Sun, 9 Nov 2003, 07:35 PM Top Fuel Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Dave Gerard Another Wild Race!

POMONA, Calif. - Results of final, round 4 eliminations in Top Fuel at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 39th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
  319 Scott Kalitta                           2 Kenny Bernstein
E4                   0.059 14.656  58.68     ****WINNER****  0.050  6.039 194.41
 Prior rounds:
E3    (T Schumacher) 0.060  4.521 330.63      (C Mc Clenath) 0.070  4.581 319.90
E2    (L Dixon Jr  ) 0.097  4.497 331.36      (D Kalitta   ) 0.065  4.509 327.82
E1    (S Weis      ) 0.099  4.519 323.35      (C Millican  ) 0.091  4.572 323.74
 Qualified:             #4  4.521 332.34                        #7  4.556 324.67

4:21 PM Bernstein made his farewell pass here last year and expected to see his son, rather than himself, in the finals. After a mid-season start, he was still able to win at three national events. Scott has a narrow 13 to 12 career win ratio over Kenny to date. Kalitta came into the TF wars very late in the year too and is planning on running all of the races in 2004.

After a wild Funny Car finish, hopefully this will just be a "good ol' drag race".

Well it's not to be! Kalitta is up in smoke immediately after the hit and the engine appears to go bang shortly after. Bernstein is still running well until about the 330 lights, when he's up in smoke too. From there to the finish line, Kenny is in and out of the throttle at least seven times. It's ugly, but it's a win!! 4:31 PM

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink