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A successful 2023 for Chris Graves’ Funny Car Chaos came to an end in September at State Capitol Raceway in Port Allen Louisiana. The track, the third oldest continuously run track in the USA featured the best of the Funny Car Chaos series with three complete fields of eight Funny Cars along with a Top Fuel Dragster exhibition and jet cars to thrill the fans.

After qualifying was complete, Keith Zimmer in the “Penny Pincher” Mustang was on top of the field with a 3.706 with the “Man O War II” Mustang of Shane Lawson right behind with a 3.764.

The field stretched from Zimmer to Dustin Bradford’s 4.84.

As the usual for the FCC circuit, the quick eight made up the “A” Field and the next quick eight the “B” Field and so forth until the fields are filled.

In Rodaks Custom Coffee “A” field, Zimmer defeated Nick Poloson in R1 and 2022 FCC champ Kirk Williams to get to the final while Lawson beat Clay Cunningham and Lance VanHauen’s Camaro on his side of the ladder.

In the finals it was all Lawson with a better reaction time and ET to put Zimmer on the trailer and his Mustang in the winner’s circle. Lawson carded a 6.6936 to the losing 4.0471 of Zimmer.

The AlkyDigger “B” field was led by Jade Cook’s “Nemesis” followed by Chris Schneider in the “Brutus” Ford Mustang. Both lost in R2 putting Tom Furches “Made In America” Firebird in the finals against the “High Heaven” Camaro of Keith Jackson being driven for the weekend by Steve Gribowski as Jackson hurt is back and was unable to drive the potent Chevy. Gribowski blew the motor up in his semifinal race against Schneider and was done for the weekend, but the team towed up to the starting line hoping for a miracle.

Furches got his car started, staged, and took the green. After he won the race, and the 2023 Chaos title on the strength of going more rounds than his closest competitor, Kirk Williams, Furches jumped out of the car and stood on the roof of his hot rod celebrating his win.

In the Wulff Pumps “C” field it was Jordan Ballew in his blown ’69 Camaro in the #1 spot with Chuck Lofton right behind. The two met in the semis with Lofton taking the win with a 4.514 to the losing 5.099 of Ballew. Lofton, who blew up his normal ride, the Nitro Psycho in R1, jumped behind the wheel of his second car, the “Bucket List” Mopar and it paid off for Lofton with the win.

Chaos President and promoter Chris Graves said after the season was over, “This was the closest points chase we’ve had in series history. It came down to the semi-finals of the last race of the year to determine the champion! Tom Furches and his team battled long and hard this season and deservingly sealed the deal. Tom finished number two last season, to Kirk Williams. Those spots reversed this year. Both those teams and all our Top 10 finishers did great this season.

Furches is a “B” Field runner and it’s great to see him take the crown and also greet to see two “C” Field cars in Jordan Ballew and Alex Barker finish in the top five with two “A” Field cars also in the Top 5 with Kirk Williams and Shayne Lawson.

The CHAOS concept is unique, fun and it works! We must give big special thanks to the major marketing partners of this series including Spell Paving Services, Wulff Pumps, Performance Motorcoaches, Excel Drywall Racing, Fat Tirez Apparel, AlkyDigger, Maxima Oil, Laris Motorsports Insurance and Rodak’s Custom Coffee. They are the reason we have guaranteed payouts of $37,500 at each race and a $20,000 year end points fund to support these awesome race teams.

For more of Dave Kommel’s images from the meet, go to