Drag racing roars toward end of season

Drag racing this weekend will end a tragic and tumultuous season, and decide a close championship fight in its 300-mph funny car class, in the series finale at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.

Two of the four major classes of dragsters in the National Hot Rod Assn.’s top-tier Powerade Series either have been decided, or close to it, under the series’ Countdown to the Championship format.

Tony Schumacher extended his remarkable domination of the top fuel division by clinching his fifth consecutive title, and sixth overall, at the race two weeks ago in Las Vegas.

And in pro stock cars, Jeg Coughlin needs only to qualify for this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals to win his second straight championship and fourth overall.

But the titles for funny cars and pro stock motorcycles are still up for grabs.

Qualifying starts today and continues Friday and Saturday. The top 16 racers in each class advance to the final eliminations Sunday.

Cruz Pedregon, a Torrance native who won his first and only championship 16 years ago, vaulted into the funny car point lead with a win two weeks ago in Las Vegas.

But Pedregon, 45, leads Tim Wilkerson by only 12 points and Robert Hight -- who drives for the team of legendary funny car racer John Force of Yorba Linda -- trails by 39. Hight beat Pedregon last February to win the series’ season opener in Pomona.

Pedregon’s younger brother, Tony, is fourth, 62 points back. Tony is the reigning funny car champion, and Cruz said Wednesday that he hopes to keep it in the family.

“It’s great to be back in this position again, I’m going to enjoy it for every last moment,” Cruz Pedregon said. “I was getting to where I didn’t want people to bring up the [last] championship because it was so long ago.”

But Wilkerson likes his chances too, because it’s expected to be warm through the weekend with high temperatures in the mid-80s, conditions that favor his car.

“The weather is going to play into our hands a little better,” he said. “When it’s 65, 70 degrees outside and the track is between 70 and 80 degrees . . . I’m hit or miss in that kind of weather.”

For all the drivers, the races are shorter than they were a year ago, owing to a string of tragic accidents that prompted the Glendora-based NHRA to make unprecedented changes this summer to slow down the cars.

Both top fuel and funny cars had been reaching top speeds near 330 mph on the NHRA’s traditional quarter-mile tracks.

But after veteran Scott Kalitta was killed June 21 in a race in Englishtown, N.J., the sanctioning body shortened the race distance to 1,000 feet from 1,320 feet, to slow the dragsters’ top speeds and give them more room for error in case of accidents.

Another funny car racer, Hight’s teammate Eric Medlen, died from injuries in a practice crash in March 2007. And Force, winner of 14 funny car championships, nearly lost his life when his car crashed in September 2007.

The effervescent Force, 59, has since returned to driving for his team, which also includes his daughter Ashley Force, 25, a fan favorite.

This weekend also marks the last race for funny car driver Gary Scelzi of Fresno, who has won championships in both the funny car and top fuel classes.

“This is it for a while,” said Scelzi, 48, who previously announced that he would stop racing to tend to his family’s custom truck body manufacturing business.

The Pomona track, he said, has “a lot of meaning, a lot of history, and it’s going to be an emotional race for me.”

There also is a tight championship fight in the pro stock motorcycle class. Matt Smith leads Eddie Krawiec and Chris Rivas by 19 points and 39 points, respectively.

In honor of Veterans Day, the NHRA is offering free tickets to all active and retired military personnel for Friday’s qualifying rounds.

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james.peltz@latimes.com