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The latest update as of February 2, 2022

NORTHERN THUNDER.com updates

Behind the scenes we've been working on the Features page(s), going through our coverage of each event and filling in the missing details and captions for the photos. It's a long process, that's been made more difficult by procastination on the part of the webmaster. This year promises to be different, with us vowing to provide all the details, on a timely basis, from every event we cover throughout the season. Additionally, we'll be adding features for past events that were never previously posted. That task will be a long-term project, but it will fill in so many blanks that have developed on this website over the nearly 25 years that we've been on the worldwide web.

With barely a week until the Nitro Spring Training event begins at Phoenix, and then a week after that before the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals starts, kicking off the 2022 Camping World NHRA Drag Racing Series, it's going to get very busy very quickly here. With four major events on consecutive weekends (Spring Training, Winternationals, Arizona Nationals, March Meet) to start the season, followed by three more (Funny Car Chaos season opener, the Las Vegas 4-Wide and regional events) after a two week break, we're going to have to hit the ground running, so to speak, just to keep up with all the racing action.

In Top Alcohol Dragster news, it's been confirmed that Rachel Meyer will not repeat as the national champion in the class this season. She's stepped aside from driving to focus on the team's bracket racing program, and that move has elevated Julie Nataas to the #1 driving position at Randy Meyer Racing for 2022. Nataas finished #4 in the points chase last year and will have to be considered one of the favourites to take this year's championship. However, she will face some serious competition as Jackie Fricke (#2 in 2021) and Shawn Cowie (#3) will be running full schedules in an attempt to capture their first Top Alcohol championship.

Fricke came closest to breaking the Meyer (Megan & Rachel) domination of the past three seasons, falling just a car length short in the final round of the Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals (Las Vegas) in the second-to-last race of the 2021 season. In Cowie's case, after four seasons in a row in the #2 spot, he fell off the pace in the second half of last season to fall one notch to #3 in the final standings. With six consecutive seasons finishing #3 or #2, Cowie and his ace tuner, Norm Grimes will be going all-out in 2022 in an attempt to overcome the A/Fuel domination of the class over the past three years.

In Top Alcohol Funny Car news, it's just been announced that the 2020 National Champion, and runnerup last year, Doug Gordon has received a sponsorship renewal for 2022 and 2023 from BETA Motorcycles. They came onboard with the Gordon team at the start of the 2020 season and will be with him until the end of his Funny Car driving career. Accompanying the sponsorship renewal is the confirmation that Madison Gordon will take the wheel of the family's flopper, making her the third generation driver of the car, after grandfather Mike, and father Doug. The immediate plan for the team is to wrest the championship crown away from Sean Bellemeur and the "Killer B's" team.

Before we sign off for today, we made a quick check on the FUNNY CAR CHAOS website and perused the pre-entry list for the 2nd annual Funny Car Chaos Classic, being held at the Texas Motorplex (Ennis, TX) on March 25 - 26th. So far there's 57 Funny Cars entered, with many more to come. Last year's inaugural edition attracted 68 car and this year could see that mark eclipsed, making it the BIGGEST Funny Car race in history. And we've got BIG Bob Snyder and possibly Dale Fackler providing us with lots of great photos from the event. Stay tuned for much more on this amazing event as we get closer to the date.