Top-Dollar Bonus Is a Top-Fuel Draw

Although Gary Scelzi has clinched the $200,000 champion’s bonus for winning the National Hot Rod Assn.’s top-fuel championship, there is $250,000 more on the table for top-fuel drivers this weekend in the 33rd Winston Finals at Pomona Raceway.

If one of the eight qualifiers in the Budweiser Classic on Saturday can win, then win again in Sunday’s eliminations, the double will be worth $200,000--$100,000 from Budweiser, $50,000 from Winston for winning the season’s final race and $50,000 more from the NHRA for scoring a double.

Still, an additional $50,000 is available if Joe Amato’s national elapsed-time record of 4.564 seconds is broken.

The Budweiser Classic, showcasing the eight leading qualifiers from the previous 21 national events this season, will be a three-round match, with rounds scheduled at 11:30 a.m., 1:45 p.m. and the 4:45 p.m. final.

Amato, a seven-time winner of the event, is again the No. 1 qualifier. The veteran from Old Forge, Pa., qualified first at nine NHRA events. He won the inaugural Budweiser Classic in 1985, then also won in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1992. Last year, he was runner-up to Scott Kalitta.

Amato will race Larry Dixon, driver of Don Prudhomme’s dragster, in the opening round.

Defending champion Kalitta, who has announced his retirement after this week’s races, will race Kenny Bernstein, a two-time winner. Kalitta, 35, won consecutive Winston championships in 1994 and 1995 in his American International Airways dragster.

“I’ve achieved goals that I only had dreamed about when I first started out,” Kalitta said. “I’ve made a lot of good friends since I’ve been racing, and sadly, I’ve lost a few along the way. But I have enjoyed my 16 years in the sport.”

Kalitta is leaving to devote more time to his family’s air-cargo business and to spend more time with his family.

The only two Classic rookies in the field, Scelzi and Bob Vandergriff Jr., are paired in the first round. In the other match, Cory McClenathan, the hottest driver in the second half of the year, will race Mike Dunn.

Since mid-July, McClenathan has a 30-4 record and last month at Dallas became the first drag racer to exceed 320 mph at 321.77.

Before Cory Mac began his streak, winning six of nine races, he was more than 400 points behind Scelzi. His victory at Dallas moved him only 93 points from the lead, but he lost to Dixon in the semifinals at Houston and his championships hopes ended when Scelzi defeated Dixon.

“We had a terrific run at the championship and it was disappointing to see it slip away,” McClenathan said. “At the same time, we still have the Budweiser Classic, which we’ve never won, and the Winston Finals, where we can set a record for most wins in a season. It would be great to end the season on a high note.”

He is one of seven drivers who have won six national events in the same year. No one has won seven.

*

Filling out the weekend program will be the Federal-Mogul sportsman car championship races in eight classes.

The superstar of Federal-Mogul is Jeg Coughlin Jr., who became the first driver to win a national event in four classes in the same year when he moved up to pro stock two weeks ago and won at Houston in a ’97 Olds Cutlass. The 27-year-old second generation drag racer from Columbus, Ohio, also has won in competition, super stock and super gas this season.

“It’s been an awesome season,” Coughlin said. “I’m fortunate to be in cars capable of winning. My brother [pro stock driver] Troy put in a lot of time getting everything sorted out. I’ve learned so much from Troy, watching his driving skills during some of the up-and-down years as he sorted through all the problems.”

In the Winston Finals, Jeg will be trying to win national championships in both competition and super stock. If he succeeds, he will join Scotty Richardson of Goodlettsville, Tenn., who won super comp and super gas in 1994, as the only double winners in the same year.

Although Coughlin is leading in both classes, he already has attained the maximum number of points available through divisional and national events. So his main focus here will be on blocking competitors from getting enough points to overtake him.

In competition, his challenger is Andy Manna Jr. of Covina, who needs only to reach the semifinals to win the crown. In super stock, Jimmy DeFrank of Tarzana will be champion if he reaches the final round. DeFrank won a divisional race last Sunday at Firebird Raceway, near Phoenix, to keep his hopes alive.

Coughlin is one of four drag racing brothers whose father, Jeg Sr., was a top-fuel and funny car driver in the ‘70s. Jeg Jr. is planning on racing pro stock next year, besides keeping his hand in Federal-Mogul competition.

“That kid has the makings to be one of the best drivers this class has ever seen,” said crew chief Richard Maskin, who was the tuner for Jim Yates’ pro stock championship car last year. “With so little seat time, he has all areas of the driving down, from doing burnouts, to reaction, to hitting shift points. It is almost scary.”

The only other NHRA title at stake Sunday is super gas, where John Vineyard of Almont, Mich., is leading but could lose if Michael Henderson of Tacoma, Wash., reaches the semifinals. If Vineyard hangs on, he will be the first repeat super gas national champion.

Champions already crowned include Frank Manzo of Morganville, N.J., in alcohol funny car; Rick Santos of San Leandro in alcohol dragster; and Al Corda of Elk Mound, Wis., in stock.

Rick Parks is moving up to top fuel next year after buying the Brad Hadman-built chassis that Scelzi drove for Alan Johnson in winning the Winternationals last February in Pomona.

Parks led Federal-Mogul dragster points most of the season before the final event last Sunday at Firebird, where Bobby Taylor of Laguna Hills knocked him out in the first round. Then Santos beat Taylor for the championship.

*

The NHRA has postponed indefinitely implementation of its plan to restrict speeds in top-fuel and funny car competition, giving the sanctioning body and its race teams more time to devise the ideal formula. The plan was to take effect next year, but it is now tentatively set for 1999.

ELSINORE GRAND PRIX

When Goat Breker was 12, he was the pit man for his father in the Elsinore Grand Prix motorcycle race. After a distinguished career in motocross, the younger Breker became a motorcycle promoter and last year revived the legendary Elsinore Grand Prix on a trial basis. The event was one of the biggest two-wheel events in the country in the ‘70s.

Last year’s two-day event attracted more than 1,700 riders and 20,000 spectators, enough for the city of Elsinore to give Breker a five-year contract to continue conducting the race, starting this weekend. The five-mile course, which wanders through the hills above Lake Elsinore, starts and finishes at the downtown city park.

There will be six races each on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 7 a.m. All will last 40 minutes, except for the Hamel 100, featuring defending champion Steve Lamson, Ty Davis and former winner Malcolm Smith. The 100-mile main event Sunday is dedicated to the memory of Danny Hamel, who was killed while racing in the 1995 Baja 500.

NASCAR

More than 40 cars are expected for the season-ending Winston West race Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Among the entrants are Winston Cup regulars Bill Elliott, Ernie Irvan, Mike Skinner, Brett Bodine and track record holder Ken Schrader.

Elliott also will race in Sunday’s Carquest Auto Parts 420K Craftsman Truck race for Jim Smith as a teammate of Mike Bliss. Schrader, Skinner and Bodine also plan to double.

Butch Gilliland of Anaheim, driving a Stroppe Motorsports Ford, holds a 32-point lead over Sean Woodside of Saugus, so if Gilliland finishes fifth or better in the 300-kilometer race, he will be the champion, even if Woodside wins.

Woodside, who drives a Pontiac for the Golden West Motorsports team that helped Lance Hooper to the championship last year, has led the most laps in the 12 previous Winston West races.

Schrader holds the one-lap record of 158.884 mph. The race will start at 4 p.m. Sunday’s truck race will start at noon.

*

Taurus will be the model used by Ford drivers in Winston Cup racing next year, so teams have been working overtime to get a feel for the new car, having been in Thunderbirds for many years. Lake Speed, who drives for Melling Racing, had this to say after testing one at Daytona:

“It was kind of like taking a girl out for a first date. We had to go find out what kind of personality this car has, the works and characteristics of it.”

CART

Jimmy Vasser lapped the new Twin Ring Motegi oval in Japan at 215.180 mph in a test and predicted speeds of 220 when the teams qualify for the race March 28 next year. The 1.549-mile track is about 60 miles northeast of Tokyo. . . . Team owner Tony Bettenhausen has dropped Patrick Carpentier, CART rookie of the year, and is looking for a replacement. Among those being mentioned is Robby Gordon, who plans to keep in racing trim by driving his Ford pickup in next week’s Baja 1000.