By the Time I Get To
(and leave) Pheonix

By Chris Martin
Photos by Jeff Burk
2/26/03

haven't been to Charlie Allen's oasis in a couple of years. However, I've always liked the place. It's far from the best looking stop on the NHRA tour, but every great once in awhile something happens there that makes me silently grumble, "I wish I'd have seen that." To the point, no one was more bummed than I when I missed Tony Schumacher's 330.23-mph blast in 1999. I was there, though, in 1990 when Lori Johns and the late, great Jimmy Nix got in the four-second club, and in 1991 when Kenny Bernstein became the 16th and last member of the four-second club. And speaking of Kenny, how about that kid of his? More on that en un momentito.

Anyway, going to Phoenix this year marked the first time that I've been to back-to-back NHRA races in a few years. I liked it. I don't know if I'd want go for the Trifecta and hit Gainesville -- socially I would, but the grind of four days, six lumbar vertebrae, no golf carts ... ah, hard to say.

The Phoenix show was certainly historic if for no other reason than Brandon Bernstein nailed his first NHRA Top Fuel career win, matching a similar feat by his dad in 1991, and he did it in style. I tend to be a little conservative when a new driver shows up with a lot of fanfare in a big car like the Budweiser King. There are people who have nerve and can probably get a 300-mph car down track without killing themselves, but it's a whole 'nother deal to do that and win. I thought Brandon might pick one up, say, around Englishtown time, but I thought until then Larry Dixon Jr. and Dick LaHaie were going to work the remainder of the field like Mike Tyson did Clifford Etienne. But what can you say? Hey, in drag racing "We Know Drama." TNT doesn't have a lock on that deal. And it's somewhat possible that neither does Dixon, although I still need to see a few more races to be sure of that.

The finish to both Top Fuel and Funny Car were excellent races. None of us expected Brandon to cut Dixon off at the knees with a holeshot, and I'm equally certain that no one expected Ronnie Capps (photo above) to steal Gary Densham's wallet with a .003 light. To Capps' credit, he said that light was a guess, probably on a par of falling through a hotel window and hoping the pool is a few floors below.

Pro Stock, damn. Glad to see both Greg Anderson and Troy Coughlin in it, but after a shootout like Pomona, the action did pale somewhat. Do you realize that Bruce Allen's low e.t. 6.831 would have been 13th alternate! That's like ... well, to be a little different, if you were a gal and expecting Joe Millionaire but got instead that fat bald judge in Law & Order or if you're gay and were expecting Joe Millionaire and got Liberace. I know. . .we're getting off track.

Pro Stock has become holeshot eliminator because most of the cars run within a few hundredths of each other. That's okay for some, but I still lean more toward something along the lines of Warren Johnson's 6.7s and 204-mph slaughter of the competition.

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