Network
After two days of blazing-fast qualifying to open the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season, it’s time to crown the first set of event champions here at the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. We’ll have all the action right here on Dragzine throughout the day, until we have only three professional racers remaining.
Sunday morning, well before eliminations begin, fans and the press start lingering around the starting line, grabbing a good spot to see the pro drives introduced. When we shot this, the ceremony was still an hour and change away.
One of the more popular things to do among seasoned nitro fans is to take newbies for a stroll through the pits while the teams warm their cars up. The sting of nitro always makes the newcomers gasp for air as their eyes and noses burn like fire. This poor girl just lost her nitro virginity!
Mornings at the track are also the best time to get up close and personal with your favorite driver, whether it's getting a shirt autographed by Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson or a selfie in the staging lanes with Tony Schumacher.
It’s not just racers here at the Winternationals. A common sight in Alexis DeJoria’s pits is her boyfriend Jesse James.
It’s not secret that one of drag racing’s biggest potential problems is keeping today’s youth interested. In the small car show area here at the Winters is a Junior Dragster exhibit, and this little kid, who can’t be more than 2 or 3 years old, just got hooked. We wonder if his dad, who lifted him into the car, has any idea what he just signed himself up for!
Sidnei Frigo had an engine explosion in the first round that disintegrated his right rear tire and had everyone holding their breath, but he kept the car straight and got it stopped without any further drama. It did throw parts and fluid all over the track though, and brought out the tractors.
Richie Crampton (right) pulled off the upset in the first round of Top Fuel, taking out Brittany Force's digger with a stout 3.747 at 322 to Force's slowing 4.16 at 279. Crampton then went on to lose to Doug Kalitta in the second round.
Clay Millican lost his battle on the tree with Antron Brown but thundered off to a win to face Steve Torrence’s speed racer. Torrence is on a tear and is headed to the semis to face Khalid Al Balooshi.
Spencer Massey will face Doug Kalitta in the semi-finals, while the other matchup is Khalid Al Balooshi and Steve Torrence. Stay tuned to see how those races shake out and who goes to the money round.
Crew Chief Jimmy Prock telling John Force he has a single, thanks to issues with Paul Lee’s car in round one. Force then raced Tommy Johnson Jr. in the second round and won, though he was a mph slower than Johnson. Get this; Force ran 321 mph while Johnson blasted off a 322 in the next lane.
Gary Densham and Alexis DeJoria had a pedal-fest in the first round, as both lost the hook and had to get on and off the gas to stay alive. It was Densham getting to the stripe first however, advancing him to round number two. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't quite handle Del Worsham's 4.05 in that round.
Ron Capps in his NAPA Funny Car got past Jeff Arend’s Mooneyes car in the first round, but in the next round, against Bob Tasca III, Capps’s car took a hard right at about 660 feet and hit the wall fairly hard. A flattened set of headers and an early trip home was the result.
Former Funny Car champion Matt Hagan took out Courtney Force and then her fellow JFR teammate (and brother-in-law) Robert Hight in rounds one and two, respectively. He will face Del Worsham in the semi. Worsham ran a 4.056 to beat Gary Densham’s 4.131 in the second round. That sets the Funny Car semis as Worsham racing Hagan, and John Force running Bob Tasca III.
Vince Nobile took out Shawn Tucker's machine in the first round, while elsewhere on the ladder defending champ Jeg Coughlin Jr. dispatched Roger Brogdon. Nobile and Coughlin will therefore meet in the semi-finals.
Running the winner of the Nobile/Coughlin matchup will be either Erica Enders-Stevens (who beat Derick Kramer) or V. Gaines (who took out Greg Stanfield). So far in eliminations, Gaines has a slight ET advantage over the former Jr. Dragster hero.
The other semi-final matchup in Pro Stock will be Jason Line's Summit Racing Camaro against Shane Gray's Charter car. Line dispatched Matt Hartford and Dave Connolly in the first two rounds, while Gray got there at the expense of Jimmy Alund and Larry Mogan.
Steve Torrence (back to the camera) and Khalid Al Balooshi wish each other luck prior to bucking into their Top Fuelers for the semi-final round. Both men's energy levels were through the roof as they strapped in, and their on-track matchup did not disappoint. Torrence got a slight holeshot with a .052 light to Balooshi's .072, but it was the black and gold Qatar dragster at the stripe first with a 3.783 at 318 to Torrence's 3.804 at 323. Do the math...that's a difference at the line of .001 second!
On the other side of the Top Fuel ladder were Spencer Massey and Doug Kalitta. Like the Torrence/Balooshi race, this one was tight as a drum too. Kalitta won it by .003 seconds. So both semi-final round matchups in Top Fuel were decided by a total of .004 seconds. The final against Kalitta and alBalooshi is going to be epic!
In the Funny Car semis, it was Del Worsham running Matt Hagan, and Bob Tasca III running John Force. The first pair saw Hagan get a .004-second holeshot and run a quicker 4.030 at 318 to Worsham’s .068/4.055/321.
In the Tasca/Force race, the old man in the Castrol Ford proved his reaction times are still top-notch with a .038 light. He stormed off the a 4.025 at a thundering 322 mph to Tasca’s off-pace 5.007 at only 195. That sends Force to the final round for a repeat of last year, racing Matt Hagan.
In the Pro Stock semis, it was a battle of the Vs (Vince Nobile and V. Gaines) on one side of the ladder and Shane Gray versus Jason Line on the other. The first pair were Gray and Line, and though Gray's Camaro left by .006 at the tree, Line's Camaro thumped him with a 6.527 at 212 to Gray's 6.541 at 211. Well okay, it wasn't a thumping, it was a close one! That sets the final as Jason Line and V. Gaines. We'll be back shortly to bring you the final round winners.
The final round of Pro Stock was a good one. Jason Line and V. Gaines were within .003 of each on the tree, with Line getting the miniscule advantage then running a quicker 6.526 at 212.06 mph to Gaines' 6.533 at 212.56. Jason Line's crew went nutso on the starting line when the winner's light came on the board.
See that whisp of smoke just starting to come off of Matt Hagan’s tires in the near lane? A nanosecond later that turned into a cloud of tire smoke as the car blew the Goodyears off, while John Force blasted off to a 3.965 at 323 mph. Force was on a tear this weekend, not only winning the event but also qualifying number one, setting the low ET at 3.965 (also a Pomona track record for Funny Cars) and the top speed at 324.12. That’s a good start to a season where you’re defending your title. Will 2014 be John’s 17th Funny Car championship?
Doug Kalitta pulled a holeshot on alBalooshi but at about haft-track his engine blew to tiny pieces, handing the win and the early season points lead to the Al Anabi fueler.
And here they are, your winners of the 2014 NHRA Circle K Winternationals! From left to right are Jason Line, John Force, and Khalid alBalooshi. We’ll see you in Phoenix in two weeks!
