HOT TIMES IN ST. LOUIS

Notes and photos by Jeff Burk and Jeff Leonard

One hundred and thirty degree race track temperatures and high humidity made the NHRA Sears Craftsman Nationals an endurance test for cars, drivers, tuners and race fans. The heat even got to one of the Budweiser Clydesdale horses who were on hand to witness Kenny Bernstein's first and last win at the home of his St. Louis-based sponsor.

"This one's very, very special," Bernstein said. I don't think I've been this excited about a win in a long time. It's storybook stuff today. It really means so much to win in front of these fans. These are Budweiser people here."

Larry Dixon DNQ'd for the first time since the 1999 U.S. Nationals. Said a disappointed Dixon, "We had four qualifying runs and this is the NHRA, and we don't have provisionals. If we can't get it done in four runs, we don't deserve it."

THE 'FORCE' IS WITH WILKERSON

Tim Wilkerson's fuel Funny Car team doesn't run the complete NHRA POWERade schedule, but when he does compete the team is generally considered a threat and usually goes deep into eliminations. When asked in a pre-race press conference what he attributed his success to he told the crowd, "At the start of the year I bought 700 clutch discs from John Force. They've been a big part of our success. The only problem is that at the last race where I qualified really well and looked like I had a chance to win, Force told me that if I kept running like I had been he wanted to buy the discs back. I declined to sell them to him."

'SARGE' GETS ANOTHER GIFT

For the second time in his career and only the second time in NHRA competition a NHRA Top Fuel car was DQ'd after a win for having too high of a nitro percentage in the fuel tank. The limit is 90 percent. At St. Louis Mitch King beat heavy favorite Tony Schumacher in the first round but was found to have 90.4 percent nitro in the tank and Schumacher was re-instated. The only other time this has happened the car that got beat and reinstated was...Tony Schumacher.

MORE FUEL PROBLEMS

Top Fuel wasn't the only Pro Class where fuel infractions were a part of the action. In the AMS Pro Modified class, number one qualifier Mitch Stott and another competitor Wayne Torkelson both had their passes disallowed when their alky failed post-qualifying fuel checks. The fuel had to be purchased at the track and officials blamed the extremely high heat and humidity for the bad fuel. Stott refilled the tank with new fuel and went on to qualify and go rounds.

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