Gwynn Wins in Gloom at the Winternationals

It was so dark that most spectators couldn’t see the finish line for the final run of the top fuelers in Sunday’s Chief Auto Parts Winternationals, but it was easy to tell that the kid, Darrell Gwynn, beat the old Bounty Hunter, Connie Kalitta.

The fire belching from Gwynn’s headers told the story.

In the darkness of a gloomy Sunday, it was like a night race at the old Orange County Raceway with the lights turned off. You could hear the ear-spliting roar of the 2,500-horsepower engines, side-by-side, and you could see the fire burping out the sides of the cars, but that was about it.

Tim Grose, the funny car winner from Saugus, could see even less. When he pulled his goggles down for his final run against John Force of Yorba Linda, they were so fogged that he couldn’t see. In mid-run he yanked them off and could see even less as he hurtled down the quarter-mile strip at nearly 240 m.p.h.

“I had no idea where I was at when I crossed the finish line,” Grose said.

Frank Iaconio, in a Ford Thunderbird, defeated Warren Johnson, in an Olds Firenza, in the pro stock final after Johnson had upset defending Winston World champion Bob Glidden in the first round.

Final rounds in the six sportsmen classes were postponed by darkness until today.

Gwynn’s victory was his first in two years as a professional after winning the top alcohol world championship in 1983. Only 24, he is the baby of the top fuelers, whose champion, Don Garlits, is 54.

Gwynn also sidelined Big Daddy, last year’s world champion, after Garlits had defeated Shirley Muldowney in an emotion-packed opening-round run.

Kalitta, the man Gwynn beat in the final, is 47 and won the Winternationals in 1967 when Gwynn was only 5.

“I never seem to race anybody within 10 years of my age,” an elated Gwynn said at the end of a long day.

Kalitta’s surprise win over defending Winternationals champion Joe Amato in the semifinals produced the fastest side-by-side race in hot rod history. Kalitta ran 265.48 m.p.h. and Amato 260.11.

On Saturday, Amato ran a world record 269.46 during qualifying.

It was a well-earned victory for the youngster from Miami, however, as he had five consecutive runs in the 5.4 second bracket, one Saturday in qualifying and all four rounds Sunday. He qualified at 5.48, then ran 5.406 against Jimmy King, 5.49 against Frank Bradley, 5.45 against Garlits and 5.46 in the final.

“I’d never won a pro race, but I won 10 sportsmen races and I had a good feeling about winning in the first round,” Gwynn said. “I figured I could run 5.40 consistently and I felt that would be good enough to win.”

Gwynn’s crew chief is his father, Jerry, who won the 1969 world championship in the super eliminator class. Sunday’s win was worth $25,000 from the Winternationals purse of $754,400.

“We’re a low budget team, with no sponsor, and in the back of mind I knew I had to win today to get some working capital,” Gwynn said. “The car worked flawlessly. We only changed one piston. It was hard to believe, but we didn’t have to touch another thing.”

Gwynn’s domination was so complete that he only saw one car’s wheel all day once he left the starting line.

“The only thing I ever saw was Bradley’s wheel. I didn’t have to chase down anyone,” he said.

Garlits, whose Swamp Rat didn’t look sharp even when he beat Muldowney and Gene Snow, had all kinds of problems with Gwynn.

“Big Daddy heard something go, so he lifted his foot to save all the hardware,” said Herb Parks, Garlits’ crew chief. The problem was a driveline failure. Gwynn had beaten him off the line, however, and had the race well in hand before Garlits lifted.

In three previous meetings, Garlits had won each time, including one last October in Pomona.

In the first round, when he raced Muldowney, Garlits had a severe case of tire shake and probably would have lost had Muldowney’s dragster not lost all its oil.

An oil-line hose snapped in Muldowney’s new Al Swindahl-built car, and before she reached the finish line all the oil was dumped out on the strip and the engine was torn apart.

“I saw him (Garlits) most of the way and my car was staying with him, but it was also tearing itself up,” Muldowney said. “I blew the motor apart in the lights--rods, blower, everything. But I was pleased with the way it still ran 5.71 with all the trouble we had.”

Most of the crowd of 48,000 arrived early for the Garlits-Muldowney showdown and two two old adversaries didn’t disappoint the fans.

Crew chief Rahn Tobler had changed engines in Muldowney’s car after her eye-popping 5.470 qualifying run Saturday, which was the quickest in her long career that includes three world championships. Tobler said, however, that it was a freak thing that ended Shirley’s comeback after 19 months recuperating from an accident in Canada.

“I’ve been around drag racing for 15 years and this is only the second time I’ve ever seen it happen,” he said. “It shouldn’t cut short our honeymoon, though.”

Muldowney and Tobler are planning to be married in Hawaii between now and the second NHRA event, the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 13-16.

Dick Lahaie, who set a Winternationals elapsed time record of 5.400 seconds Saturday, lost to Gary Beck in the first round when he did a wheelstand for about 600 feet.

“The motor didn’t get far enough ahead of the clutch,” Lahaie explained. “In other words, the car stayed glued to the track too hard and too long. It kept raising higher and higher, and I knew I was near the center line, so I shut it off.”

Another first-round loser was former NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini, who was offsides. Pastorini’s black dragster ran 252.80 m.p.h. in 5.61 seconds, but he got off the line too quickly against Earl Whiting and was disqualified.

Grose not only beat Force in the funny car finals, he eliminated defending world champion and No. 1 qualifier Kenny Bernstein in the semifinals. It was a repeat of his win over Bernstein in the Keystone Nationals last September.

For Force, it was overkill finishing second. It was the sixth time the Yorba Linda driver has reached an NHRA final in seven years--and the sixth time he has lost.

For Iaconio, a winner of 11 national events, Sunday’ pro stock victory was a long time coming. The New Jersey veteran had not won since October 1983 when he won the now defunct Golden Gate Nationals at Fremont, Calif.

It was Iaconio’s first win in a Ford T-Bird, which he converted over the winter from a Chevy Camaro when he joined the Budweister/Motorcraft Superteam last September. The win was worth $18,000.