Notes from Gainesville

By Susan Wade
3/23/04

Del Worsham (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) gave Pontiac a double victory at the Mac Tools Gatornationals. And it appears that 16th of Worsham's career, his first at Gainesville Raceway, will be his last in a Pontiac.

His Checker Schucks Kragen team will debut its Chevy Monte Carlo at the NHRA's next event, the April 2-4 SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"I kind of feel bad about the old Pontiac," Worsham said. "It has been so good to me, but they tell me the Monte Carlo's even better. So we'll see."

Don Prudhomme's twin Skoal-sponsored entries were the first to receive General Motors' newest body, but drivers Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson Jr. have had trouble getting beyond the second round with it. Capps logged his third straight opening-round loss, and Johnson posted his second straight quarterfinal exit after a Round 1 defeat in the Winternationals.

Tim Wilkerson claimed the distinction of giving the Monte Carlo its first No. 1 qualifier status, leading the Funny Car field in his first time out with the new body on his Levi Ray & Shoup-sponsored car.

He outran Bob Gilbertson in the opening round but gave the NHRA's best crowd in a long time something to talk about in the second. It came against Cruz Pedregon in a rematch of their final-round pairing at Reading last fall, a race Wilkerson won. At about 200 or 300 feet after the starting-line launch, Wilkerson's parachutes deployed. He ran the quarter-mile with them fully opened. Pedregon appeared to be an easy winner but lost traction at about the 330-foot mark. Wilkerson missed a return to the final round by five-thousandths of a second, a John Force victim.

Wilkerson said the Monte Carlo "did us well I think. Looks like it's going to be a good body." Then, using his trademark humor, he added, "We know what it does when it drags a parachute for a thousand feet anyway."

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Perhaps it's because the Pro Stock Motorcycle class races just 15 times a year, but Byron Hines might be the least-heralded successful tuner in NHRA.

The Gatornationals marked the opening of the schedule, the Harley- Davidson program's third year. And son Andrew Hines took the V-Rod Harley to the No. 1 qualifying position and the winners circle at the Gatornationals in the class' season opener.

Considering Andrew Hines left with the track record, one he rewrote twice during the weekend, and came within two-thousandths of Angelle Savoie's national elapsed-time record of 7.049 seconds, Byron Hines just might pad his already impressive tuning record.

G.T. Tonglet, the Gatornationals runner-up, unveiled the first factory- backed Harley-Davidson in NHRA competition in 2002. In 2003, he immediately followed his runner-up finish at St. Louis with a No. 1 qualifying position at Denver -- all under Byron Hines' eye.

Andrew Hines' brother, Matt, dominated the Pro Stock Bike standings in 1997 and 1998 and derailed Savoie in 1999 for his third straight NHRA series championship. During his career, Matt Hines won 30 races and earned 41 top-qualifying positions with dad Byron as crew chief.

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Dave Grubnic, who never has won an NHRA Top Fuel race, had an excellent chance in the third Connie Kalitta-owned dragster as No. 1 qualifier for the second straight event. Many thought his ride would be a research- and-development car to support those of Doug and Scott Kalitta -- the quickest and fastest cars in drag-racing history. However, Grubnic said of his crew, "If they have an opportunity to go after it, they do." He ran a 4.623-second elapsed time at 311.74 miles an hour to master the newly paved lanes that gave so many nitro-class drivers trouble.

Grubnic, a 31-year-old Australian by way of Ennis, Montana, said no one should be alarmed that the Kalitta cousins qualified seventh and 12th. "These cars have their own idiosyncrasies," he said. "Please don't underestimate those other two cars."

No one is, although Scott Kalitta has been a first-round victim in all three races this season. He came out of retirement in mid-season last year, at the U.S. Nationals, and was runner-up to Kenny Bernstein in two of the final three events. He owns the fastest speed in NHRA history at 333.95 miles an hour (set last October at Dallas).

Doug Kalitta took out Larry Dixon in Sunday's first round but couldn't beat eventual runner-up Darrell Russell in the next. Grubnic was Russell's semi-final stepping stone to the showdown with Tony Schumacher.