Two-time NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car world champion Cruz Pedregon will debut a '78 Plymouth Arrow nostalgia nitro Funny Car as a tribute to the late Joe Pisano for the first time at the 18th California Hot Rod Reunion presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, Oct. 16-18 at Auto Club Famoso Raceway.
Pisano, a drag racer and racing aftermarket pioneer, was instrumental in the careers of many drag racers and especially in the life of Pedregon. Joe P., as friends and competitors knew him, passed away in 1991. He helped Pedregon in his early racing career and introduced him to veteran Top Fuel and Funny Car team owner Larry Minor. In 1992, Pedregon won his first NHRA Funny Car championship in a McDonald’s-sponsored Funny Car owned by Minor. Pedregon looked at this as an opportunity to pay tribute to his longtime friend by asking Joe’s brother, Frank, if he could paint his nostalgia Funny Car similarly to one that Pisano raced in the late 1970s.
As an added bonus, Pedregon enlisted the help of Danny Pisano, nephew of Joe Pisano, who campaigns the Pisano & Matsubara '74 Chevrolet Vega-bodied nostalgia Funny Car to join in this Tribute to Joe Pisano. Both cars will be part of the Cacklefest that officially kicks off the Honorees Ceremony at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bakersfield Friday night, Oct. 16. Both floppers will fire up as the first leg of this tribute. Then on Saturday, plans call for both cars to line up together on the legendary starting line for the first session of side-by-side qualifying for Funny Car eliminator. Veteran nitro tuner Donnie Couch is racing against the clock to finish Pedregon’s nostalgia nitro Funny Car in his Southern California shop.
Pedregon was the grand marshal of the fabled March Meet earlier this year. Auto Club Famoso Raceway is also an important part of the Pedregon family’s history. It’s where Pedregon earned his NHRA competition license and is the same track where his father, "Flamin´ Frank” Pedregon, raced in the 1960s and his brother, Tony, also a two-time NHRA Funny Car champion, earned his NHRA competition license.