(Words by Darr Hawthorne – Photos by Mike and Jeff Burghardt) – Love him or hate him, 16-time nitro funny car Champion John Force isn’t going anywhere, except down the dragstrip, 1,000 feet at a time. Just when you might think John Force Racing would play defense, after the announcement that both Ford Motor Company and Castrol would leave their team at the end of 2014, Force dominated the season opening NHRA Winternationals at historic Auto Club Pomona Raceway.

The air was cool and heavy at Pomona, but like some kind of Hollywood script, Force set the tone during qualifying with the #1 position of 3.966 elapsed time at 324.12 mph. Teammate Robert Hight’s JFR Mustang was a close second with his 3.996/317.94 mph pass.

Alexis DeJoria had the quickest Funny Car run on Saturday and she improved to third in qualifying with a 3.997 ET at 318.32 mph in her Patron XO Café Toyota. With the effort, she became the first female to post a Funny Car run in the 3.9-second range.

Getting to the Final round of eliminations, Force continued his dominance, defeating a tire-smoking Matt Hagen with a stout 3.965/323.58 mph pass. On his way to the finals, Force defeated Paul Lee, Tommy Johnson Jr and Bob Tasca in the earlier rounds for his sixth consecutive final round appearance and his 139th NHRA funny car victory.

“I’ve got a good race car. It is amazing,” said Force, of his 16th win at his home track Pomona Raceway and his seventh Winternationals victory. “We are out here trying to run good for the fans. Jimmy Prock (Crew chief) and the whole brain trust are working together. I am back in the game and we are excited. Everything is just going right. I just don’t get it. There is a lot going on and we are excited that PEAK antifreeze joined us. What a good time to flex your muscles.”

In Top Fuel, Kalid alBalooshi claimed his third victory by holding off event top qualifier Doug Kalitta in the final round, Kalitta had met and also lost to Al-Anabi Racing world champion Shawn Langdon in the World Finals last year. The Dubai native, who now lives in Los Angeles, finished competition with a 3.974 at 324.36 mph in his Alan Johnson dragster, while Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster smoked the tires at mid-track and slowed to a 5.368 at 143.40.

To take his third national event victory, alBalooshi also defeated Tony Schumacher (shown), teammate Shawn Langdon and Steve Torrence in earlier rounds at Pomona.

On his way to the final round, Doug Kalitta defeated DSR’s Spencer Massey in a close match in the Semi’s.

“We had a strong day today,” said alBalooshi. “It’s a good win, especially when you have (former champ) Tony Schumacher first round, Shawn Langdon second round, and ‘Steve-O’ (Torrence), who’s been doing a good job. Doug’s car was the best car all weekend, so it made it a very big day for us to take him down in the final and get the trophy.” Winning the Winternationals is a great start to the season for alBalooshi, who finished 11th in his rookie season in 2012 and eighth overall last year.

This was Doug Kalitta’s second consecutive defeat at the hands of Al Anabi racing having lost to Champion Shawn Langdon in the final round of last fall’s World Finals at Pomona.

In Pro Stock, Jason Line who had qualified third, outran number four qualifier V. Gaines in the Pro Stock final. Line powered his Summit Racing Camaro to a performance of 6.526 ET at 212.06 mph to hold off Gaines, whose Dodge Avenger trailed closely with a 6.533 ET at 212.56 mph.

Line defeated Matt Hartford, Dave Connolly and Shane Gray to advance to the final round. This makes it Line’s third Winternationals victory and his 32nd career victory. “My day was great,” Line said. “It’s a huge deal to start the season off with a win. It’s a big deal. The last few years we’ve struggled and wasn’t what we had hoped for. We worked really hard over the winter and I think we improved. This sport is just crazy hard right now. It’s tough to separate yourself out here it’s so competitive.” Line remarked that he’d proudly hand over his Wally from the Pomona weekend to his longtime teammate Greg Anderson, who is recovering from surgery and will miss the first three months of the NHRA season.

Pro Stock qualifying was tight with only seventeen “factory hot rods” showing up at Pomona, noticeably missing were veteran Warren Johnson and his son Kurt and their GM racecars. However, Australian newcomer Shane Tucker rounded out the sixteen-car field with a 6.594 ET at 210.50 mph driving his family ’09 Cobalt.

In Sportsman racing at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals Chris Demke and Brian Hough took home big wins to kick off the 2014 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Pomona. Demke defeated Don St. Arnaud for the Top Alcohol Dragster title and Hough ran down Sean Bellemeur in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Demke’s TAD 5.251 ET at 275.00 mph defeated Canadian Don St. Arnaud’s 5.328 ET at 276.46 mph in his white dragster. Demke defeated Californians Megan McKernan and Casey Grisel on his way to the final with Arnaud.

Oregonian Brian Hough’s Mustang, who ran a 5.571 ET at 257.83 mph overcame a .007 holeshot from Sean Bellemeur’s MasterCam Camaro running a 5.646 ET at 257.78 mph giving Hough the Top Alcohol Funny Car win. Hough earned his seventh NHRA national event win while Bellemeur is still in search of his first.

The Comp trophy went to Mike DePalma Jr. out of Glendale, Ariz., who held off the hard charging current NHRA Lucas Oil World Champion Alan Ellis from Mapleton, Utah in his ’23 T-altered. DePalma went 8.062 seconds at 166.09 mph for the win in his ’00 S-10 Pro Stock Truck (near lane).

In Super Stock, Don Keen pocketed his fourth National event trophy in his ’65 Mustang from Palmdale, CA. He ran a 10.355 ET at 127.47 mph leading from start to finish in defeating fellow Californian Dave Bridgewater’s ’12 COPO Camaro 9.506 ET at 139.29 mph.

Californian Paul Cannan won the Stock category driving his red ’69 Camaro ran a 10.099, 129.27 in his victory over New York state’s Michael Iacono’s ’69 Camaro 10.972, 119.32.

In the Super Comp Final, race parts manufacturer Don Meziere drove his Escondido, CA based Dragster to an 8.921/158.37 beating Steve Casner’s Dragster who ran an 8.922/185.36.

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues in a couple of weeks on Feb. 21-23 with the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at the newly refurbished Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix, AZ.