Mendy Fry is the driver of the Smokey’s Darkside nostalgia nitro funny car and this video highlights the best run that she and the team made last weekend during pre-March Meet testing at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield California. What makes this car unique is the fact that it runs an Arias Chevrolet based Hemi as opposed to the Chrysler engines that all of the other cars run. This thing sounds different and while last year it was not a world beater, the team made progress at each successive event and they are at the point now where the thing will post five second times while being shut off at 900′. That’s stout and it will need to be that stout to garner a spot in the eliminations field with 32 cars reportedly showing up for the race this coming weekend.
We’ll be there this year bringing you the action live as we have for a half decade and it looks like it will be a barn burner across the board. 16 or more AA/FAs, 32 nitro funny cars, all kinds of wild sportsman machines, front engine top fuel dragsters, and machines that are literally in tow from all corners of this great country and beyond.
What we dig about these cars and what you will see here is everything that’s going on in there. Mendy is steering, shifting, and wrestling the car down the course. With their gaping side windows, fans can actually see the driver in the car and watch what’s happening whether during the burnout or for a brief fraction of a second as the machine streaks past the grandstand. The luster that these cars have with serious nostalgia drag racing fans goes long beyond the bodies. They love the fact a team can run a different style of power plant within the rules, they love the fact that the drivers have multiple functions in the cars, and they really love the fact that some of the “color” that made the sport so fun is back and in full view.
This is a bitchin’ video and we’re going to have to get some history to see when the last time a funny car with an Arias hemi qualified for ANYTHING was. Best of look to Mendy and the entire Smokey’s Darksite team. We’ll be watching!
Bad @ss! March Meet bound tomorrow!!
You would think the only Chevrolet engined car would have a Chevy body.