The title of World’s fastest doorslammer once again resides on this side of the Pacific. Randy Merick drove his Super Chevy Nitro Coupe to an unbelievable lap of 6.10/230. Merick’s Corvette is powered by a blown and injected 526 inch Chevy with 30% nitro in the tank and 20% supercharger overdrive. Merick made the pass at Route 66 Raceway just outside of Joliet, Ill. The fractionals on the pass were as follows: 1.002 sixty foot, 2.680 at the 330 mark, and 3.989/186.38 for the eighth mile. Merick's elapsed time for a thousand feet was 5.132 and the terminal speed and elapsed time was 6.103/230.72!

POWELL GETS FC LICENSE

On Wednesday, August 25, Cristen Powell earned her Funny Car license in test sessions at Indianapolis Raceway Park. For Powell, it ended almost a month of frustration aboard John Cosanza's JCIT Pontiac as she was hampered by one up-in-smoke run after another.

She ran times of 5.01/308 and 4.91/309 to not only license, but make history as well.

Ms. Powell, 20 (DOB March 22, 1979) became the first woman to run under 5 seconds and over 308 mph in a Funny Car. Obviously, she is the youngest as well.

In Top Fuel, she was a history maker as well, running quicker (4.59) and faster (308.85) than any female driver in history at such a young age (19).

When she won the 1997 Mopar Parts National (TAF), she was the second youngest driver to win Top Fuel. She was 18 + 2 months. (Jeb Allen turned 18 while winning the '72 race.)

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS FROM AUTOLITE NATIONALS

. -Chris Martin Reporting

For the first time this decade (or so it has seemed) the annual NHRA Autolite Nationals at Sears Point Int'l Raceway were conducted under conditions fit for human consumption. And those last two words can be re-interpreted to mean, under temperatures less than 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

In recent years, the Sears race should've been respelled "seers" because the medical room on the pitside of the track has been going like a frenzied MASH unit, reviving delirious spectators. Not this time. Foggy mornings, breezy, puff cloudy afternoons with 70-degree temps produced the best event in quite a while and it showed in the clocks.

The big tip in Top Fuel came early Friday afternoon when Tony Schumacher's Exide Batteries digger clicked with a track record 320.12 speed in the first session. That evening Bob Vandergriff Jr. annihilated the late great Blaine Johnson's 4.612 track record with a 4.552 in his Jerzees dragster. One pair after that, Kenny Bernstein's Bud King stilled the clocks with a 4.559.

Of those three, only one made the final and he was runner-up. Schumacher's motor appeared to over-rev near the lights and the result was an exploding blower and fireball. Doug Kalitta, who lost a disappointing hole-shotter final at Seattle to Joe Amato, got his first win of the year when he took advantage of Schumacher's entanglement with a 4.61, 315.96. It was his second straight Sears Point win and the second of his career.

If you'd been in solitary confinement for the year up to the Sears clambake, one would've been stunned that Whit Bazemore's win in Chuck Etchells' Kendall Camaro was his first win of the year. He absolutely toyed with the field in his three-race-old, Chevy-bodied car downing Frank Pedregon Jr. and the Jim Dunn/Bob Guccione/Penthouse (Ooh-La-La) Pontiac. Nuthin' but fours, low 5.0s and 300-mph runs. Crew chiefs Mr. & Mrs. Richards were in the house, to say the least.

Former two-time NHRA Winston Pro Stock champ Jim Yates got his second win of the year, kayoing a tractionless Kurt Johnson in the final.

Don Prudhomme announced a major shakeup that next year will bring Dick LaHaie in as crew chief on the Miller Lite Top Fuel Dragster while Dale Armstrong moves over to the Copenhagen Camaro Funny Car. That apparently leaves Roland Leong, who started the year as the Funny Car chief, high and dry.

Noticias de Sonoma

… Track records were set in all pro categories, which again was in a large part attributable to the weather. The view from this pigeonhole is that if they ever lengthen the concrete pad, which is an NHRA record for national-event shorties at 80 feet, this recordfest will be an annual occurrence.

… When Van Bobdergriff ran his 4.552 Friday evening, it broke NHRA's oldest standing national-event site track record. The late Blaine Johnson's 4.614 was cranked in July of 1996. Johnson also held the track record at Bandimere Speedway with a 4.703, it too turned in July of 1996 and it was broken in July of this year.

… During round one of Funny Car, Chuck Beal dynamited an engine in the single most spectacular race of the event while beating, in the single biggest upset of the event, John Force. Beal's body went skyward, part of the block blew backward, and the chassis went sideways into Force's pit lane, resulting in John's clipping him in the rear at a reduced rate of speed. No injuries were reported.

… The loss for Force was the second consecutive time that he had lost in round one at Sears. Last July, "good ole' Al" (as John sometimes calls him) Hoffman did him in during the opener.

… Whit Bazemore's 4.87 Funny Car track record in the semifinals was a nearby .11 better than John Force's 4.980 mark of last year. In fact, in Saturday's first qualifying session, Bazemore ran a 4.93 alongside Force's 4.94 in one of the better pairings of the year. Imagine if that had been a 300- or 400-foot pad instead of 80.

… Overall, the Sears race was one of the very best in the event's 12-year history. One thing needs to be done, though. At some point in the future, the pits, staging lanes, and chainlink-fenced throughways to the spectator side have to be ironed out a little better. For example, twice, while trying to make it from the pit side to the spectator side, I found myself walking in the staging lanes leading to the race course. Fortunately, event security was on hand to bodyslam me and send me on the straight and narrow …. -Chris Martin

BRAINERD BITS

-Dave Densmore Reporting

Darrell Alderman and Scott Geoffrion in Dodge Neons to start the new millennium? That's the hot Pro Stock rumor with construction supposedly underway at Jerry Bickel's chassis works.

In the closest race in history, 47 points, little more than two rounds of racing, separate the first seven Top Fuel drivers with seven races remaining in the 1999 NHRA Winston Series. Mike Dunn still leads the pack, as he has all season, but the race is so tight that, realistically, he could wind up in seventh place before the end of the U.S. Nationals. The season's most prolific winner, Joe Amato, who's won four times, is tied for sixth in points with the most recent winner, Larry Dixon, and Kenny Bernstein, who has yet to win a 1999 race, is second, 19 points behind Dunn.

The success of John Force's two-car Ford team has spawned a frenzy of real and imagined alliances. First, Jerry Toliver announced that he was expanding his WWF team to include Jim Epler. Now it is reported that Jim Head and Del Worsham, already loosely aligned under the CSK banner, are negotiating a deal that would put them both in CSK Pontiacs next season. Also in the two-car rumor mix: Chuck Etchells, Alan Johnson (who reportedly would like to add a Funny Car team to the mix) and Al Hofmann.

Don Williamson, the Colonel as in "the Colonel's Truck Accessories Nationals" and "the Colonel's Brainerd International Raceway" reportedly is committed to spending $14 million on improvements at BIR over the next several years including at least one 125-room hotel on site. Already in place this year were a new and impressive main entryway and a new office building. Now, the Colonel is rumored also to be building a convenience store, reportedly because of a dispute, real or imagined, with the Tom Thumb facility outside his front gate. Williamson, who bought the controlling shares in the facility from former Top Fuel and Funny Car driver Gene Snow, reportedly gave NHRA a good faith check for $1.3 million BEFORE this year's event to cover the sanctioning body's share of the split and expenses. Of course, the Colonel isn't going to pay all of that tab out of pocket. Parking at this year's race was $20 per car, per day PLUS the admission ticket.

IHRA president Bill Bader is a busy man this week. His flagship racetrack, Norwalk Raceway Park, is hosting the IHRA Mopar Parts World Nationals presented by Ethanol Performs and he reportedly has a scheduled meeting with Fred Wagenhals of Action Performance Companies, the conglomerate which now includes GoRacing.com. Also rumored to be headed to Norwalk: Bruton Smith.

With LaHaie leaving Doug Herbert's Snap-On Tools team at season's end, look for veteran Larry Frazier to get a shot at running the whole show.

Despite pressure from the PRO, the NHRA likely will not adopt a 700 foot standard for concrete launch pads. Privately, the sanctioning body is playing the safety card, claiming that while the concrete is great for the pros, it is a detriment to sportsman and bracket racing which provides the tracks with their income on all but one weekend a year. Referenced as the prime example is the Texas Motorplex which has a reputation, deserved or not, for being a dangerous track for sportsman cars. NHRA likely will adopt a standard closer to 500 feet and will bring its company-owned facilities up to specs by next season. Already scheduled is a concrete pad makeover at Atlanta. Still, expect the new Las Vegas track to provide 700 feet of launch pad, the same as Bristol.

Speaking of makeovers, NHRA apparently has done a lot of work at Indianapolis Raceway Park, site of the 45th annual U.S. Nationals, but very little of it on the drag strip. The new grandstands, track repaving and other improvements to the IRP oval track reportedly ran in excess of $3 million though.

Improvements or not, IRP isn't in danger of losing its national event. The same isn't true of a couple of other NHRA locales, however. With next year's addition of Las Vegas and the likelihood that Bristol will eventually come on board as a full-blown national event track, NHRA reportedly is looking at places to trim the schedule since its pro teams already are maxed out on appearances. On the bubble? Memphis, Seattle and Houston, though not necessarily in that order.

The B&M Million Dollar Drag Race, contested the last three years at Huntsville, Ala., is moving down the road this year to Montgomery Motorsports Park, now operated by former NHRA marketing exec and Atlanta track operator Jim Teller for new leaseholder George Howard, Howard, who owns the Pontiac Pro Stocker driven by Rickie Smith, is partners with Steve Earwood, owner of Rockingham Dragway, in the B&M Million. Rumor is that the world's biggest drag race ultimately will wind up at Rockingham.

Del Worsham came into the Colonel's Truck Accessories Nationals not qualified for the Big Bud Shootout. His challenge was to qualify three spots ahead of Al Hofmann, who was No. 8 is Big Bud points going in. When it seemed that he would be unable to achieve that goal, the team reportedly considered pulling its second car out of the "attic" and putting another driver in the cockpit. The theory was that they might then bump Tim Wilkerson, driving at Brainerd for Pro Motorsports, out of the show and get his spot in the Shootout. The plan was scrapped because of personal friendships with and respect for Wilkerson, who went on to qualify 14th among the 16 cars competing at BIR.

Another sponsor bites the dust although it is unlikely that the NHRA ill lament the departure of Penthouse Magazine and its Pet Parade next season. With the magazine gone, it's rumored that "Big Jim" Dunn will be back in yellow next year with Mooneyes sponsorship. No word on whether that means the return of Kenji Okazaki.

Cruz Pedregon, late of the Interstate Batteries team, will drive a GoRacing.com Pontiac at the U.S. Nationals while trying to line up full time support for a 2000 effort. While Pedregon no doubt is a hot property, the 1992 Winston Champion reportedly ruffled a lot of feathers within the industry right when, immediately after leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, he made contact with at least two sponsors already aligned with existing teams.

John Force still is undecided about a third team, but the soon-to-be nine-time Winston Champion isn't undecided about adding a fourth 18-wheeler to his caravan next season. A new trailer housing a complete engine building facility already is under construction at Featherlite. The new rig is being built so that it will fit flush against the existing Castrol Technology Center, expanding the needed pit space by only nine feet. Reportedly, the new setup will take motors in one door and spit them, rebuilt and ready to race, out another.

Ronnie Capps, the Budweiser crew member not the driver of the Copenhagen Camaro, and Brandon Bernstein, son of five-time Winston Champ Kenny Bernstein, fortunately suffered only minor injuries when the Bud King Racing van overturned in a highway accident following the Autolite Nationals at Sonoma, Calif. The younger Bernstein, who was driving, reportedly was ejected from the vehicle but suffered only bruises and a gash on his head. Capps suffered a knee injury.

Tony Pedregon, driver of John Force's Castrol SYNTEC Mustang, will run the four-disc clutch at Indianapolis after battling the five-disc setup all season long. The change was made midway through the Brainerd race in anticipation of the U.S. Nationals and the notoriously marginal starting line at IRP. The team may go back to the five-disc configuration at temperatures come down and the quality of racing surfaces (Topeka, Dallas, Houston, Pomona) goes up. - Dave Densmore

NHRA MEDIA WATCH

The NHRA has recently retained the services of both an ad agency and a public relations firm. Certainly both are needed, but it appears that the PR firm is perhaps needed the most. In a recent edition of the respected motorsports weekly AutoWeek that featured a section devoted to the midseason review of all motorsports every major sanctioning body--with the exception of drag racing--got a report. Drag racing got the donut, zero, zip, nada. In fact, the only mention drag racing got was a couple of lines that followed a paragraph on the World of Outlaws. Same deal in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated which had a motorsports update section that neglected to even mention drag racing while once again the World of Outlaw sprint cars at least got a mention. Hope the folks at Hill & Knowlton Sports can help.

BRUTON SMITH HOT ROD ASSOCIATION?

Motorsports Tycoon Bruton Smith is taking more than a casual interest in drag racing. He has given his staff at his Ft. Worth NASCAR plant the go-ahead to build a dragstrip on the premises. You can bet Billy Meyer doesn't welcome that news. When the track at Ft. Worth is complete he will then have four National Event sites to run drag races on: Sonoma, Las Vegas, Bristol, and Ft. Worth. One rumor that has been floated is that Mr. Smith may look into the possibilities of fronting an eight race circuit of his own. It is well known that Smith at one time looked into buying NHRA and has talked to people in the industry about having his own sanctioning body. A Smith backed sanctioning body is just a rumor but a very intriguing one and just the thought of Bruton Smith doing this could make the boys in Glendora very nervous.

WINSTON OUT OF NHRA BY 2001?

Sources tell Agent 1320 that Winston will be around for one more year as the major sponsor for NHRA drag racing and then will ankle off into the sunset in 2001. It will be interesting to see whom the Glendora Gang romances to replace them.

IHRA GETS TNN T.V. DEAL FOR 2000

Evidently Bill Bader and IHRA are having better success putting together a television package than NHRA is. Reliable IHRA sources indicate that the Bader has inked a deal with TNN that for the 2000 season will be putting IHRA races on the tube at least 13 times on Sunday nights at 10:30 Eastern and 7:30 on the left coast. Several reliable sources confirmed that part of the reason that IHRA got such a good package from TNN was that TNN found dealing with IHRA much easier than dealing with the NHRA.

DUNN WILL DRIVE FOR GWYNN UNLESS IN 2000?

The rumor mill has it that Mike Dunn told has told Darrell Gwynn that if he puts together a program for 2000 he will be the driver. In the mean time Dunn is looking just in case the Gwynn family doesn't close on the sponsorships that they are rumored to be close to signing.

SIGHTUMS

Mr Presley,  Mr Force   Mr Force, Mr Presley Or Force meets Presley at a 1000ft	Becky Kuhns, sister of the late NHRA photographer Les Lovett, stopped for a chat with John Force in the pits at the St. Louis race.

IHRA IN TEXAS IN 2000

Sources in Abilene, Texas have confirmed that there has been a Bader sighting at that West Texas town. It has been confirmed that there is a group in the town trying to raise the funds to build a track and that if it is built IHRA has said they will put a race on there. Interestingly Abilene has a population of around 100,000 and is the home to several Christian Colleges. On the other hand it is a much larger town than Norwalk, Ohio or Ennis, Texas.

SEVEN SECOND FUEL FLATHEAD

You are reading that correctly There is now at least one fuel powered flathead. Rick and Vicki Schnell's nitro flatty ran a couple of seven second laps at Mid America Raceway which is located in Wentxville, Mo west of St.Louis. . Congrats Rick and Vick!

On the pass that the flathead ran its historic 7.724 It had a 1.164 sixty footer, 3.217 for the 330 and ran the eighth mile in 4.940/142.81. The fuel Flathead ran the back half in 2.776 seconds and ran the speed up to 173.73

On the lap the motor had 40% nitro in the tank, and 22 degrees of timing.

St. Louis area racers Larry Gould and Fred Bach have re-surfaced with a cammer Ford powered front motored Top Fuel car. The dragster was built by Dawson Chassis of St. Louis. Gould campaigned a Cammer powered flopper in the 70's and got a 242mph time slip at Green Valley in Texas. Bach drove front motored fuelers. Bach will be driving and Gould will furnish and tune the cammer engines.

Jack Harris driving his Neil and Parks fueler ran a 6.282/217.97 to defeat Lee Jenning's Chevy powered car who ran a losing 6.37/218.28

HALE EXPLODES IN OKLAHOMA

Sammy Hale driving the world's quickest and fastest nitro gulping small block Chevy is reported to have had a serious fire and explosion at the recent Nostalgia Top Fuel meet in Oklahoma. Evidently on the first qualifying pass of the event Hale had the Champion Speed Shop rail on a serious pass when the engine let go at a 1000ft. The explosion was so violent that it blew the front half of the block off, lifted the heads and the blower according to a witness at the race. It was also reported that the explosion damaged the frame to the point that the team had to sit out the rest of the event. The only up side to the deal was that the team did set low elapsed time.

NO MORE NOSTALGIA FUEL AT POMONA?

Reports from Pomona persist that due to noise complaints from the surrounding neighbors the last Goodguys Fuel race at Pomona this year will be the last! Stay tuned.

THE GREEK IS STILL FLEET

Chris "The Golden Greek" Karamesines has been driving fuel cars for nearly a half century. That in itself is fairly historic but the fact that the Greek is not only still driving a Top Fuel car but still qualifying at National Events is nothing short of mind boggling. Earlier this year the Greek qualified at an IHRA National Event at Darlington S.C. to become the oldest driver to ever accomplish that feat. Just to prove that it was no fluke he repeated the feat later this year at an IHRA event at Cordova, Ill. Way to go Greek!

RANDY MOORE GOES PRO STOCK NHRA & IHRA

Former IHRA Pro Mod standout Randy Moore, who ran both supercharged and nitrous oxide injected cars in IHRA Pro Mod Competition, tried his hand at NHRA Pro Stock racing at the Winston Invitational. Word has it that he will work on both an NHRA and IHRA Pro Stock program for the coming season.

EPLER JOINS WWF

Jim Epler has moved on again. After literally destroying his Fuel Coupe Corvette recently Epler either disbanded or quit the team he was working with. It didn't take the likeable driver too long to find a new home. He will be part of a two car WWF team with team owner Jerry Tolliver who by the way now is a partner or owner in three NHRA fuel flopper teams. Look for a big announcement Friday at the U.S. Nats.

CAPPS WILL BE GOLDEN AT INDY

Look for Don Prudhomme's Copenhagen sponsored Ron Capps driven fuel flopper to have a different paint scheme. Agent 1320 hears that the paint scheme will be gold. Word has it that U.S. Tobacco will return as sponsor of the Prudhomme flopper in some form in 2000.

photos by Jeff Burk, Ron Lewis, Tim Marshall, and Jim Sorenson