National Hot Rod Association’s schedule, and there are a couple of unexpected points leaders coming into the traditional East Coast opener:
Funny Car driver Ron Capps is thus far undefeated, and comparative Top Fuel rookie Antron Brown is leading in drag racing’s fastest professional class.
The track is familiar to Brown, who moved to Top Fuel last year from the NHRA Pro Motorcycle class — the cycles are not part of the first two races of the season, at Pomona in California, and Phoenix — so Brown should be especially comfortable on the Gainesville asphalt.
In Gainesville, Brown says, “We’re going to have a little bit more humidity than we did in Phoenix. It plays mind games on the crew chiefs.
Capps, the winningest Funny Car driver in NHRA history to have not won a season championship, won in Gainesville in twice.
“It’s a very tricky track, like Antron says, but it’s prestigious. The first year I won there, I was blown away, because that race, — it’s one of the big three races we have. To win it twice was even bigger. It’s kind of like the Winternationals for the East Coast. A lot of corporate sponsors come out to Gainesville. It’s a big deal for everybody.”
As the first race where all four of the top professional classes compete this year, the Gatornationals is often a bellwether for how the rest of the season goes.
There are, so far, 19 entries in the Top Fuel class, 18 in Funny Car, 23 in Pro Motorcycle, and a typically huge 25 entries in the Pro Stock class, including Crestview’s Tom Hammonds, the former NBA player.
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