Jon Capps And Shane Westerfield Light 'Em Up At Pomona!

Thanks to improved fire suppression systems, changes in carbon fiber materials and coatings, and fewer catastrophic engine failures in general, Funny Car fires aren’t quite the frightening, four-alarm blazes they were a couple of decades ago when John Force was making himself famous by burning a car to the ground every weekend, but things can still get a little heated in a flopper these days, as a pair of part-timers — Jon Capps and Shane Westerfield — learned over the weekend.

Both Capps and Westerfield made the highlight reels with their short-lived infernos at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, California, which occurred during Friday and Saturday’s fuel Funny Car qualifying rounds. For Capps, the brother of veteran Funny Car driver Ron Capps, his ride was certainly the more hairy of the two. Driving the Bucky’s Auto Service Centers machine, Capps’ Chevy Impala erupted near half-track during the third session of qualifying, with enough force to briefly lift the front wheels off the ground. In the super slow-motion footage, you can see the flames engulfing the cockpit around Capps — the incredible frame rate of the camera providing a look at the path of the flames through the windshield in a way you’d never witness otherwise.

Capps, who was No. 18 in the order at that time — two spots outside the show — coasted to a 4.69, which was well off the then-4.19-second bump. Capps brought the car to a safe halt, but the damage proved too costly, as he was a no-show when the final session of qualifying came around.

Westerfield, a regular competitor in Top Alcohol Funny Car with the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, made his professional debut driving Chuck Worsham’s flopper, pulling a rare “double” by contesting both Funny Car categories on the weekend. But he got quite the initiation to nitromethane in the second session of qualifying on Friday afternoon, when his Dodge Charger lit up at near the 800-foot mark with a big fireball under the body. His vision limited, Westerfield drifted to the centerline and took out the finish line foam blocks, putting a big hole in the front left corner of the body.

Westerfield did return with a McLeod Racing body from Gary Densham on Saturday, but couldn’t punch his way into the show with a best of 5.10 during the final two sessions.