Dragsters Open With Anxiety, Anticipation

Rarely in recent drag racing history has a National Hot Rod Assn. season opened with as much anxiety and anticipation as this year’s series, which gets under way today at the Pomona Raceway with the first qualifying rounds of the 34th annual Chief Auto Parts Winternationals.

A purse of $1,290,200 has attracted most of the country’s top drag racers for the four-day festival of speed on a corner of the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. Final eliminations are scheduled for Sunday, after qualifying runs today, Friday and Saturday.

The Winternationals will have a different look from any previous season opener, as well as from last year’s season closer at Pomona, the Winston Finals.

Changes begin at the top.

Loquacious John Force, the Yorba Linda driver who won Winston Racing Series funny car championships in two of the last three years while driving an Oldsmobile, has switched to a Chevrolet Lumina. Despite winning a record 11 races last year to regain the championship he lost in 1992 to Cruz Pedregon, Force and his mechanical brain trust of Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly and Larry Frazier chose to try different-looking sheet-metal on his Castrol funny car this year.

“I’m hoping we can run away with it, but the competition is going to be tougher,” Force said. “It’s going to be a lot different than last year, especially with K.C. (Spurlock) coming back with (crew chief) Ronnie Swearingen. I’m looking for that to be the hot rod to beat.”

Force’s Lumina made its debut with a 5.26-second run at the Budweiser Warm-Up two weeks ago at Bakersfield.

Spurlock, a flamboyant driver in the mold of Force, is returning to funny car competition after being away four years. He won the first event he entered, the 1990 Winternationals, and was named NHRA rookie of the year that season. He has not raced since, but will be in a Dodge Daytona this week.

Spurlock is part of a new three-car team, VanLok Motorsports, which also includes Bob Vandergriff Jr. in a top fuel dragster and Gary Rettell in a top alcohol funny car.

Two other former Pomona winners, top fuel driver Connie Kalitta and pro stock veteran Darrell Alderman, are also making comebacks.

Kalitta, 55, who won the 1967 Winternationals in his Bounty Hunter fueler, is returning after a year’s absence to be a teammate to his son, Scott, on the family-owned American International Airways team.

Alderman, 44, is a two-time pro stock champion returning from a two-year suspension for drug use. He will rejoin his old team, the Wayne County Speed Shop, as a teammate to Scott Geoffrion. In 1991, Alderman won 11 races, a pro stock record.

There are changes, too, in the top fuel lineup.

Eddie Hill, the champion, will be back in his Pennzoil dragster as the oldest sponsored race driver in the country. Hill will be 58 next month. Also returning are five-time top fuel champion Joe Amato and four-time funny car champion Kenny Bernstein, still seeking his first top fuel championship.

But Cory McClenathan and Ed McCulloch, a couple of 300-m.p.h. racers, will be in different cars. McClenathan, who set an elapsed-time record of 4.762 seconds and had four runs of 300 m.p.h. or better in his family’s car last year, has replaced McCulloch in the Larry Minor-owned McDonald’s top fuel dragster. McCulloch, who had a 300-m.p.h. run at the Winston Finals, signed with baseball’s Jack Clark to drive the Taco Bell dragster at Pomona.

Another new two-driver team, Smokin’ Joe’s Racing, will have Jim Head in top fuel and Gordie Bonin in funny car. Bonin’s car will mark the return of the old Candies and Hughes team.

And the Winternationals will start the Final Strike Tour for Don (Snake) Prudhomme, who has announced his retirement after the 1994 season. Prudhomme, who won more funny car races than anyone in the NHRA before returning to top fuel four years ago, will complete his career in the Skoal dragster.

A new top fuel driver making her American debut is Rachelle Splatt of Melbourne, Australia. Splatt, 24, will join Shelly Anderson as the only full-time female top fuel drivers in the NHRA.

Motor Racing Notes

COPPER WORLD--The 17th annual Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway will feature four distinctly different racing series: United States Auto Club midgets, super modifieds and Silver Crown dirt cars, and NASCAR Southwest Tour stock cars. Four reigning USAC champions--Mel Kenyon, Indianapolis Speedrome midget series; Stevie Reeves, national midget series; Robby Flock, western regional midget series, and Mike Bliss, Silver Crown winner--are among the entries. Ken Schrader, who has a record eight victories at Phoenix, will drive a Chevrolet Lumina in the Featherlite Southwest Tour race. It is the same car Schrader drove to victory in the Delco 300 at Phoenix in 1982. All finals are Sunday, with 25-mile races for the midgets and super modifieds and 50 miles for the Silver Crown and Southwest Tour cars.

MOTOCROSS--Jeremy McGrath, undefeated in three Camel Supercross events this season, will go for his fourth consecutive Saturday night victory in the Coors Light Challenge at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. McGrath, the defending series and San Diego champion on a Honda, was an easy winner last Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium.

SPRINT CARS--The competing California Racing Assn. and Sprint Car Racing Assn. will dilute the talent Saturday night when the CRA opens its season at Canyon Raceway, north of Phoenix, and the SCRA holds its races at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Lealand McSpadden, switching from Frank Lewis’ car to Andy Morales’ Tamale Wagon, will face Northern California champion Brent Kaeding at Canyon, while former CRA champions Ron Shuman and Brad Noffsinger will be at Manzanita. Noffsinger, a racing instructor in Concord, N.H., will be taking his first sprint car ride in two years. Mike Kirby, the defending CRA champion, will also race with the new SCRA organization.

INDY CARS--The Toyota Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway, final event of the 16-race PPG Cup series, has been moved from its original date of Oct. 2 to Oct. 9 to accommodate ESPN’s television schedule. . . . Mark Smith of McMinnville, Ore., who drove last year for Frank Arciero, has signed to drive a ’94 Lola-Ford Cosworth for Derrick Walker’s team, which also includes Robby Gordon and Willy T. Ribbs. . . . Dan Gurney and his All American Racers in Santa Ana have received the green light by Toyota to conduct an Indy car research and development program to determine whether Toyota is in a position to undertake a full Indy car racing effort.

MOTORCYCLES--The 14th annual Adelanto Grand Prix, staged by the Desert Vipers Motorcycle Club and the city of Adelanto, is scheduled Saturday and Sunday. The 10-mile Grand Prix course incorporates city streets, desert roads and trails and a man-made motocross course. There will be 12 races in the two-day event. . . . Floyd Emde, the first motorcyclist to be named to the San Diego Automotive Museum’s Hall of Fame, will be inducted Saturday night at the museum.

STOCK CARS--Imperial Raceway in El Centro will feature IMCA modifieds and pro and factory stocks in its Saturday night program.

SPORTS CARS--The new Exxon World Sports Car series will make its debut this weekend as part of the Rolex 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway. The World Sports Car category has replaced the GT prototype cars, which headlined International Motor Sports Assn. events before this year.