THE NHRA WinnerNATIONALS ? Ahhhh ... Maybe ...

3/8/04

Photo by Jeff Burk

I don't care what the gospel spilling out of Financial Way was for 2003, but the company, to a certain degree, took it in the shorts, attendance-wise, at their national events. What was it? I think the ubiquitous and omniscient L.A. Times staffer Shav Glick said they were hampered severely by rain at 17 out of 23 national events. Not a good thing. Just look at Billy Meyer and IHRA in 1988 ... rain all over the place and a Mafia stiff in the trunk of a Lincoln in airport parking at the end of the year.

And wouldn't you know it? NHRA's first national production for 2004, the Chinese year for the death of a president, gets rain on its first weekend. As Gomer Pyle might put it, "Shee-yoot."

However, even if the first weekend washed out to the sea, NHRA genuinely bounced back in its second try, on February 27-29. I know I was there, sorta.

I really can't remember a race that started out so bad, finishing so admirably. Just take a look at the numbers. Numbers count for something. Pete Rose will always, as in "forever" be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame, because of his numbers at the plate in his 20+ year career. In drag racing, the E.T.s, and miles per hour mean a lot. No better temperature is taken than those qualifying numbers, in general.

At the start, Tony Schumacher and his U.S. Army Top Fueler cranked a 4.52 for a qualifying lead that lasted until mid-way through the final qualifying session at Pomona. Media darling (and deservedly so) Eric Medlen's 4.79 held up through all of Funny Car qualifying just like Schumacher's T/F number, until things changed in the last possible five minutes. Pro Stocker Greg Anderson ran the show, period. (Remember what I said a few columns back -- New "Bob Glidden", Greg Anderson!) Anyway ...

There was some drama to the slow-starting NHRA show.

Going into Saturday's final pro qualifying sessions, the race had all the looks of a ho-hum low Top Fuel E.T. 4.52, a decent 4.79 Funny Car pop, and a no-problem-with-that 6.71, 206.10 by Anderson and the Vegas Construction "Poncho." But much to my (and I'm sure others') delight, the pace stepped up noticeably in the final session and as Lucifer would have it, eliminations.

The second pair of Top Fuelers produced 4.56s, 325.22 and David Baca's 4.53, 317.81. After Scott Kalitta and John Smith's Prestone cars spun the tires into the proverbial popcorn machine, David Grubnic guided the Kalitta Air dragster to a 4.52, 315.49 alongside Clay Millican's Mike Kloeber-kicked 4.51, 320.81. After that, Brandon Bernstein's 4.52, 325.37 caused fans to go slack-jawed after being stretched out by Doug Kalitta's spinecrushing 4.48, 329.99 (277-mph at the 1/8th). Hey, the surf's up, I thought.

It was. World Champ Larry Dixon hit a 4.56. Tony Schumacher, and the sport's best Top Fuel mechanic Alan Johnson, pulled out a sap and nearly got low E.T. with a 4.49, 330.63 and Darrell Russell slammed Joe Amato's dragster through the lights at a 4.511, 323.55. All in all, the runs were better than I expected.