DRAG RACING : Dunn’s Still Blazing With New Tuner

Frank Bradley was a driver before he turned to tuning the engines of top-fuel dragsters. He won the first and last races of his top-fuel career at Pomona--the 1976 and 1991 Winternationals.

Last July, when owner Darrell Gwynn found that trying to be a chief mechanic from a wheelchair was too taxing, Bradley joined the La Victoria team as head tuner for Mike Dunn’s car.

Bradley made some changes in the fuel system and Dunn, a Southern Californian now living in Mount Joy, Pa., responded with his first 300-m.p.h. run at Reading, Pa.

He was the fourth driver to run 300 or better under Bradley’s direction, Pat Austin, Del Worsham and Rachelle Splatt having preceded him. No other crew chief has more than one 300-m.p.h. performer.

Thursday, in the first round of qualifying for the season-ending Winston Select Finals at the Pomona Fairplex, Dunn was the quickest and fastest driver, with a run of 4.841 seconds elapsed time at 301.40 m.p.h.

“The track was pretty good, but air wasn’t so good,” Dunn said. “When I left the line, it felt soft. I was surprised at the time, but it will really help us. It pretty much guarantees we’ll be in the show (Sunday’s eliminations), and now we can use the next three qualifying runs to experiment on combinations for next year.

“On Sunday, we’ll have our race-day hats on. It’s been a disappointment we haven’t won this year, but we do have one more chance.”

Jack Clark, a former major league slugger who became a top-fuel driver this year, recorded the fastest run of his career, 5.123 seconds, good for 14th position in the first-round standings.

In six events, Clark has never qualified for the eliminations.

He will probably have to improve his time to make it at Pomona, as three giants of the class--Kenny Bernstein, Cory McClenathan and Eddie Hill--smoked their tires and shut off early.

They will be back today when the pro classes continue qualifying at 1:30 p.m.

In funny cars, veteran Tom Hoover’s Dodge Daytona edged champion John Force’s Chevrolet Lumina, 5.191 to 5.195 seconds, and in pro stocks, teammates Darrell Alderman and Scott Geoffrion recorded identical times of 7.122 in their Wayne County Dodges.