Such a concept looks great on paper but not realistic according to team owner Don Schumacher

One of the hottest topics floating around the Pomona pits during the NHRA Winternationals was the special fantasy feature on Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com proposing a weekend of drag racing throwbacks similar to the one promoted by the National Football League honoring vintage years. Up and coming rendering artist Greg Russell [http://www.gregrusselldesign.com ] combined classic paint schemes on modern day Funny Car body styles with current drivers.

Don’t get your hopes up for the chances this concept will happen in a modern drag racing setting.

Such a concept looks great on paper but not realistic according to team owner Don Schumacher

One of the hottest topics floating around the Pomona pits during the NHRA Winternationals was the special fantasy feature on Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com proposing a weekend of drag racing throwbacks similar to the one promoted by the National Football League honoring vintage years. Up and coming rendering artist Greg Russell [http://www.gregrusselldesign.com ] combined classic paint schemes on modern day Funny Car body styles with current drivers.

Don’t get your hopes up for the chances this concept will happen in a modern drag racing setting.

“I thought they were really cool with a really neat feel,” said Don Schumacher, a veteran of those 1970s Funny Car wars portrayed in the article. “To be able to get the sponsors to support us being able to paint the cars that way and look that way just to excite the fans and bring back some of the old time looks, maybe even some of the attitudes – would be an incredible experience.”

But, in a day an age where the economy appears fighting for every nickel and dime, Schumacher said he hates to be a wet blanket, but the reality of corporate boardrooms cannot justify the expenditure with the limited signage.

Schumacher had all four Don Schumacher Racing drivers included in the feature story.
 
“There's not a sponsor that's going to pay us the kind of money that they pay us,” added Schumacher. “Sure the Army would pay Tony to drive an Army dragster, but do you think Valvoline is going to pay me to have Jack Beckman drive a Stardust Funny Car? It’s the same thing with Ron Capps and a Revolution Funny Car.”

 “We will have a Chi-Town Hustler tribute out, when, I don’t know. But I am doing one.” – John Force

That didn’t prevent Gary Scelzi from getting excited about his chances of driving a Dale Pulde “War Eagle” tribute. So excited was Pulde with the idea that he offered to foot the bill for the commemorative t-shirts.

“I don’t know how in the world you guys chose whatever cars we were in, but the War Eagle would have been my choice,” said Scelzi. “This was an incredible idea. I just wish we could make it happen.”

Sources indicate that such an idea has been on the NHRA’s radar screen for some time, although logistics has had them puzzled for some time as to a method of bringing a throwback event to fruition.

Multiple sources indicate that some drag racers may have found an avenue to fulfill their nostalgic needs. Reportedly, a well-known nostalgia racing figure is in the formative process of creating a special show of eight current drivers willing to drive special tribute nitro nostalgia cars at one of the NHRA Heritage Series events.

Tony Pedregon is one of those drivers being considered for a role in this historic presentation.

Pedregon couldn’t get enough of seeing the throwbacks. He was disappointed that his name didn’t make the first cut but he’s excited with the potential that he’ll be in the forthcoming second part.
 
“Growing up in Southern California and knowing some of the background and history on some of those cars it excited me,” said Pedregon. “I was hoping that they would find a good match for us but it really makes you wonder.  I know that I haven't heard a lot about it but at the end of the year some of the nostalgia funny cars are planning on maybe an 8-car event.

“I'm trying to get some drivers together to make it happen. I think that would be pretty cool.  I think that if you could incorporate some of what you guys are going to do with what they're going to do, I think that could be a really good event.  Maybe even a good pay-per-view event but it is cool because I think there's a lot of history there.  It wasn't that long ago that those cars competed and for a guy like me those cars and those drivers are what inspired me and really made me want to do this.  It was mostly because those cars are pretty cool looking.”

One of the interesting feedback letters for the Back to the Future: Funny Car Throwbacks article contained a race fan that offered to pay $200 per ticket to witness such an event.
 
“Tell them to send the check and ask them if they'd pay $50 if we put it on pay-per-view,” Pedregon suggested. “Who knows, it really might create something but it would take a lot to coordinate.  Tony Stewart's doing a good job with the Chili Bowl and Tony Stewart's event and I think on our end that could make a nice little event if you could round up some of those funny cars and maybe some top fuel cars, get some of those drivers and put them in those seats.  I think that would make a neat little event.”
 
Pedregon and nostalgia racing, think it could happen?

“It's funny because I get in a car that runs speeds of 330 mph and when I look at those cars I say, ‘wow,” Pedregon admitted. “Maybe it's a false sense of security but I kind of feel a little safer in this.  I think it would take a lot of nerve and if I did I would probably take the approach that it's something new.  I would never get in one of those cars thinking hey I can do this I can do that because they drive different and their built different.  I've got a lot of respect for the guys who did it because I think this sport has evolved and the safety features have evolved and I hope their making them a lot safer than they did back then.”

Leave it to John Force to be the trend-setter. Force was a huge fan of the renderings that landed him in the Chi-Town Hustler tribute and son-in-law Robert Hight in his uncle Gene Beaver’s L.A. Hooker Ford.

“We will have a Chi-Town Hustler tribute out, when, I don’t know,” Force said. “But I am doing one.”