For the second consecutive year, Gainesville produces a come-out-of-nowhere race winner.
- Tripp Tatum, a 51-year-old Maryland businessman with just a handful of competitive runs, was the top qualifier and Top Fuel winner at Gainesville.
- The win came in Tripp’s 12th career start and first final.
- He had just five round wins to his credit in his NHRA career prior to this year’s Gatornationals.
The plain-black-wrapper Top Fuel dragster did not look right pulling into the staging lanes for the final in the 53rd Annual NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday at Gainesville Raceway in Florida.
Usually virtually unsponsored cars like this populate the bottom half of the 16-car grid, sacrificial lambs for the top half of the grid in round one eliminations.
But not this time. Expectations were frankly high since Tripp Tatum, a 51-year-old Maryland businessman with just a handful of competitive runs, was the top qualifier under tricky conditions and a lot of pressure, since torrential rain limited qualifying to a one-and-done format.
But now, after his final-round appearance, Tatum looked a little like the dog that had been chasing trucks and finally caught one: Now what? In his press conference he held the bronze Wally trophy like it was Waterford crystal. After all, he had been drag racing for years, and finally saved enough money to fund his own NHRA Top Fuel organization.
Tripp Tatum won his first Top Fuel Wally in his first career final.
NHRA/National Dragster
“It’s pretty neat,” he understated.
The win came in Tripp’s 12th career start and first final. He had just five round wins to his credit in his NHRA career prior to this year’s Gatornationals.
It was a replay of the 2021 Gatornationals Top Fuel race, when Ocala competitor Josh Hart won with this self-funded Top Fueler for his first victory, then backed it up with another win before the season was out. Tatum, like Hart last year, isn’t planning on a full season until some sponsorship comes through, which it now may. He took out Lex Joon, Billy Torrence, Mike Salinas and Doug Foley to achieve his dream, covering 1,000 feet in 3.700 seconds at 330 mph.
“I’m almost speechless, but it’s starting to sink in a little bit, he said. “You can ask me a question but I’ll probably be tongue-tied trying to answer.”
Tatum’s smartest off-season move was teaming up with the Capco group, which fields dragsters for champion Steve Torrence and his part-time-racer father Billy, led by brothers Bobby and Dom Lagana, and tuners John Stewart and Tony Shortall, all veterans of Top Fuel. There are no better-prepared cars in the class than the Capco dragsters, but Tatum drove like a veteran, too, to achieve the win.
Tatum gave us a hint at his speed in Arizona, the last race on the schedule, with a 3.6-secone qualifying run, but a mechanical malfunction ended his hopes in the first round. This time, the Tripp Tatum Racing team was ready, and executed like pros.
He made his first 10 passes in Top Fuel in the Lagana brothers’ dragster before funding his own equipment. They and Capco “are instrumental in what my program is today,” he said. “I’ve got such good people behind me.”
He’s a second-generation racer. “My father was involved in motorsports,” he said. His first turns on the strip were in his Ford Mustang, then, in 1987, he went to the Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School and got his Super Comp license. He got his Alcohol license through Hawley, and he became best friends with former Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson, Jr. – “He sent me texts all day long on what to do and not do, to not be a dummy, plus a few other words.”
Tatum said the current state of the NHRA Top Fuel “is extremely competitive. There are no easy runs.” The parts exist for anybody to buy, and have them assembled by experts.
So when you win – well, it’s pretty neat.
Keyword: The Secret to Tripp Tatum's Surprising NHRA Top Fuel Win at Gainesville