Top-Fuel Final Is Aged to Perfection : Drag racing: McDaniel, 53, beats Nix, 55, after the favorites are eliminated at Pomona.

In the darkness of Halloween night, the National Hot Rod Assn. presented its version of “trick or treat” Sunday at the Pomona Raceway and the tricks were on the favorites.

Jimmy Nix and Rance McDaniel, two drivers whose combined age totaled 108 and who had only one national victory between them in more than 50 years of racing, met in the top-fuel final. McDaniel, 53, an independent driver from Fresno, won his first Winston Drag Racing Series event by a narrow margin over Nix, 55, an Oklahoma City driver who won the 1965 top gas class in the Winternationals at Pomona.

When the lights came on for TV to record the final round, gone was Eddie Hill, the Winston champion who was upset in the first round because of smoking tires. Gone was Cory McClenathan, the fastest qualifier, who bowed out despite running a record three consecutive 300-m.p.h. runs. And gone was Kenny Bernstein, winner of $50,000 in the Budweiser Classic on Saturday, a loser by .001 second to McDaniel in the semifinal round.

“This just shows what an unsponsored guy can do with a little effort and some good friends,” McDaniel said. “The crew is all volunteers and they even pay their own way to the races. I can’t say enough about what a great job they did.”

McDaniel, who dropped out of drag racing for nine years before returning last year, earned about $40,000 for his victory.

“Maybe this will get us some sponsorship next year,” he said. “I know one thing, this is the most fun I can have, I’m sure never going to quit again.”

The funny cars were little different, although the final round left the estimated 48,000 fans feeling a little empty as Jim Epler won with a solo run. Al Hoffman, the other finalist, could not move his car in reverse after his pre-race burnout and had to withdraw.

John Force, the Winston funny-car champion and winner of 11 races this season, saw his tires go up in smoke in the semifinals. Chuck Etchells, the fastest qualifier and first driver to break into four seconds in a funny car, couldn’t make up the margin he lost coming off the starting line even though he ran the quarter mile in 5.315 seconds to 5.331 for Epler.

Only the pro-stock driving Johnsons of Georgia, father Warren and son Kurt, kept any semblance of order in one of the most competitive days--and nights--of drag racing ever seen in the 29 years of racing on the fairgrounds in Pomona.

Warren, 50, defeated Kurt, 30, in a battle of Oldsmobiles, reversing the results of their last two races together.

“The old man ain’t dead yet, is he?” Warren exclaimed after an impressive final round run in 7.11 seconds at 194.67 m.p.h.

Form also prevailed in the pro stock motorcycle final, won by Winston champion David Schultz of Fort Myers, Fla., when Byron Hines of Villa Park jumped the gun and fouled the start.

McDaniel became the seventh different top fuel winner in the last seven finals, following Tommy Johnson Jr., Hill, Pat Austin, Shelly Anderson, Scott Kalitta and Mike Dunn.

Hill, who will pick up the champion’s bonus of $150,000 at the NHRA awards banquet tonight in Ontario, was eliminated by Austin in the first round when his tires smoked the instant he hit the throttle.

“We just overpowered the car,” Hill said. “I guess we tried to get too aggressive.”

Hill finished the 18-event season with a 1,256-point margin over Kalitta. It was the widest margin since 1985 when Don Garlits won by 2,204 over Joe Amato.

Of the day’s losers, McClenathan was the most impressive. Making his final start in the family’s Mac Attack dragster, the 30-year-old Anaheim driver ran 300.60 m.p.h. to sideline Clayton Harris, 301.50 to beat Dunn and a track-record 302.21 in losing to Nix.

“I should have done my job,” Cory Mac said. “He left on me. It’s that simple. I didn’t want the season to end that way, but it did.”