Pisano Racing - 1974 Vega Nitro Funny Car

03/17/08 - Pisano Racing extends their sincere gratitude to Blake and John Bowser of Auto Club Famoso Raceway for the great time the team had at the 50th edition of the Bakersfield March Meet.

The dream weekend started with being included at the Thursday night pre-race party and display held at Chuy’s restaurant, a local favorite and supporter of the Bowsers and Auto Club Famoso Raceway. The Pisano & Matsubara Vega was parked along side the Stardust Cuda of Justin Grant, who made the trek all the way from Indiana for this historic event. It was great to expose the locals to Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars along with all of the other great race cars on display.

Team Pisano -(MIA) Steve Montrelli, Randy Hudson, Troy Cagle

Mikey and Todd Mallory during final Friday morning servicing.

Friday, during the first qualifying session for the Nitro Funny Cars, the Pisano team put down a 6.00 at 234 miles per hour to record a team best for this car and crew. This put them at the number two qualifying spot out of the 32 cars pre-entered for this historic event.

Saturday the team fought a few mechanical gremlins and could only muster a 6.35 @ 226 miles per hour. The team sat out the third qualifying session to remedy a few nagging items and get back to the tune up that ran a 6.00 on Friday. After the final qualifying session the team wound up in the number 3 spot.

Sunday dawned with high hopes in the team's pit. These were squashed when Utterback was forced to shut off at about 500' when an oil line came off the back of the oil pressure gauge during their first round match up with Mike Savage. Extremely disappointing to the team but not the end of the world. We'll get back after it at the next Hot Rod Heritage Series event in Las Vegas.

Pisano Racing extends congratulations to the 50th March Meet Funny Car winners in both the A and B fields, Bucky Austin and Kris Krabill, respectively.

Next stop for Pisano Racing is Cub Scout Pack 824’s Pine Wood Derby, being held on March 30th at Kentwood Elementary in Westchester, California.

Driver Jeff Utterback’s sons, Morgan and Miles, are members of Den’s in this Cub Scout Pack, and owner Danny Pisano has offered to display his car at this event. Interesting side note, Danny went to school at Kentwood Elementary. Small world.

Stay tuned for more Pisano Racing team news as it becomes available!

Saturday Night Live in the Pisano pit area.


02/18/08 - Pisano Racing extends special thanks to Steve Gibbs and the NHRA for staging a very successful nostalgia exhibition during the NHRA Winternationals. Team Pisano made two passes in front of a capacity crowd, running a team-best 6.01/ 231 MPH during Saturday afternoon qualifying. On Sunday, tuner Steve Montrelli wanted to go for it, so they threw the 'kitchen sink' at it but the run produced a tire-shaking, chute-rattling pass resulting in a 6.78/ 176 MPH time slip. Danny Pisano was very humbled while towing back to the pits in front of an appreciative crowd, where "Big Show" fans stood and applauded while many even yelled "Pisano Forever!"
Team Pisano is eagerly awaiting the 50th March Meet where a reported 32 nostalgia Funny Cars will be vying for 16 slots, an 8-car "A" field and an 8-car "B" field. Stay tuned for more Pisano Racing team news! This site is dedicated to the memories of Joe and Carmen Pisano-pioneers of funny car racing.

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