Despite the local predictions for nearly two days of rain, the first day of professional qualifying for the NHRA Winternationals showed just how wrong the weatherman can be and how good the NHRA’s track prep and Safety Safari team really is.
Afternoon rain showers did shorten Friday’s fuel qualifying, but Saturday is looking like it’ll be a full day for setting the fields at the 57th Circle K NHRA Winternationals. Sadly, Auto Club Pomona Raceway is now only used twice a year for drag racing, but the quarter mile appeared to take just about everything racers could throw at it.
Doug Kalitta ran a career best elapsed time to lead Top Fuel qualifying Friday at Pomona. Due to weather, only Pro Stock was able to run both rounds of there scheduled qualifying. Rain began halfway through the Funny Car second session before NHRA officials pulled the plug.
In the only Top Fuel qualifying session, Kalitta piloted his Mac Tools dragster to a 3.697-second pass at 325.69 mph for the #1 spot so far. “We definitely always love running out here. Pomona, with just the history, is probably one of the coolest tracks on the circuit,” Kalitta said. “We finished off strong last year and I’m real relieved that the thing had a nice strong run the first qualifying session.”
Here’s the video of Doug Kalitta’s #1 pass
Brittany Force holds the second spot with a 3.706 at 322.42 mph with eight-time champ Tony Schumacher’s U.S. Army dragster (above) third at 3.729 at 325.06 mph.
Rookie Troy Coughlin Jr. was the first fueler down the track with a strong 3.730 at 322.81 in the Kalitta Motorsports SealMaster dragster sitting fourth in a short field of only fourteen competitors, so far.
Matt Hagan’s Mopar-backed funny car led the class with a 3.840 at 330.15 mph in the first session of qualifying at the season opening event of the 24-race 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
“It’s been a long winter,” Hagan said. “I’ve been chomping at the bit to put a mouth piece in and put a helmet on. I’ve had a lot of frustration and I was ready to take it out on the racetrack. It’s really nice to come out here and roll out of the box and run an .84. It was one of those runs where you knew you had to get it in so it’s a pressure filled situation. It needs to get it down the race track because you need to get qualified and you have the rain coming in.”
Here’s the video of Matt Hagan’s #1 Funny Car pass
Courtney Force with her Advance Auto Parts Chevy Camaro-bodied funny car qualified second with a 3.849 at 330.23 mph in the first session and if it is any indication of how the remainder of the season is going to play out, Tim Wilkerson is in fine shape for a career year. Wilkerson drove the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car, rocketed to a career best 3.857-second pass at 322.65 mph in the second session of qualifying and finished the day in the No. 3 position.
2016 Funny Car Champion Ron Capps NAPA-backed Dodge Charger sits ninth with his single run of 4.148 sec., 325.14 mph pass in the rain-shortened day of qualifying.
In Pro Stock, Anderson powered his Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro to a 6.557 at 210.60 in the second session to lead the category.
“We had a great racetrack today,” Anderson said. “It’s fun to drive a car when the weather is like this. You throw everything you got at the race car and the racetrack holds it. So that’s what we did today and tomorrow will be a different day. Sunday will be completely different, we’ll probably see sun on Sunday. So it will be a whole different deal going through the weekend but today, we’re king.”
Here’s the video of Greg Anderson’s #1 Pro Stock pass
Anderson’s teammate and defending world champion Jason Line followed with a 6.563 at 210.93 in his Summit Racing Camaro during the second session and two-time world champion Erica Enders, who is back in an Elite Motorsports Chevy Camaro ran a 6.567 at 210.60.
After a pair of qualifiers, Top Alcohol Funny Car is lead by Whiteford, Maryland’s DJ Cox Jr in his 2017 Camaro-bodied racecar running a stout 5.471 at 268.17 miles per hour, with John Lombardo Jr sitting second with a close 5.483
Canadian Shawn Cowie leads the Top Alcohol Dragsters with his 5.241 at 271.62 mph charge. Alan Bradshaw with a 5.283 277.37 sits second in his A/Fuel dragster.
In Top Fuel Harley, Dustin Werner experienced a huge intake manifold explosion off the starting line in the first pair of bikes, Werner was transported to a nearby Pomona hospital for a tune-up. Tii Tharpe leads the eight-bike field 6.563 at 183.57 mph.
Qualifying for the Circle K NHRA Winternationals continues Saturday with the first session set for 12:30 p.m. and second session at 3:30 p.m. NHRA and FOX Sports announced there will be additional live programming from the season opening Winternationals in Pomona. The new one hour program will air on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) from 1 – 2 p.m. Eastern, 10 – 11 a.m. Pacific, on Saturday, Feb. 11.
Live coverage of Sunday finals from the Circle K NHRA Winternationals will air on FOX broadcast channels at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific on Feb. 12.
