Bernstein Is Not Finished Yet

In the National Hot Rod Assn.’s poll of its top 50 drivers, Kenny Bernstein was ranked No. 6. After winning both the Winston top fuel championship and the Auto Club NHRA Final on Sunday, maybe he should call for a recount.

Bernstein, who has announced that he will retire after the 2002 season, won his first three rounds with powerful quarter-mile runs of 4.564 seconds against Robert Reehl, 4.560 against Darrell Russell and 4.548 against Clay Millican.

Then, in the fading light of a day that began with a drizzle, he and Mike Dunn both smoked their tires as they launched off the starting pad, but the 57-year-old Bernstein recovered in time to nurse his ailing Budweiser King dragster down the strip to win in 5.50 seconds, by far the slowest winning top fuel time of the day.

It was the work of a cagey veteran, a man who has won four funny car and now two top fuel championships in 24 years of drag racing. A crowd of an estimated 43,000 gave him an appreciative cheer as he made his way to the winner’s circle, a fitting climax to the NHRA’s 50th anniversary season.

“The way things turned out, maybe I should have said this is it and gone out a winner, but we’re already looking forward to coming back here in February and starting our farewell tour,” said Bernstein, who plans to turn his car over to his son, Brandon, in 2003.

When he reached the finals, Bernstein clinched the $200,000 Winston series championship after a season-long battle with Larry Dixon, winner of Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout. Sunday’s event paid Bernstein another $40,000.

“Every championship you win is sweet, but this one was special,” he said. “The first time we won top fuel, it was really Blaine Johnson’s year.

“He was leading us when he was killed and we’ll never know if we could have won it. This one, with Tim Richards and our crew working so hard, and all the planning for next year, it was really special winning today.”

This was Bernstein’s 61st career victory, his 31st in top fuel, and his eighth this season. He won funny car titles in 1985-86-87-88 and top fuel in 1996.

The funny car final between No. 1 qualifier Whit Bazemore and hometown favorite Del Worsham proved anticlimactic when Bazemore punched the throttle too soon and lost before the race started. His false start negated an impressive 4.75-second run that likely would have beaten Worsham, a Chino Hills resident.

“I had never won a race here in Pomona, my home track in my home town,” Worsham said after his win in the Checker-Schuck’s-Kragen Pontiac funny car. “Going into the semifinals we were one measly point behind Ron Capps for third place in the Winston points, so now we’re up there in the top three with [John] Force and Bazemore.

“This has been just an awesome week. Last Tuesday we found out my wife was going to have twins. What a week to celebrate.”

Force, who clinched his 11th funny car championship earlier this year, lost in the second round to Dean Skuza, but will still pick up a $200,000 check at tonight’s NHRA awards banquet.

There was a dramatic overtone to the 37th annual season-ending event as it marked the final time that Winston, the series title sponsor for 27 years, will be involved with the NHRA. Under provisions of the Master Settlement Agreement, tobacco companies may be involved in only one sport and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. chose to remain in NASCAR.

A new NHRA sponsor, likely to be Powerade, is expected to be announced this month.

Before he stomped on the throttle too soon against Bernstein, Dunn had put on one of drag racing’s most impressive displays of sheer power.

Driving the New York Yankee-sponsored car owned by Darrell Gwynn, he twice broke the Pomona track record--first with a run of 330.15 in a first-round solo effort, and then bettering that with a 330.31 effort that helped him run down Dixon in the semifinals.

Warren Johnson gave Jim Yates an opening to win the pro stock championship when he was upset by Darrell Alderman in the first round, but Yates returned the favor by losing to Brad Jeter in the second round.

That gave Johnson, voted No. 7 in the NHRA’s top 50 list, his sixth championship and a $125,000 bonus with a 79-point margin. Known as the Professor, Johnson also won in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998 and 1999.

“If you’re going to win ugly, you might as well win as ugly as you can,” said Johnson, 58, of Buford, Ga., driver of a Pontiac Grand Am. “We certainly haven’t dominated this year like we have in the past. With 15 different pro stock winners [in 24 events] it’s clear that parity has arrived in pro stock with a vengeance. I may be the champion, but I’m just one of the boys in this extremely competitive category.”

With the favorites sidelined, Bruce Allen defeated Jeter in a final-round battle of Grand Ams, 6.86 to 6.93.

Defending pro stock motorcycle champion Angelle Savoie was assured of a second title when Antron Brown, her only challenger, lost to Joseph DeSantis in the first round by 0.003 of a second, 7.273 to 7.276.

Savoie went on to win the final round on her Team Winston Suzuki when an overanxious Shawn Gann triggered the red light before the start.

Mike Coughlin defeated Greg Stanfield in the final NHRA pro stock truck race. The class is being dropped.