NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Sean Bellemeur and the Killers Bs team — led by team owner Tony Bartone and tuner Steve Boggs — won their fourth Top Alcohol Funny Car world championship in 2024 and their second with a perfect score of seven national event wins and three regional wins, and that relentless drive for perfection was born out of a desire to be even “more perfect” than they were when they did it first in 2018. 

Even though their main rival the last decade, Doug Gordon, retired at the end of last year after winning his third title — replaced by his daughter, the promising Maddi Gordon, who finished second behind them in her rookie season — there was no complacency in that fact. 

“We knew that everybody was gunning for us,” he acknowledged. “The second half of last year, we had a really good car, probably the best car, so we knew that a lot of the teams spent their last winter basically gearing up to beat us. 

“We took a good hard look at last year and saw there was room for improvement,” said Bellemeur. “I got real embarrassed in Dallas last year. I got beat on a holeshot to lose the world championship, and that’s something that stuck with me. My team was nothing but supportive of me, but I could barely look them in the eye because I know that they gave 150% and I didn’t, so that was a huge motivation for me. 

“And as good as it is on cool racetracks, where we struggled, and where I think other teams knew we were vulnerable, was on hot racetracks. So, Steve went to work last winter, and that was the primary focus. Together, all of those things really paid off this year, and this year felt more perfect. I felt like we kind of dominated this year. Some of that was because of the departure of Doug Gordon — which put a lot of spotlight on Maddi, and I have to tell you, the way she handled that spotlight, a true professional. You thought year one was good, wait to see year two — but when the defending world champ decided to retire, that did take a bit of a target away from us. At the same time, there’s also a lot of good cars out there, but it seemed like we were better suited for it this year for some reason.” 

On the national event side, the Bartone team won both NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, the prestigious Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals, the NHRA Carolina Nationals, the Texas NHRA FallNationals, and the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals. 

The win in Norwalk was part of a summer sweep of Ohio events that included two regional wins in Norwalk and another at a sizzling-hot event in Columbus. 

“That time of year, it’s hot and sticky, and I feel that’s where Steve really proved that what he had done worked. We spent all summer in Ohio and won four races,” he said. “It was our time to make a statement, and we did. That was when we really knew we could win the championship again.” 

After mathematically locking up the championship at the NHRA Carolina Nationals — the third time the team has clinched a title there — they had another monster weekend in Dallas during the FallNationals, where they won seven straight rounds to capture both the JEGS Allstars event and the main event. 

“It got to the point where I was as excited, or maybe even more so, to go to a hot track this year than I was a cool track, because I knew what Steve had found,” he said. 

And Bellemeur certainly did his part behind the wheel. In a class where any reaction time under .040 is good, Bellemeur had eight lights in the teens and many below .040. 

“I don’t want to sound like John Force, but these kids are coming up to whip your butt, and people are starting to use two-steps and automatic transmissions to help their lights, so I have to have those reaction times. I’m still so in love with driving an old-style, conventional Top Alcohol Funny Car — the clutch with the three-speed. I love it. My heart and soul are in it, and I want to still prove that I can do it, regardless of the gimmicks anyone else has. 

“The key to a perfect dinner is not just the steak or not just the potatoes, it’s the entire thing,” he said, turning a clever metaphor, “and we have been able to accumulate virtually the perfect race team. Tony raced himself, so he knows what it takes to race. He’s got the funding behind him and provides us with it to basically have whatever we need to win. Steve is such a wizard, and the ideas he comes up with sometimes will scare you, and sometimes blow your mind.  

“And the men and women who work with this race team, it’s still got to be assembled properly. The parts still have to be ordered. Everything has to be in line and ready to go. If you have an issue, you have to be ready to handle it. That’s all done by the people who are in the trenches, and they perform flawlessly every time, so when it comes down now to me driving the car, I don’t have to think about anything other than driving. I don’t have to think about whether it’s got the right parts in it, about whether it’s going to be tuned right, or whether it’s been put together right. I just get in and do what I love, and that’s drive.” 

Bellemeur’s fall Las Vegas win was the 43rd of his career, putting him just one win behind Bob Newberry for third place in all-time class wins behind just Frank Manzo and Pat Austin, a stat that humbles him. 

“Those are the people who I literally were starstruck by when I was a kid,” he said. “I grew up a true Alcohol Funny Car fan, grew up in the Alcohol Funny Car family, so being on that list is pretty darn special. There are so many good racers out there from the inception of Alcohol Funny Car all the way to today, which shows you how good of a team I drive for and how that recipe is just perfect. But it’s an absolute honor. Well, honor is an understatement. I’m blown away by it all.” 

Bellemeur thanked his Killer Bs team — Tony Bartone, Steve Boggs, Nick Stoms, Troy Green, Justin Taylor, Seth Shebester, Garrett Bateman, Matt Krebs, Lauren McMaster, and media specialist Kyle Chura — and their sponsors: Red Line Oil, Roger Dean Chevrolet, Talon Air, NGK Spark Plugs, VP Race Fuels, Mastercam, and Brad Anderson Enterprises, and offered a special thanks to Artie Bruno, Tommy Hill, Brian Gawlik, Aryan Rochan, the McMaster family, and, of course, his own family: wife Ashley, and daughters Peyton, Kiera, and Audrey. 

Read more 2024 NHRA world champion profiles