Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Even at 61, father still ahead of son in NHRA series

Thursday, May 5, 2005 | 9:34 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.

Warren Johnson is making the most of his final fulltime season on the NHRA Pro Stock circuit.

Johnson, 61, earned his second victory of the season Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway and reclaimed the points lead in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series. It was the 94th career Pro Stock victory for Johnson, who notched his 800th career round win when he defeated Richie Stevens in the final.

Ever the competitor, Johnson said he had no qualms about defeating his son and teammate, Kurt, in the semifinals.

"There's no such thing as a bad win or a good loss the way I've always approached this business," Johnson said. "Winning over Kurt was a great thing because it allowed me to advance to the final ... and collect another 20 points.

"Naturally, going in to the semifinals, we were in a win-win situation because we knew one of our team cars was going to go to the final. Therefore, both teams did everything they could to win."

Kurt Johnson, who debuted the new Chevy Cobalt in Bristol, will win his share of races this season, the elder Johnson said.

"Kurt's going to be a contender for the title now because he has a new car with the Chevy Cobalt that's quite capable of performing at the top of the pack," he said. "He came out here with a new car with only three or four full runs on it, qualified at the top of the heap, and it's going to only get better from here.

"I'm looking at him as being one of the drivers that will eventually vie for this championship. He's seventh in the points, but it's still very early in this season."

Too early, Johnson said, to start making plans for where he would like to place a seventh World Championship trophy.

"We're back in the points lead and even though it is very early in the season, it's always better to be first than second," Johnson said of his 50-point lead over Dave Connolly. "It's not even a safety margin, but it shows our entire team is competitive on a race-to-race basis."

CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: Las Vegas resident Rod Fuller's Top Fuel final appearance Sunday at Bristol did wonders to boost his confidence -- even if he did lose to Doug Kalitta.

It was Fuller's first career final-round appearance in only his fifth race with the first-year David Powers Motorsports team.

"For me, it justifies that I belong here," Fuller said. "Heck, I've only been in a competitive Top Fuel car for five races and I feel like I'm at the same level as some of the top-tier drivers.

"We have one fulltime crew member and we've got a guy that's a schoolteacher, we've got a guy that's a forklift driver, we've got a salesman and a college student ... so it's kind of funny that we can compete with the (Brandon) Bernsteins and the (Tony) Schumachers and those kind of people."

Fuller is 10th in Top Fuel points despite missing one race this season.

THREE TO GO: Gary Scelzi earned his first career victory at Bristol Dragway when he defeated Jeff Arend in Sunday's Funny Car final. Scelzi now has won at 18 of the 21 tracks on the current NHRA schedule.

"If I ever decide to pull the pin (and retire from drag racing), I want to have won at every venue that we've been at, and Bristol has always been a tough one for us," Scelzi said. "I don't think I've ever been past the semifinals -- and that was during the Winston Showdown days."

The only tracks at which Scelzi has failed to earn either a Top Fuel or Funny Car victory are Bandimere Speedway near Denver, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. and Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway.

POKER TOURNAMENT: Brandon Bernstein, driver of the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster, will take part in a charity poker tournament to benefit the Las Vegas Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities prior to the fall NHRA national event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The second annual Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament will be held Oct. 19 at the Cannery Hotel and Casino. For a $250 buy-in, players will receive $1,000 in chips and will have the opportunity to play against several NHRA drivers.

The grand prize is a trip for two to Honolulu, including five-day, four-night accommodations and roundtrip airfare.

For additional information and entry forms, contact Janae Melvin at (702) 632-8242 or jmelvin@lvms.com.