Johnson Gets Right Start

Blaine Johnson, who won his first National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel drag race in the final event of 1995 at Pomona, repeated Sunday in the first event of 1996 at Pomona.

In winning the 36th Chief Winternationals, Johnson, 33, defeated legendary Connie Kalitta, 52, father of Winston champion Scott Kalitta, in a dramatic final round on the Pomona Fairplex course where Kalitta won the Winternationals 29 years ago.

Al Hofmann, also a winner last October at Pomona, repeated in the funny car final against five-time champion John Force of Yorba Linda, running an impressive 302.72 mph in 5.054 seconds elapsed time for the quarter-mile. His crew, headed by Tom Anderson, had changed the motor in his Pontiac Firebird between rounds after having one blow up in the semifinals.

Force got off the line first with an amazing .401-second reaction time, only .001 from perfection, but his Firebird dropped a valve halfway down the course and Hofmann charged to his 12th career win.

“We came here expecting to win,” said the crusty veteran from Umatilla, Fla. “We’re definitely going for the championship and beat Force. We talked about winning the first nine races and then backing off. Well, we’ve won the first one.”

Hofmann, who collected $50,000 for the victory, finished second to Force in the funny car standings last year.

Johnson, who set a top-fuel track record of 4.655 seconds on Saturday, needed only 4.736 to beat Kalitta in the final round. Kalitta’s fueler was side by side with Johnson before its engine let go in a ball of fire just before the finish line.

“It was awful gratifying, maybe not as exciting as winning the Winston Finals last October because the first one is always special,” said Johnson, who drives a family-owned car prepared by his brother, Alan, on the family farm in Santa Maria.

The car won $50,000 Sunday, but neither Johnson brother takes a salary. “We’ll put it all back in the car, just like always,” Blaine said.

In a father-son semifinal, Kalitta, 52, defeated his son. It was his first win over Scott since the final round of the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., two years ago.

Hofmann had a scare in the opening round against Mark Sievers when he was signaled into the runoff area by safety personnel only to find Sievers’ brakeless car in his way. Sievers’ Pontiac had erupted in fire and his parachutes were gone when Hofmann turned toward him.

“It was a communications problem,” Hofmann said. “I got the signal to turn and I was halfway around when I saw a ball of fire coming at me. I grabbed the brake but it was too late. These things don’t turn very easily. The front end was damaged pretty badly and I had a stiff neck for about an hour, but otherwise we’re all right.”

Sievers, a part-time racer from Riverside, was unhurt.

Jim Yates, one of Joe Gibbs’ McDonald team drivers from Alexandria, Va., defeated rookie Billy Huff of Shepherdsville, Ky., in a battle of Firebirds in the pro stock final. Yates ran 7.04 seconds at 195.48 mph for his third NHRA win. Huff ran 7.14 and 194.88 in his first final-round appearance.

Gibbs, who had hoped to be at Pomona to see one of his drivers win, was in Hawaii after the NFL requested all new Hall of Fame members to attend the Pro Bowl.

Yates gained the finals by upsetting three-time Winston champion Warren Johnson of Duluth, Ga., in the semifinals. It was his fourth win in 18 meetings with Johnson.

Force struggled all week before making it into the finals. He qualified in his final time trial after failing to finish his first two and having another rained out.

After sidelining Whit Bazemore in the second round with a hole-shot off the starting line, he made the finals despite smoking his tires in the semis. Cruz Pedregon, who had run 4.935 seconds and 307.05 mph--the quickest and fastest run in NHRA history--had even worse trouble with spinning tires, enabling Force to regain traction and win with a relatively slow 5.252 second run.

“We guessed wrong on the setup and that’s why the car smoked the tires almost instantly,” said Pedregon, last year’s Winternationals winner. “When you race Force, you almost always have to be on the edge. He probably felt the same about us because he also had traction problems.”

Tony Pedregon, Force’s new teammate, was an unfortunate victim in the first round even though he ran 300.50 mph. Only three of the 15 other drivers ran faster than Pedregon’s 5.111, but one of them was in the opposite lane. Richard Hartman sent the Gardena driver home with a quicker 5.041.

NHRA officials announced a four-day attendance of 101,200, including 65,000 Sunday.

The sportsman categories, forced to miss several rounds because of rain Saturday, ran until 7:30 p.m. Sunday and return today to complete their final rounds.