DRAG RACING / WINTERNATIONALS : Quickest Cars Need Help--Fast

In an era where car sponsorships of $1 million and more are common in auto racing, it is a paradox that two of the three fastest drag racing cars in the finals of the Chief Auto Parts Winternationals today at the Pomona Fairplex are not sponsored.

Cory McClenathan, driving a family-financed top fuel dragster, set a National Hot Rod Assn. elapsed time record of 4.784 seconds for a quarter-mile from a standing start during qualifying.

The 31-year-old driver from Anaheim made his record run Friday, but to be accepted as a national record, he needed to back it up with a run within 1% of the record time. He did it with a 4.799-second pass Saturday.

This created the unusual circumstance in which McClenathan holds the national record, but the Fairplex track record of 4.779 seconds by Eddie Hill is faster. Hill failed to back up his record run last October in the Winston Finals, but it is accepted as a strip record.

Warren Johnson, defending Winston pro stock champion from Duluth, Ga., ran a track pro stock record 194.04 m.p.h. and a Winternationals elapsed time record of 7.164 seconds in his Olds Cutlass. Johnson’s other unsponsored Cutlass, driven by Don Beverley, is second quickest at 7.177.

Cruz Pedregon, another defending Winston champion and the No. 1 funny car qualifier from Moorpark, is well sponsored in one of the McDonald’s cars owned by Larry Minor of Hemet. Pedregon had a 5.108-second run Friday and no one beat it Saturday.

McClenathan closed the 1992 season with a victory at the Winternationals to finish only 92 points--less than a single round in 18 national events--behind five-time champion Joe Amato.

“We felt sure that would impress someone, but you can see it didn’t,” he said as he swept his hand toward the all-white 18-wheeler that carries his car with the words MAC ATTACK on its sides.

“There’s plenty of room there, and on the sides of the dragster, for a sponsor’s name and logo.

“The way things are now, with myself, my sister and my parents spending their own money, we can last until mid-season, but after that we need some help. It cost $1.2 million to run the season last year. We have several things going, and running the way we did here with a new car might attract some attention.”

Cory Mac, as he is known, is driving a new dragster built by Brad Hadman and crewed by Jimmy Prock that is quite different from last year’s model.

“We moved both the motor and the driver forward--I can’t tell you how much--but it’s substantial,” he said. “I was really surprised when we ran so well because everything went wrong in our test runs at Phoenix and Bakersfield. We only got down the track once in eight attempts, but everything came together here.”

Johnson, 49, has quite a different situation from McClenathan.

For seven years, the Georgia veteran was sponsored by AC-Delco during which time he was runner-up six times to first Bob Glidden, and then Darrell Alderman. Last season, after Johnson won his first Winston title, AC-Delco dropped him.

“It was a case of the company changing its priorities,” Johnson said. “They decided to concentrate on stock car racing instead of drag racing.

“How far we can go this year is something we’ll have to evaluate as we go along. It costs $3,000 every time we run down the race track, so if we win, it just about lets us break even for the week.

“We have some irons in the fire, but you never know about that sort of thing until they’re signed.”

Pat Austin, winner of the Winston Finals at Pomona two years ago, failed to qualify in a top fuel car that had plenty of sponsorship--but no crew. When Austin was on the track driving his alcohol funny car Thursday, crew chief Tim Richards and his entire top fuel crew quit.

“It was pretty demoralizing,” Austin said. “We’d had some arguments, like any team has from time to time, but we didn’t have a clue that they were bailing out. We tried to put together a makeshift crew, but had to work on the alcohol car, too, and we just fell short.”

Austin’s quickest run of 5.076 seconds left him as second alternate in top fuel. The Tacoma, Wash., driver--a three-time alcohol funny car champion--qualified third in that class, however.

Fifteen of the 16 top fuel qualifiers broke five seconds. Only Shelly Anderson made the 16-car field with a run of more than five seconds. She ran 5.018.