Ormsby Avoids Upsets, Gains Top Fuel Title

Showing a consistency unmatched in top fuel racing, Gary Ormsby swept through an upset-strewn field to win the 29th Chief Auto Parts Winternationals top fuel championship with a series of eight straight runs in the 5.0 bracket at the Pomona Fairgrounds strip before 50,000 fans.

Ormsby, 47, collected the $35,000 winner’s share of the nearly $900,000 purse by putting away Frank Bradley in the final round Sunday in near darkness with a run of 5.06 seconds.

Bruce Larson, 51, upset four-time National Hot Rod Assn. champion Kenny Bernstein in the funny car final, but in the pro stock division, nine-time champion Bob Glidden, 43, won his record 68th national event with a narrow victory over Frank Iaconio.

Ormsby, a Roseville, Calif., driver who won the Winternationals in 1984, had qualifying runs of 5.08 a week ago Thursday, 5.07 last Friday and 5.04 and 5.06 Saturday. In Sunday’s side-by-side eliminations, he ran 5.07 to beat Shirley Muldowney in a close race as the former world champion posted a 5.13; 5.07 to sideline Jack Ostrander, and 5.05 in another close race to defeat Dennis Forcelle, who ran 5.18.

The victory ended a losing streak for Ormsby dating to the 1987 Summernationals. Last year he never reached a final round in 16 events.

“Nothing’s changed but the car,” Ormsby said. “We got a new 300-inch chassis from Al Swindahl and bolted in the high-gear setup we used last year and no one’s beat the car down the strip yet.”

As a tuneup for the Winternationals, opening competition of the 18-race Winston World championship season, Ormsby won the Super Bowl of Drag Racing last month at Firebird Raceway near Phoenix.

“We had all the same power last year but our car was built for a transmission and we couldn’t apply the power to the ground. This year’s car is built for the high gear and I’m not driving any different than I did last year. All the credit belongs to the car.”

It was apparent early that it was going to be a mixed-up season for top fuelers.

By the end of the second round, all the favorites were gone. In fact, none of the semifinalists--Ormsby, Bradley, Forcelle and Frank Hawley--won a single event last year.

Connie Kalitta, who set a world record of 291.54 m.p.h. Saturday, and Joe Amato, the defending NHRA champion who was the No. 1 qualifier, both were done in by smoking tires off the starting line in second-round matches. Dick LaHaie, the 1987 national champion, had the misfortune of being the fastest loser in drag racing history as his 5.091 second run lost to Kalitta’s first round 5.059.

Eddie Hill, who amazed even himself by making it to the starting line for the first round with a car borrowed from Darrell Gwynn, had no fight left in his engine and idled down the strip at 25 m.p.h. Gwynn, who accepted the gift win from Hill, had won four of the last six NHRA races at Pomona, but it wasn’t to be No. 5 as his engine let go in mid-run against Bradley.

Hill, the silver-haired former drag boat champion and record holder, was clearly the crowd’s favorite when he rolled to the track in the unpainted dragster lent him by Gwynn after a horrifying airborne accident destroyed Hill’s car on Friday.

“There was a crack on the outside of the engine block about four inches long, and there is a crack on the outside. It has to be bigger inside,” Hill said. “I knew if I even tried a (pre-run) burnout I’d flood the track with oil so I just showed up in case something unusual happened to Gwynn.

“If he had happened to break (his engine) or ran across the middle stripe or something like that, I figured I could idle down the course and get to the second round. But he ran a perfect run (5.079 ET) so we packed up. I’ll say this--no crew ever worked as hard for 200 points as my crew did. They were up about 40 hours without sleep getting the borrowed car ready to run and it ran good enough to make the show and that was absolutely great.”

Hill, who over his 52 years has had some of the most frightening accidents imaginable on land and water, said he woke up unexpectedly at 3 a.m. Sunday and replayed every one of his eight serious accidents in his mind.

“I had never done anything like that before,” he said. “I decided that I should go to church and give my thanks to the Crew Chief in the Sky. I know for sure that without his help I wouldn’t be standing here today. Maybe watching my accident last Friday on videotape did something to my subconscious.”

Did he give any consideration toward quitting before accident No. 9 might happen?

“No, not really. You can’t help but think about things like that, enough to be concerned, but you can’t dwell on them. At least, you can’t if you expect to stay in this business, and I do.”

Hill’s wife, Ercie, received a person-of-the-year award from Racers for Christ, International, in ceremonies before the race for her assistance in the organization founded by Kenneth J. Owen of San Dimas.

Kalitta’s victory over LaHaie in a battle of Michigan residents--Kalitta from Ypsilanti and LaHaie from Lansing--was the quickest side-by-side race in NHRA history. Kalitta had been on the losing end of the old record when he ran a 5.093 to Amato’s 5.071 in the 1988 Supernationals at Baytown, Tex.

Kalitta ran 288.64 m.p.h. against LaHaie, but when he came up against Hawley, a former world funny car champion, in the second round, he lost his traction.

“I know it didn’t look like it when the tires lit up,” Kalitta said, “but I actually took a little (nitro) out for that run. It goes to show you how sensitive every little thing is with today’s equipment. I was hooked up all week and then I couldn’t get down the track.

“It was still a week I’ll never forget, getting that first 290 run and backing it up with a 289.”

Larson, a businessman-racer who is a teammate of top fuel champion Amato, won $35,000 in upsetting Bernstein, whose engine apparently broke halfway down the quarter-mile run. This was only the second NHRA win for the slender veteran from Dauphin, Pa., who started racing in 1955 and has been a professional driver since 1965. His first win came last year in the Cajun Nationals.

For Glidden, who drives a Ford Probe, the victory was more of the same. He has won the last four. The victory was his seventh in the Winternationals, dating to 1975, but it was his first since 1985.

“It’s nice to get off to a good start,” Glidden said. “It’s different, that’s for sure.”

In his last three championship years he got off to slow starts and had to make late-season charges to win.