Nick Boninfante Sr., often referred to as “Nitro Nick,” passed away Aug. 19, 2015, from heart disease. He was 74.

Boninfante was a major player in East Coast Funny Car match racing in the 1970s with his famous U.S. Male entries. He went on to field the 1989 IHRA championship winning Funny Car driven by RC Sherman.

The U.S. Male paint scheme is returning to the Keystone Nationals in Reading, Pa., Friday through Sunday on the nitro Funny Car driven by Paul Lee and campaigned by Worsham Racing.

With his McLeod brand, Lee is helping support the Charger as is Boninfante Friction. Boninfante friction was founded by Nitro Nick in 1989 and is now run by Nick’s sons, Rob and Nicky, and has developed into one of the leading suppliers for clutch products for the drag racing industry.

“It makes me happy, because the ol’ man raced forever,” said Rob about the tribute Funny Car being run for his father. “I know he will be there looking down on everybody and seeing the car go up and down the track again, I know he would be proud.”

Nicky, who is the co-crew chief on the Kalitta Motorsports Funny Car driven by Del Worsham, knows this will be an emotional weekend as the U.S. Male Funny Car rides again.

“I will probably cry,” Nicky said. “I just wanted to see it go down the track one more time, and at that race track (Maple Grove Raceway) it will mean a lot to our whole family.”

When Rob saw pictures of what the car would look like at Reading, he was moved.

“I thought the thing was beautiful,” Rob said. “The cars today don’t look like that anymore, they are all corporate. When you see something that’s based around somebody’s inspiration in life and it is artistic, it is pretty cool.”

After qualifying on Saturday, many members of the racing community will come together to honor the memory of Boninfante Sr. The service will take place in the Kalitta Motorsports hospitality. Confirmed to speak about their memories of Boninfante Sr. are: Del Worsham, who before becoming a driver worked with the Boninfante family on the U.S. Male ride; Richard Hartman, former driver for Boninfante Sr. and current car chief for Tim Wilkerson; Mike Lewis, Senior Vice President for Don Schumacher Racing;  and Jim Oberhofer, Vice President of Operations for Kalitta Motorsports.

“I would never be racing if it wasn’t for him,” Nicky said about his father. “I grew up and the car was in the garage and he was working on it and he and Pat Walsh were down there working on it, and all I wanted to do was work on it and learn. He taught me a lot of stuff and my whole mechanical background comes from him.”

Rob acknowledged he took a different path from Nicky into the racing world.

“My influence (from his father) came on the business side,” Rob said. “After everybody would go to sleep or they would be loading the car up, my ol’ man would be down in the basement working on manifolds and heads, so I would watch him build stuff for the race car and I listened to him talk about how to sell the stuff to make money to fund stuff to go racing. That’s kind of the end of it that I took. Nicky went racing and stuck with the shop.”

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