Johns Silences Critics, Wins Top Fuel : Winternationals: She beats Dick LaHaie in final after eliminating Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein.

Skeptics had a field day when top fuel dragster Lori Johns upset the who’s who of drag racing--veteran drivers Eddie Hill, Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein--to reach the final of the 30th National Hot Road Assn. Winternationals Saturday at L. A. County Fairplex in Pomona.

They watched her nervously sit in her car on the staging line before her quarterfinal race against Prudhomme, while her crew frantically tried to figure out why she had lost her oil pressure. They called the victory a fluke.

They pointed to her semifinal, in which an overeager Bernstein red-lighted on the starting line of the quarter-mile asphalt strip and was disqualified. They called the victory a gift.

Surely, Johns would be no match for Dick LaHaie in the final. After all, LaHaie had defeated Johns six times in 19 NHRA series races last year, and Johns had never qualified for a final in her two-year career.

But on a day of upsets before 40,000 fans, Johns, 24, from Corpus Christi, Tex., won the top fuel dragster championship, earning $35,000 and respect.

Johns became only the third woman to win a top fuel dragster title in NHRA history. Shirley Muldowney has 18 career victories, and Lucille Lee won at Atlanta in 1982.

Johns powered her dragster to a time of 5.03 seconds at a speed of 273.97 m.p.h., defeating LaHaie, a former world champion who is twice Johns’ age. LaHaie was timed in 5.03 with a speed of 273.72.

“Dick beat me six times last year, so I guess seven is my lucky number,” Johns said. “All winter, I thought about what we have to do to beat racers like Dick and Kenny Bernstein. “Last year, we were so in awe of what we were doing. We just wanted to be there (at the races), hopefully qualify and that was great. Before, we played it very, very safe. I decided we had to start taking risks . . . run the car on the edge.”

Johns reached the semifinals in four of drag racing’s 19 events last year as a rookie, including the Winston World Finals at Pomona in October. She called Saturday’s victory a milestone in her career.

“We crossed a huge hurdle today,” she said. “The crew and I told ourselves that we could do this, but I never really believed it until it happened. It’s so difficult to win in this class, and it’s going to be that way all year.”

Johns’ victory wasn’t the only surprise. Rookie K. C. Spurlock, 28 and from Nashville, Tenn., earned one of the biggest upsets in funny car history when he drove his Ford Probe to a victory in the final.

Spurlock was driving in his first nitro funny car event and had qualified last in the 16-car field. He had taken delivery of the Probe on Jan. 7 and earned his driving license only three weeks ago.

He had only four runs at Dallas and two more at Bakersfield in the car before coming to Pomona. But Spurlock served notice early in the afternoon when he defeated top qualifier, John Force, in the opening round of eliminations.

Force experienced a malfunction in his fuel system on the starting line and limped across the finish line. Force said Spurlock “had to go to the throat to beat me,” but Spurlock was just warming up.

Spurlock defeated defending Winston World and Winternationals champion Bruce Larson in his semifinal, and then beat Ed McCulloch in the final when McCulloch spun his tires on the starting line and never recovered.

“Someday, I’m going to fall off this cloud. I just hope it isn’t soon,” Spurlock said. “I would have liked to qualify a little better than 16th. The pressure beginning in the first round against Force was tough.”

Last week’s rain that postponed the finals for six days gave Spurlock and his crew enough time to identify and correct a clutch problem. Spurlock said he had an outside shot of winning following Friday’s extra practice session.

Jerry Eckman drove a Pontiac Trans Am to his second career NHRA victory in the pro stock class. Eckman, a 48-year-old from Ventura, defeated Bruce Allen of Arlington, Tex., by 3/1,000th of a second in the final.

“I thought Bruce was in the car with me, we were so close,” Eckman said.