He (Not She) Has the Rookie’s Edge

A rookie was the leader in the top-fuel field Friday after the second round of qualifying at the Carquest Auto Parts Winternationals.

But it wasn’t Hillary Will.

Will, making her pro debut this weekend in the season-opening event of the National Hot Rod Assn.’s Powerade Drag Racing Series, moved up to second with a 4.518-second, 323.19-mph run at Pomona Raceway but was upstaged by another first-year driver, former funny car crewman J.R. Todd of Lawrenceburg, Ind.

“I was just coming out here hoping to qualify, not be the No. 1 qualifier,” said Todd, whose elapsed time of 4.508 seconds topped the field. “I’m supposed to be out there making mistakes and not getting it done on the track.”

But Todd, 24, was far from overwhelmed by his surroundings.

“This is what I wanted to do growing up, race against these guys,” said Todd, who started racing in junior events when he was 12. “I never thought I’d come out and do this good this quick.”

But Todd said he hasn’t let the idea of racing against past series champions such as Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon get to him.

“I don’t even think about it when I’m out there,” Todd said. “But it’s definitely really cool.”

Really cool was how John Force was feeling Friday too.

With qualifying for Sunday’s finals continuing with two more rounds today, the 13-time champion stood first in funny cars for the second consecutive day after a pass of 4.712 seconds and 327.35 mph in his 2005 Castrol GTX Mustang.

“Same story as yesterday, guys,” Force told reporters.

But Force, trying to reclaim the title he won 12 times in 13 years before slipping to third last season, acknowledged that he still had a long road ahead.

“Qualifying [first] is great for the ego ... and puts you against the slowest car in the pack,” he said. “But race day is what counts. Right now is just making us feel good after feeling so bad over the winter, so we’re pretty excited.”

Todd, driving Dexter Tuttle’s top-fuel dragster, was so excited that he didn’t even flinch when asked about upstaging Will again at season’s end.

“She’s running the full tour, so she’s got a leg up on me,” said Todd, who is scheduled to run only 14 of the season’s 23 events because of budget constraints. “But hopefully we pick up some more funding along the way and run some more races and make a run for rookie of the year. That’s my plan....

“We probably have enough to run the full season, but we’re not going to go out there and run it on a shoestring. So therefore we’re going to go to half the races and run as hard as we can and not worry about tearing up parts.”

Greg Anderson, in a 2006 Pontiac GTO, set an elapsed-time track record with a pass of 6.665 seconds and 207.43 mph to lead pro-stock qualifying, helping to erase the memory of an aborted run Thursday that left him last in the field.

“It was a long trip down there,” the three-time defending series champion said of his season-opening run. “It’s just embarrassing. You’re the last car to run, expectations are high, and you just feel like crawling under a rock.”