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<\/p>\nCanadian drag racer Spencer Hyde has taken the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series by storm during his rookie season. The Stratford, Ontario, resident has proven himself to be a standout first year driver piloting the Head Inc. Funny Car owned and tuned by Hall of Famer Jim Head. Hyde has won the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals Mission #2Fast2Tasty event, raced to a fist-full of semifinals and two final rounds, qualified for the 2025 Countdown in the Top Ten and secured the No. 1 qualifier at the Reading Nationals, the first Countdown playoff race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I have proven myself race after race driving this Funny Car, which arguably is the toughest race car to drive,\u201d said Hyde, an accomplished multi-class driver. \u201cI have won a lot of races leading up to my jump to Funny Car, but this was a whole new animal. Thanks to Jim and the team for giving me a good car I think I proved myself in one of the toughest classes in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyde\u2019s self-evaluation is echoed by the opinions of some of his toughest competitors. Throughout the season Hyde has held his own against numerous Funny Car world champions including Jack Beckman (1-1), Ron Capps (2-2), and Austin Prock (1-1). The rookie has a winning record in his lone meetings with world champions Matt Hagan (1-0) and Cruz Pedregon (1-0).<\/p>\n
\u201cSpencer came from the Pro Mod side of things much like myself, so I have a little bit of love there for him because I ran a Pro Mod for six years before stepping up in the Funny Car,\u201d said Matt Hagan, four-time Funny Car world champion. \u201cHe\u2019s showing that he can handle the race car. He keeps it in his lane, cuts good lights and he\u2019s a great competitor so I\u2019m always looking forward to racing that guy and he\u2019s good for the sport. We need new young guys out here who are eager and hungry. He\u2019s doing a great job behind the wheel, so I think he\u2019s a great candidate for rookie of the year. I\u2019ve been out here 20 years, and I\u2019ve seen a lot of people come and go. Spencer is one that seems like he is a real natural fit in the car and is doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyde has also impressed two-time Funny Car world champion and noted instructor at the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School Jack Beckman. The veteran driver has taught for over two decades and has raced against almost every Funny Car world champion since 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s only one viable candidate. I said it on stage during driver intros at St. Louis when Spencer and I were introduced together,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cI said, \u2018I don\u2019t gamble but, if I had to bet money, I\u2019m standing next to the rookie of the year this year.\u2019 That\u2019s how good Spencer has been. He has run the full season and is in contention for the championship. He gets better every single race and drives one of the best cars out there. I just think that\u2019s the perfect storm and he represents himself and the sport very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyde will be looking to close out his rookie season with a victory at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the site of his Mission #2Fast#Tasty victory earlier this season. The Head Inc. Funny Car and Hyde will be back on track October 31 \u2013 November 2 for the Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on October 20, 2025. <\/p>\n
The post Spencer Hyde Makes Strong Case For 2025 NHRA Rookie of The Year<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Canadian drag racer Spencer Hyde has taken the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series by storm during his rookie season. The Stratford, Ontario, resident has proven himself to be a standout first year driver piloting the Head Inc. Funny Car owned and tuned by Hall of Famer Jim Head. Hyde has won the Las Vegas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}