DRAG RACING WINTERNATONALS : No Longer Funny, Bernstein Is Still Fast

Three weeks ago, Kenny Bernstein wasn’t sure he made the right decision in switching from a funny car to a top fuel dragster.

“At one point, testing in Bakersfield, I was asking myself if I’d ever get used to the feeling you get from a top fuel car,” the four-time National Hot Rod Assn. funny car champion said.

“They’re two totally different animals, and I’m not completely comfortable yet. In my funny car, I felt the way you do about an old pair of shoes--real comfortable. I’m a long way from that in a top fueler, but today helped.”

In Bernstein’s first official pass in a top fuel dragster, he clocked 5.097 seconds for the quarter-mile dash down the asphalt strip at the L. A. County Fairplex track in Pomona.

“That’s the quickest I’ve ever gone, and it sure felt it,” Bernstein said. His quickest funny car ride was 5.25 seconds.

Only veteran Frank Bradley, who has been driving top fuel missiles for 27 years, was quicker in the first round of qualifying for Sunday’s Chief Auto Parts Winternationals. Bradley, driving a two-year-old car, ran 5.071 seconds and predicted a sub-five-second run before the weekend is out.

“If the weather stays the way it was today, I think runs in the fours are a definite possibility,” Bradley said. “I like Pomona. It’s my favorite track, and the NHRA has it prepared perfectly. The drivers couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Bradley ran 4.998 last October in the Winston Finals at Pomona, a record that was bettered in the same meet by Darrell Gwynn, who ran a 4.957.

The difference between top fuel machines and funny cars, Bernstein said, lies in the feeling he gets when the car is slightly out of shape.

“In a funny car, the weight is in the center of the car, and you can feel what it’s doing in the seat of your pants and correct any problem before it gets out of hand,” he said.

“In a top fueler, the weight is in the back, and when it gets squirrelly you don’t get that feeling until it’s already happening, and that’s too late. I don’t have a problem getting the car from point A to point B, but when it gets out of shape, that’s where I need more experience. I still don’t feel like it’s my office yet.”

There was a marked contrast between Bernstein, 45, the rookie funny car driver from Newport Beach, and Bradley, 47, the veteran from Santa Rosa, in their preparation for Friday’s qualifying.

Bernstein, with a new car prepared by Dale Armstrong, had 18 runs during extensive testing at Phoenix and Bakersfield, the latter on the old Famoso Drag Strip where the Bakersfield March Meets were legendary events 25 years ago.

“At first, we made a few half-passes, but we kept busy,” Bernstein said. “Six of the runs were full passes. We ran a 5.15 at Bakersfield last Sunday on a pretty marginal track and had a 5.16 at Firebird (in Chandler, Ariz.).”

Bradley did nothing to his car over the winter except repaint it with the logo of a new sponsor.

“It wasn’t bad for the first run after sitting in the garage all winter,” Bradley said. He lost in the finals at Pomona last October to Joe Amato.

Don (Snake) Prudhomme, also making the switch from funny car to top fueler, ran a 5.159 and was in seventh position. Amato, who ran against Prudhomme, had the day’s top speed of 282.39 m.p.h. in 5.112 seconds.

“Our first concern was to get down the race track, and we did it,” said Prudhomme, who was a top fuel champion before changing to funny cars in 1973. “We’re happy with the way things are going. We’re going to gradually step up and understand what the motor wants.”

Shirley Muldowney, making her first run for car owner Larry Minor in a new Al Swindahl-production, qualified fifth at 5.137.

Funny car veteran John Force of Yorba Linda broke the Winternationals record with a clocking of 5.288 seconds in his ’88 Olds Cutlass. It bettered the record of 5.320 by Winston champion Bruce Larson and just missed the track standard of 5.280 set by Mark Oswald last October in the Winston Finals.

“It was nice getting to the end of the track in one piece, after the way we left motors on the ground testing in Phoenix,” Force said. “We left a real iron pile over there. It’s good I have a lot of sponsors who can spend money, because I had a lot of motor breakage. They’ve been patient, and now I want to repay them.”

Today, Force will ride in a completely new honeycomb body that is 50 pounds lighter than the one he ran Friday. “If we get everything figured out on the computer, it should be a lot faster,” he said.

Jerry Eckman of Ventura surprised even himself when he led pro stock qualifiers with a time of 7.371 seconds in a Pontiac Trans Am. He has never been the No. 1 qualifier at an NHRA meet.

Thursday’s opening round was canceled because of strong crosswinds. Two runs today, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., will set the 16-car fields for eliminations on Sunday.