When Dave Richards prepares to compete at the upcoming Gatornationals Feb. 16-18 in Gainesville, Fla., he will do so in a nitro Funny Car that will be a blast from the past.

Richards, who drives the Funny Car owned by his older brother, Paul Richards, will be campaigning a Funny Car that will don a paint scheme that’s a tribute to their father, Gary Richards.

Gary Richards was a regular match racer in the 1960s and 70s.

“Our dad raced back in the day and that’s kind of why we are still doing it,” Dave said. “There was always a race car in the garage and it has always been in our life.”

Mike Harrigan freshly-painted the Funny Car with Gary Richards’ name on the side of the car earlier this week and it will be seen by the elder Richards for the first time Friday at the Gatornationals.

“He has no idea that we are doing this for him,” Dave said. “He will not see the car until Friday. It is a secret. This is something we wanted to do to thank him for all he has done for us over the years. This is a totally old school paint job we did on the Funny Car. Dad is still doing good health-wise, and this is something we’ve always talked about doing and how cool it would be to do. Gainesville is basically our home track now and worked to do it there.”

Paul concurred with his brother.

“It gives you goose bumps thinking about it,” he said. “The surprise element is going to be there because we are not even telling him before qualifying. He’s going to go up to the stands before (Q1) and we are going to swap the bodies out. He thinks we are running the blue and white body, and that’s what is going to be sitting in the pits when he is there and then when he goes up into the bleachers we’re going to take the other body out of the top of the trailer and swap it out so the first time he will see it will be when it is out on the track (for the first qualifying session). So, anybody who knows Gary don’t tell him anything about what we are doing. We want to keep the secret, so we can surprise him in Q1. When he sees that car on the jumbotron he will not know what to think. I wish I could see his face.”

Q1 for nitro Funny Cars at the Gatornationals is scheduled for 2 p.m. (ET) March 16.

The Funny Car will look identical to the one that took part in the 2015 inaugural Throwback Showdown presented by Boninfante Friction, a virtual reality drag race promoted by CompetitionPlus.com.

“My dad did a lot of match racing back in the day and this was one of his favorite cars that he always talked about,” Dave said. “He loved the paint job on it. We just decided to do this tribute last week. We were going to do it for Englishtown (N.J.) because that was his home track, but obviously we can’t do that now that Englishtown is closed. Fortunately, the people who help us are friends and families and sponsors, and they were totally cool about us doing this for our dad.”

The last time Dave Richards drove his brother’s nitro Funny Car was at the two national events in Charlotte, N.C. last year.

“This year in addition to Gainesville, I’m pretty sure we will do the race in Atlanta and races in Charlotte, stuff closer to home to keep the cost down,” Dave said. “Every year we have got better. Before we used to go and hope to make a couple of decent runs and now I go there totally expecting to qualify and do well.”

Paul Smith will serve as the crew chief on the Funny Car.

“Paul Smith, when he was driving his own cars, he raced against my dad all the time with this particular paint scheme we will be running,” Paul Richards said. “Paul is familiar with this paint scheme and he has been a family friend forever, and this deal should be very exciting.”