NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

NHRA will officially kick off its 50th anniversary Funny Car celebration at the tradition-rich Circle K NHRA Winternationals at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Feb. 11-14.

A wide variety of classic nostalgia Funny Cars will be on display in the Hot Rod Junction, and others will perform burnout demonstrations and make exhibition runs on the legendary dragstrip at the season-opening event in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

In addition, several legendary Funny Car drivers are scheduled to participate in a fan Q&A hosted by fan-favorite NHRA announcer Bob Frey, and they will greet fans during a very special autograph session. The first 500 fans who attend the fan Q&A will receive an NHRA Funny Car 50th anniversary commemorative autograph card.

The all-star lineup of Funny Car legends who will be featured in the fan Q&A and autograph session Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon are Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, “The King of Speed” Kenny Bernstein, Ed “the Ace” McCulloch, famed New England campaigner Al Segrini, Funny Car innovator Tom Prock, and the first Winternationals Funny Car winner, Clare Sanders. In addition, a special appearance will be made by Southern California Funny Car pioneer Gas Ronda.

The "Jungle Jim" Nova, driven by Clare Sanders to the first Winternationals Funny Car title in 1969, will be among the cars on display in Pomona.

NHRA’s popular Hot Rod Junction will have plenty of Funny Car history on display. Among the cars scheduled to appear are the famed "Jungle Jim" Chevy Nova, the Gas Ronda Mustang, the Mickey Thompson Mustang, John Force’s Brute Force Monza and Brute Force Vega, Larry Fullerton’s Maverick, the Chi-Town Hustler, the Beach City Corvette, the Willie Borsch Mustang, and the Vels-Parnelli Jones Mustang.

Nostalgia Funny Cars that will make exhibition runs throughout the weekend include the Candies & Hughes Barracuda, the Fighting Irish ’71 Camaro, the Stone, Woods & Cook vintage Mustang, and the Bays & Rupert ’69 Chevy Camaro, among others. Burnout demonstrations will be performed by Ron Huegli driving the Tiki Warrior and Greg Howland in the Zeus nostalgia Funny Car.

Meanwhile, the 2016 racing season gets under way for Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock classes in the NHRA Mello Yello Series, where teams will begin their quests to earn world championship trophies. The biggest names in drag racing will be there, including Force, Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, Matt Hagan, Courtney Force, Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Ron Capps, Cruz Pedregon, Jack Beckman, and Del Worsham. The weekend’s racing action will be televised by FOX Sports 1 (FS1), including three hours of live coverage of Sunday’s finals at 5 p.m. ET.

To purchase tickets for the Circle K NHRA Winternationals, call the NHRA Ticket Sales Center, 800-884-NHRA (6472), or log on to NHRA.com/tickets.