As we kick off a fresh season, what are you most looking forward to? Here are four things I can’t wait to see in 2025!
There’s Nothing Sweeter than a Repeater:
Back-to-back national championships are rare in any category; but they’re even harder to come by in the sportsman categories. Doug Gordon was the last Lucas Oil Series driver to accomplish the feat, claiming the TAFC title in 2022 and 2023. Christopher Dodd was the last sportsman driver to do it in a non-Alcohol category when he claimed back-to-back Super Comp crowns in 2020 and 2021. Greg Stanfield made a run at back-to-back Super Stock crowns, finishing a close 2nd in 2022 with the “1” on his window from 2021.
In fact, the Super Comp category has an interesting history of repeat champions. Scotty Richardson, Shawn Langdon, Gary Stinnett, and Dodd have each repeated in the category that only started crowning a national champion in 1987. For comparison, Super Gas introduced a national championship format five years earlier, and no driver has earned back-to-back titles to date. If there’s anything to that tidbit, it could bode well for reigning Super Comp champ Colby Fuller.
If you had to pick a favorite for a back-to-back title, it would be hard to look past Sean Bellemeur. The four time TAFC champ logged a perfect season in 2024: all ten of his claimed events were wins! If we dig beyond the alcohol classes, back-to-back titles become even less likely. I think it’s fair to say that if one of the ‘24 champions was likely to repeat, the favorite outside of Bellemeur would be the only other reigning champ to have multiple title trophies on his mantle: Jimmy Hidalgo, Jr. “Cooter” has been consistently dominant in the Stock and Super Stock categories for more than a decade.
How about a Double-Up Champ?
Speaking of Hidalgo, he came .006-of-a-second away from winning not one, but two national championships in 2024, falling one round short of Joe Sorenson in an epic Stock Eliminator championship battle (as a side note, Hidalgo was also .008 away from not winning either title – as Ryan McClanahan came up one round short of edging Hidalgo for the Super Stock crown! Such is the nature of the Lucas Oil Series chase). Had he managed to hoist both championship trophies, Hidalgo would have joined what is perhaps the most exclusive club in sportsman drag racing: only Scotty Richardson (Super Comp and Super Gas – 1994), Jeff Strickland (Top Dragster and Stock – 2016), and Justin Lamb (Stock and Super Stock – 2017) have accomplished the feat of a double championship.
If you’re trying to predict a candidate to join that fraternity in 2025, it’s hard to pick against Hidalgo. In addition to his 1-2 finish in ‘24, he has the Stock Eliminator championship Wally on his mantle from 2022, and he’s earned seven top-ten finishes in the last four seasons alone (read that back, it’s not a misprint!). If Cooter backs up a near-double championship season with a double championship season, that would be an incredible run of dominance. At the same time, we’ve reached the point with Hidalgo where the supernatural feels normal!
If, like me, you root for greatness, there are several sportsman drivers not named Jimmy Hidalgo, Jr. who could be candidates to join that elusive trio of double-up champions. Former champions Pete D’Agnolo, Sherman Adcock, Joe Santangelo, Brad Burton, Jeremy Mason, and Darian Bosch each have championship pedigree and are consistently high performers in multiple categories. If you’re looking for a driver capable of winning their first two championships in the same season (a feat accomplished only by Strickland), drivers like Kris Whitfield, Dylan Hough, and Tyler Caheely would certainly be among the reasonable candidates.
Jr. Dragster Conference Finals – The Western Version:
NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League competitors traditionally compete on two equally important, yet geographically independent stages each season for the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. It’s no secret among the Jr. community that for more than a decade, the Eastern version – contested at Bristol Dragway – has separated itself as the more prestigious event of the two: bigger car counts, more races… A little more “punch.” While that’s still the case, by all accounts the team at Texas Motorplex – the facility that hosted WCF for the first time in 2024 – is closing the gap. That’s great news for Jr. Dragster racing as a whole, and it’s a theme that we can expect to continue in 2025.
While many Jr. families schedule their summer around a trip to either Dallas or Bristol, there is a growing contingent of competitors who make the trek to BOTH events. To date, just one driver has swept the conference finals in the same season: Camden Teel accomplished the unthinkable feat back in 2021 (at the ripe age of 9 years-old!). Dawson Rogers came within a single round of matching Teel’s performance a year ago: turning on the red light by just -.008 in the Eastern Conference final round, after winning the Western Conference crown. Can someone double in 2025?
In addition to the conference finals, it’s great to see Jr. Dragsters included at more marquee events, including this year’s JEGS SportsNationals in Belle Rose, LA, where a 32-car Jr. Dragster field will be a part of the main event. For years, I’ve lobbied for more inclusion of Jr. Dragsters at major “big car” events – I think it’s good for the sport to help bridge a growing divide between the Jr. Dragster world and the highest levels of “big car” sportsman competition. As a racer, I understand that making time for the juniors can, at times, seem inconvenient. As a Jr. Dad and a racer myself, believe me: competing in the same events as my boys is not the most stress-free undertaking! But the benefits far outweigh those costs. These youngsters love our sport, and the graduation rate from Jr’s into sportsman racing isn’t what it should be. We need to do a better job of bridging that gap, welcoming these young racers, and modeling the benefits of continued pursuit of our sport into adulthood.
Maddi’s Rapid Ascent:
I bet the class that you’d least expect this column to focus on is Top Alcohol Funny Car (I’m full of surprises!). This season, the category is fascinating – especially at the top. Following his third national championship in 2023, Doug Gordon announced that he was turning the keys to the Beta Motorcycles backed entry to his daughter, Maddi. Common consensus in the pits is that a Top Alcohol Funny Car is the single hardest machine to drive in all of NHRA competition, so it was natural for the team to temper expectations for her rookie year behind the wheel. Needless to say, she has proven herself a quick learner, wheeling the entry to a second place national finish in her debut season.
Admittedly, she was a distant second to Bellemeur’s perfect season. And it’s fitting that the two finished atop the standings: 2024 marked the seventh consecutive season that the championship trophy was engraved with either the Bellemeur or Gordon name (if you’re keeping count, Bellemeur’s most recent title gave him the edge in the series, 4-3). What’s more, the two teams have finished 1-2 in four of those seven campaigns!
Will Maddi’s continued ascent catapult her into championship contention? Can anyone stop the runaway freight train that is Sean Bellemeur and the “Killer B’s?” To add fuel to an already intriguing fire, that team recently debuted an A/Fuel Funny Car entry with the help of legendary tuner Steve Boggs, and initial testing results were, well.. Ridiculously fast. What happens next in TAFC is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for certain: it’s going to be very entertaining!
