Winternationals : Bigger Than Ever, Garlits Wins for Fifth Time

Back in 1963, Don Garlits wasn’t even Big Daddy yet when he won his first Winternationals top fuel drag racing championship at Pomona.

Now, 24 years later, he’s bigger than Big Daddy, he’s a man who calls himself The Legend, and he’s about to have a $22 million motion picture made about him.

And, after a devasting performance Sunday, he is the Winternationals champion for the fifth time.

“This one felt just as good as the others,” Garlits said after scorching the quarter-mile L.A. County Fairplex strip at a career-best 5.29 seconds to beat former world champion Joe Amato in the final round.

The car, Swamp Rat No. 30, is one year old and headed for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., later in the season after Garlits debuts his to-be-built full-bodied streamliner.

“I’m confident we can go 280 m.p.h. before we retire the car,” Garlits said. “Probably at Ennis, Tex.” That would be Billy Meyer’s new $7.2 million all-concrete strip.

Garlits’ top speed Sunday was 270.59 against Dick LaHaie in the semifinals, but it was all he needed.

Kenny Bernstein continued his domination of funny car competition by easily disposing of Australian Graeme Cowin in the final after a rash of upsets had sidelined Bernstein’s potential challengers.

Bernstein, in his first outing in a new Buick Le Sabre after winning two world championships in a Ford Tempo, ran 5.490 seconds in the final, a shade slower than the national record of 5.482 he set in Saturday’s qualifying round.

Warren Johnson, who had lost in the Winternational finals three years in a row, finally made it to the pro stock winners circle by defeating Butch Leal in the final round. Leal had upset world champion and top qualifier Bob Glidden in the second round with a remarkable start that Glidden couldn’t overcome.

But Sunday’s crowd, announced by National Hot Rod Assn. officials as a record 54,000, belonged to Big Daddy.

When Garlits, 55, was towed back from the finish line after beating Amato in near-darkness, the roar grew and grew until it seemed as ear-splitting as the roar of his 3,000 horsepower engine.

Garlits had qualified only third, but in his relentless drive to a 35th NHRA national event win, he laid down a succession of runs (5.433 to beat Larry Minor, 5.456 after Bill Mullins smoked his tires, 5.366 to beat LaHaie and 5.298 in the final) that never gave the opposition a chance.

The closest anyone got was LaHaie, who came off the starting line a fraction behind Garlits and couldn’t quite catch him. The margin at the finish was .023.

“I always try to run conservatively,” Garlits said. “I don’t want to hurt the engine so we try to judge the competition and set our power accordingly. LaHaie gave us a scare, but we knew we had more for the finals.

“Herb (crew chief Parks) felt we could turn up the power about 5% without damaging anything, so our only concern was if the track could hold it. You could see the results. The track was perfect and we got our fastest run ever.”

Only three quicker times have ever been recorded, all by Darrell Gwynn last September at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis.

“We only changed one ring and one piston the entire week,” Garlits said. “It was mind-boggling how clean the car ran.”

In the World Finals, Garlits red-lighted and lost to Gwynn after having defeated Amato in the final a day earlier. However, he had already clinched his third Winston world championship.

With his 35th win, Garlits broke out of a tie with Don (Snake) Prudhomme as the second-winningest driver in history. Glidden leads with 52.

The way Bernstein’s radical appearing Le Sabre ran it may be a long year for funny car drivers.

Bernstein was coming off a 1986 season in which he won the last three races-and then made a daring switch of car makes. In the Le Sabre’s first official outing it set a national record of 5.482 seconds on Saturday.

After five of the top eight funny car qualifiers were upset in the first round, it was Dale Pulde who gave Bernstein his toughest run in the semis.

“Pulde caught a .420 (reaction time) off the light, which is phenomenal,” Bernstein said. “I was a little late (.540 reaction time) and I chased him almost to the end before I caught him. That was a scary one.”

In the final, with Cowin’s crew waving an Australian flag to cheer on their countryman, it wasn’t even as close as the Kookaburra has been to Dennis Conner. Bernstein, unlike Garlits, took power out of his Keith Black engine for the last run.

“Our main concern was not to give it away by smoking the tires,” said the Newport Beach driver. “We wanted the win to start off the new season right with a new car. And I’d never won the Winternationals before, either. I wanted that, too.”

Bernstein’s crew had to change engines after his first round win over John Force when he burned some bearings.

Tim Morgan’s top fueler, the “Morgan’s Flying Machine,” was named the best-appearing car--but that was before it ran.

Morgan, an alternate who got in the show because of a qualifying accident to Ray Stutz, was lined up against former quarterback Dan Pastorini.

Midway down the strip, Morgan’s car got out of control, crossed over into Pastorini’s lane, flipped on its side and banged into the outside wall. This righted the car, but apparently the throttle was stuck and it began gyrating into a series of barrel rolls.

Morgan, 43, of Walnut Creek, was taken by helicopter to Queen of the Valley Hospital in Pomona, where doctors said his condition was stable with a slight concussion. He remained overnight for observation.