MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Speed’s the Constant at Upgraded Pomona

The 33rd annual Chief Auto Parts Winternationals will open the National Hot Rod Assn.’s $1.35-million Winston drag racing championships today at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona with a new-look facility for spectators and competitors.

For the first time in history at the oldest drag racing site in the country, the Pomona strip will have a permanent operations tower at the head of the quarter-mile racing strip. Since last November’s Winston Finals, construction crews have erected a three-story, 14,600-square-foot VIP hospitality and media tower as part of a $4.5-million investment at the fairgrounds.

Also new will be 40,000 permanent bleachers, more than half of which have backed-seating, and a new Top Eliminator Club. The refurbishing was made possible after the NHRA signed a 15-year lease for the Fairplex site.

Prospects are also good for something else new in this first of 18 NHRA events--perhaps Pomona’s first 300-m.p.h. run or the quickest elapsed time in drag racing history.

The Pomona track, which proved last year to be one of the fastest and quickest in the country, is the same as it was when Eddie Hill ran a record 4.779-second pass in his Pennzoil top-fuel dragster, and when Kenny Bernstein and Cory McClenathan came close to 300. Bernstein, who set the record of 301.70 at Gainesville, Fla., earlier in the season, ran 299.90 at Pomona, just ahead of McClenathan’s 299.60.

“All the teams have had the last couple of months to stretch their technology to new levels,” Bernstein said. “I would not be surprised if we saw some serious numbers right now. It’s hard to say how the technology has advanced until it’s on the track, but from all the testing that’s been done, I’m sure we’ll see the numbers change all year.”

Bernstein, defending Winternationals champion, will have a new clutch system in his sleek Budweiser King dragster that is designed to give him the consistency he lacked last year when Joe Amato beat him for the NHRA championship, Amato’s record fifth and his third in a row.

“Dale Armstrong (crew chief) and Wes Cerny (assistant crew chief) upgraded the clutch from a cross-shaft unit to a cannon-type clutch system, which uses water instead of hydraulic fluid. It should make us run smoother. Last year, we’d go great in one round and then smoke the tires the next one. We were fastest all year but still couldn’t get our first championship.”

Bernstein is used to winning. He won four Winston funny-car championships before switching to top-fuel dragsters in 1990.

He didn’t even win the Gatornationals, the event in which he broke the 300-m.p.h. barrier. He lost to Hill in the final round. Hill, 56 then, became the oldest driver to win an NHRA national event.

Amato, who won the championship last year with a crew chief--Jim Brissette--he borrowed from another team for the final few races, will go after his sixth gold ring with Jim Walsh as his crew chief and Larry Meyer as engineer consultant. Walsh was promoted from last year’s crew; Meyer was Cruz Pedregon’s funny-car crew chief last year when Pedregon won his first NHRA championship.

Meyer left Pedregon when he chose not to move to Indianapolis, where car owner Larry Minor’s crew is located. Pedregon, who won last year as a rookie funny-car driver, has a new Cutlass chassis built by Murf McKinney, but fans won’t be able to tell the difference from last year’s winning car.

“We left nearly everything where it was,” Pedregon, the young driver from Moorpark, said. “We just decided we needed new pipe (for the chassis).”

Pedregon and John Force, runner-up in 1992 after winning titles in 1990 and 1991, hope to become the first to drive a funny car below five seconds. Pedregon holds the record at 5.076 seconds, set at Reading, Pa. Force has a 5.079.

Professional qualifying sessions are at 2 p.m. today and Friday and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday. Sportsman qualifying and time trials begin at 8 a.m. today, Friday and Saturday. Final eliminations will start at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Motor Racing Notes

MOTOCROSS--Jeremy McGrath of Murrieta, fresh from two consecutive victories at Anaheim and Seattle in the Camel Supercross series, will attempt to make it three in a row Saturday night in the Coors Light Challenge at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Defending champion at San Diego is Yamaha’s Damon Bradshaw.

HONORS--Rick Hendrix of Simi Valley was among several United States Auto Club champions honored last Friday night in Indianapolis. Hendrix won the USAC three-quarter midget title. Sleepy Tripp of Costa Mesa, who won the Western States midget crown, was not present because he is racing in New Zealand.

MISCELLANY--The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold Grand Prix road racing this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway.