Amato Really Turns It On in Final

The remarkable winning streak of top-fuel driver Gary Scelzi in Alan Johnson’s family-owned dragster at Pomona Raceway came to an end late Sunday afternoon when veteran Joe Amato turned back the rookie from Fresno in the championship round of the 33rd Winston Finals.

The finish was a reversal of February’s Winternationals at Pomona in which Scelzi beat Amato to begin a run that would keep him atop the points standings until he clinched the $200,000 Winston championship Thursday. He also won the $100,000 Budweiser Classic on Saturday.

Although Scelzi’s dragster broke coming off the starting line, Amato did not slow down, running the quickest quarter-mile in National Hot Rod Assn. history, 4.558 seconds elapsed time. His speed of 320.28 mph is the second fastest ever, behind Cory McClenathan’s 321.77 last month at Dallas.

“Knowing you’ve got the fastest hod rod in the world, that’s an awesome feeling,” said Amato, 53, a five-time NHRA top fuel champion. “The front end came up and stayed up quite a while, but luckily the car stayed straight and when the front wheels slapped down, it really hooked up.

“It was kind of dark out there and going 320 mph down that dark track is something to think about. I can’t wait for next year to come back and go after that sixth championship. It’ll be the rebirth of Joe Amato. You know, we haven’t won in a while.”

Amato’s last championship was in 1992.

In funny cars, Tony Pedregon defeated John Force, his boss and seven-time national champion, in an all-Castrol Ford Mustang final. By winning, Pedregon moved past Whit Bazemore into second place in the standings.

Force appeared to stumble in mid-race, but like Amato in the top-fuel final, Pedregon didn’t slow. Instead, he powered to a Winston Finals record of 4.925 seconds at 308.64 mph.

“This win was a tribute to my crew,” Pedregon said. “They had to change engines twice between rounds and still gave me an engine that could run that fast for the final round. It’s nice for our team to come home and do well before our home fans.”

Pedregon is from Gardena, Force from Yorba Linda.

Ideal racing weather brought out a record estimated attendance of 117,500 for four days, of which approximately 60,000 were on hand Sunday.

For the only time in 22 events this year, all three No. 1 qualifiers in top fuel, funny car and pro stock were upset in the first round. And the fourth No. 1, in pro-stock bike, went out in the second round.

Larry Dixon, who earlier set track top-fuel records for speed and elapsed time, lost to Tim Gibson, 45, an electrical engineer from Irvine who races only part time, in what might have been the biggest surprise of the season. After five near-perfect runs during the week, Dixon’s tires smoked off the starting line against Gibson and the race was over.

“All in all, it wasn’t a bad weekend,” Dixon said. “It could have been better, but it could have been worse.”

It was the first time Gibson had won a round this year. In nine events, Gibson qualified only three times. However, his moment in the sun was short-lived as he was eliminated by Amato in the second round.

Chuck Etchells, the No. 1 funny car qualifier who ran a track record 313.26 mph Thursday, lost his first-round match to Randy Anderson. It was Etchells’ last outing in a Dodge Avenger, as he is switching to a Chevy Camaro next year.

Pro stock champion Jim Yates, also the No. 1 qualifier, was beaten off the starting line by Larry Morgan and although Yates ran a quicker quarter-mile, he couldn’t make up the difference he lost. Morgan’s remarkable 0.444-second reaction time, to 0.471 for Yates, paid off at the end despite Yates’ 7.023-second clocking to Morgan’s 7.045.

The elapsed time is recorded from the moment the front wheel crosses a beam on the starting line, not from the time the green light appears.

After eliminating his father, Warren, in the semifinals, Kurt Johnson of Lawrenceville, Ga., won the pro stock title by defeating Tom Martino of Farmingdale, N.J.

Matt Hines of Whittier, already the pro bike champion, continued his winning season by defeating John Smith of Minneapolis in the finals. Hines earlier set a national record of 186.95 mph.