Champions Rough-N-Ready Racing will be keen to capitalise on home-field advantage and lay a marker at the 2021 California Independent Funny Car Association season opener.

The first event of the five-race series is being held at the Sacramento Raceway Park from April 30.

The drag racing syndicate, owned by Bermudian Harvey Williams Jr, has been virtually unstoppable competing at their home track where they captured a third CIFCA title in 2019 with driver Tony Trimp behind the wheel of their 1986 Corvette body funny car, “Happy Hour”, which has since been replaced by a 1965 Mustang GT.

“We are super excited to be starting off our season at our home track for a multitude for the reasons,” said Jacqueline Williams’s, the team spokeswoman and great-niece of road running legend Stanley Burgess. “This will be the year that we debut the new name and paint scheme.”

Williams and her colleagues won every event held last season, which was reduced to three because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result, they were denied an official defence of their 2019 title, having fallen short of the quota of five races required to declare a champion, as per CIFCA rules.

Williams’s team won the Funny Car Fever, the Battle at the Beach and a fourth Governor's Cup in five years.

“Despite not having a championship last year due to the amount of races, we definitely have had a confidence boost in going out into 2021 season and defending our championship title,” Williams said.

“We are going to continue what we had started last season. We are definitely planning to go out to defend our championship title, just as we did the years before.”

The Sacramento Raceway Park will also host the season finale on September 17 and 18, with the remaining races taking place at the Samoa Dragstrip (June 18 and 19), Redding Dragstrip (August 13 and 14) and Medford Dragstrip (September 11 and 12).

Originated in 1984, the CIFCA is a West Coast drag racing association that specialises in affordable funny car shows.

Its membership boasts more than 36 teams, the majority of whom compete in funny cars powered by supercharged, alcohol engines, which usually last a full season between teardowns.