Jerry Toliver will always believe the first time he ever drove for Funny Car legend Jim Dunn will go down as a good war story.

Toliver’s Saturday qualifying run in Pomona was the first time he’d ever driven Dunn’s car. There were no test sessions to break in the new chassis. When he strapped in, his No. 16 qualified run was truly a maiden voyage.

“We really had no choice but to run the car to the finish line,” Toliver admitted. “You have a job to do and you do it. I never felt uncomfortable driving the car to the finish line.”

The standard procedure for a new chassis is to make a shakedown run and then come back with a full effort. The steady rains had limited the nitro cars to just one opportunity to get in the field.

Toliver asked prior to the run if he should go to 400 feet and click it. Dunn quickly said no.

“We had discussed that earlier,” Toliver said. “He told me to not pedal the car more than three times. That’s exactly what I pedaled it – three times.”

When Big Jim instructs, one would be wise to listen.

“I stopped pedaling because the run was over and the car had started to hurt itself,” Toliver added. “I figured we might get lucky and someone else might not make it to the finish line. We got lucky.

“I’d venture to say that all of that bad luck we’ve had in the bank was enough to allow us a good luck withdrawal. Maybe we’ll get some lucky breaks this year. I am going to have some fun driving for Jim Dunn this season.”

It’s just as well the Canidae-sponsored entry didn’t make it to the 1,000 foot mark under full power. Toliver’s unfamiliarity with the cockpit caused him to miss the parachutes.

“I went to whack the parachutes and they were in a different spot than what I am accustomed to,” Toliver added. “You do things by habit in these cars. Your brain is trained to do certain things and you are repetitive. It’s a good thing that we didn’t make a full run, we might have been halfway down the shut-off area before I got the parachutes pulled.”