Championship Drag Racing

KEYSTONE NATIONALS
READING (Sept. 14-17)

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16th annual

Sunday

Keystones offer retribution for some, heartbreak and hard luck for others

The Keystones Nationals was big on retribution for three of its four drivers and oddly cruel to others as the 19th event of the 2000 NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series wound to a close at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania.

Bruce Sarver, plagued by DNQs and inconsistency throughout his rookie Funny Car season, finally broke through for his first win in the Alan Johnson-owned e-moola.com Firebird. Homestate hero Joe Amato, who had never won his state's biggest national event until last year despite trying to do so since its inception in 1988, won Top Fuel again, defeating Sarver's teammate, Gary Scelzi, by .007-second in the final round. Seven clearly was not a lucky number for Scelzi as a win would have given him a single-season Top Fuel record seventh win; he lost his bid to win his seventh last weekend, too, also by .007-second.

Matt Hines earned some retribution in Pro Stock Bike when he defeated the points leader, Angelle Seeling, while Kurt Johnson defeated his father, Warren, in the Pro Stock final. The loss keeps W.J. at just one win, only the first time since 1990 he's been held to a single win and for only the third time since his first win in 1982.

The focus all weekend was on Top Fuel championship combatants Scelzi and Tony Schumacher, but the honor and the glory of this race went to Pennsylvania's favorite son Amato. The all-time winningest driver in Top Fuel history successfully defended the crown of the his most cherished race and moved his unbelievable win total to 52, which is 17 more than retired pro "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and 28 more than the next active driver on the list, Cory McClenathan.

Joe Amato

In a race that had everyone in attendance screaming at full throat, Amato edged Scelzi by seven-thousandths of a second, setting off a wild celebration in the stands and across the compound. Amato had to make up a .006 of a second starting line advantage by Scelzi and did so with a 4.626-second, 310.27-mph pass.

For his part, Scelzi, who reassumed the Winston lead from Schumacher by eight championship points, gave it everything he had, crossing in 4.639 seconds at 312.78 mph. Scelzi has five more races to try for a record seventh win of the season.

"This track abused us for so many years I guess I'm finally making up some ground," Amato said. "We had some great times here winning match races but the Top Fuel drought was on for quite awhile. Last year was so special because it was the first but this feels pretty awesome also.

"I was driving my heart out because I knew I had such a huge cheering section here. This is home and I didn't want to go back and tell everyone why I lost. It was a heck of a race -- a 4.62 to a 4.63 -- I mean, it doesn't get much closer than that. We knew we had to go for it because Alan Johnson and Gary Scelzi are so tough. We did just enough to win."

Driving his Dynomax/Valvoline/Keystone machine, Amato had a tough trek to the finals, edging Rhonda Hartman-Smith, Andrew Cowin, and Bob Vandergriff Jr. by fractions of a second.

Scelzi had an easier journey in his consistent Winston dragster, running 4.6-second laps in elimination-round wins over Rit Pustari, Kenny Bernstein, and Doug Herbert. The Pustari lap was a "gimme" as the part-timer failed to show up for the race. Top Fuel results

Amato's celebration with his homestate fans was special but the party surrounding first-time Funny Car winner Bruce Sarver was equally exuberant. The former Top Fuel pilot, who had raced to two finals without a win in his dragster career, capitalized on his first flopper final by downing Ron Capps, who has now recorded six runner-up finishes this year.

Bruce Sarver

Sarver and Capps ran side-by-side for most of the quarter-mile but the e-moola.com machine pulled away at the end, winning with a time of 4.993 seconds at 303.03 mph ahead of Capps' 5.063-second, 293.73-mph pass.

"This hasn't sunk in yet," Sarver said. "My first words when I got out of the car were, 'Wow, I just won a drag race.' I guess I'll start to enjoy it later tonight or tomorrow. I sure want to enjoy this.

"We had to switch out our clutch and we've just been thrashing over there in the pit. I thought we were done but Alan (Johnson, team owner and Scelzi crew chief) pulled out one of the dragster's clutches and put it in the car. Who says dragster parts don't work in a Funny Car?

"It worked to perfection because I could see Ron was out ahead of me until that clutch locked up and that A.J. horsepower kicked in, then we just powered on by. It was a really cool feeling."

The e-moola.com Funny Car earned plenty of loot along the way to the finals as Sarver bested Cristen Powell, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Scotty Cannon with progressively better laps.

After escaping a near-disaster in the opening round when he temporarily lost traction against Jim Epler before an engine explosion let him by for the win, Capps and the U.S. Tobacco Co. Camaro steadily improved with wins over Frank and Tony Pedregon, b ut his luck ran out in the finals against Sarver. Funny Car results

Kurt Johnson became the sixth most-prolific winner in Pro Stock history when he notched No. 18 over his father, Warren. He'll have plenty to brag about at the shop as he tattooed his dad at the starting line -- .452 to .515 - and then drove away for a fairly easy win.

Kurt Johnson

The final numbers had Kurt crossing in 6.885 seconds at 200.14 mph with Warren close behind at 6.914 and 200.14 mph. Warren's 129th career final gives him seven more than retired class leader Bob Glidden.

"You hate to piss off your dad but if I didn't try my best out there he would have been madder than he is right now for losing," said K.J., who moved back into second place in the Winston points. "We'll probably kick in a tape of this race 10 years from now when we're sitting around the fireplace and enjoy these races against each other more than we do now. Especially this race because I can remind him how much I left on him by.

"Consistency was the biggest reason we won. We knew we couldn't be scared to make big changes if we needed to, and as this race went along we made some big changes. We even had to change some stuff today as the conditions changed, but it all worked out and we couldn't be happier for the ACDelco crew."

Starting from the No. 9 position, K.J. beat Mark Pawuk, Ron Krisher, and Rickie Smith, all with 6.8-second laps in his ACDelco Camaro. W.J., meanwhile, drove his GM Goodwrench Service Plus Trans Am past Robert Patrick, Jim Yates, and current points leader Jeg Coughlin. Pro Stock results

As expected, Hines had his hands full in beating Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Angelle Seeling in the finals. Still, the crafty three-time champ overcame a .422 to .458 starting-line advantage by Seeling to win going away -- 7.184 seconds at 182.58 mph to Seeling's 7.244 at 178.57 mph.

Matt Hines

Hines has now won 27 NHRA national events. This win over Seeling helped him pull within 138 points of the points lead with just two events remaining on the Pro Stock Bike schedule.

"The track was awesome today and I didn't have any hesitation holding the throttle wide-open all the way through the lights," Hines said. "You couldn't say that a year ago. This place is much better since they smoothed it out and we were able to get after it.

"I actually got little greedy with the tune-up in qualifying but we did find a great jet setting that worked awesome today. It would have been great if we could have beaten Angelle in Round 1 and set the record to close the points gap, but it wasn't going to happen.

"The championship is basically hers to lose. She was there early in the year to pick up the pieces when we were struggling and it's paying off for her now. I don't think we'll catch her, even if we set a record and win both events."

The Eagle One Suzuki was the quickest in every round today, never venturing out of the 7.1-second range. He beat Hector Arana, Steve Johnson, and Geno Scali before squaring off with Seeling in the finals.

Seeling's Winston bike was very consistent in wins over Reggie Showers, Blaine Hale, and Tony Mullen. Her slowest lap was her final-round effort. Pro Stock Bike results