Monday, April 5, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
The sun finally appeared Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which was great news for the fans who came out to the track to ogle the babes in halter tops.
In other words, most of the crowd at the SummitRacing.com Nationals went home happy.
But hardcore NHRA Powerade Drag Racing fans who had hoped to witness a little history in addition to the female form can blame Mr. Blue Sky for being deprived of the thrill.
It was only about 12 hours earlier, on a crisp Saturday night following a day and a half of rain that created a free-flowing river about 30 yards from the staging area, that Doug Kalitta blistered the quarter-mile in a Top Fuel dragster at 335.32 mph. That's 3-3-5 point 3-2. Roadrunner speed with Wile E. Coyote on his tail.
It was the fastest pass in NHRA history, and the first one timed with a blink of an eye instead of a stopwatch.
A little later during the qualifying session, Scott Kalitta, Doug's cousin, and Brandon Bernstein, Kenny's kid, ran wheel-to-wheel and side-by-side for about 1,319 feet of the 1,320. Kalitta won at the line as both cars were clocked in excess of 333 mph -- the fastest two-car pass ever.
The hardcore fans almost popped their ear plugs. Even the girls wearing turtlenecks and rain ponchos cheered as Las Vegas Motor Speedway became the fastest quarter-mile in the world.
Unofficially, that is.
Many years ago, when "Big Daddy" Don Garlits was still running around 200 mph and the NHRA was scoring its races with an egg timer instead of an electronic eye, it established a rule that record runs must be "backed up" on the same weekend by a second pass within 1 percent of the first one to be officially recognized.
"The reason we did that ... is because years ago, timing systems weren't as precise as they are now," said Graham Light, the NHRA's director of competition.
But that's not to say Kalitta's time was wind-aided, like in track and field.
"It was a legitimate time and it will stand as the fastest time in history," Light said. "Las Vegas Motor Speedway can take credit for it ... but we'll put an asterisk alongside it (in the record book)."
Light said there's a reason the Roger Maris treatment is still used in a digital era.
While today's timing systems are more accurate than a Rolex purchased in Geneva, he said one has yet to be introduced that can compensate for an act of God, such as a flash of lightning that could set off the electric eye, or even an act of Bubba, such as somebody tossing a hot dog wrapper in front of it just as the cars were about to ignite.
But neither of those prevented the record from being set on Sunday. Light went on to explain how the barometric conditions weren't conducive to record speeds, using a bunch of meteorological terms that only Willard Scott would understand.
In a nutshell, our typical spring weather had returned for final eliminations.
On Saturday night, when the Kalittas and Bernstein were imitating the F-16s across Las Vegas Boulevard at Nellis Air Force Base, the track temperature was 86 degrees. By 2:30 p.m. Sunday, it was 100 degrees. By 3 p.m., it was 110.
The track, with the sun beating down on it, became as slick and oily as Jerry Lewis' hair during the 22nd hour of the Labor Day telethon. With the ambient temperature in the mid-70s, some 15 degrees warmer than Saturday night, the finely tuned bombs -- er, engines -- in the cars were sapped of some of the horsepower they generate under ideal conditions for speed, which are cool and cloudy. Or cool and dark.
So there would be no record-confirming passes Sunday, although nobody involved with the beer or suntan lotion concessions seemed to mind. Tony Schumacher beat Larry Dixon in the Top Fuel final with an elapsed time of 4.52 sec. at 331.53 mph.
Geez, didn't Schumacher know that the gas pedal was the one on the right?
That's a joke, of course, but the winning speed still was a little shy of what these cars are capable of when all the stars are lined up, Jupiter is aligned with Mars, and the crew chiefs and drivers are at peace with the planets. Light said when that happens, the only limit might be the speed of his last name.
"Three-forty," he said, invoking a crazy number that a decade ago was only used in conjunction with Tony Gwynn's batting average.
Light said a 340-mph pass probably wouldn't come this year. But when it does, he said it will be a big deal, just like Kenny Bernstein's first 300-mph run in 1992.
In other forms of motor sports, unless you've got a stopwatch wired to your retinas, the only way to know you've just witnessed a record lap is when the track announcer says so over the public address system. But there's a reason the NHRA erects giant scoreboards at the finish line that instantaneously flash the times and speeds for all in the grandstand to see.
For NHRA fans, speed thrills.
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