Pomona is coming up fast and even though I do not yet know if I will be racing at the 2009 Winternationals I sure do have some great memories of some past Winternationals that make me for sure not want to ever miss a Pomona race!

I think my favorite Winternationals is about a tie between 1992 and 1993. In 1992 I went to Pomona with a new car, a new team and my buddy Jim Brissette as a crew chief. On Saturday I made my first ever four-second run and qualified for the first time ever in the quick half of a NHRA field but then it just got better as on Sunday racing Ed McCulloch in the first round we made what was then the quickest run ever in the history of drag racing, a 4.880! And wow was that exciting? You bet!

How could that ever be improved upon? Well in 1993 I became only the second driver to ever break the 300-mph barrier during the first round of eliminations, racing Mike Dunn! It was the first run over 300 mph in eliminations, the first over 300 at Pomona, and the first over 300 east of the Mississippi River for that matter! This was huge but one of the highlights of my day came when Wally Parks came over to talk to me. He told me that was the first 300-mph run that he had ever seen! That was an exciting day and something that I will never forget.

I actually have several other great memories of Pomona but these two are far and away the best.

One thing I am very sure of is that there won’t be any disappointed fans at Pomona. The Winternationals is the place where all the teams bring out new cars, new technology, new uniforms and great new ideas. I remember in 1986 when Gary Ormsby brought out his streamliner; wow, that was one really cool car.

I hope to be racing at Pomona but even if I am not racing I plan on being there because Pomona is the race to be at, the place where all the new cars come out, everyone will have clean uniforms and everyone will be tied for first place in the NHRA points!

If anyone knows a person or a company that would like to have their name on my Top Fuel car at Pomona, give me a call or shoot me an email and we will be there!

Until next time. Hope to see everyone at Pomona.