South Mountain Raceway – I’ve never seen any kind of nostalgia drag car I didn’t like. They’re all pretty cool. And you’ll always see cool cars at South Mountain Raceway, but every now and then, one crosses your path with a look and a message behind it that just reels you in to learn more about it. The brilliantly-colored nostalgia alcohol funny car of Jim Gloyd is just such a car.

How the outstanding graphics on the car came about isn’t a long, enchanting tale, but a simple, straight-to-the-point story. According to Gloyd, “It just came about. Nelson painted my other car and he said, ‘Where do you want to put the name?’ and I said, ‘I don’t. Just put “The Messenger” on it.’ He said ‘Do you think people are going to know?’ I don’t know. ‘So how many people do you think are going to come up and ask?’ I hope all of them. And that was on my front engine fuel car that I had. That’s where this started and we just started leaning into just the Spirit and the whole, you know, God and everything.” It’s said the Lord works in mysterious ways, but what could be more mysterious than using a nostalgia funny car to spread the Gospel message?

Now we know about the name of the car, but is there more to know about the driver and team? Gloyd would go into more detail on that as well. “The name of the race team is Sons of Thunder which is what Jesus said to James and John, called them Sons of Thunder, so we decided to make the race team, that was the name of the race team.” It’s an appropriate name. Like James and John, these guys aren’t choir boys in robes acting self-righteous and pious, but real racers acting like real people, and living out a real faith at the track. It’s not something a lot of people would expect from people of faith, but it’s what Gloyd has been called to do.

Gloyd would go into more detail about how they show their faith at the track as he says, “Lo and behold you know we’re parading that around (pointing at the car), just having a good time, and doing this and it really became a testimony of what God has blessed me with. Not only the ability to work on them, but the financial part, and the people around me. We had a conversation a while ago about ‘Well, if I can’t go to quarter mile racing, I’m not going,’ and I’m like, ‘If there’s no quarter mile racing I’m going eighth mile.’ I’ll go whatever, it’s not about how far you go down a track it’s about what you do in the pits.”

What these guys are doing in the pits has a deeper meaning and impact than any casual observer would know from the sidelines. It goes way beyond just racing a funny car. Gloyd added, “I always wanted to do a funny car and just wanted to get my license and everything and we just kept creating the long car, the pipe rack as we call it. We lost my son in 2024, and his best friends, I saw hope in their eyes. They just didn’t know where the hope was coming from. I’m like, ‘Maybe help them a little bit.’ I just felt that on my heart, that kind of helped them. After J.C. passed away, they would start coming down to the shop and helping me on the fuel car. They called it race car therapy. Every Thursday night we work on the car, fiddle on stuff, and then we go to dinner. We’ve been able to minister to each other.”

Of course, the artwork on the hood is the single thing that jumps out the most on this car. And Gloyd has a story to tell on how this came together as well. “Years ago I was talking with somebody and they said ‘You know Jesus was the original outlaw.’ I’m like ‘no,’ ‘[They said] Seriously He walked to a different beat, He was an outlaw’ and I’m like ‘that’s pretty cool.’ I always wanted to put that on the car so we got that on the car. But I asked guys at the shop, I said ‘I don’t want to do anything to the fuel car, I can’t replace it.’ I said, ‘why don’t we build a funny car?’ and they’re like, ‘okay.’ So we decided to start looking around. Paul Zona had it (the car), so we ended up getting it from him. Then Chuck Buckler, he’s the one that did that the airbrush on it, and he did the T-shirt design. Part of the Idea came up from him he says, ‘You know that thing’s really got a big hood on it, why don’t we do Jesus as an outlaw?’ I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s kind of cool.’ Then he started sending me pictures and I’m like, ‘Okay, let me get the body ready call me when you’re ready.”

Another step closer to making it all reality happened when everything, car and painter, were ready to go. This is where the artwork finally came to life for Gloyd and “The Messenger” funny car. “We took it over there, put it in his garage, and he pulled me into the house and he has pictures across the counter and table and everything. He said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I said, ‘I want that Jesus, that tunic, that sword, and that devil,’ and that’s what he came up with. And I’m just blown away. I was at church one day and I showed a picture of it to one of our lead elders and she said, ‘That’s a dramatic illustration of Genesis 3:15.’ I’m like, ‘Okay’ I didn’t want to look at it in front of her, you know. So as soon as I got out of there I’m on my phone and I’m like ‘Crap! If we would have taken that Bible verse and did a picture to it we’d have never come up with what we got!’ Never would have even been close.”

With a back story like this, you know stepping into the pits of “The Messenger” just has to be a different experience from what you’d usually expect in a funny car pit. And I can testify it is something you can feel. Gloyd explains what it’s like for them in their pit, “It’s turned into a ministry. We went to Dallas and we went, Rocky [Pirrone] and I, went to Tulsa and that was my first [Funny Car] Chaos race, first time competing in years, and just had a blast. People chaos I call it. They just really are first grades, the whole group, and everything just really cool, really good tracks to to be able to run on. I had a couple people come up to me while we were selling shirts and we sold a lot more shirts than I have imagined. I had to reorder two weeks after I got the shirts. That’s because of what our blessing is. I just realized and I told Becky (Jim’s wife), I’m like, ‘We got a ministry here.’ She said, ‘Do you ?’ So she flew out to Dallas. She asked, ‘What’s my job?’ [I said] ‘If you want to cook, you like cooking, that’s fine, but I need somebody to help T shirt sales.’ She was busy the whole weekend selling T shirts! It blew my mind! Let me back up a little bit, on our way to Oklahoma, one of the guys that was supposed to help us had an issue with his pet and couldn’t go. So Roger’s like, ‘We got to find some more help, we’ll be all right, just trust me, it will be taken care of.’ So next thing you know, we had a whole list of guys to help us and they said, ‘How do we know which one to pick?’ I said, ‘Well tell me about the ones you’ve talked to.’ He said, ‘Well this is a friend of Eric’s and we knew Eric, and his wife is Racers for Christ, and I said, ‘Well, they’re good people.’ and he said, ‘Yeah this James guy is a follower, you know and everything.’ I’m like, ‘Well he’s good, I don’t even care what he knows, we’ll teach him, and then another guy, his name is James too, he knew Camp Stanley so we’re like, ‘If he worked for Camp on a race car he can work for us and then he said, ‘Some guy named Shaggy. I said, ‘Oh no, we got to have Shaggy. Shaggy the racer is a cool dude! He knows Chuck real well.’ And so we put together, I don’t want to say misfits, but we put together a bad a** team. They just did their job, did their stuff. One of the guys, James Gonzalez, that helped us was the front of Eric’s so I said, ‘Hey, we’re we’re going to Dallas in two weeks, do you want to go? He said, ‘It’s my dream dude, working on these cars is one of my dreams!’ And he said ‘We’re all about this message.’ I got him a room and he said, ‘would it be alright if my wife comes?’ and I said, ‘Oh absolutely!’ His wife and my wife sat there and just just talked and testified and sold a bunch of shirts. I’m like, ‘Oh my God this is crazy.’ So I flew them to Norwalk. When we go to [Funny Car] Chaos races, he’s right there and just loves doing it. Meeting these people and God making these connections! I met Shane helping Dan Dietrich on his top alcohol car. Joey Pirrone, I met him through his dad. You meet these people and they’re lifelong friends now. One of the things that I look at, is when J.C. passed away, a couple days afterwards I went to the memorial site where they put where he had the accident and a calm just came over me and I knew it was the Holy Spirit, not J.C. talking to me. But He said, ‘I’m OK. It’s pretty cool up here. Bring everybody.’ So I’m thinking he’s talking about his friends, everyone. So I took that to heart. Next thing I got this guy in my shop and we’re talking about drag racing and the community and I said, ‘You know, the only thing you can take along to the other side is your memories.’ And he says, ‘Oh, I got to disagree.’ I’m like, ‘This guy’s getting ready to educate me.’ He said, ‘We can take our friends.’ I’m like, ‘Wow!’ Now I’ve heard it distinctly from two people, from the Holy Spirit, from him, and I really have taken that to heart that I just I want to share the kingdom. I just want more. I want to grab one more. We can take our friends and what’s the coolest thing about this is when you’re a good steward for the Lord he will take your passions and turn them into something that’s unrecognizable. It’s just crazy. I get to come up here and hang out and they ask me to do this event and everything. Rocky goes, Well what are you going to do up there?’ so I said, ‘I’m going to do a burnout, launch the car, and I’m going to share the kingdom, that’s what I’m going to do.’ And that’s what this is about. If you really want to serve the Lord all you got to do is ask Him and He’ll keep you in with what your passions are. He doesn’t want to see you fail so that’s how this has come about. This is my rookie year in a funny car. [At] 64! I’m driven some other stuff, but nothing like this. We’re having fun!

The smiles on their faces, did indeed, show this was a team that was having fun. And sharing a message that goes far beyond anything the raw horsepower of the funny car has to offer. If you ever see “The Messenger” funny car, make it a point to visit their pit. You’ll not only learn what a nostalgia alcohol funny car is all about, you’ll find out what the message “The Messenger” has to deliver is all about. Jim Gloyd and his crew will all tell you that’s what they’re there to deliver. But be aware there will probably be some burnouts to go along with that along the way.

DF Motorsports Magazine is a Summit Racing Equipment affiliate. Please use the links below to place your Summit order and support this site! Thank you for your support!