Bernstein Shows Style of a Champion

It was only the first day of qualifying for Sunday’s Winston Select Finals, but Kenny Bernstein, the newly crowned National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel champion, was all business Thursday.

“I have dedicated this week to Blaine Johnson and I want to run hard every time on the track and win as much as I can in his honor,” Bernstein said. Johnson died of injuries he suffered in an accident after qualifying for the U.S. Nationals last Aug. 31 at Indianapolis.

And run hard Bernstein did.

He blasted his Budweiser King top fueler down Pomona Raceway’s quarter-mile strip in a Winston Select Finals-record 4.685 seconds--a thousandth of a second quicker than Joe Amato.

The record of 4.689 seconds that he broke was Johnson’s, but the veteran from El Toro was slightly shy of the track-record 4.665 that Johnson set last February during the Winternationals.

At the time of Johnson’s accident, Bernstein trailed the Santa Maria driver by 113 points with four events remaining. After Bernstein won at Reading, Pa., he passed Johnson and clinched his first top-fuel championship two weeks ago at Dallas. Johnson remains in second place, 25 points ahead of Cory McClenathan.

“I had a wonderful battle with Blaine, the race was close and no one but God knows how it would have turned out,” Bernstein said. “Blaine was a wonderful competitor and a fine friend.”

Bernstein’s red dragster has “In Memory of Blaine Johnson” on either side of the cowling and a black strip through the car’s number on the wing.

Their race against each another was even closer than the race for the championship.

Each won three events--Johnson in the Winternationals, then at Gainesville, Fla., and Sears Point, Calif., where he beat Bernstein in the final round. Bernstein won at Phoenix, Houston and Brainerd, Minn.

In head-to-head competition, each won twice.

“I just wish Blaine was here,” Bernstein added. “I think we’ll see some tremendous runs before the week is over. We could be in the low 60s or high 50s [4.60 to 4.50 seconds elapsed time], and 318 [mph] is not impossible. It all depends on the atmospheric conditions and the race track, and both were very good today.”

Johnson holds the NHRA national record of 4.592 seconds set during the Western Auto Nationals last July at Topeka, Kan.

Amato, a five-time top-fuel champion from Old Forge, Pa., had the fastest speed Thursday at 311.85 mph, a blink of an eye quicker than Bernstein’s 311.31.

Alan Johnson, Blaine’s older brother and the family team’s owner and crew chief, is at Pomona working with top-fuel driver Jim Head.

“The day after Blaine was killed, I felt like I had to be out there at the track and Jim was having some troubles, so I went to work helping him,” Alan said. “It was the best thing I could have done.

“We’ve improved quite a bit since then. Working with Jim on his Smokin’ Joe’s car has been good therapy for me. Especially seeing him improve.”

Head, who won the U.S. Nationals funny car championship in 1984, won his first top-fuel event last month at Topeka, beating Bernstein in the final round.

Next year, Alan Johnson will be back with his own top-fuel car, driven by Gary Scelzi of Fresno, under the Team Winston banner. The Smokin’ Joe’s car will be running its final race Sunday as Camel has withdrawn its sponsorship.

“No one will ever replace Blaine,” Alan said. “But I do see similar qualities in Gary. He’s proven himself in the alcohol [fuel] ranks, and he certainly shows the potential to be a champion. That’s what this whole thing is about for our entire team, winning the NHRA top-fuel championship in 1997.”

Scelzi, 36, has six victories in alcohol classes, three each in dragsters and funny cars. Before moving up to top fuel, Blaine Johnson won four consecutive top-alcohol championships.

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Winston Select

Finals

at Pomona Raceway

* Today: 1:30 p.m.

* Saturday: 10:30 a.m.

* Sunday: 10:30 a.m.