Ron Capps, who is usually behind the wheel of the 7,000-horsepower NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, will compete for the second time in this weekend’s 52nd running of the March Meet at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif. This three-day event, held March 5-7, kicks off the 2010 Nostalgia racing season.
Capps will drive a Plymouth Arrow Nostalgia Funny Car owned by Steve Plueger and will make numerous appearances for NAPA AUTO PARTS supported by local businessman Tim Delcid, owner of several NAPA stores in the area.
“This event has more meaning than a lot of races that I race in right now,” said Capps, a 30-time NHRA national-event winner, who will compete in a unique 32-car field this weekend. “It goes without saying that to be able to win the historic March Meet would rank right up there with any victories I’ve had in my career.
“I pretty much grew up going to this race. Back in the late ‘50s, when ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits was terrorizing the East Coast with his Top Fuel dragster, the West Coast guys challenged him to come out and pit himself against the best in the West Coast.
“And the March Meet is where it happened. So, when I went there as a kid, I watched every big-name drag racer - Don Schumacher, Don Prudhomme, Connie Kalitta, Don Garlits, Ed ‘Ace’ McCulloch, Shirley Muldowney, and other important racers of the time - run this race. It was big-time.
“I don’t remember ever missing a race. And the crowds this weekend will rival any national event that we race at right now. It’s an unbelievable event to attend, and an even bigger one to race at. To be able to say that you’ve won the March Meet would be beyond unbelievable.
“Tim Delcid has been very involved with the track and, for this year’s event, he’s asked me to speak at the California Trucking Association’s Annual Lamb Fry Dinner on Thursday, in front of over 200 people, including state-wide politicians, California Highway Patrol, among others in the trucking industry. This March Meet brings in between 4 and 5 million dollars for the local economy.”
Capps will be joined by fellow NHRA racers at this event. “Gary Densham and Cruz Pedregon are racing there as well, and John Force is the Grand Marshal,” he added. “This is probably the first time in history since the heyday of Funny Car racing back in the ‘70s that they’re going to have a legitimate 32-car field for nitro Funny Cars. That’s unprecedented in this day and age.”
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