Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Speeds close to eclipsing LVMS reign

Thursday, May 27, 2004 | 9:10 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.

Three national records were established during last weekend's NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill., but The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway still can lay claim to being the world's fastest dragstrip -- unofficially, at least.

Brandon Bernstein set the national Top Fuel speed mark with a pass at 333.41 mph and Gary Scelzi established the Funny Car mark with a run at 330.55, but Doug Kalitta's 335.57 run during second-round qualifying at The Strip on April 3 still ranks as the fastest speed in NHRA history.

Kalitta was not able to back up his pass with one within 1 percent, however, so his run was not certified as a national record.

Whit Bazemore also established a national record last weekend for the quickest Funny Car run at 4.713 seconds. Bazemore also turned in the fastest pass ever in Funny Car (333.25 mph) in the semifinal, but could not back up the run for the record in his final-round loss to John Force.

Bernstein turned in his 333.41 run against Bob Vandergriff in the first round of eliminations Sunday, and his 332.26 pass against Tony Schumacher in the semifinal was within the 1 percent required for his earlier run to be certified as a national record.

Scelzi became the first Funny Car driver to break the 330-mph barrier with a 330.15 during Friday's second round of qualifying, then backed it up for a national top-speed record with a 330.55 mph pass in Saturday's third round. Scelzi lost in the first round of Sunday's eliminations when his Dodge Stratus suffered an ignition problem in his matchup with Tony Bartone.

Line's victory snapped Anderson's five-race winning streak and gave Black's team its seventh win in eight national events this season. It marked the third time in the past four races that Line and Anderson had met in the final.

"As a former Sportsman racer, to win in Pro Stock is the ultimate," Line said. "This is awesome, especially being able to race Greg in the final. Ken (Black) and Greg, they work hard at this whole deal. So for us to race in the final, and then for me to finally beat him, that's awesome.

"I didn't think I was ever going to beat him, actually. The last three times, no matter what light I cut, he was better. I figured the odds were in my favor and eventually I'm going to get the win -- no matter how many times we race."

Leong returns for his second stint with Don Prudhomme Racing and will be reunited with Capps, who is 13th in Funny Car points and searching for his first victory of the season. Leong served as Capps' crew chief from May 1997 through the 1999 season and guided Capps to seven victories and a runner-up points finish in 1998.

Capps initiated the discussion about bringing Leong back to the team, Prudhomme said.

"When I was driving for (Prudhomme) early in my career, I got to drive for Roland and we almost won the championship my first full season with him calling the shots in 1998," Capps said. "Sometimes you just feel some magic there that isn't explainable. I'm just really excited about what's to come."

In the Short Line Express Markets NHRA Junior Dragster Series, Ryen Lamb (Thunder Division) and Shaundra Generalao (Lightning Division) were final-round winners.

The Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series resumes June 5 with the fifth points race of the season.