JON CAPPS PLEASED WITH FIRST DAY EFFORT IN BAYTOWN

Courtesy Paul Smith

Baytown, Texas – After three year break from the highly competitive NHRA Nitro Funny Car contingent, versatile NHRA Nitro Pilot Jon Capps dusted off the cobwebs and ended the first day of qualifying at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals provisionally qualified in the number 11 position, behind the wheel of Paul Smith’s owned and tuned Monte Carlo Funny Car.

For the Las Vegas, Nev. resident, the return to the NHRA Big Show was exactly what he expected and so much more.

“It was awesome to get back into Paul’s car today,” noted Capps, who returned to the NHRA Full Throttle Series and promptly laid down a solid 4.262 Elapsed Time in the first qualifying session of the day. “Heading into our first run, we planned to lay down a good base-line to prepare for the cooler conditions in Q-2. Before that pass I had not raced in the (new to me) 1,000’ format and to be honest, I kind of over thought what was going to happen.

The car launched hard, started to scoot around a little about 500’ into the run and I drove the car back into the groove. It felt great to knock off the cobwebs, but more importantly, the 4.26 elapsed time gave us a solid run on which to build off for the rest of the weekend.”

The second round of qualifying yielded some great initial numbers, however the supercharger ‘sneezed’ about 800 feet into the run, and Capps coasted across the finish line with an off-pace 4.404 ET at only 271 miles per hour. Although the majority of the Funny Car class improved in the cooler conditions, Capps is very optimistic about the Paul Smith Racing Team’s fortunes headed into the rest of the weekend.

“Paul and his guys work very hard to give me a great car to drive, and these warmer conditions are where Paul really shows his talents,” Capps said. “When I drive the Nostalgia Car, the body is shorter, the blower stands taller and it’s a different animal to drive. This Monte Carlo is so much easier to see out of and the way Paul tunes the car, it made my return to this category a much smoother transition. I am certain with each run I will have the opportunity to improve. The cool part is our friend David Biesenbach, the owner of Biesenbach Inc. (http://biesenbach.com) who is helping to support our racing efforts this weekend, is having a great time. Hopefully we will make some progress tomorrow, keep the car in the show and be race ready on Sunday.”

Paul Smith Racing has continued support from Valvoline, Rock Batteries, Boninfante Performance Clutch Parts and grinders, Fram/Autolite and Headman Headers.  Capps concluded, “I can’t begin to thank David, Henry Gutierrez and all of the sponsors connected to the Paul Smith Racing Team for their confidence and support they have given to this team for the Baytown weekend.”