On the day the brand new Toyota GR Supra Funny Car was announced for the 2022 NHRA season 2018 NHRA Funny Car champion J.R. Todd was racing his DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car for the last time. On Saturday Todd powered his Funny Car to the No. 8 qualifying position on the strength of his final qualifying run which was the fourth quickest of the session and set him up for success on race day. Todd opened the season with a win at the Gatornationals and grabbed three additional runner-up finishes.
In the first round today racing veteran driver Bob Tasca III Todd had lane choice and rolled into the right lane. The last time Todd raced at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona he raced to the final round. It was the July edition of the Winternationals and Todd took three win lights from the No. 7 qualifying position. This morning in the first round Todd and Tasca left the starting line together and Todd was pulling away for victory as the race cars crossed half-track when his DHL Toyota lost traction. Todd tried to pedal his 11,000 horsepower Funny Car he was unable to reel in Tasca.
“We gave it a good ride in the first round but it was just a little too much,” said Todd. “Drag racing is unforgiving and we just came up short on that run. We were in a lot of finals this season and got that win at the Gatornationals. We are going to take all the positives from today and this season into the off-season. I can’t wait to bring that GR Supra to the Winternationals.”
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 8 (3.963 sec, 326.71 mph
Bonus points: +1 (4th quickest of Q3)
Race Details:
First Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
J. R. Todd 8 .093 4.095 251.67
Bob Tasca III 9 .078 3.955 321.65 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
