Trio Grande

From afar, Ivan Rodriguez had long been smitten with the power and speed of drag racing.

But the Texas Ranger all-star catcher from Puerto Rico didn’t really come out of the closet as a full-fledged fan until he saw the Pedregon brothers--Frank, Cruz and Tony--blowing down the quarter-mile strips at more than 300 mph.

“Pudge told me that he always loved drag racing but he never really had a place to go until Cruz started driving,” Tony said. “Now he comes and spends time with us when we’re in Dallas, just hanging out, enjoying himself and doing things like starting line ceremonies. I guess it’s kind of like if you walk into a restaurant and if you see a minority, a black guy, a Mexican, whatever, and maybe it’s human nature, but I think that people have the tendency to just maybe feel a little more at ease when there’s someone like themselves there. And Pudge, with his heavy accent, he told me, ‘Hey, I’ve got a place to hang out at the races now.’ ”

The Pedregon pits on race days have become some of the more popular spots at tracks across the country. Not only are they the only three Latinos on the National Hot Rod Assn.’s funny-car circuit, they take sibling rivalry to a higher level. Each runs for a different team and they often race against one another. The trio is also the only brother act registered with the sport’s governing body and, as a result, the Pedregons are a marketing dream while bringing in a new type of fan that NHRA and sponsors alike are quick to recognize.

“They’re personable, good talents and good-looking guys that the girls like,” Steve Johnson, NHRA vice president of sales, said recently. “These guys sell product, and that’s what it’s all about. Our sport is about the Pedregon brothers. The values they have are the same values that the NHRA is all about.”

The Pedregon family values, which were fostered in Torrance, return to Southern California this weekend for the season-ending NHRA Auto Club Finals at Pomona Raceway, which get underway today.

That all three brothers have been successful on the strip only bolsters their collective appeal.

“We’ve all won big races in our careers,” said Frank, who lives in Rancho Cucamonga. “It’s a rivalry. We’re very, very close, but when we’re at the drag races, racing against each other, I’m out to beat them as much as I am the other guy.

“People can relate to the three brothers and the family [aspect] because it’s all families that are out there watching drag racing. It’s a natural rivalry that everyone can understand.”

Tony, who lives in Chino Hills, agreed.

“With Hispanics especially. We’re real family oriented, a close-knit community, close-knit people,” he said. “I tell the sponsors, and they know it--Hispanics are brand loyal. There’s a lot of things we get out of just who we are. We didn’t go out and bake in the sun just to pretend we’re Mexicans. But there are a lot of different angles that we’re able to take because of who and what we are.”

Taking note of the Pedregons’ swelling popularity, sponsors such as Castrol-Syntec and McDonald’s have created budgets to address Latino drag racing fans.

Frank has done interviews for Spanish TV network Telemundo; Tony is the Hispanic spokesperson for American Automobile Assn. of Texas and has gone on speaking engagements at schools while on the road; and in 1997, Cruz received El Premio de Oro, a national award based in New York that recognizes Latino athletes.

Still, no one would care about their heritage or skin tone if they weren’t any good on the drag strip.

Tony, 34, has clinched second place behind teammate John Force with three wins this season--Pomona Winternationals, Dallas and Denver--in his Castrol-Syntec Mustang. He holds the funny-car record for fastest run at Pomona with 313.91 mph in 1997.

Frank Jr., 37, is in fourth place in only his sophomore season of racing funny cars. He won at Indianapolis this season and drives the Penthouse Magazine Pontiac.

Cruz, 36, is the most accomplished of the three, having won the points title as a funny-car rookie in 1992. He set the Pomona funny-car record for elapsed time of 4.867 seconds last year. This season, however, Cruz has endured a disappointing and limited year after parting ways with owner Joe Gibbs, the former Washington Redskin coach, in May.

Cruz, who now owns his team, picked up a sponsor and car for the remainder of the season in the Goracing.com Pontiac and is in 16th place, having advanced to two finals but coming up empty. Pomona will be his 14th race of the year, and he hopes to announce something this weekend regarding a possible sponsor to run all 24 races in 2000.

“I thought everybody liked racing, when I was a kid,” said Cruz, who lives in Camarillo. “I thought everybody on the planet loved racing. But when you grow up you find that it’s a big world and that’s not the case. But the mainstream, they make the connection because we are Hispanic and there’s not too many doing it [racing dragsters].

“And if that brings another fan in, our sponsors like that and we create that connection between Hispanic people [and drag racing],” Cruz added. “We’re out here doing what we like to do. We’re having fun and making a living.”

Even though fast cars were a staple of their formative years, what with their dad Frank racing top fuel dragsters in the 1960s while running the family-owned trucking business, there was no grand Pedregon plan to put the threesome in the same circuit, competing against each other by the turn of the century.

“Our dad didn’t teach us anything about race cars, per se,” said Cruz, who, as a 9-year-old, earned his first traffic ticket driving his father in a Peterbilt truck on a deserted street in downtown Los Angeles. “He was more concerned about us being respectful young men. He wasn’t thinking about our careers. He was thinking about us doing the right thing.”

The elder Frank never had a chance to see his boys on the NHRA stage. He was killed in a private plane crash in 1981.

Their mother, Cora, was a tow-truck driver for the family business and is a staunch fan, though the brothers don’t know whom she roots for when they race each other.

She’d have a winning percentage if she cheered for her oldest son.

Since Frank joined the funny-car ranks in 1998, he is 3-2 in head-to-head competition against his little brothers; Tony is 4-4 and Cruz 5-6.

Although they take pride in their heritage, the Pedregons are in the racing business trying to win for much more than that.

Last year, Tony unveiled his “Selena” car in Texas. A painting of the slain tejano star adorned the hood with Mexican flags painted on as well.

This year, he has the Mexican flag painted on his escape hatch and both doors.

The Pedregons are Southern California Chicanos whose roots, as far as they can figure, reach back to El Paso on their mother’s side and to Spain on their father’s. Earlier this year, when they were racing in Gainesville, Fla., an older man approached Tony in the pit area.

“He asked me in Spanish, ‘What are you, where are you from?’ and in Florida, they’re mostly Puerto Rican or Cuban, and I didn’t want to disappoint him,” Tony said. “So I said, ‘Soy Latino, como tu.’ . . . He kind of smiled and walked away.

“It’s like that at our trailers wherever we go,” Tony said. “We attract a different kind of fan, of people, and that’s a good thing. We don’t want to stereotype ourselves but I think it just broadens the whole spectrum. Maybe it makes us a little more versatile than the average person, and we’re taking advantage of it.”

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Drag Racing

NHRA AUTO CLUB FINALS

* Where: Pomona Raceway

* Schedule: Today, qualifying, 1 p.m.; Friday, qualifying, 1:45 p.m.; Saturday, eliminations, 11:15 a.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m.