Sean Bellemeur led the charge in the battle for glory at the NHRA Texas FallNationals, locking down his fourth Top Alcohol Funny Car world title while also winning the JEGS Allstars and following through with a satisfying victory in the final round of the main event. In Top Alcohol Dragster, Matt Cummings flipped the script and defeated Julie Nataas in the FallNationals final after she disposed of him in the second round of the JEGS Allstars.
Top Alcohol Funny Car
Sean Bellemeur def. Brian Hough
It’s hard not to get carried away here, because what Bellemeur and company accomplished in the Lone Star state was enormous. Driving the Bartone Bros. Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car – masterfully tuned by Steve Boggs and owned by motorsports die-hard Tony Bartone – Bellemeur qualified in the No. 1 spot on a 5.459-second pass at 269.04 mph. Next closest was No. 2-man Mick Steele, who impressively piloted his attention-getting A/Fuel Funny Car to a 5.461, 263.47. Mark Billington was No. 16 with a 5.596, which locked out Ray Martin’s 5.597 in a speedy field of floppers.
During Friday qualifying, Bellemeur officially locked down the fourth Top Alcohol Funny Car championship of his career, something few drivers in the class have ever done. Pat Austin also has four, while Frank Manzo leads dominantly with a remarkable 17 world titles.
In the first round of eliminations, Bellemeur and the Killer Bs dropped an event-best 5.439, 269.14 to oust Mark Billington, then went 5.474 in round two to send Phil Esz home. It should be noted that Esz clocked a 5.497 with an .012 reaction that would have sent any driver other than Sean B home that round. Annie Whiteley and Bob McCosh tied for low e.t. that round, but both fell out on holeshots. The semifinals saw Bellemeur defeat Chris Foster, 5.491 to 5.551, while Brian Hough knocked out Shane Westerfield, 5.537 to 5.575.
The final was Bellemeur’s seventh at Texas Motorplex and conjured memories of the SoCal racer’s first national event win, which took place there in 2015 and culminated in a defeat of Westerfield. This time around, it was Division 6 standout Hough in the other lane, a racer he was 1-1 against heading into the final. Hough left first, .026 to Bellemeur’s .040, but Boggs was characteristically bold and sent his driver to a victorious 5.497 over a 5.557.
“The alcohol Funny Car field was nuts – you go 5.59 and you don’t qualify,” observed Bellemeur. “We knew we had to bring it, and there was no better person in the world to do that than Steve Boggs with the ‘Killer Bs’ and everybody involved with this team. Steve Boggs is almost 81 years old, and everyone on the planet is scared of him, myself included. We had a quick turnaround, and he said, ‘Man, this thing is really hot – but I ain’t gonna be nice to it. Be ready for it to blow up, but baby it as much as you can.’ We went and let it rip, and it was another 5.40 in the heat of the day.”
It was Bellemeur’s sixth win in Dallas and came on the heels of the coveted JEGS Allstars win in which he defeated Martin, Chip Beverett, and Foster, locking down low e.t. and top speed along the way, 5.459, 269.04. The Allstars win was his second consecutive in his second overall appearance in the prestigious race, capping a momentous weekend for Bellemeur at one of his favorite racetracks.
“This place is so special to me,” said the now 42-time alcohol Funny Car winner. “It started in 1996, when my mom and dad and I threw our Jr. dragster in the back of a Chevy pick-up truck and headed east to race the Jr. national championships. I fell in love with this place then. Then in 2015, I had a one-race opportunity to drive for Tony Bartone because his driver couldn’t make it. We screwed up and won the thing, and I was holding a Wally for the first time in my life. I was crying tears of joy then, just like when this [the 2024 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series championship trophy] was presented to me. A lot of tears have been shed here, both happy and sad. But talk about a dream weekend. This has been unbelievable.”
Top Alcohol Dragster
Matt Cummings def. Julie Nataas
The Top Alcohol Dragster final gave JEGS Allstars winner Julie Nataas the opportunity to double in her Randy Meyer Racing rail; reigning world champ Nataas secured a record fourth consecutive Allstars title on Saturday in Dallas. Cummings, though, was right there to halt a Nataas double, and had come all the way from Florida – where he had battled flight cancellations and an airport closure due to the hurricane. Cummings made it to the track mere minutes before the first qualifying session and put his Rich McPhillips dragster in the No. 2 position on a swift 5.224, 280.36, just behind Mike Coughlin’s 5.216. In the quickest Top Alcohol Dragster field in history, Madison Payne held down the bump spot with a 5.315, 276.38.
Cummings, who is racing with the McPhillips team for the fifth season, defeated Nick Januik (driving wife Taylor’s dragster as she is eight months pregnant with their first child), Texan Kirk Wolf, and Division 6 racer Shawn Cowie in the earlier rounds. In the final, the 2021 Dallas runner-up was out of the gate first to beat Nataas and earn the sixth Top Alcohol Dragster trophy of his career, 5.246 to 5.264.
“That really took my breath away, that final,” said Cummings, who fell to Nataas in the second round of the Allstars. “I was just trying to do my regular routine up there and get to the end, but I knew she was going to be tough. She’s the world champ. The guys have been working on the car for a whole month trying to figure out what they can do to make the thing go faster, and it ran so consistent this weekend. I don’t think we had a bad run all weekend.”
The Northeast racers were super spicy in Dallas, even without hardware to hoist: JEGS Allstars finalist Karen Stalba raced to low elapsed time in the main event (5.176!) while Jackie Fricke clocked top speed at a plentiful 281.37 mph.
After securing the Allstars win in Top Alcohol Dragster over Stalba, Nataas – who made her Top Fuel debut in St. Louis just a few weeks ago – said, “I think I’m going to have to find a Top Alcohol car so I can defend this next year again.”
Look for “Cavalcade of FallNationals Stars, Part 2” coming in the days ahead. In the meantime, find full results at DragRaceCentral.com.
Leave a Reply