Reminiscent of the
early years of Funny Car racing, the Holy
Toledo Jeep of Ed & Ron Lenarth was a real
step back in time for many of the veterans
of this year's Pepsi Nightfire Nationals.
Driven by James Day, this fuel Funny Car was
recreated to help reflect back on the years
at Lions Dragstrip and many other SoCal
dragstrips back in the late 60's and early
70's. It was especially cool to see the Jeep
qualify for this year's Nightfire, too,
making the cut for the tough 16-car field on
its last attempt on Saturday night. The Jeep
was first campaigned in the late-60's. An
untimely fire in early 70's pushed the NHRA
into banning open top Funny Cars. The Jeep
then went onto race in both sand and mud bog
competition before being retired. It was
great seeing the recreation of the bright
yellow Jeep make its first appearance at
Firebird.