Scelzi Has a Picture-Perfect Finish at Pomona

With snow-capped Mount Baldy as a backdrop, on a crisp and sunny Sunday washed clean by Saturday’s showers, the final day of the National Hot Rod Assn. season at Pomona Raceway was as memorable as the landscape.

In a dramatic top-fuel dragster match of 2000 Winston champion Gary Scelzi of Fresno and 1999 champion Tony Schumacher of Park Ridge, Ill., the new champion won in a blistering 4.547 seconds with a 319.75-mph speed in the final round. It was a season-record ninth victory for Scelzi in Alan Johnson’s Santa Maria-based Winston top-fuel dragster.

Scelzi had one tough round after another, sidelining veteran Kenny Bernstein with a 4.563 pass, Melanie Troxel with a 4.657 and Mike Dunn’s new Yankee Special with a 4.976 before moving in against Schumacher, who was making his first start after missing two races because of a broken leg and other injuries at Memphis, Tenn.

“It was a emotional ride out there today,” Scelzi said. “I was watching Schumacher all day. After what he went through in the accident, I’m sure his leg and his hand were hurting. I know how it is when you’re upside down. My hat is off to him, he did a hell of a job.”

It was Scelzi’s sixth consecutive final-round victory over Schumacher, dating to 1997, the year he was tabbed by Johnson to replace his late brother, Blaine Johnson, as driver of the family’s dragster.

With a day-old five-year contract with Ford in his pocket and a new Jaguar in his pits, John Force, 51, of Yorba Linda continued his domination of funny cars by winning his 11th event of the year.

In the finals, Force got off the line ahead of Bruce Sarver, Scelzi’s teammate, and beat the former stock-car racer from Bakersfield, 4.855 seconds at 316.90 mph to 4.892 and 308.92. Force’s funny-car time and speed were the best of the four-day hot rod festival.

“He gave me a heck of race,” said an exuberant Force. “The left lane was the best all day and in the final he had the choice and we had to run in the right one. I was worried about it, but [crew chief] Austin Coil said it was getting cold, so it would be OK. If the sun had been shining, the tires would have gone up in smoke, but lucky for us it was gone.”

Force signed his contract extension Saturday to continue driving a Mustang funny car and on Sunday the manufacturer gave him the keys to a Jaguar XKR convertible as a reward for having won his 10th funny-car championship, the last eight in a row. Retired pro-stock driver Bob Glidden is the only other 10-time champion.

After a heartwarming reception by the estimated 42,500 fans, Shirley Muldowney’s return to NHRA action after an eight-year absence ended in a comic struggle between two recalcitrant dragsters. Muldowney got off the line ahead of Australian Andrew Cowin, but both cars were enveloped in a cloud of tire smoke almost immediately. As the two drivers fought for control, both cars weaved around and down the quarter-mile track. Cowin was the first to get his fueler straightened out.

As a final indignity, the 60-year-old lady in pink was docked $1,000 for oiling her lane.

Kurt Johnson, of Sugar Hill, Ga., in a Chevy Camaro, upset Winston champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., of Columbus, Ohio, in the pro-stock final by 0.003 of a second. It was Johnson’s second victory at Pomona after taking the title in 1997.

With newly crowned pro-stock bike champion Angelle Seeling sidelined after fouling on the starting line, Tony Mullen of Bradenton, Fla., defeated Matt Hines of Trinidad, Colo., in a battle of Suzukis.

Greg Stanfield of Bossier City, La., won the pro-stock truck title by defeating Mike Coughlin, the brother of Jeg Jr., in the final. Bob Panella of Stockton, after setting a track record of 7.478 seconds in the second round, was eliminated by Stanfield in the semifinals.