MOTOR RACING WINTERNATIONALS : Prudhomme: Track-Record 4.934 Seconds

An overcast sky and cooling temperatures helped make a record-breaking day of drag racing Saturday during final rounds of qualifying for today’s 31st annual Winternationals, opening event of the National Hot Rod Assn. season, at the Pomona Fairplex strip.

Don (Snake) Prudhomme, who won the Winternationals in 1965 by running 201.34 m.p.h., celebrated the start of his 25th year in the sport by blistering the quarter-mile in a track-record 4.934 seconds at 274.89 m.p.h.

It was a tremendous turnaround for the veteran from Granada Hills who did not win a race last year after switching from the funny car class to top fuel. The Snake, who has won 40 NHRA events since that victory in 1965, will turn 50 on April 6.

“Getting low e.t. (elapsed time) here at Pomona makes it special for me, but more than that, it’s something extra because of the way I got beat up last year. It was so embarrassing to have to deal with that. This year I’d like to do some beating of my own, and this was a great way to start.”

It was the 52nd time Prudhomme had been fast qualifier at an NHRA event, but the last time he did it in a top fuel car was Feb. 2, 1973--18 years ago to the day.

“Isn’t that something,” he said. “The way I ran last year, I began to doubt if I’d ever get another one. Then to make that pass and break Joe Amato’s records, that’s really something.”

Amato, three-time NHRA top fuel champion from Old Forge, Pa., set the record of 4.935 seconds in the final run of last year’s Winston Finals. Amato also held the old Winternationals record of 4.976 set Thursday in the first round of qualifying.

Amato had one more chance to get the record back after Prudhomme’s run, but it ended when he smoked his tires coming off the launch pad.

Prudhomme was driving a 1991 model Swindahl, but he credited his turnaround to determination and a new crew chief from Arkansas named John Medlen.

“I had the determination, but even with it you have to have the right people,” Prudhomme said. “I got lucky and hired John Medlen away from Kenny Bernstein and he and I clicked right away. When we ran that 4.96 over at Phoenix two weeks ago in our first real test, I knew we were on to something.”

The Phoenix run was the quickest, but not the fastest, in Prudhomme’s career until Saturday. He ran 289.29 last year at Columbus, Ohio.

The 16-car top fuel field is the fastest in NHRA history, from Prudhomme’s 4.934 to Bobby Baldwin’s 16th spot of 5.105. The old record was set in last year’s Chief Auto Parts Nationals at Ennis, Tex., with a spread between Amato’s 4.939 and No. 16 Jack Ostrander at 5.111.

Glenn Mikres, a Riverside driver who made the opposite switch from Prudhomme--from top fuel to funny car--was a surprise top funny car qualifier in Joe Pisano’s Olds Cutlass at 5.330 seconds with a record Winternationals speed of 283.10 m.p.h. Jim White of Tulsa, Okla., had set the record of 281.77 two days ago in a Daytona.

“The morning overcast helped us quite a lot,” Mikres said. “It helped calm the car down.”

Mikres, 39, set the record in the morning trials and then passed in the final round after a series of oil-downs and wrecks delayed them until it was nearly dark.

“We’re getting a new car in a couple of weeks, but the way the car ran today I might not want to switch,” Mikres said. The car is a 1989 model driven first by Mike Dunn and last year by Mikres. It has always been a fast car as Dunn set a Winternationals record in it of 279.85 m.p.h. in 1989.

Darrell Alderman, the defending Winston pro stock champion from Fairfield, Ill., started off the season right with a track-record run of 7.229 seconds in his ’91 Dodge Daytona.

Alderman’s run bettered the day-old mark of 7.259 set by Warren Johnson of Duluth, Ga., in an Olds Cutlass. Johnson still holds the top speed record of 191.57, also set Friday. Alderman’s speed was 191.12.

Russ Collins, a top fuel driver from Torrance, gave early birds a thrill when he looped his 25-foot long dragster. After the front end lifted halfway down the track, it did a wheelstand and blew over backward before doing a couple of barrel rolls. It came down on its rear tires and then brushed the left side retaining wall and slid across the track, crossing the finish line while going backward.

Collins, 51, who was a motorcycle drag racer for 10 years before switching to fuelers, walked away.

Shirley Muldowney, a three-time world champion and twice a Winternationals winner, made the field for today’s eliminations with a 5.045-second, last-ditch effort. In her first three attempts, Muldowney--who is making her only appearance of 1991 in the Winternationals--had smoked the tires on her two-year-old car and failed to record a time.

Final eliminations will start today at 11 a.m.