NHRA WINTERNATIONALS: TODD, SCELZI OPEN WITH VICTORIES ASHLEY FORCE OUT AFTER FIRST ROUND OF FUNNY CAR.

Byline: LOUIS BREWSTER

Staff Writer

POMONA -- Neither rain nor darkness failed to deter J.R. Todd or Gary Scelzi from winning performances at the NHRA's Winternationals on Sunday.

Todd, who opened the day with three career-best Top Fuel runs to reach the finals, took out Brandon Bernstein for his fourth career victory. His run of 4.482 seconds at 324.98 mph was the slowest of the day, but it mattered little as Bernstein lost traction 60 feet off the starting line.

The 24-year-old, who became the first African-American to win a NHRA professional class in 2006, has won four times in his past 12 races. In all, Todd has competed 20 times in the dragster.

"It's pretty surprising to myself," Todd said. "I never expected it to happen as suddenly. Last year was a Cinderella season, but it wasn't surprising to ourselves."

In the Funny Car finale, Robert Hight crossed the finish line first in the run against Scelzi. That was a remarkable feat considering Hight crossed the center line and hit a timing cone at 1,000 feet, an automatic disqualification.

Scelzi, only the third driver in the 47 years of Winternationals to win both Top Fuel and Funny Car, was credited with a run of 4.716 at 332.26.

The fact he was able to get to the line was a testament to the Don Schumacher Racing team after Scelzi drove into the sand trap after a semifinal win against Mike Ashley.

"Every single guy was working on the car, trying to get the sand out," Scelzi said. "That was a lot of hard work. We got lucky against Robert, sometimes you might get lucky early, but we got lucky in the final."

Hight was despondent.

"I feel I let the team down," Hight said. "They worked hard all winter to give me a great car and all I had to do was keep it my lane and I would have won."

Ashley Force, in her first professional event, lost in the first round of eliminations.

Force, the 10th woman to drive a Funny Car in professional drag racing competition, saw her chances of beating teammate and brother-in-law Hight go up in smoke when her Castrol/Auto Club Ford Mustang lost traction midway down the quarter-mile strip.

The 24-year-old Force is Funny Car star John Force's daughter.

"I knew it was going to be pretty crazy," she said. "First of all, Pomona, the first race of the year here at the home track, is always really hectic and there's a lot of stuff going on. Then moving up into Funny Car and having the 'Driving Force' (reality television) show here with us again. I was kind of expecting it. I knew it would be kicked up a notch.

"I wasn't expecting how it would get to me internally. I'm usually a pretty calm person. But I was more terrified in that last qualifying session (Saturday evening) than up there with Robert (on Sunday). I was actually having fun getting up there."

There was no drama in Pro Stock, as Greg Anderson defeated Greg Stanfield, 6.651 at 207.05 to 7.001 at 163.64, to record his third win in the opener in the past four years.

For good measure, it was the third consecutive win by Anderson over the famed Fairplex quarter-mile. In addition to back-to-back Winternationals, Anderson also won at last fall's Auto Club Finals.

"This track is magic for me," said Anderson, whose string of three straight championships was snapped last year by teammate Jason Line. "It plays into our game plan, the 60-degree weather is right up the Pro Stock alley. When it's like this, the horsepower shows up and we use it all."

The late start, by two hours, coupled with the sun dancing in and out of the clouds and the late finish, changed the dynamics of the 47th annual event.

The conditions produced some early upsets, most notably Joe Hartley taking out top TopFuel qualifier Tony Schumacher in the opening round.

In Funny Car, four qualifiers in the top half of the bracket were ousted, including John Force.

In Pro Stock, there were three opening-round upsets.

"When the rain came, it just changed things significantly," said Jack Beckman, who lost to Jeff Arend in the first round of Funny Car. "Once you saw half the lower-qualified cars winning, and once there was a pattern that got established in that right lane -- it wasn't necessarily a tune-up deal, it was a lane deal.

"The higher-qualified cars switched over and for the rest of the round they won."

Associated Press contributed

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Photo:

Funny Car winner Gary Scelzi, left, playfully tussles over the winner's trophy with Top Fuel winner J.R. Todd at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona.

Will Lester/Staff Photographer