Departments - Missed Races

NHRA at Phoenix

by Susan Wade
3/9/04

he Top Fuel final round at the March 7 Checker Schucks Kragen NHRA Nationals at Chandler, Ariz., was deja-vu for Brandon Bernstein and deja-blue, or deja-blew, for Doug Kalitta.

The victory was Bernstein's second at Firebird International Raceway, site of his first career triumph in the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster. Perhaps more importantly, it was his first win since returning from his season-ending accident last May, a signal that he has shaken any physical or psychological discomfort.

Bernstein, undefeated in four career final-round appearances, is third in the standings and will try at the March 21 Gatornationals to score back-to-back victories like he did in his rookie campaign last season.

Kalitta, top qualifier at the season-opener (and at Phoenix last year), had to settle for his second straight runner-up finish with the MacTools Dragster. Moreover, he saw his elapsed-time track record fall to new teammate and No. 1 qualifier David Grubnic.

In winning the Funny Car race for the sponsors of his team and the event, Del Worsham had some help from teammate Phil Burkhart as he reached the winner's circle at the suburban Phoenix quarter-mile for the second time in three years. And the Newport Beach, Calif., driver did it just three days after twin daughters Katelyn and Madelyn celebrated their second birthdays.

Kurt Johnson had a bit of a flashback to nearly one year ago, when he beat Greg Anderson in the Pro Stock semifinals of the Gatornationals. Hardly anyone has been able to stop the reigning champion since then. Six times last season, Johnson was runner-up to Anderson. K.J. said it seemed like a painfully long time since his previous victory, last June 1 at Joliet, Ill. But the Sugar Hill, Ga., resident dispatched Anderson on a holeshot in the semifinal and outran 21-year-old Dave Connolly in an equally close final.

With even hotter conditions Sunday than the ones Saturday that made the track slippery and cheated the paying customers and drivers alike, Bernstein benefited from crew chief Tim Richards' expert tune-up. By the time of the finals, about 4:30 p.m., temperatures hovered at higher than 80 degrees, and the track gauge registered 112. But Richards and Bernstein found a way around it.

"Tim and Kim (assistant crew chief Richards) and the rest of the guys did a great job of dialing this car in to the hot conditions we faced," Bernstein said after using a 4.537-second pass at 326.63 miles an hour to beat Kalitta's tire-smoking 5.837/184.85. "They just kind of finessed it down the track each round. From my standpoint, the car felt great. It just went straight down through there every time. It was easy to drive."

The Lake Forest, Calif., driver added, "To come back out and get another win at the track where I got my first career victory after being laid up and out of the car for so long is really special. Having won here before, I had a level of comfort. And once we got past the first round and I saw how we were running and how everyone else was running, I felt like we had a good chance to win this thing."

Tony Schumacher, the Winternationals winner, fell to Bernstein in the semifinals but hung onto a two-point lead over Kalitta, 194-192. Bernstein has 188 points.

Worsham's victory landed him at the top of the Funny Car standings for the first time in his career.

The No. 10 qualifier in the 16-car field, Worsham eliminated Tim Wilkerson, Whit Bazemore and Burkart, but not before his teammate knocked off heavyweights John Force and Gary Scelzi. In the final, Worsham faced reigning champion Tony Pedregon, who had beaten brother Cruz and the other two Force Racing entries -- former teammate Gary Densham and his own replacement, Eric Medlen.

Worsham got the jump off the starting line and spoiled Pedregon's idea of a day-early birthday present to himself. Worsham drove his Pontiac Firebird to a 4.970-second E.T. at 303.78 mph, while Pedregon could coax only 5.098/251.58 from his Chevy Camaro.

Pedregon had won his previous eight finals and 12 of his previous 13. But a broken oil line caused him problems before he rolled to the starting line for the final run. Pedregon took it in stride. "We're still a new team," he said. "To make the finals is a major step for us."

Worsham, alluding to CSK landing two cars in the semifinals in the sponsors' hometown, said of his own better fortune, "You couldn't script it any better." He said he took special pride in the fact "we won four rounds, making solid laps and not having anything handed to us. We just flat won. In Phoenix. At the CSK Nationals."

He tried to keep the No. 1 ranking in perspective but couldn't entirely. "It's really too early to worry about, but it's nice," he said. "We just need to keep running strong, and these rounds and races we're winning now are all part of what we want to do by November. Tons of other great teams are out here to do it to, and we'll do our best to

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fight them all every week. But what the heck, right now we're No. 1 and I can't deny that. It feels pretty good."

He has a 186-151 edge over second-place Densham. Scelzi is third with 129 points, and Tony Pedregon is fourth at 125.

Jerry Toliver, the previous week's winner at Pomona, had all day Sunday to think about the cliches: hero to zero, penthouse to outhouse, Schick happens. He and his Schick Quattro Toyota Celica failed to qualify, bumping him from the points lead into a three-way tie for fifth place as the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series heads into in Gainesville, Fla.

"This is a very humbling sport," Toliver said. "We learned why it's so important to get the car qualified in the show on our first run." Toliver and crew chief Keith Adams planned to remain in Phoenix and make several test runs Monday at Firebird Raceway.

All the testing finally paid off for Kurt Johnson, although Connolly gave him a scare in the final. The winning ACDelco Chevy Cavalier, Johnson said, has had just 32 passes. However, it knew what to do Sunday, recording a 6.835-second clocking at 203.49 mph against Connolly's 6.860/202.39 -- enough for a 0.0008-second victory margin, or about three inches. He had advanced on a 0.0062-second advantage, or approximately 22 inches, over Anderson.

Connolly said his performance was "nothing to be ashamed of." And he was correct. The youngster from the Cleveland suburb of Elyria who turned 21 on New Year's Day had the advantage on the Christmas tree with a .032-second reaction time to Johnson's slower .057.

"Our ACDelco Cavalier made four absolutely perfect runs today," Johnson said. "In the final against Connolly, I thought I had a decent light, but it's tough to tell between the .20s, .30s, .40s and .50s out there. That Connolly kid is very good for the amount of experience he has. Fortunately, I made a good run and was able to reel him back in. Anytime you can win by eight ten-thousandths of a second, it's exciting."

As for racing against Anderson, Johnson said, "I know several people are making a big deal about my beating Greg in the semis, but winning the race is what really matters. Some people may haven been a little surprised by our performance, but I wasn't.

"As well as he had been running this weekend, I was glad to be within two hundredths of Greg," he added. "However, we prefer to work on our car instead of worrying about what he was doing. Throughout the day, we kept making adjustments, picking up our performance first in the front half, and then in the back half. I also think he might have been slowing down.

"In that semi-final race," Johnson said, "I felt my light was pretty good, but even so, I could just feel him there on my left-hand side. I wanted to look so badly, but I just concentrated on doing my job, suffering through those seven seconds and waited for my win light to come on. Fortunately, it did."

Anderson continues to lead the Pro Stock standings with 196 points, five more than Johnson. Warren Johnson is lurking in third place, 42 points behind his son. Larry Morgan, a semifinalist for the second straight week, is a point behind W.J., and Connolly completes the top five, just one more point away.