NHRA

Pomona: Scotty Cannon preview

New level of excitement for Cannon INDIANAPOLIS (Jan. 31, 2002) -- Scotty Cannon will begin his 13th season as a professional drag racer and his fourth as a Funny Car driver on the National Hot Rod Association circuit. Unlike the previous 12 ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

New level of excitement for Cannon

INDIANAPOLIS (Jan. 31, 2002) -- Scotty Cannon will begin his 13th season as a professional drag racer and his fourth as a Funny Car driver on the National Hot Rod Association circuit. Unlike the previous 12 years, Cannon will not own his race team in 2002, but the colorful racer with the patented Mohawk hairstyle will continue to be actively involved as the driver of the Oakley Mad Science Funny Car.

At the conclusion of last season, Cannon's Oakley team joined forces with Don Schumacher Racing as a teammate to the Matco Tools Funny Car, driven by Whit Bazemore. The two-car team will make its debut at the NHRA season-opening K&N Filters Winternationals, Feb 7-10 at Pomona (Calif.) Raceway.

"I feel the Oakley team has a better chance of winning and going for the championship because of our new situation and having a multiple car team to learn from," said Cannon, who finished 12th in the point standings last year. "My motivation is still 100% - it has to or you shouldn't be doing this. It's my excitement level that has gone up a few notches."

Cannon entered the NHRA scene in 1999 after a brilliant and legendary career on the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) circuit where he won six Pro Modified national championships and was named seven times to the prestigious Car Craft Magazine All-Star Race Team.

Though he is not the owner, Cannon is looking forward to draw on his multifaceted background and be a valuable resource to the race team.

"When I first signed up for this program there was plenty of speculation that I wouldn't be able to drive by not being a hands-on person," said Cannon, a 39 year-old resident of Lyman, S.C. "It is true that I don't have to go and get a torch anymore and cut the car up or saw stuff up, but after every run I make, Lee and Zippy (co-crew chiefs Lee Beard and Mike "Zippy" Neff) are going to depend on my feedback. We already built a good relationship in our test sessions in Phoenix. By being an owner, driver and tuner, I understand what the relationship needs to be between the driver and tuner. Both Lee and Zippy understand that too.

"This isn't one of those deals where they say, 'Scotty get in the car, shut up and drive.' It's not like that at all. That's important to me and my confidence as a team driver. The long and short of it is -- we have the same outlook - we want to win...no matter whose idea it is, just as long as the car performs. Nobody is looking to get a pat on the back, we're just looking to win."

Cannon and the Oakley team spent 10 days testing at Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix. Cannon had the third quickest run of the Phoenix test session with a 4.802-second elapsed time. "We got a lot of work done in Phoenix," said Cannon. "We are feeling optimistic going into the Winternationals. However, testing is one thing, now you have to go and do it in real competition. I feel the Oakley team is ready."

-co-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Tucson Friday testing notes

Next article Pomona: Team Jeg's Pro Stock preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

2 h

NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar

Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 3 h

Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026

Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

3 h

Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP

KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP 4 h

KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts