IT'S A BIG MAC WEEKEND AT THE MATCO SUPERNATIONALS

By Dave Densmore.
Photos by Jeff Burk.

Kenny Bernstein, Tony Pedregon and Matt Hines led a Team Mac Tools blitz of the 32nd annual Matco SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park that included two national records, victories in three of the four professional categories and a 4.779 second quarter-mile effort that equaled the quickest time in Funny Car history.

At an event at which he announced that he would drive the Mac/Bud King Top Fuel dragster for one more season before retiring to car ownership, Bernstein handily beat the last of the Matco Tools entries (Tony Schumacher) in the semifinals. He then used quick time of the meet (4.532 seconds) to turn back defending champion Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Special in the final.

Pedregon, who had not won a round of Funny Car racing since the season-opening AutoZone Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., rebounded in spectacular fashion at Raceway Park by driving the Castrol SYNTEC/Mac Tools Ford Mustang to a wire-to-wire victory that included a final round conquest of boss, teammate and mentor John Force.

As for Hines, he boosted the NHRA national speed record to 194.10 miles per hour on the way to his second Pro Stock Motorcycle victory of the season astride his Eagle One/Mac Suzuki. The win, which came at the expense of first time finalist G.T. Tonglet, enabled Hines to open up a 96-point lead on Mac Tools teammate Antron Brown, the No. 1 qualifier who, before losing in the second round, set a national ET record of 7.103 seconds.

How dominant was the Team Mac? It had three of the four Top Fuel semifinalists (Bernstein, Kalitta and Larry Dixon, driver of the Miller Lite/Mac Special) and ALL four in Funny Car (Tony Pedregon, Force, Gary Densham and Frank Pedregon).

Ironically, the biggest shot of the event may have been that fired by Del Worsham, who didn't even manage to get his CSK/Mac Pontiac out of the second round. A winner earlier this year at Houston, Texas, Worsham was clocked in 4.779 seconds at 321.88 miles per hour in a first round Funny Car victory over Tony Bartone.

That time was the quickest recorded under NHRA's new fuel guidelines which restrict to 90 per cent the amount of nitromethane that can be used in the fuel mix. Not only that, it equaled the quickest time recorded under the more liberal old rules, the 4.779 that Tony Pedregon posted at the 1999 Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla. Worsham's speed also put him in select company as one of only four Funny Car drivers -- all Team Mac members -- to have broken the 320 mph barrier.

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