Career Comes Full Circle in a Quarter-Mile

Gordie Bonin sat strapped in the cockpit in the late afternoon, his life a quarter-mile and five or so seconds from having come full circle.

Years of memories flashed through his mind as he tried to concentrate on the lights in front of the car. From yellow down to green, then he hit the accelerator, hard. Alongside, but a bit tardy, Wyatt Radke did the same.

“Right away, I lost a cylinder,” Bonin says.

Still, the two funny cars sped down the National Trail Raceway, near Columbus, Ohio, until Bonin flashed under the wire at the end of the asphalt, beating Radke and reaching 284.90 m.p.h on seven cylinders. It took 5.312 seconds--and 12 years--from beginning to end.

Bonin’s victory in the semifinals of the National Hot Rod Assn. Oldsmobile Springnationals drag meet on June 13 meant a championship, because his finals opponent, Gordon Mineo, had crashed his car after winning the other semifinal race.

The title meant a landmark in his life. “I thought, ‘We’re back! Wow, we’re back!’ ” says Bonin, a 44-year-old Canadian who calls Diamond Bar home now that he’s driving again.

He had posted his last victory in 1981, at Gainesville, Fla., and that had been his sixth, dating back to 1977. He was a perennial funny-car contender back when John Force was still a kid trying to get started and Kenny Bernstein a restaurateur in Texas. It was a simpler time, before money became the controlling factor in sports.

“Back then, it was you and a mechanic and maybe a couple of guys you picked up along the way,” Bonin says. “You maybe had one spare engine. When we went to our first national race, in Indianapolis in 1972, we borrowed a truck and had two spare pistons.

“We were runner-up to Ed McCulloch and said, ‘How tough can this be?’ ”

He found out. Bonin didn’t win a national event until 1977, when he won two. There were three victories in 1979 and one in 1981, and then car owner Ron Hodgson decided that his money might be better spent on a brewery in Canada.

“He parked the car,” says Bonin, whose career was in the space alongside.

His wife Jody suggested that maybe it was time to get “a real job,” but you have to understand, Bonin says, that “racing gets in your blood.”

So, turning the sport into “a real job,” he became the NHRA’s marketing director. For five years, Bonin talked with people who controlled corporate money, trying to persuade them that drag racing was the place to spend it and stifling a yearning to get back into the driver’s seat.

“It was always a temptation,” he says. “But I had made a commitment to (NHRA President) Dallas Gardner and Brian Tracy (vice president for sales) that I would stay with them and learn the business.”

In 1989, Hodgson called him back to racing, this time in top fuel. After five races, the money ran out. Once again, it was time to rejoin the real world.

Bonin became sales manager for an auto-parts firm, whose owner was a friend. A few months later, the owner fired the middle managers, including Bonin. They are no longer so friendly.

An opportunity to drive for Gary Ormsby, who had been stricken with cancer, presented itself, but it turned out to be one race in 1991 only. When Ormsby died, his sponsorship died with him.

Back to the real world, selling extended warranties on cars. And then, Roland Leong came calling.

Hawaii-born and raised, Leong had been pitching a sponsorship deal to the state’s tourist bureau after his Hawaiian Punch money had run out. He wanted a funny car deal and he wanted Bonin--who had worked for him briefly in 1973--to drive.

The deal evolved slowly, in part because it involved negotiating with politicians who had to be made to understand that Hawaii’s fiscal year, July-June, didn’t dovetail with the NHRA season.

“Then, Roland called on Christmas Eve and left a message on my recorder,” Bonin said. “I missed him, and then for two weeks there were no calls. On the Monday before the Winternationals, Roland called and said, ‘Boy, we got jobs.’ ”

The deal was done at Pomona, while Force was winning the Winternationals funny car title in February. A press release was prepared, and one was faxed to Bonin’s boss in British Columbia. It was his resignation from the car-warranty business.

The season had already begun, so it was necessary to get the car ready quickly. Leonard Hughes, the crew chief, contributed his experience--23 seasons and 53 race titles. After missing the Phoenix weekend, the team debuted in Houston, but the car, a Dodge Daytona, did not qualify.

Then runs at Gainesville, Rockingham, Atlanta, Memphis and Englishtown, N.J., all led to the victory at Columbus.

Gary Densman was beaten in the first round and Al Hofmann in the second there. Radke fell in the semifinals, assuring a championship. Still, there were the finals. Bonin and Hughes decided to do the walkover in style.

“Leonard says, ‘You want to go for it? You want to see how much this track can take?’ ” Bonin said. “I told him, ‘Hell yes!’ ”

A cooler head prevailed, though.

“Roland came by and said, ‘Shut it off halfway,’ ” Bonin said.

With no competition, Bonin took the green light, ran the car to 232 m.p.h. in just over an eighth of a mile and shut down, coasting past the finish line.

“It’s funny,” Bonin says. “Roland came and looked at the computer and said, ‘Hmph, it figures that you get your best reaction time on this run.’

“And I said, ‘Hmph, it figures that I get my fastest halfway speed on a run you tell me to shut down.’ ”

They laughed, emotions mingling with memories and the realization that they were back--together.

Motor Racing Notes

SPRINT CARS--Leland McSpadden of Tempe, Ariz., has won seven California Racing Assn. events this season, including five in a row and last week’s event at Manzanita in Phoenix. The CRA returns to California on Saturday for a race at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale, where late-model stocks and mini-sprints will share the program. McSpadden leads the CRA points race with 807, with Mike Kirby of Lomita second with 692.

MOTORCYCLES--Jeff Stanton rode his Honda to victory for the first time this season at the Silver Bowl in Las Vegas on June 12 in the final race of the AMA Camel Supercross season. Jeremy McGrath of Murrieta dominated the series, with 10 victories in 16 races, finishing well ahead of Acton’s Mike Kiedrowski, who was second in the standings. . . . Ventura Raceway will have antique flat-track motorcycles on Saturday. . . . Speedway bikes will be at Orange County Fairgrounds at Costa Mesa on Friday night.

STOCK CARS--Sportsman, pro stocks and mini-stocks will be featured at Saugus Speedway on Saturday. . . . Super stocks, mini-stocks and pro stocks will run at Ventura Raceway on Friday. . . . Sportsman, street stocks and bombers will race at Cajon Speedway on Saturday. . . . Factory stocks will run a 250-lap enduro at Santa Maria on Saturday.