Rookie Gibbs, Hill, 58, Win at Pomona : Motor racing: Pedregon drives former NFL coach’s car to victory; veteran wins top fuel in Winternationals.

Cruz Pedregon brought former Washington Redskin coach Joe Gibbs a victory in his first National Hot Rod Assn. event Sunday when he defeated Chuck Etchells in the funny-car final of the 35th Chief Auto Parks Winternationals at the Pomona Raceway.

In the top-fuel final, Eddie Hill--who will be 59 on March 6--became the oldest driver to win a major motor racing event when he defeated Winston series champion Scott Kalitta.

Both finals proved anticlimactic. The day was filled with tense competition, but Etchells and Kalitta were losers as soon as they hit the throttle. Etchells apparently had a clutch malfunction in his Dodge Avenger, while Kalitta’s tires went up in smoke off the starting line.

Hill, who ran 301.70 m.p.h. earlier in the day, won with a 299.50 run in 4.859 seconds.

“After the way we ran last year, this win might be as sweet as our first one in 1955,” Hill said. “We worked awful hard over the winter because we were embarrassed last year. This really feels great.”

Defending Winston champion Darrell Alderman defeated Team Mopar teammate Scott Geoffrion in identical Dodge Avengers in the pro-stock final.

Gibbs, who also owns a Winston Cup stock-car team, recently took over the McDonald’s drag racing team, which includes Cory McClenathan, who lost in the second round of top fuel, and Jim Yates, who lost to Alderman in the pro stock semifinal round.

“This one was for Joe Gibbs and the crew,” Pedregon said. “Joe keeps calling me his quarterback and I get a kick out of that. He brought me a great crew chief in Bob Brandt and a great car in the Pontiac Firebird.”

Hill, the 1993 Winston champion who did not win a race last year, earlier in the day eliminated Kenny Bernstein, who came to Pomona with the same car that ran a record 314 m.p.h. last October.

The fairy tale saga of rookie top- fuel driver Larry Dixon of North Hills came to an end in the semifinals against Scott Kalitta, but not without some drama.

Dixon, driving in his first professional event, had the blower explode as he crossed the finish line with a first-round victory over veteran Connie Kalitta. The explosion damaged the rear wing of Dixon’s car. Before the blowup, Dixon had run the fourth-fastest quarter mile in NHRA history, 4.725 seconds.

Because Dixon had crashed the team’s other car during testing last week in Bakersfield, car owner Don Prudhomme had no spare wing parts. Kalitta loaned his old friend a wing and sent his crew to help install it while Prudhomme’s crew replaced the engine, cylinder heads and blower in time for the second round.

“It seems like every time I’ve run this car in the last two weeks, there’s something to write about,” Dixon said. “I’ve been working so hard, I haven’t had time to get nervous.”

Dixon, whose father Larry won the Winternationals 25 years ago, used a quicker reaction time of 0.79 seconds to sideline Shelly Anderson, even though she ran quicker and faster--4.858 seconds at 293.82 m.p.h. to 4.864 and 281.60.

“It was the driver who didn’t perform,” Anderson said. “I let the team down.”

The semifinal presented an unusual situation. Scott Kalitta, son of Connie, was facing a car with a rear wing borrowed from his father. Both cars had the same sponsor’s name across their back.

For the first time in his first professional event, Dixon smoked the tires on his top fueler and Kalitta cruised to an easy victory at 4.808 seconds and 300.60 m.p.h.

“I’m very proud of Larry,” Prudhomme said. “He did a heckuva job under racing conditions, in front of his hometown fans.”

National Hot Rod Assn. officials announced a record four-day attendance of 108,500, including an estimated 55,000 Sunday.

Two major upsets marked the early rounds.

Funny-car champion John Force, opening a bid for a third consecutive Winston series championship, lost in the second round to Gary Bolger in a classic battle of the haves and the have-nots.

Force, winner of 10 races last year, operates out of a multimillion dollar shop in Yorba Linda with the largest payroll in funny cars. Bolger, 50, who has never won a final round, drives for the Creasy family of Genoa. Ill., with virtually no budget. There’s is the only top-fuel or funny-car team running the NHRA circuit without an on-board computer recording clutch and engine data on each run.

But Bolger beat Force off the line and never relinquished the advantage to win with a 5.312 clocking to 5.399 in a battle of Pontiac Firebirds, even though Force was running faster at the finish, 278.98 m.p.h. to 278.12.

“Maybe we were getting our comeuppance,” Force said. “We’d been fastest for so long that maybe we needed a slap in the face. We sure got it.”

Rhonda Hartman, 20, who had never won a heat in NHRA top fuel competition, sidelined four-time champion Joe Amato in the first round. Amato actually beat himself as his tires went up in smoke the instant he hit the accelerator.

“The clutch overheated while we were staging and it caused instant wheel spin when I tried to go,” a dejected Amato said. “We’ve had the same trouble before, but we thought we had it beat the way we ran earlier in the week.”

Amato ran a career-record 306.53 m.p.h. on Friday--the fastest top-fuel speed in Winternationals history.