Race Car History / Timeline
The Priddle Years (1976-80)
The first person to own the Monza funny car was Swede Olav Knuutinen, who approached Dennis Priddle to build and run a top class funny car in his name. Priddle started work on what was to be a Chevy Monza bodied car in 1976. The black and mean looking car debuted at Santa Pod in May 1977. The car ran a best of 6.98sec / 185mph at its first meeting. Knuutinen's deal with Priddle and the Monza car continued through 1977 before the Swede's interest faded.
Following on from this, a deal was struck with John Woolfe racing and Dennis Priddle who ran the car in the new blue colours for a few years running a best time of 6.42sec / 217mph until 1980, when Priddle switched his attentions back to Dragsters.
The Panic Years (1980-86)
Priddle sold the car to the 'Panic' team of the well known Page family. The team had hoped to debut the car during the 1981 season, but problems sourcing a new engine meant fans had to wait until Easter 1982 for the return of the Monza funny car at Santa Pod.
Bob Jarrett was behind the wheel at the 1985 World Finals, triumphing to take the funny car crown by beating Harlon Thompson in the final with a run of 7.05sec / 202mph.
The Entertainer Years (1987-93)
The team of Terry Revill and Mark Newby totally rebuilt the Monza, revealing the car the 1988 fireworks meeting at Santa Pod, setup to run on Methanol. The team used this car to gently ease their way into the competitive methanol class.
The Jekyll & Hyde Years (1994-97)
Eric Humphries ran the Monza with sponsorship from Bakers Raceway in the Pro ET class. The car was then re-sprayed white with sponsorship from City Electrical Factors.
About Drag Racing
A Drag Race is between two cars or bikes over a quarter of a mile. It is not against the clock and times are given for reference only.
Drag Racing comes in many ways, but it is all about consistent performance and driving.
You can start with the smallest car for very little cost, or spend a fortune and drive a 8000BHP dragster. In fact, Drag Racing allows anybody to drive any vehicle so long as it complies with the necessary safety and construction rules.
There are two main types of Drag Racing:
Class Racing This is where you can race your car in a class where the racing is 'heads up' (first across the finish line). Examples of this are Top Fuel, Top Methonal & Super Gas classes.
Bracket Racing This is a type of racing where any type or make of vehicle can race in a pre-determined time bracket and is suitable for the sportsman racer on a strict budget.
Super Pro ET Bracket Racing
Our class is a class where drivers elect to run a particular time bracket in which they feel competitive and everyone stands a fair chance of winning. This makes for very close top end (finish line) racing as it is not always the quickest car that wins the race.
It is a handicap race which gives the slower car a head start. The amount of head start is determined by the difference of dial in times, by which each driver writes his ET (elapsed time) on the rear of the race car.
The Super Pro ET bracket is between 6.3 - 8.99 seconds. One driver may dial in a time of 7.5s and the other 8.3s, giving the slower driver a head start of 0.8 seconds. This means the quicker driver has to catch up the slower car and in theory both cars should cross the finish line together. The winner of the race is the driver who crosses the line first without going faster than the time dialled in. To do so would give an automatic win to the other driver.
If both drivers run quicker than their dialled times (this is known as breaking out) then the winner is determined by the driver who 'broke out' by the least amount of their dialled in time.
Get all that? I hope so. If not, all will come clear on race day.
