Drag Racing Action Online Phil Hutchison

Images: Dave DeAngelis, John Charbonneau, Bob Reed and Chris Graves

In what was a first for Funny Car Chaos , Chaos president Chris Graves brought his series to the New England area putting on his “Run what you Brung” style of racing at Lebanon Valley Dragway outside Albany New York

The car count wasn’t as large as expected but hopefully it will give Graves something to build on for 2026.

Eighteen cars came through the pit gates on Friday for two qualifying shots. The Chaos series evens out the fields by the qualifying times to keep things as equitable as possible. The quicker cars are in the “A” field and the next quickest cars placed in the “B” field.  An index is established to keep sandbagging to a minimum.

After qualifying on Friday, four cars had to withdrawal from competition due to breakage leaving 14 cars for the main show.  The top eight went into the ‘A’ field with the rest in the ‘B’ part of the show.

Qualifying #1 to no one’s amazement was the Svengali Firebird of Jim Gifford from Tafton Pa . Since nitro is permitted at the Chaos events, Gifford had an advantage over his alcohol brethren as he tips the can running nitro in his Pontiac. Gifford, who takes his racing seriously, was the only racer in the three second range throughout the event and in the finals, it was Gifford against  Wayne Hofmann. Hofmann, son of Funny Car legend Al Hofmann was driving his patriotic themed Chevy powered Dodge Daytona and had qualified in the fourth spot with a 4.124.

Wayne had beaten Frank Barnard’s Poison Arrow in R1 and Joe Pirrone in the Screamin Eagle Pontiac in the semis as Pirrone had troubles and slowed from his earlier low four second times.

On his side of the ladder Gifford took out Paul Conlon’s Boston Monkey and Joe Morrison driving the Crazy Horse Mustang.

In the finals after both drivers completed their burnouts and pre staged, neither driver was eager to light the top bulb. Finally, Gifford moved his Pontiac into the beams and Hofmann followed. It was over at the hit as Hofmann left -0.004 seconds too soon handing Gifford the win.

“I knew going into this race my team and I had the combo to qualify at the top and win but what works on paper isn’t always the way it plays out,” Gifford said.  “It was our first time out in competition in two years under the watchful eye of Jimmy Walsh as our new tuner. We came close to losing in the final, but karma gave us a gift. Chris Massarella’s jinx of telling me it was our race worked out just fine.”

“The car struck the tires at the hit. The time before we staged took more fuel out of tank than expected and with the lighter front end, it picked up and went back on the wheelie bars, and we smoked the tires.”

“I didn’t mean to red light,” Hofmann said after the race. “The convertor probably got too hot sitting there and it grabbed.”

“My early times showed that I was on a low 4 second pass and it was a shame that it was over. I really like the Chaos series. A low buck racer like me can take the family and the motorhome to the events. And I have only one crewman and I build my own big block Chevy motor. It’s perfect for me. Match racing is cool, but I like the Chaos. I get to race.”

Winning the ‘B’ portion of the race was Jami Russell in the Iron Outlaw Mustang.

The ‘B’ field was a tad slim as breakage hurt the field but Russell, who had his car in the mid 4 second zone was serious for a win.  In the finals Russell took out Chris Massarelli’s Total Insanity Monza with a 4.404 to Massarelli’s tire chattering 4.875.

 “A big thank you to the Chaos staff for coming to our backyard and especially to Lebanon Valley Dragway for taking a chance on the event, Russell said. “Hopefully we earned some fans that can come back next Sunday and see us at the Dover Drag Reunion!”

Runner up Chris Massarelli adds,” We’ve been match racing our group of nostalgia cars at Lebanon Valley for the past 20 years. We consider it one of our home tracks. Great to see such a wide variety of funny cars on the property. Big thanks to Wayne Delmonte and Howard Commander at LVD for taking the chance and hosting a Chaos event.”

 CHAOS”Chaos president Chris Graves had this to say after the event, “We had a great time at Lebanon Valley. Wayne and his team did a fantastic job providing a safe and fast facility for the racers and we are working together to announcing something exciting for 2026! I’d like to thank all the east coast teams who continue to support the CHAOS”

The Screamin Eagle Pontiac owner Rocky Pirrone said, “Awesome weather and an awesome track led to great numbers! This was the first Chaos event at Lebanon Valley Dragway, and all the teams did their best to put on a show for the fans. When the smoked cleared Jimmy Gifford won the A field and Jami Russel the B field. Congratulations to both teams! The Pirrone race team had the Joey Pirrone driven Screamin Eagle running well with three solid passes, 4.08, a 4.05 and a 3.97. Unfortunately, a spark plug failure ended our day in the semifinals. A special thanks to the LVD track management and Chris Graves for putting on this event.”