TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T
KNOW
Toliver's parachutes didn't open the first
day, because he was having trouble with the
newly designed gadgets that deploy them. Ray
Alley, NHRA's Director of Top Fuel and Funny
Car Racing, called him to tell him they didn't
pop out. "I didn't know that? It was going around
the corner on two wheels," Toliver said. "It
was just funny. Then we blew the motor up and
he said (to the crew), 'Tell him he oiled down
the track.' Well, I knew that! It was on fire!"
All went smoothly the next run, and Toliver
asked if Alley had called. Nope. "He only calls
with the bad stuff. We had two oil downs but
we won. We didn't make enough money to pay for
all the parts we broke this weekend, though.
We broke some stuff."
ANOTHER SEASON, ANOTHER
LEARNING CURVE
 Defending
champions didn't fare well at the Winternationals.
Two-time and reigning Top Fuel champion Larry
Dixon was a second-round victim to Doug Kalitta.
Dixon, who began his eight-win campaign at Pomona
last February, missed the chance to win the
Winternationals three straight times. "Every
run we make gives us new information to help.
Whether it's a good or bad run, it's all good
information," Dixon said. "We only have five
full runs on this new combination so far."
Tony Pedregon, the 2003 Funny Car king, exited
in the first round against Cory Lee, who had
the provisional No. 2 qualifying spot through
the rain delay and ended up No. 7. Pedregon
was the 10th quickest on the grid.
"It's just one race," Pedregon said after smoking
the tires of his Quaker State Chevy Camaro in
his brief appearance. "There's plenty more racing
to go this season. As I said, we're still learning
a lot, but we feel we're gaining and we're excited
that the season is under way. We knew it wasn't
going to be perfect in the beginning. We knew
we would have our share of learning curves.
But we feel good about where we're heading and
we'll be ready for next week."
POINT OF VIEW
Warren Johnson and son Kurt spent the time
between the rainout and the re-start of the
Winternationals testing at Speedworld Motorplex
in Phoenix. WJ said he "found a couple of hundredths
(of a second) out in the desert." His valuable
discovery might have gotten him to the final
round, but it didn't help against Anderson.
 Johnson
was philosophical about his first-race showing
with the new set-up in his GM Performance Parts
Grand Am. "We're not going to worry about what
other teams are or are not doing with their
programs. We simply have to get to work. Kurt
and I do most of the research and development
for our teams, and this rain delay kept us away
for two weeks, putting us way behind. We're
going to fly back to Georgia, roll up our sleeves,
and see what we can do to fix this. However,
if you look at this thing realistically, we
may have lost, but there is only one guy who
feels better than us, and 14 who feel worse."
DOWN, BOY
Cory McClenathan's wheelstand in the Carrier
Boyz Racing/Berryman Top Fuel Dragster was more
of a first-round thrill than even he would have
liked.
"I live for the exciting stuff," he said, "but
that stuff should happen during qualifying,
not race day." He called his car "an animal"
and said it "had shown some signs of wanting
to lift the front end during qualifying. But
during the race it just got too aggressive.
I hate that it happened because I wanted to
give the Carrier brothers their first win of
the new season. This team has a bright future."
His misfortune helped give Brandon Bernstein
his first elimination- round win since his accident
at Englishtown last May.
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