NHRA Is Still Waiting for Sun

Another day of steady rain forced the National Hot Rod Assn. to cancel Saturday’s Auto Club Finals drag racing program at Pomona Raceway and gamble on a sunny -- or at least dry -- day today.

“The forecast is for clear skies,” said Graham Light, NHRA vice president of operations. “If it comes true, we will run our professional classes and finish in time to hand out the season awards at Monday night’s banquet.

“If it continues to rain, we will pull the plug on everything and reschedule three days of racing next weekend, starting Friday.”

The Budweiser Shootout, a bonus event for top fuel drivers scheduled for Saturday, will be held during February’s Winternationals, as it was two years ago because of similar weather conditions.

Kenny Bernstein, seeded No. 1 for the Shootout, is retiring after today’s finals, but his son, Brandon, received permission to drive the Budweiser King in his place.

“Two years ago, when we had a similar situation with Joe Amato retiring between now and the Winternationals, we let his new driver, Darrell Russell, compete,” Light said.

Russell reached the finals, where he lost to Gary Scelzi.

“If any of the other drivers are not competing next February, their spot will go to the next qualifying driver in this year’s standings,” Light said.

That would be Rhoda Hartman-Smith or John Smith.

Because only one qualifying round was completed this week, the fields will include Thursday’s fastest 16, with the provision that any driver in the top 10 in the season standings will be seeded into the eliminations.

This moved Andrew Cowin into the No. 16 top fuel berth, eliminating Clay Millican. Cowin, who drives the Yankee car for Darrell Gwynn, will meet No. 1 qualifier Russell in the first round.

This is the first time Russell has been low qualifier.

“It’s a bit of a lucky break for us,” he said. “I know there are plenty of cars here that probably could have run quicker than that given the opportunity. At the same time, there’s no reason to think we couldn’t have stepped it up a bit also.”

Russell qualified in 4.571 seconds at 313.22 mph Thursday.

The funny car seedings will prevent Tony Pedregon from facing his boss, 11-time champion John Force, in an early round. Force, with a 31-point lead over Pedregon, his Castrol Mustang teammate, after 22 events, can clinch his 12th title by reaching the semifinals, even if Pedregon wins the event.

If both win their first- and second-round matches, the two will meet in an anti-climactic semifinal.

If Force falters against Scotty Cannon or the Cory Lee-Terry Haddock first-round winner, Pedregon could win the $400,000 bonus if he wins the finals. Cannon is one of the drivers seeded into the eliminations.

Tommy Johnson Jr. was the other funny car driver added to the 16. Forced out were Stephen Neese and Bob Gilbertson.

In pro stock, George Marnell, who won the Winternationals here last February, was seeded into the finals along with Mark Whisnant and Allen Johnson. Steve Johnson was the only nonqualified pro stock bike rider to move up.

Sportsman cars are scheduled to begin eliminations at 9:30 a.m. today, with the professionals taking over at 11. The pro classes are expected to finish around 4 p.m., with sportsmen continuing to race until 7:30 and probably finishing Monday morning.

“Our objective is to get everything over in time for the awards banquets,” said Light.

The NHRA Powerade ceremony at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood will begin at 6:30 p.m. The Lucas awards show for sportsman classes will be held at 4 p.m.