All Three World Champion Drag Racers Repeat : Garlits Clinches Title Before Jumping Gun; Bernstein and Glidden Score Wins

For the first time in the history of drag racing, all three Winston World champions--Don Garlits of Ocala, Fla., in top fuel, Kenny Bernstein of Newport Beach in funny car and Bob Glidden of Whiteland, Ind., in pro stock--retained their championships this season.

Bernstein clinched his crown two weeks ago in Phoenix, but he put the capper on the season Sunday with a come-from-behind victory over Billy Meyer in the World Finals at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona before an estimated crowd of 42,000.

Garlits and Glidden assured themselves of their titles when each won a first-round match Sunday. Glidden, like Bernstein, went on to win the World Finals, too, but Garlits wasn’t so fortunate.

In a rare display of being over-anxious, Big Daddy triggered the red light in his second-round match against his heir apparent, Darrell Gwynn, 25, of Miami.

“I thought I saw a glint of yellow from the lights going amber, but I guess I didn’t,” Garlits said. “When I got by Gene Snow in the first round and knew I was the champion again it really hyped me up.”

It was the first time Garlits had red-lighted in two years.

Gwynn, who lost his last two meetings with Garlits in the final rounds of the U. S. Nationals at Indianapolis and the Chief Nationals at Ennis, Tex., displayed remarkable consistency to win the final round over former World champion Joe Amato. It was Gwynn’s second straight victory at Pomona, having won the Winternationals last February.

“You don’t know what it means for me to race against him (Garlits),” Gwynn said. “It’s so hard for me mentally, knowing he has 30 years of experience on me. I felt great today, knowing I had driven right against him.

“The last two times I’ve raced him, I went to sleep the first time and I red-lighted the second time.”

Gwynn put on one of the most consistent displays of high-speed driving ever seen. All four of his runs were in the 5.30-second bracket, a feat never before accomplished. The likeable youngster, whose father, Jerry, runs the family’s top fuel operation, ran 5.352 to defeat Ray Stutz, then 5.395 against Garlits; 5.326 against Dick LaHaie and 5.361 in the finals against Amato.

The semifinal-round time bettered the track record of 5.327 set Saturday by San Jacinto potato farmer Larry Minor.

“In the Winternationals I was the first to run all 5.40s and win,” Gwynn noted. “And today I was the first to run all 5.30s. Now I want to come back here next February and run all 5.20s.”

Minor was sidelined by Connie Kalitta in the first round when Minor smoked his tires off the starting line.

“I was going for a 29 (5.29 seconds) and had too much power for the track,” Minor said.

Garlits and Bernstein will each collect $75,000 at tonight’s National Hot Rod Assn. banquet in Ontario. Glidden will receive $35,000.

Garlits, who joined Shirley Muldowney as the only three-time World top fuel champion, predicted that Gwynn’s win would make him an even stronger driver next season.

“When you win the last one like that it always carries over through the winter,” Big Daddy said. “And I know how much to meant to him beating me, especially watching me screwing up.”

Gwynn will join Bernstein’s Budweiser team next season and move his operation from Florida to Bernstein’s shop in Orange, Calif.

“We’ve been looking for a double win ever since we started working with Gwynn at Englishtown (in July) and we finally got it,” an elated Bernstein said.

Both Gwynn and Bernstein will have a new look in their cars next year. Gwynn will have a modified streamliner instead of his conventional top fueler, while Bernstein will switch from a Ford Tempo to a Buick LeSabre.

“That’s one reason we wanted to win so badly here, even though we’d won the championship, was to give Ford a going away present,” Bernstein said.

In the final round, with darkness settling in on the venerable old Fairgrounds strip, Bernstein came off the line .016 seconds behind Meyer, but caught him at the three-quarter mark to win in 5.568 seconds to 5.695 for the track owner from Waco, Tex.

“Billy left on me and I knew it,” the 42-year-old Bernstein said. “I was watching him for quite a ways.”

Meyer, who owns the $6.5-million Texas Motorplex racing facility where the Chief Nationals were held, lost for the third time in the finals this season.

Despite having to overcome Meyer’s slight lead in the final, Bernstein rated his semifinal win over Mark Oswald as his most significant.

“This whole year has been a battle of the red cars,” Bernstein said. “Mark and I are close friends, but our rivalry is like a world war. We came out on top through the year, 7-3, but every race was like today’s, too close to call.”

Bernstein ran his quickest quarter-mile, 5.563 seconds, in beating Oswald, who had the day’s fastest funny car speed of 266.82 m.p.h. That bettered the day-old record of 265.72 by Mike Dunn.

Glidden’s win was a perfect ending to his seventh World championship season.

“This one was the best, no doubt about it,” Glidden said. “Considering what we had to overcome, it definitely took more effort on our part, especially my wife, Etta, and our boys, Billy and Rusty.”

If Etta had her way, the season and perhaps Bob’s career would have ended at the Southern Nationals last April in Atlanta. Glidden had just completed a run and deployed his parachute when a gust of wind caught it and sent his T-Bird catapulting down the track. Pictures show the car fliped 6 1/2 times, including three while riding the guard rail.

“That dropped us so far out of the running that Etta and I decided at Denver in July that we should forget the championship and start running to win events,” Glidden said. “When we won that one, it changed things around and here we are.”

Glidden won six of the final seven races to overtake Warren Johnson for the championship.