No Sun, but Dunn Run Is Fun

The records continued to fall Saturday at Pomona Raceway.

On the last day of qualifying for today’s AutoZone Winternationals, under a cloudy sky in cool and dry conditions, marks were established in top fuel, funny car and pro stock.

None was more spectacular than the one turned in by Mike Dunn of Wrightsville, Pa., who--despite blowing the engine--powered his top-fuel dragster down the strip in 4.503 seconds at 312.35 mph, the quickest quarter-mile pass in National Hot Rod Assn. history.

“We stepped it up in the first run [earlier Saturday] and ran a [4.56],” Dunn said, “so we said, ‘What the heck, let’s go for it.’

“[The car] didn’t like it at about the 1,000-foot mark--the rods started coming out of it--but, hey, we’ll take it. We’ll put a new engine in after every run if we can run 4.50. Whatever it takes.”

In breaking the day-old track record set Friday by veteran Eddie Hill, Dunn is the top qualifier in a 16-car field that surprisingly does not include five-time Winston series champion Joe Amato, who failed to qualify at an NHRA national event for the first time in nearly three years.

“It’s a tough thing to come out in the first race of the year and not qualify,” said the only driver to win five top-fuel titles, “but we just had some problems. It’s a tough deal, but we’ll be back.”

In funny car, eight-time Winston series winner and six-time defending champion John Force of Yorba Linda is the No. 1 qualifier after a Saturday run of 4.831 seconds, a track record, at 304.32 mph.

Though he has dominated the funny car division in the ‘90s, Force, 49, lost 15 pounds during the off-season and is obviously still hungry.

“I’m kind of projecting five good years of hard racing,” he said, “and I wanted to be in better shape. I didn’t really exercise that much, and I didn’t really diet. I just ate right, and I feel a whole lot better.”

He certainly feels better than Cruz Pedregon of Camarillo, a four-time winner last year who failed to qualify for the second year in a row. After failing to qualify at last year’s Winternationals, Pedregon qualified No. 1 at 12 of the season’s last 21 events, including the finale at Pomona.

In pro stock, four-time Winston series champion Warren Johnson of Sugar Hill, Ga., held his No. 1 qualifying position with a run of 6.888 seconds at 200.95 mph, establishing a track record for elapsed time and a Winternationals record for speed to hold off his son, Kurt.

Kurt Johnson became only the second pro stock driver to top 200 mph at Pomona, qualifying No. 2 with a pass of 6.925 at 200.02 mph.

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Drag Racing Notes

Cory McClenathan, whose run of 4.631 seconds at 307.09 mph left him third in the top-fuel field after Friday’s first round of qualifying, did not participate in Saturday’s two rounds after being hospitalized overnight because of a gastrointestinal condition and dehydration. Released in the morning from Pomona Valley Hospital, the four-time Winston series runner-up slept most of the day but plans to race today. The Anaheim-based driver, whose streak of qualifying in 136 consecutive events dates to September 1991, is eighth in the 16-car field. . . . Rookie top-fuel driver Lisa Marie Ferraro, 19, of Yorba Linda, the only woman competing in the nitro classes, failed to qualify. . . . For the record: Top-fuel driver Eddie Hill’s run Friday was 4.535 seconds at 313.80 mph. . . . Eliminations start today at 11 a.m.