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NHRA at Houston
4/20/04

randon Bernstein didn't have enough time to digest all that his Budweiser/Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster has accomplished in the last nine races. Tim Wilkerson was concerned he and his Levi Ray Shoup Monte Carlo Funny Car might not get enough cooperation from the tricky racing surface. Karen Stoffer didn't think she'd have enough money to continue racing after the Pro Stock Motorcycle season-opener in Gainesville. And Greg Anderson was afraid he might not have enough new ways to phrase how dominating his Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am continues to be in the Pro Stock class.

But each had everything he or she needed April 18 to win at the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

Stoffer, of Minden, Nev., became the seventh woman in NHRA history to win a professional race Sunday, earning her first Pro Stock Motorcycle title by beating U.S. Army-sponsored Antron Brown in an all-Suzuki final. After defeating Craig Treble and taking out both Harley-Davidson riders G.T. Tonglet and Andrew Hines, Stoffer took the victory with a 7.159-second pass at 186.38 mph that was better than Brown's 7.176 at 186.05 by a mere 0.0018 seconds, or about six inches.

Stoffer shared her achievement with Super Gas winner Erica Enders, half of the Disney dragster duo, who also recorded her first national-event victory. Enders, driving a Chevy Corvette, recorded a 9.933-second run at 162.51 mph to top Jonathan Johnson, who drove his Pontiac Firebird to a 9.912/150.40. Stoffer and Enders became the 35th and 36th overall female winners in NHRA. It also marked only the fourth time that two female racers won at the same event.

"I knew it was going to be a tough road for us because we had such good competition on our side of the ladder," Stoffer said."But we are a tough team, too, and right now anything seems possible. Wow! I think that's the only way to describe this."

She wasn't sure if her team was going to have enough funding to race this weekend. But sponsor Geico Insurance signed an extension with her, allowing her to compete for the rest of the season. And Sunday she was $10,000 richer.

"For a team that might not have been here, this is just amazing," she said. "To go from almost not being able to race to winning our first event is unbelievable. Geico Cycle-Gard stuck with us after Gainesville so we were able to stay out here. I'm so glad because we were running well and we didn't want to stop.

"All of the teams out here are so tough. We beat the Harleys back-to-back and then a tough Army team in the final. I think we've showed we can handle this level of competition and make a championship push. Why not? The way I feel right now anything is possible."

Stoffer said she and husband Gary, her crew chief, would savor the moment, once it soaked in. "I don't know if I've absorbed all of this yet," she said. "The fans were screaming, and so many people told me they stayed to root for us in the final. One guy even missed a flight out of here."

Bernstein, meanwhile, had fans coming into Houston to watch him race. For their efforts, they saw him drive the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster to his second victory this year and the fifth of his career that made him five-for-five in final rounds.

"We can't say enough about this team and the way the car is running," Dallas native Bernstein said as he celebrated in his homestate with father Kenny, grandfather Bert Bernstein, mother and step-dad Donna and Jerry Easom, and a host of college pals.

"When we're still racing and it's time to go into the finals, we don't have time to think about the statistics. But when you get a chance to digest it, it's pretty awesome to think we're five-for-five in the finals," he said. "That tells you the performance of this team and how strong they are. I don't think the win is going to sink in for a couple more days.

"It's great to win in Texas and have my grandfather here, who's fighting cancer, my mom, who has never been at the races when we've won, my stepfather Jerry, and a lot of my Texas A&M buddies."

Bernstein, who earned his first top qualifying spot of the season with a 4.516-second, 320.58-mph effort, used a 4.695-second run at 271.79 mph to beat tire-smoking Clay Millican (5.032/238.81) for the $40,000 winner's share of the purse.

He won his opening-round test when John Smith had a red light foul start. Overcoming any concerns left over from his rookie-mistake move at Englishtown last year, he pedaled the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster to a Round 2 victory over Cory McClenathan and advanced to the final by knocking off Scott Kalitta.

No one could overtake leader Tony Schumacher in the standings, but Bernstein pulled within 38 points. Larry Dixon eliminated Schumacher in Round 2 before losing to Millican in the semifinals and moved into fifth place.

With his 4.896-second elapsed time at 303.30 mph to Jerry Toliver's 5.081/277.03 in the Schick Quattro Toyota Celica, Wilkerson gave the Monte Carlo its second consecutive victory and himself the fourth of his career.

"The track was a little funky for us," said Wilkerson, the No. 2 qualifier who outran Bob Gilbertson, Eric Medlen and points leader Del Worsham en route to the $40,000 victory. "But it came around to us. It's wonderful."

Added the Springfield, Ill., native, "I just can't say enough about the guys, putting this car together. We go up and down the racetrack and had the same motor in the car all weekend, and I think that's a pretty good deal for a Funny Car. . . . Any time you beat the points leader it's a good day."

Gary Densham, second-quickest in the Funny Car field in his AAA-sponsored Ford Mustang, will go to the April 30-May 2 O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway in second place, 85 points behind Worsham and just two ahead of Wilkerson. Densham's boss, John Force is fourth in the standings with 302 points, 103 off the pace.

Wilkerson was just too consistently strong for Toliver, who already had overcome an engine explosion in qualifying that ruined one Celica body and a parachute malfunction that landed him in the gravel pit and broke his brand-new back-up body after he beat Phil Burkart in the first round Sunday.

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"I was so close to a win I could taste it," Toliver said after trying with teammate Jim Head's "The Punisher"-themed Celica body. "I had just one more round to win . . . but when the guy in the other lane is ahead of you all the way down the track, there's nothing you can do. You're helpless.

"Sometimes you wish you could stick your feet out and help the car go fast, like Fred Flintstone used to do. I didn't have to pedal it on the last run because he was running away from me."

Toliver's crew did a tremendous job in patching the car together and helping him jump from 10th place to fifth, just 15 points away from No. 2 Densham despite the problems.

Greg Anderson had no problems all weekend in earning another $25,000. He began by swiping Pro Stock's No. 1 qualifying position for the 10th consecutive NHRA race, dating back to last September's race at Chicago. His Friday night elapsed time of 6.693 seconds equaled the third-quickest run in the class' history. The Charlotte, N.C., resident owns the top seven Pro Stock passes in NHRA history.

Then -- turning in his fourth consecutive 6.73-second clocking -- he bested rookie teammate Jason Line, a former head dyno operator for Joe Gibbs' NASCAR Nextel Cup team, with a 6.738-second pass at 205.57 mph. Line, making his first final-round appearance in his ninth career event, ran a 9.466 at 98.16.

The victory gave Anderson his 20th overall victory, fifth this year, seventh in the last eight races and 11th in the last 15.

"This class is absolutely the toughest class out here," Anderson said. "We've got a great team here -- everybody knows that -- but it kind of showed this weekend that there are some teams making gains. The Jeg's team ran real well. They outran me in speed a couple of runs, and Warren (Johnson) outran me on speed, too, and that shows power. But so far my team has done a better job with the race car and getting the e.t. out of it. If we can maintain it, we'll be in good shape, but it shows guys are making power gains."

Anderson advanced by defeating Mark Whisnant, Larry Morgan, and Jeg Coughlin.

"I'm having a blast, an absolute blast," Anderson said. "I keep thinking that I'm going to wake up and it's all going to be over, but right now everybody on the team's at the top of their game. There are a lot of guys out there with power, but they show it sporadically. You've got to do it every run, every race track you go to, and that's what we've been able to do and what I'm most proud of. It's obviously not going to continue forever, but we're going to ride this wave for as long as we can."

Mike Ashley is starting to ride it again. He commemorated the 40th anniversary of the release of the first Mustang by defeating Zach Barklage in the exhibition-class Pro Mod

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finals in his Unique Performance-built Shelby GT 500E '67 Mustang.

The victory was Ashley's first in the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge series since October 2002 at Dallas.

"It's great! Oh, so sweet," Ashley said after eliminating Scotty Cannon, who qualified his Studebaker for his first AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge appearance, reigning IHRA champ Mitch Stott in his Chevy Camaro, and finally Barklage in a Pontiac Grand Am. "We struggled so much last year, but at the end of the year our 2004 season began. We put over 120 laps on our cars since then. It's starting to show now. We're No. 1 in the points, No. 1 in the shootout deal, and we won this race today."

Ashley, top qualifier for the first time since the 2002 Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., won with a 6.180-second pass at 229.98 mph to Barklage's 6.193/232.59.

Sportsman-class winners included Mitch Myers in Top Alcohol Dragster (who beat David Wells, 5.307/258.17 to 5.355/263.31); Jay Payne in Top Alcohol Funny Car (with a 5.560/ 260.36 in his Chevy Camaro over Steve Gasparrelli in a Pontiac Firebird at 5.885/240.81).

Others were:

Competition Eliminator -- Michael Johnson, Chevy Cavalier, 8.812/144.13 def. Joey Tanksley, Dragster, 6.941/187.34.

Super Stock -- Larry Stewart, Chevy Nova, 9.971/128.03 def. Pete Peery, Oldsmobile Calais, 9.677/137.26.

Stock Eliminator -- Lee Zane, Buick Apollo, 11.964/97.29 def. Jeff Miller, Chevy Camaro, foul.