Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Last week’s rain at Pomona helps some teams

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 10:02 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.

The rain that blanketed Southern California last weekend and forced the postponement of the season-opening NHRA national event at Pomona Raceway was not entirely unwelcome in some quarters of the pit area.

The K&N Filters Winternationals is scheduled to resume Friday and -- weather permitting -- completed Sunday with final eliminations. All three pro classes got in one qualifying round last Thursday before rain washed out Friday's action. NHRA officials postponed the event early Saturday.

One team that took advantage of the delay was Kurt Johnson's ACDelco Racing team, which gambled that the rain would steer clear of the Phoenix area and headed to Speedworld Motorplex this week to test.

"Although we would have preferred to run this race on schedule, the postponement could be a blessing in disguise for us," Johnson said. "We were facing the prospect of having to race on a cold, green track with this new car for which we have limited tuning data, so we welcome the chance to have an extra week to work with it."

Johnson was forced to abort his first qualifying run last Thursday and was 28th among 31 Pro Stock drivers after one round of qualifying in his new Chevy Cavalier.

Johnson and several other drivers got in two days of testing in Phoenix and Johnson was able to turn in a pass at 6.87 seconds.

Greg Anderson, the reigning NHRA Pro Stock champion, topped the Pro Stock charts after one round with a run of 6.743 seconds at 205.19 mph in team owner Ken Black's Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am.

Medlen was the class of the class of the Funny Car field after Thursday's qualifying run, making the pass in 4.84 seconds at 319.07 mph. Team owner John Force, on the other hand, had to abort his run and was 17th among 23 drivers.

"I don't know what to think," Medlen said of his and Force's first qualifying runs. "Force took a chance on a young hick like me and I'm glad I was able to show him I could drive," Medlen said. "He told me, 'Good job, junior, you saved my life.' and I said, 'That's OK because you made mine.'

"It's the car -- believe me -- and the crew chief, my dad (John Medlen), and the guys; it takes all the pressure off me because I know I have a bad ride. I've got a lot of learning to do. I'll make plenty of mistakes ... it just helps so much to know I can screw up but still look good because of the team behind me."

"People keep telling me that we're the front-runners to win the title," Schumacher said. "Yes, we're good, but so are the Kalittas (Doug and Scott). Darrell Russell is going to be excellent, (Brandon) Bernstein, (Larry) Dixon -- he is the two-time champ -- the list just goes on.

"We're in for a heck of a fight all year."

Schumacher, the 1999 NHRA Top Fuel champion, turned in a season-opening run of 4.514 seconds at 326.32 mph.