Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Brandon Bernstein does well in Arizona tests

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003 | 10:01 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.

When Kenny Bernstein retired at the end of last season and handed the reins of his Budweiser King Top Fuel dragster to his son Brandon, he said he expected the team to continue winning races and contending for championships.

"The goal is to win the championship and it certainly is not out of the question from a rookie driver -- it has been done before," the elder Bernstein said last fall. "The team is extremely good and Tim Richards is a great crew chief. Now it's up to Brandon to do the job in the cockpit and he's capable of doing that."

Kenny Bernstein may have appeared overly optimistic at the time, but his successor in the cockpit is living up to his predictions.

Brandon Bernstein on Tuesday turned in the quickest run by a Top Fuel driver during five days of testing at Phoenix's Firebird International Raceway. His 4.544-second run at 322.04 mph topped reigning Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon's 4.55 effort on Saturday and Tony Schumacher's 4.560 at 316.82.

"Our goal coming to this test session was to get the car race-ready and to get me comfortable inside the car," Brandon Bernstein said. "After (five) days, I'm getting that comfort feeling. I'll just keep getting more comfortable after the test session in Tucson next weekend."

Bernstein will resume testing on Friday at Tucson's Southwestern International Raceway.

Top Fuel drivers Darrell Russell and Cory McClenathan will join approximately 15 NHRA Pro and Sportsman drivers who already have registered for the pre-season test session. McClenathan is replacing Andrew Cowin this season in the New York Yankees dragster for Darrell Gwynn Racing.

ESPN's RPM2nite will be taping each day during the test and the network's Bob Frey will serve as the track announcer.