Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Marnell determined to do well in LV

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 9:39 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

As a longtime resident of Las Vegas, George Marnell always has put pressure on himself to do well when the National Hot Rod Association national events roll into town.

After sliding from seventh to 11th in Pro Stock points during September, Marnell is even more determined than usual heading into next weekend's ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"We try to take it in stride and try to approach it like we do each one of these races," Marnell said of his hometown event, "but this race is real important for me to try to do well in front of the people that support us and follow us all year long."

After winning the season opener at Pomona, Marnell consistently was in the top 10 in points until his Marnell Motorsports Pontiac Grand Am developed a problem in mid-September.

Marnell failed to qualify for three consecutive national events. He later determined the problem to be a crack in the car's rear-end housing.

"Where it was broken, we had a hard time finding it," Marnell said. "We ran the car several races with a broken rear-end housing (and didn't know it). We finally got it to break enough to where we could find it and then fix it.

"Consequently, we had a little bit of a time (where) the car would act like it was a new car again so we went through a period adjusting to that, sorting the car back out again."

In the meantime, Marnell also replaced crew chief Marcus Svenson with Jeff Purley, who used to work with Pro Stock driver Kurt Johnson.

Marnell, who trails 10th-place Darrell Alderman by only one point in the Pro Stock standings, was testing Wednesday at The Strip in an attempt to get the car fine-tuned for next weekend's race, the next-to-last event on the 2003 Powerade Drag Racing Series schedule.

"Finishing in the top ten is our goal," Marnell said. "We're one point out of the top ten, so we've got a good shot at finishing in the top ten and if we do that, we'll accomplish what we want for the rest of the year."

The NHRA requires a Top Fuel applicant to perform two runs in less than 5.20 seconds and faster than 275 mph. Bernstein turned in runs of 4.621 seconds at 322.23 mph and 4.699 seconds at 320.62 mph.

Bernstein, 30, will replace his father, drag racing legend Kenny Bernstein, in the cockpit of the Budweiser King/Lucas Oil dragster in 2003.