DRAG RACING : FINALS AT POMONA : John Force Won’t Rest on Bonus

John Force is beginning to enjoy what it means to be drag racing’s funny car champion.

He clinched the world championship and its $150,000 bonus Thursday, but came right back Friday to take the No. 1 position for Sunday’s Winston Finals at the Pomona Fairplex strip with a run of 5.339 seconds. Thursday, he ran 5.411 and was in third position.

All he needed to beat Ed (Ace) McCulloch for the title was to qualify for the 16-car final eliminations.

“I want to win the championship by a knockout, not by a decision,” the former truck driver from Yorba Linda said. “My crew stepped up on that run, and now we’re acting like winners again. I’ve got to win Sunday to beat (Don) Prudhomme’s and (Kenny) Bernstein’s record of seven victories in one season. I might never get another chance.”

Force, who drove funny cars for 18 years before winning his first title, also earned a $50,000 bonus from Oldsmobile.

“Two hundred thousand,” he said in awe, then added: “I’ll just endorse the checks to (crew chief) Austin Coil and the Internal Revenue Service.”

Frank Hawley, driving Darrell Gwynn’s Dodge-powered top-fuel dragster, blistered the slippery quarter-mile runway with a 5.036-second run to lead the top-fuelers after two rounds.

“We made some changes from Thursday that I’m not at liberty to tell, but they worked,” Hawley said. “ . . . I’m sure we’ll run in the fours before the week is up.”

Hawley, who only took over the car in June after Gwynn was paralyzed in an accident in England, is not in the running for the Winston top-fuel championship, but the two drivers right behind him are. Defending champion Gary Ormsby, who needs to finish ahead of Joe Amato to win his second title, qualified in 5.052, but Amato was next in 5.084.

Darrell Alderman, the pro-stock points leader from Fairfield, Ill., had a 7.334 in his Dodge Daytona, .002 ahead of Tony Christian of Sarasota, Fla., in a Chevy Beretta.

Two more qualifying runs are scheduled today before the 16-car fields are set for Sunday.

Also today is the Budweiser top-fuel race, an eight-car shootout among the season points leaders. In addition to Amato and Ormsby, the field includes Bernstein, Dick La Haie, Lori Johns, Gene Snow, Frank Bradley and Eddie Hill.