Demke's engine shut off completely at the 5.2-second mark in round one, but he still coasted to a 5.39, 252 win over Bill Dunlap's one-of-a-kind, driver-forward car. A 5.33 in the semis took care of past Winternationals runner-up Don St. Arnaud and set up a final-round match with Martin, who had qualified with a 5.40 and had run consistent times of 5.38 against Johnny Ahten and 5.39 against Joey Severance. Another run in that range would have been enough in the final, but Martin slipped to a 5.45. Demke was away first with a .068 light and won by half a car length with a 5.44.

"It seemed to shut off for a long time both times," Demke said. "I was saying, 'No, this can't be happening,' but it came back on both times. Now, that's disturbing – it feels like your head's going to hit the dashboard. It would have run another 5.30-something, no problem, if that hadn't happened, but it still ran just good enough to win."

Whiteley had no such problems, laying down the best runs of her young Top Alcohol Funny Car career in the semifinals and final. After qualifying No. 1 for a very fast field with a 5.62 and winning a tight first-round race with Clint Thompson, 5.62 to 5.63, Whiteley unloaded one of the great runs of all time in the semifinals, a track-record 5.508, against Steve Gasparrelli, who bowed out with an otherwise fine 5.65 at nearly 261 mph.

"They run a lot better when you hit your shifts," joked Whiteley, who considers Sonoma her favorite track. "Until that run, the car kept feeling like it was going to wash out on me, and I kept short-shifting. I told [crew chief Roger Bateman] that I didn't know why I couldn't get past that spot, and he said he didn't know either and suggested that we switch lanes. I had no idea that run was a 5.50. All I knew was that it was the smoothest run I made all weekend."

Whiteley stayed in the left lane for the final against Phoenix Regional winner John Lombardo Jr., who had been running low 5.60s all day. Lombardo, who had eliminated Keeter Ray in the first round and Shane Westerfield in the semi's with almost identical runs of 5.602 and 5.601, lost traction immediately and slowed to an 11.10 while Whiteley disappeared into the distance with a 5.53 – more than a half-tenth quicker than anyone else had run all weekend.

It was the third win of Whiteley's first full season behind the wheel of an Alcohol Funny Car and the first at which her husband, Top Alcohol Dragster points leader Jim Whiteley, didn't also score.