Championship Drag Racing

AUTOZONE WINTERNATIONALS
POMONA (Feb. 3-6)

EVENT HOME
   Event schedule
   Results
   Star Tracks
   Audio Broadcast
   Photo Gallery
   Video highlights
   Preview

   Event records
   Ticket information
   How to get there
   Where to stay
   Where to eat
   Visitor Information

Tony Pedregon Castrol Syntec Ford Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Pre-race

Pedregon beat his mentor, John Force, in a second round race and, in the semifinals, raced to a track record 4.830 seconds.

The loss dropped Tony's record against Toliver to 4-2. It was his second straight loss to the WWF driver who also beat him in the second round of last November's AAA of Southern California Finals.

After destroying two motors in his first two qualifying attempts (Thursday and Friday) and incurring a $500 fine, Pedregon rallied to reach the finals for the 22nd time in only 86 career starts as a member of Team Castrol and John Force Racing. Against Toliver, Tony gave away a slight lead at the start and simply wasn't able to catch the WWF entry.

"Toliver has Dale Armstrong and (Bob) Brooks over there with him and the WWF team is going to be tough all year," team owner Force said. "The two-car concept is really catching on not just with the WWF but with the Worsham team (Del Worsham and Frank Pedregon) and Alan Johnson. They're shooting at us but that's just going to provide us with more motivation. I ain't dead yet. They're trying to retire me but I ain't going. This is just the first race of the year. We'll just get ready to go to Phoenix and get after 'em again."

In addition to now being the quickest in Pomona Raceway Funny Car history, Pedregon also owns the quickest quarter mile ever recorded: 4.779 seconds, a mark he set last March in the MAC Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

The 34-year-old Pedregon, youngest of three Funny Car racing sons of the late Top Fuel pioneer, "Flaming Frank" Pedregon, has established himself as heir apparent to Force, the nine-time reigning Winston Champion, by finishing second to his mentor three times in the last four years, most recently last season when the two combined to win 14 of the 22 races in the NHRA Winston Series.

Now, with a year of clutch development behind him and the world's quickest Funny Car beneath him -- a Castrol SYNTEC Ford Mustang which last year was clocked in 4.779 seconds at Gainesville, Fla. -- Pedregon hopes to more strongly assert his own individuality. Not that the Chino Hills, Calif., resident is planning a mutiny. It's just that he is enjoying his increasing autonomy.

"John and I are part of the same team," he said, "and our goal, as usual, is to win the championship for ourselves, our fans and our sponsors. But since SYNTEC came on board, we aren't just the John Force test car. We'll both go into Pomona trying to win the race. If one of us doesn't reach the final, then everyone will pitch in to make sure the second car is in the winners' circle.

"That's what happened last year when John went out in the semifinals (at the Winternationals). As soon as he was out, everybody focused on the SYNTEC car. That's what makes this such a formidable team. We have two cars and two crews which are both capable of setting low ET and winning races."

Pedregon hopes to open as strongly this year as he did in 1999 when he won two of the season's first five events and became only the seventh driver in the decade to lead the Funny Car standings.

"We had a great 99 season," Pedregon said. "We were in seven finals, won three times and were on the pole four times. But we also suffered from some inconsistency with the five-disc clutch. Now, with a year of development, we feel a lot more confident in that area."

An eight-time tour winner who has reached the finals in every fourth start for Team Castrol (21 times in 81 races since coming on board in 1996), Pedregon and crew chief John Medlen will focus this year on trying to build on last year's consistency, which included only two first round losses (one less than his boss).

The inaugural winner of the AAA of Southern California Road to the Future Award (1996), which identifies the sport's future stars, Pedregon's success is the more remarkable when one considers that during his first two seasons at Force Racing his car was considered little more than a test vehicle for performance theories, parts and pieces developed by Medlen and Force's Crew Chiefs, Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly.

Now, though, instead of just developing theories, Pedregon is in a position to finally use them in pursuit of his own drag racing destiny.