Another Final Pads Whitley's TAD Lead

Another Final Pads Whitley's TAD Lead

Reigning Top Alcohol Dragster world champ Jim Whiteley, who opened this season with a victory at the Winternationals, padded his early national points lead at the West Region opener at Firebird Raceway with another final-round showing. After four flawless runs at the desert track, Whiteley's YNot Racing dragster went up in smoke right off the line in the final, handing the win to Alaska's Ray Martin, who ran a 5.39 for the win.

Until then Whiteley hadn't merely set low e.t. of every qualifying session and every other round of eliminations; he was run quicker on his slowest full run all (5.32) than all other drivers were on their best. "This place has never been too good to us," said Whiteley, who won the event once – in 2010, the year it was completed in Sonoma.

Whiteley's Norm Grimes-tuned dragster paced the field in qualifying and established low e.t. of the event with a 5.26 in the last-shot session. He erased Johnny Ahten in the first round with a 5.30 and took out former Division 6 champ Joey Severance in the semifinals with a 5.27 at 273.66 mph – low e.t. of eliminations and the fastest speed of the event for blown-alcohol cars.

"We'd had good wheel speed all weekend long, and on two of the runs it hazed the tires," Whiteley said. "We didn't want to be too conservative in the final, and we weren't: it was in trouble in the first 20 feet. We didn't really do anything too crazy, just added a degree of timing, but the car was shaking and carrying on. I pedaled it once, but there was no way I was going to catch him."

It was a second straight frustrating weekend for Whiteley's wife, Annie, who finished fourth in the nation in Top Alcohol Funny Car in 2012, her rookie season. She shook in round one at Pomona after qualifying a strong third; this time a driveline failure after the burnout kept her from making a race of it.

"It's a bad way to start the year," said Whiteley, who won the West Region championship last year with more victories than any Top Alcohol Funny Car driver in any region in the country. "I know it looks like we're having a 'sophomore slump,' but like I told the team: This is exactly how we started the season last year, and look how that turned out."