Video: John Lawson’s Funny Car Burnout-Gone-Wrong At Northern Nats

Perhaps the most experienced active Funny Car driver not named John Force, John Lawson carries plenty of pedigree behind the wheel of a flopper. But as the other John…Force, that is…has proven, all the skill in the world can be quickly washed away when things go wrong mechanically in a nitro-burning racecar.

And on Saturday night at Michigan’s U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, for Lawson, it did.

A native of Joliet, Illinois, Lawson hopped behind the wheel of a Funny Car in the late 1980s, eventually competing in the NHRA’s Top Alcohol Funny Car division, where he earned a handful of national event crowns in the latter half of the 1990s. In 2000, he graduated to the big show, racing on a limited basis at the professional level — which he’s continued to do over the last 18 years. But these days, you’re more apt to find Lawson piloting his Runaway 1970-1/2 split-bumper Camaro nostalgia Funny Car at match races and exhibitions all across the Midwest.

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Among the events on his calendar this summer was U.S. 131’s Northern Nationals, where he and teammate and friend Joe Haas were set to square off on Michigan’s fastest quarter-mile. But it’s weekend Lawson would just as soon forget.

While performing his burnout prior to one of the late evening contests with Haas, the throttle on Lawson’s machine became lodged. Unable to manually return the throttle despite Lawson’s valiant attempt, the car continued to boil the hides before it finally got away from the veteran nitro jockey, smacking the wall nose-first and spinning uncontrollably as the spilled fuel from the ruptured fuel tank ignited, creating a fireworks show no one on the promotion staff planned for.

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Thankfully, Lawson emerged from Runaway unharmed, other than a hurt racecar and ego and a thinner pocketbook. Knocked down but not out, Lawson and his all-volunteer crew have already been hard at it this week, pulling a spare chassis down from storage that he’ll pair with a 1970 Firebird body for his planned return to the track in less than two weeks. And September 8, he’ll trek back to U.S. 131 for the Funny Car Nationals, seeking retribution.