NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

After a five-year absence, Funny Car racer Tim Gibbons will return to the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Jeff and Leeza Diehl’s entry with backing from Big Time Pest Control.

The partnership will meet goals for both, as Diehl will reap some financial benefits for his team and Gibbons will get back behind the wheel and introduce a new sponsor to the sport.

“We had a great hot rod last weekend in Seattle, and I feel like we would have won our first-round race, but we had an issue with the wheelie bar,” said Diehl. “While it would have been great to drive it again this weekend in Sonoma, Tim had this opportunity and I wanted to help him and help the Funny Car class, because we always need more cars, and the funds that it will generate for my team will mean that I can continue to improve our own team when I get back behind the wheel in Topeka [for the Menards NHRA Nationals].”

“Sonoma has always been a home track for me, and I have always loved racing there,” said Gibbons. “I have known Jeff and Leeza for a few years now as we have raced against one another quite a bit in years past. Over the winter we talked and he said that if the timing was right for both of us I could drive his car. I called Jeff and told him I had a sponsor for Sonoma, and the deal was made. Mike and Bekki Bullert of Big Time Pest Control came on board as the title sponsor. They’re from Anderson, Calif., and are looking to enter into the Sacramento and Napa areas in the near future, and what better way to introduce their brand than on a 300-mph nitro Funny Car? Roger Lawson of Premier Brands Meat Company gladly came on board."

All of Jeff Diehl Racing’s sponsors will also be represented on the car in Sonoma, including So-Cal Speed Shop, Borrmann's Steel Co., Red Line Oil, So-Cal Speed Shop of Upland, Calif., Nitro*A*gogo!, CP Carrillo, Excel Drywall, Central Valley Auto Haus, Shirt Lizard, ARP, BR Motorsports, Spell Paving, Nitro Barry, Woody's Custom Headers, JS Solutions, The Real Deal Pepper Sauce, Thalia Surf Shop, and Shorty's Oil Pans, as well as new sponsors Top Fuel Records and Wildwood Express.

"I'm extremely excited to join Jeff and Leeza Diehl and the entire JDR team for the Denso Nationals this weekend at Sonoma and will see how it goes and take it from there,” said Gibbons. “I do know I will be in a car next year, whether it’s for a few races or possibly the entire season, we will just have to wait and see. This weekend, l will be getting backed up by the Queen of BUGs, the one and only Leeza Diehl. How badass is that? We’re going to have a great time and be back with many of our NHRA families that we have missed.”

Gibbons has not competed since the 2017 season finale in Pomona.

“As the president of Castle Rock Trucks, we had to reevaluate the future of the company and what direction to go in,” he explained of his long absence from the dragstrip. “I decided to sell the business in 2019 and run the company from a computer and get rid of our large yard, warehouse, and paint booth. We formed a new company and constructed car charging stations for Tesla and Electrify America across Northern California. 

“I also just built a new restaurant called Whiskeytown Barbecue and Brewing Co., but at no time did I ever stop thinking about getting back in the seat of a Funny Car. It is just one of those things; it is a disease for which there is no cure.“