IHRA: Five questions with Richard Hartman

Drag racing veteran Richard Hartman, a winner as a driver and crew chief in the IHRA and the NHRA, seemed particularly relaxed at the IHRA Northern Nationals at US 131 Motorplex in Martin, Mich., last weekend. And that’s precisely the goal for Hartman and the crew of the Runnin’ Wild VI, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car.

Born into drag racing, Hartman’s career started at the age of eight, when he began helping his father Virgil Hartman on the family’s dragsters. His sister Rhonda Hartman-Smith and her husband John Bodie Smith have both driven professionally as well.

Hartman has a solid record as a Funny Car driver, and spent four seasons as crew chief for Top Fuel driver Terry McMillen. Last year, he joined the Tim Wilkerson Racing team, working with his old friend.

We caught up with Hartman at US 131, where he qualified with a run of 6.0894 at 2244.30mph, good for seventh place. Unfortunately, that paired him with eventual winner and champion Jason Rupert, and Hartman’s strong 5.7285 wasn’t quite good enough to beat Rupert’s 5.6073 ET.

Tell us about the Runnin’ Wild.

It’s just something we put together so we could race as a family. I wanted to race with my dad, Virgil, some more, and my wife and kids love it, and some members from the old teams pitch in and help. It’s just a family effort.

Hard to walk away from driving, isn’t it?

It is tough to walk away. I really thought I was going to a few years ago, and got sucked back in by Tim Wilkerson on the other side. And then we started putting this car together to just go have fun, and you keep wanting to go faster and faster… same old thing.

It’s still a lot of work…

But we really enjoy it. There’s no pressure, we just come out to have fun. Whatever the car does, it does, and if it doesn’t do good, we lick our wounds and go home. We still have smiles on our faces, and if it does good, we’re just that much happier.

No meetings with sponsors wearing suits on Monday mornings.

None!

Why the AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car class?

I love the old Funny Cars, and some of the cars here really do represent the old days. Some of the guys have taken it to extremes, but for the most part, everyone has kept within the intent of the class. They’re cool, they’re fun, the competition is close – you can only do so much to them, it’s harder to outspend the rest of the field. I mean, somebody might have 10 of everything, while some of us only have one or two – it’s just a real fun class, it’s not too expensive, and it doesn’t take a full-time crew to keep it running.