News, rumors and photos from the Gatornationals

Photos by Jeff Burk
3/20/03

Here are the basics: Brandon Bernstein, Gary Densham, Kurt Johnson and Angelle Savoie were the winners at the Mac Tools Gatornationals at Florida's Gainesville Raceway.

Now, as Paul Harvey says, here's the rest of the story.

SHIRLEY STAYS, GARLITS FADES

Shirley Muldowney began her retirement tour at NHRA by qualified with a stout 4.694/295. Interestingly, that set her up to meet long time rival and one time mentor Conrad Kalitta and his driver Doug Kalitta. It could have been high drama but Shirley boiled the hides and Doug nearly equaled his number one qualifying slot with a 4.548/323.62 pass, burying Shirley's 6/202 shutoff. Don Garlits, on the other hand, started out strong with a 4.77/323.04 lap which was good for Top Speed of the meet for a while. According to a Garlits' crew member, Big decided to run the first two laps on old tires and then put a new pair on for the second two passes. Garlits eventually drove over the cones on the top end and DNQ'd but his performance at the race shows that there is some racing left in the "Old Man" yet.

One rumor going around the pits (that was verified by a source who asked not to be identified) was that Garlits' contract with Summit was heavily incentive weighted which means that he has to qualify and go rounds to really cash in. Regardless, Summit Racing uniforms were seen in Garlits' pit early and often. Ms. Muldowney and Mr. Garlits will meet in August of this year in a match race at Cordova Dragway in Illinois for the 50th annual running of the World Series of Drag Racing. That will probably be the last time the pair will meet in a match race.

BERNSTEIN IS FIRST AND FASTEST

Brandon Bernstein, from Lake Forest, Calif., earned his second victory in his third professional start driving past first-time finalist John Smith for the win. The rookie standout had four elimination runs in the 4.50-range in the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster, including his final round pass of 4.594 seconds at 326.67 mph. Smith's Prestone dragster recorded a pass of 4.718 at 315.90 as the runner-up.

In a semifinal match-up, Bernstein ran the quickest time of eliminations (4.537) to defeat rival and defending POWERade champion Larry Dixon and the Miller Lite dragster. Bernstein trails Dixon by 17 points in the POWERade standings.

Bernstein established a track record for speed when he hit 327.27 mph during qualifying.

KALITTA QUALIFIED NO. 1

Doug Kalitta, from Ann Arbor, Mich., earned his 10th career No. 1 qualifying position and his third straight of the season as his Mac Tools dragster covered the quarter-mile in 4.535 seconds at 326.08 mph. Kalitta became the fourth Top Fuel driver ever to earn the No. 1 qualifying position at the first three events of a season (Gary Beck, Joe Amato, and Blaine Johnson). Kalitta lost to eventual runner-up Smith in the second round.

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