After a year’s hiatus, three-time NHRA champion Larry Dixon’s 3.968 ET at 244.74 mph landed him in the tenth qualifying position after the first round. (Tim Marshall photo)

Words by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Tim Marshall and James Drew

As newly appointed ESPN announcer David Rieff said at an informal media/fan press conference Thursday in the Pro Pits, “It’s been 95 days since Antron won his championship,” here at the Pomona Fairplex. If the first day of professional qualifying at 52nd annual Winternationals is any indication, we all should be in for another down-to-the-wire finish as we did in 2012.

Unlike some of our northeastern friends who are still digging out of wet cold slush, the shirtsleeve weather for SoCal couldn’t have been better. However, by most accounts, Thursday Pomona crowds have been a lot better in the recent past.

Brandon Bernstein  (Tim Marshall Photo)

In Top Fuel, Brandon Bernstein picked up where he left off at the World Finals, running a stellar 3.761 elapsed time at 325.22 mph for the #1 position. Smartly, co-crew chiefs Joe Barlam and John DeFellipis left Bernstein’s tune-up as it was when they last left Pomona and based on the Friday weather predictions should improve the performance even better.  

“The Protect the Harvest/MAV TV car came out of the gates real good,” Bernstein said. “It felt like a really good run. It’s nice to be in that No.1 right now. There’s a lot of racing left. That win at the end of the year gave us a tremendous boost of confidence. The competition is so tight. This weekend is going to be even tougher.”

Tony Schumacher’s U.S. Army-backed dragster grabbed the #2 position with an effortless 3.777 ET at 326.08.