With cool conditions and 19 Funny Cars vying for a spot on the NHRA Winternationals elimination ladder, the competition was stout at the 65th running of the annual event at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. In what was nearly an all-three-second field, Alexis DeJoria used her 3.921-second run from the weekend’s final qualifying outing to secure the No. 9 seed in the stacked Sunday show. Racing at her hometown facility, DeJoria was looking to add more round wins to her 2025 total, but dropped cylinders ended the Bandero Café Funny Car team’s day after the first round of eliminations.
DeJoria opened her weekend with a loss of traction in the first qualifying session followed by tire shake in the second, but the team bounced back impressively on Saturday, sending DeJoria and her Bandero Café Funny Car down the track in 3.982 seconds to move into the No. 12 spot. Crew chiefs Mike ‘Zippy’ Neff and Todd Smith returned to the line for the final session and turned up the wick even more, tuning DeJoria’s machine to an impressive 3.921 E.T. at 324.75 mph to advance three spots to ninth. During both runs, one of DeJoria’s parachutes failed to deploy, but the seasoned racer was able to get her car safely stopped before reaching the end of the shutdown area.
DeJoria drew No. 8 seed Matt Hagan as her first-round opponent on race day. Against Hagan, DeJoria was solid leaving the starting line but as soon as she stood on the throttle, her machine made a hard move toward the retaining wall, forcing DeJoria to lift off the pedal while Hagan made a full pull in the opposite lane to advance.
“Coming into Pomona, we were super excited,” said DeJoria, the first woman to run a sub-four-second Funny Car pass while competing at the 2014 Winternationals. “We started the season off so strong. I love coming out here. The conditions were prime for running quick and fast. Friday’s qualifying sessions didn’t go so great. The car shut off at the top end in Q1, and then we scuffed a piston in the burnout. We just had some mechanical issues bite us, but we’re chipping away at it. Saturday, we made good runs. We ran that 98 and put something on the board that we could work with, and then backed that up with a 92, so I was really happy about that and felt good going into race day. We had some issues with one of our parachute lines during both of those runs, but thankfully, I got the car stopped before the sand trap. On race day, I had a decent light, but we dropped cylinders all on one side of the car right at the hit. I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, so I lifted, and Hagan ran an 88 and that was it for us.”
The Bandero Café team leaves California ranked 10th in the Funny Car standings and is looking to the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, the fourth event on the 20-race schedule, to add more points to their total. DeJoria has a history of success at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with two of her six Funny Car wins taking place at the facility where she was also the No. 1 qualifier at the 2021 Fall event.
“Vegas isn’t too far off, and we’re excited about that race. Lady Luck has been kind to me there in the past, and we’re hoping for more of that. We’re a brand-new team, and I’m so proud of this group for everything they’ve accomplished in such a short time, and I know when we get this thing figured out, we’re going to be trouble. I’m happy to be working together side-by-side with these guys. We’re looking for a good Vegas outing. We’re going to stay and test there after the race weekend, and we’re going to get it figured out.”
Qualifying for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the first of two consecutive four-wide-style events, begins at 12:30 p.m. PT on Friday, April 11.
Qualified: No. 9 (3.921 E.T. at 324.75 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 9.685 E.T. at 86.38 MPH defeated by Matt Hagan 3.884 E.T. at 324.59 MPH
Continue reading...
DeJoria opened her weekend with a loss of traction in the first qualifying session followed by tire shake in the second, but the team bounced back impressively on Saturday, sending DeJoria and her Bandero Café Funny Car down the track in 3.982 seconds to move into the No. 12 spot. Crew chiefs Mike ‘Zippy’ Neff and Todd Smith returned to the line for the final session and turned up the wick even more, tuning DeJoria’s machine to an impressive 3.921 E.T. at 324.75 mph to advance three spots to ninth. During both runs, one of DeJoria’s parachutes failed to deploy, but the seasoned racer was able to get her car safely stopped before reaching the end of the shutdown area.
DeJoria drew No. 8 seed Matt Hagan as her first-round opponent on race day. Against Hagan, DeJoria was solid leaving the starting line but as soon as she stood on the throttle, her machine made a hard move toward the retaining wall, forcing DeJoria to lift off the pedal while Hagan made a full pull in the opposite lane to advance.
“Coming into Pomona, we were super excited,” said DeJoria, the first woman to run a sub-four-second Funny Car pass while competing at the 2014 Winternationals. “We started the season off so strong. I love coming out here. The conditions were prime for running quick and fast. Friday’s qualifying sessions didn’t go so great. The car shut off at the top end in Q1, and then we scuffed a piston in the burnout. We just had some mechanical issues bite us, but we’re chipping away at it. Saturday, we made good runs. We ran that 98 and put something on the board that we could work with, and then backed that up with a 92, so I was really happy about that and felt good going into race day. We had some issues with one of our parachute lines during both of those runs, but thankfully, I got the car stopped before the sand trap. On race day, I had a decent light, but we dropped cylinders all on one side of the car right at the hit. I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, so I lifted, and Hagan ran an 88 and that was it for us.”
The Bandero Café team leaves California ranked 10th in the Funny Car standings and is looking to the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, the fourth event on the 20-race schedule, to add more points to their total. DeJoria has a history of success at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with two of her six Funny Car wins taking place at the facility where she was also the No. 1 qualifier at the 2021 Fall event.
“Vegas isn’t too far off, and we’re excited about that race. Lady Luck has been kind to me there in the past, and we’re hoping for more of that. We’re a brand-new team, and I’m so proud of this group for everything they’ve accomplished in such a short time, and I know when we get this thing figured out, we’re going to be trouble. I’m happy to be working together side-by-side with these guys. We’re looking for a good Vegas outing. We’re going to stay and test there after the race weekend, and we’re going to get it figured out.”
Qualifying for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the first of two consecutive four-wide-style events, begins at 12:30 p.m. PT on Friday, April 11.
Qualified: No. 9 (3.921 E.T. at 324.75 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 9.685 E.T. at 86.38 MPH defeated by Matt Hagan 3.884 E.T. at 324.59 MPH
Continue reading...
