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Mendy Fry Set to Haul the Mail in Pomona This Weekend


Mendy Fry Set to Haul the Mail in Pomona This Weekend

The end of the NHRA season is upon us once again. It all comes to a screeching halt this weekend in Pomona, Califoria, at the Auto Club Finals. Aside from the normal slate of Sportsman and Pro racing action, the NHRA is having some awesome nostalgia cars make laps as well. Among them is the Nitro Kitty Charger that will be piloted by Mendy Fry.

Donnie Couch, who recently updated the chassis on the car will serve as the crew chief. It should be mentioned that the flopper is owned by Gary Messenger. The exhibition runs are designed to promote the NHRA Heritage Series (which BangShift.com will be bringing to you in live video feeds in 2010!).

We got the full scoop from Cole Coonce, the PR man for the team. His release is below:

Pomona, CA, 11-11-2009 — This weekend at the Pomona Fairplex, the
past, present and future (flash) will converge for Nitro Funny Car
driver Mendy Fry. How so? On Saturday and Sunday at the National Hot
Rod Association’s season-ending Auto Club Finals, Fry will once again
shoe Gary Messenger’s resplendent-yet-potent, gorgeous black-and-gold
1973 Dodge AA/Funny Car, a machine rich in drag strip history, whose
lineage is traced to renowned and notorious drag racers such as Gene
Snow, Brent Fanning and Roland Leong. Ironically, the entry also has
ties to Fry herself, as this is the same racer that she earned her
Nitro Funny Car license in, and then campaigned with tuner Donnie
Couch to a runner-up finish at the 2008 Las Vegas Speed Spectacular.

At that event the machine was known as the “Future Flash,” and was Fry
and Couch’s swan song appearance with the car, but this weekend this
same entry will be re-christened the “Nitro Kitty Charger,” in
reference to both Fry’s return and her popular racing brand. In
preparation for its imminent reappearance, the race car was recently
updated and retrofitted for Fry at Donnie’s fabled West Coast Funny
Car Factory, and will be tuned by Couch. Thus this weekend reunites
Messenger, Couch and Fry, but because the team is still sorting out
financing and partnerships for its participation in the 2010 NHRA
Heritage Series, as of now the car is provisionally — and cheekily —
fully-titled the “Messenger, Fry, Couch & YourNameHere’s ‘Nitro Kitty
Charger.’”

The “Nitro Kitty Charger’s” quarter-mile exhibitions at Pomona this
weekend is part of an effort coordinated by NHRA Heritage Series
majordomo Steve Gibbs, and is designed to draw attention to that
program’s events, which include remarkably popular vintage-themed drag
races from Bakersfield to Boise. To that end, among those joining Fry
for this weekend’s fiery and ferocious festivities will be the
AA/Funny Cars of Josh Crawford, the “Pisano & Matusbara” Nitro Vega
and the “Lil’ Nate” Barracuda owned by Howard Bugg, as well as a pair
of AA/Fuel dragsters.

Besides the yeoman work of Couch and his West Coast Funny Car Factory
workers to put this effort together in time for its assault on Pomona,
the “Nitro Kitty Charger” would not be making laps without the support
of Fry’s associate sponsors, Justice Brothers, Lucas Oil, and SCE
Gaskets. As an exclamation of her appreciation, as the final touches
were applied to the Funny Car, Mendy exulted: “I’m so happy to be back
in my pretty car.” 

More at nitrokitty.com


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