Dixon Wins Round 1

You want storylines for the Powerade NHRA Drag Racing Series? In top fuel on Sunday at the 42nd K&N; Filters Winternationals, the Kenny Bernstein-Larry Dixon rivalry picked up where it left off in 2001.

Funny car champion John Force nearly cried in a news conference. And the pro stock winner was the last qualifier in the 16-man field and won by 9/10,000th of a second--about three inches.

Dixon, Force, and George Marnell were the winners in front of about 40,000 at Pomona Raceway.

It was also an eventful weekend for Dixon’s team owner, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, celebrating his 40th season in racing.

In addition to Dixon’s victory, Prudhomme went nose-to-nose on Saturday in the parking lot with Force, who made a joke from his Jaguar about Prudhomme’s recent purchase of a Learjet.

“I took it the wrong way,” Prudhomme said. “I got in his face. We kissed and made up ... but I’ll tell you one thing, we didn’t take one penny out of the racing budget.

“We’re dead serious about what we’re doing.”

Such is the pressure of racing at this level, and after the Miller Lite dragster owned by Prudhomme fell short against Bernstein’s Budweiser King in last season’s series championship, there were smiles all around Sunday night. At least for a day.

“[Prudhomme] said you can celebrate today, but tomorrow we have to work on [the Feb. 24 race at] Phoenix,” Dixon said. “This is only Chapter 1. This is a 23-chapter book.”

Dixon, 35, and Prudhomme, 58, grew up in the San Fernando Valley. It was Dixon’s 17th career victory, Prudhomme’s 28th as an owner, his 77th overall.

Bernstein, a six-time NHRA champion who is retiring at the end of the season, made his 106th final-round appearance. Bernstein won at Pomona in November in the season finale to clinch the series title over Dixon by 95 points.

In Sunday’s final, Dixon used a 4.535-second run at 324.75 mph to defeat Bernstein by .077 of a second.

Earlier, Andrew Cowin--whose 4.490 time established a track record in qualifying--smoked his tires in the first round and lost to No. 16 qualifier John Smith. Tony Schumacher, whose 330.88 mph was also a track record in qualifying, also fell in the first round to Wyatt Radke.

In the semifinals, and Bernstein defeated Anaheim’s Cory McClenathan, back from a one-year hiatus and driving the car he last drove two years ago for Joe Gibbs. McClenathan had defeated Smith in the second round and his wife, Rhonda Hartman-Smith, in the first. Dixon’s semifinal victory came against Clay Millican.

“Larry knows how important every round is, especially as close as he was to Bernstein,” Prudhomme said. “Each round is critical. At the end of the year, it’s a big deal.”

Prudhomme doesn’t only want to beat Bernstein before he retires, but is also after Force, the 11-time funny car champion who has won nine in a row.

Force, of Yorba Linda, limped to victory ahead of Chino Hills driver Del Worsham.

It was Force’s 99th career victory, and his first at the Winternationals since 1997, ending his longest active losing streak at a particular event.

Force and Prudhomme squared off on the quarter-mile in the semifinals Sunday with Force--the top qualifier at 4.749--beating Prudhomme driver Ron Capps with a mechanically flawed 4.972-second run to Capps’ 5.202.

“We’re not running quite as good as Force,” Prudhomme quipped, “but we’ve got a better driver.”

Capps was frustrated by what might have been.

“He was lucky today,” Capps said. “We were side by side. I could hear him next to me and about that time I said, ‘Here we go,’ and [then] there was a big kaboom and right after that he came flying by with smoke coming off the rear of his car. That’s depressing.”

Worsham lost to Force for the 32nd time. In the final, Force ran his worst time of the weekend, 6.260 at 219.76 mph, and Worsham, who had run nothing worse than a 4.894 in the first three rounds, struggled to the finish with a 6.642 at 243.68 mph.

“Luck’s a big deal here, and sometimes it just works, but he was in trouble first,” Force said. “There was no motor left in my car to get to the other end, or in his, either.”

The victory was reassuring to Force, 52, who was surprisingly emotional. “At my age, you begin to think maybe you can’t come back,” said Force, whose voice began cracking. “I’m going to leave.”

And then Force, never at a loss for words, walked out.

In pro stock, 16th-seeded Marnell scored his second career victory by edging Jim Yates, running 6.88 seconds at 200.89 mph.

Yates had a lower elapsed time, 6.812 seconds, but Marnell’s reaction time was nearly perfect, .417 seconds. It was also an emotional day for Marnell; one his team members, Bill Smith, died on Thursday in Las Vegas.

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Finish Line

Event winners in the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona Raceway:

TOP FUEL

LARRY DIXON

4.535 seconds, 324.75 mph

FUNNY CAR

JOHN FORCE, Ford

6.260 seconds, 219.76 mph

PRO STOCK

GEORGE MARNELL, Pontiac

6.880 seconds, 200.89 mph