The winter played more havoc with the NHRA’s Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals in Pomona as periodic rain Sunday forced the drag races’ final rounds to be postponed until today.
Only the first round of eliminations in the sport’s two premier classes, top-fuel dragsters and funny cars, could be completed in between the showers at Auto Club Raceway.
The season opener in the National Hot Rod Assn.‘s Full Throttle Series is scheduled to resume at 10:30 a.m., although more rain is in the forecast.
Tony Schumacher, who has won the top-fuel championship the last five years, was among those advancing to the second round.
But Cruz Pedregon, who won the 2008 funny car title, was knocked out early by Jack Beckman.
The Winternationals already had been an exercise in frustration, with rain washing out qualifying Thursday and Friday and curbing qualifying Saturday to one round instead of the scheduled two.
That meant the racers—many of them driving new cars for the 2009 season—began the 16-driver final eliminations with little track time.
Los Angeles Times - Jim Peltz
Joining Schumacher and Bernstein in round two are Antron Brown, Mike Strasburg, Morgan Lucas, Steve Chrisman, Cory McClenathan, and Doug Kalitta. Only four of the first-round winners came from the top half of the ladder.
The upsets started early with independent runner Strasburg ousting Don Prudhomme’s U.S. Smokeless Racing team and rookie driver Spencer Massey. Chrisman continued the shockers when he bested David Baca in the following pair. Though he also started in the bottom half of the field, Morgan Lucas made a strong opening-round statement with the second quickest time of the round, a 3.846, that gave him the win over No. 2 qualifier Joe Hartley. Doug Kalitta also started from the slow half of the field, but his 4.648 was more than enough to move him around Urs Erbacher.
Funny Car low qualifier Robert Hight, who’s been to the last three Winternationals finals and won two of them, in 2006 and 2008, is a round closer to a fourth straight final-round appearance after getting past Jerry Toliver in their opening pairing. Hight’s Automobile Club of Southern California Mustang ripped to a 4.15 to beat the 2004 Winternationals winner to the finish line. NHRA
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