On a Day of Speed, Scelzi Slowly Wins

For 37 years, drag racers have been thundering down the Pomona Raceway drag strip in search of record speeds, but never has the National Hot Rod Assn. seen such an outpouring of power as was witnessed by an estimated 45,000 on Sunday.

Before rookie Gary Scelzi of Fresno staggered through the final round to beat five-time champion Joe Amato of Old Forge, Pa., in a battle of tire-smoking giants for the top fuel championship of the Chief Auto Parts Winternationals, Amato had run the three quickest quarter-miles in history, he and Kenny Bernstein had run the fastest side-by-side race and Shelly Anderson had set a national speed record of 316.90 mph--and lost.

In all, the day saw three of the fastest eight speeds, five of the 14 quickest runs and seven of the quickest 20.

And that was only in top fuel.

Perennial rivals John Force, from Yorba Linda and with the biggest corporate backing in drag racing, and Al Hofmann, from Umatilla, Fla., and with no sponsors at all, met in a tense funny car final and Force prevailed when Hofmann’s car smoked its tires off the starting line.

Warren Johnson beat his son Kurt in family-owned Pontiac Firebirds in the pro stock final.

After Amato had put on an amazing display of high-speed running and Scelzi had become the first rookie to reach an NHRA top fuel final in his first competition since Tony Schumacher in the 1966 U.S. Nationals, the final was as strange as it was slow.

Both cars, apparently stressed out with overloads of nitro in their fuel tanks, smoked their tires almost instantly off the starting line. As first one and then the other bucked and twisted and slithered along, Scelzi managed to keep his foot on the throttle. As an anticlimax to all the sub-par speeds, Scelzi was the winner at 7.71 seconds, still far ahead of Amato’s 11.93-second finish.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect anything like this,” Scelzi said. “When you get to the finals, you do anything you can. That’s what I felt I was doing. When the tires went up, I lifted off, then I got back and tried to ease it along. I think I feathered the throttle three or four times. I guess we both put a little too much sugar in the pie.”

Scelzi was driving for car owner and crew chief Alan Johnson of Santa Maria, whose brother Blaine won this race a year ago. Blaine was killed in an accident during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals last August and Scelzi, a longtime friend from Fresno, was named to replace him.

“I had a picture of Blaine inside my car today,” Scelzi said. “I’ve got to believe he was riding with me today.”

The top fuel quarterfinals, in which all eight drivers bettered 4.70 seconds with four of the quickest races ever seen, set the standard for the dizzying pace. The quarters also eliminated the Kalitta family--father Connie and son Scott--and the two women, Anderson and Cristen Powell.

Anderson, a 31-year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate from Ontario, found her 316.90 mph not enough against Amato because his 4.564-second run was the fastest ever in the NHRA. Still, he barely beat her 4.656. Anderson earlier had run 315.01 mph in eliminating Bruce Sarver of Bakersfield.

Amato started the day with an NHRA record 4.587 seconds against Dave Promnitz of Fresno. In the semifinals, he ran another 4.587 against defending champion Bernstein, who lost with a 4.617, the fastest losing time ever, in the fastest side-by-side race in history.

Powell, a 17-year-old high school senior from Portland, Ore., came back after defeating Larry Dixon in the first round to run 4.644 against Bernstein, who fought her off with a 4.623. At the time it was the fastest race ever, but before the day was over it had been bettered twice.

Force’s victory was the 62nd of his career and gave him a head start toward his seventh funny car championship.

“We had a lot of consistency, that’s what did it for us,” Force said. “Hofmann was putting up those big numbers and we didn’t know what he was doing. I was worried [crew chief] Austin Coil might put too much pop in the engine, but he told me to shut up and just drive. So I just motored along and came home the winner.”

Kurt Johnson set up the family pro stock final when he upset defending champion Jim Yates of Joe Gibbs’ McDonald’s team in the semifinals by beating him off the line. Yates covered the 1,320 feet quicker, but couldn’t overcome Johnson’s hole-shot advantage.