Racing has been in Richard Hartman’s blood since he was a baby.

Hartman’s father Virgil, sister Rhonda Hartman-Smith and brother-in-law John “Bodie” Smith all raced.

Not to be left out, Richard piloted his family’s nitro Funny Car in 1988 and as the driver he finished eighth in the NHRA point standings in 1990 and ninth in ’91. He also was the sixth Funny Car driver to join the Castrol 4-Second Club in 1996.

In 1998, Hartman left the cockpit and started tuning cars. He was the crew chief for Terry McMillen’s Top Fuel dragster from 2008-2014 and this season he is working on the crew for Tim Wilkerson’s nitro Funny Car.

Now, he’s also driving again as he is behind the wheel of an alcohol Nostalgia Funny Car.

“This is really a project I started and that’s what I was planning on doing this year, and I wanted to race with my dad again,” Richard said. “So, I put the car together and he and I are tuning it together, and it is just something we can go do as a family and have fun with. The car turned out awesome, I couldn’t be happier. Greg Porter painted it and it’s just immaculate. I don’t even really want to race it, it is so beautiful, but J. Ed Horton, Phil Hartman, and Don Lynch, they did a fabulous job with it, putting it together and it is just a lot of fun.”

Richard’s Nostalgia Funny Car is a 1969 Camaro and it is named “Running Wild.”

“A ’69 Camaro has been my dream car,” Richard said. “I’ve always wanted one since I was in high school and I was never into street cars too much and I don’t like the beaters and I couldn’t afford the expensive ones. This way I could have my ’69 Camaro finally, and it’s a Funny Car, what’s better than that? The name Running Wild, the first Funny Car I ever drove was named Running Wild, and every car my dad and I had together was named Running Wild, so we just continued it on.”

Richard acknowledged he’s going to attempt to play it smart when he’s driving this Camaro.

“I’m trying not to be too stupid in how I drive it because it is too cool of a car to do anything stupid with, but it is a race car and I pedaled it a couple of times there (at Paducah, Ky.) and we had a good time. We took it there (to Paducah for a Nostalgia Funny Car race) and made some initial hits, but the track was sketchy, and it didn’t go quite as planned, but we had some fun and we didn’t hurt anything and the car did what it is supposed to do. We just need to do a little bit better job tuning it. We just never tuned with some of the parts that we have and we just have to learn them.”

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