Hearing the Snap of a Seat Belt Was a Victory for McClenathan

Cory McClenathan isn’t the No. 1 top fuel qualifier for today’s Chief Auto Parts Winternationals, but there’s still a smile on his face.

Cory Mac, as legions of drag racing fans know him, is just glad he’s in Pomona, able to drive his McDonald’s dragster in the first event of the National Hot Rod Assn. season.

As recently as three weeks ago, he wasn’t so sure. A tumor was discovered under his right shoulder blade. When physicians cut it out, it was the size of a baseball.

That was on Jan. 6, and until Jan. 15 the fear was that it might be cancerous.

“It was very scary, not knowing,” McClenathan said. “I went through a nervous period, but once I got the word that it was benign, all my focus was on getting to Pomona so we could start the season off the way we ended it.”

His first priority was to test the car at Firebird Raceway, near Phoenix. He drove his van from his home in Anaheim to the track, and when he got there he was so sore he couldn’t get in the dragster. Worse, the wound had opened and he had to return to the hospital.

Former world champion Kenny Bernstein was at Firebird and agreed to test the car for his ailing rival.

“We were in a bind and Kenny bailed us out,” Cory Mac said. “That was a class move on his part.”

When qualifying began Thursday for the Winternationals, McClenathan had not as much as sat in his car since Nov. 9 when he lost in the quarterfinals of the Winston Finals.

“No matter how I felt, or what was happening, I was determined to drive the car at Pomona,” he said.

Before racing Thursday, he had a checkup from a nurse from the Beach Physicians and Surgeons Clinic in Huntington Beach.

Once he got in the car, it was just like old times. On his first run, he overpowered a slippery track with a Winternationals record run of 319.71 mph, although it lasted only two days.

Bernstein became the new track record holder Saturday when he reached 320.74 mph, second fastest ever. McClenathan’s 321.77 mph, set last Oct. 19 at Texas Motorplex, is the record.

“Our plan was to get 1998 off to as fast a start as we finished with in 1997,” McClenathan said. “We got hot too late last year. We won six races, including four in a row, in the second half of the season, but we came up short.

“Frankly, we’re getting tired of second place. We want the big tomato, the Winston series championship. Everyone at McDonald’s and Joe Gibbs Racing, from crew chief Mike Green on down, has that for a goal and we won’t be satisfied until we’re there.”

McClenathan has finished second three times and third twice since 1992, the year he should have beaten Amato only to lose by 92 points. Cory Mac skipped a race in Montreal and had he even made a qualifying attempt he would have collected 100 points and been champion.

Maybe it’s a habit, but he was second when qualifying concluded Saturday as Mike Dunn held his No. 1 position with the 4.590 he ran Friday.

Drag Racing Notes

Seven-time funny car champion John Force set a Winternationals record of 312.39 mph, but couldn’t overtake No. 1 qualifier Al Hofmann, whose 4.862-second run Friday was the fastest in history. Hofmann failed in an attempt to back up his run within 1%, which would earn him a $50,000 bonus. He will make another attempt in today’s eliminations, which start at 10:30 a.m. . . . Warren Johnson, the perennial pro stock pole sitter from Duluth, Ga., got bumped down to eighth place, although his quickest run of 6.962 seconds is only .028 of a second slower than No. 1 qualifier Mark Osborne.