2026 Pomona "Winternationals" (21 Viewers)

[Dragracer]

NHRA needs to look at the opening ceremonies. Everything is good except the singing of the National Anthem. Today the singer was terrible. It is not a song to see how much you can butcher up the music. Sing it as it was made to be sung, don't try and make it your own special rendition. Way back in the 60's at LION'S, or the Beach, they had a record they played. After a few years the record got old and scratchy but it was still better then most of the so called singers NHRA and other sports use. The singers need to sing it the way the music is written, not try and make their own performance piece.

 

[robinjackson]

At the first NHRA race I attended (1974 Supernationals/World Finals at OMS) they had a military band play the national anthem. That seems to have died out long ago. Nowadays it's solo singers at all levels -- big recording stars at the Superbowl, lounge singers at Vegas races, minor country stars and friends of the track owner elsewhere, etc. At a Sacramento Governor's Cup race once, I heard a fellow play the anthem on a harmonica, complete with Hendrix-style flourishes at the end drowned out as Dave Riolo and Bob Bunker fired up their Chevys to open the show.

BTW, last month I attended a spring training baseball game in Bradenton (Pirates v. Tampa Bay Rays) and the anthem was harmonised by a 24-strong choir of students from a local high school. Best rendition I've heard since that day in 1974. Something for NHRA to consider.

 

[robinjackson]

PS: glancing through the Winternats results on Drag Race Central, that looked like a pretty impressive day of eliminations.

 

[J. S.]

I know i sound old,but can we have a little quiet when cars arent running,we dont need any1 blaring over the intercom the whole time cars arent on the track.

Jeremy, I couldn't agree more. When the crappy "music" they blast over the speakers between runs is louder than the nitro cars, we have a problem.

 

[J. S.]

the crew chiefs earned their money today. Great race. I really expected them to call it after E2. I'm sure the pits are rocking tonight.

I'm very impressed that the T/F and F/C final rounds were such great races, considering temps in the high 50's. Dragracecentral did not report the track temp for the finals, but it must have been in the 80's, I would think. And no one had trouble getting ahold of the track. What a great job by all concerned to finish the race yesterday.

 

[Nunz]

Yes, they were a little hard to listen to over the PA at the track yesterday. She is pleasant enough, and is well-spoken, but I just don't think she adds much of interest to the commentary. I couldn't care less if there is a woman on the mic or not, but she better know a LOT about drag racing, and have a lot of pertinent information to talk about as a color commentator. When you get a so-so announcing team like this, I REALLY miss the days of Bob Frey and Alan Reinhart. Those guys would always fill the down time with really interesting drag racing info. Even during the back up and pre-stage time periods, they would always have interesting things to say. Not meaningless drivel. I even remember hearing the great Linda Vaughn doing color commentary at Pomona from time to time years ago, and for those who were not there, she really knew her stuff, believe it or not. Why couldn't they get, say, Brittany Force to do a stint during the fuel sessions? Or a guy like Bruce Larson, who was in the house on Saturday. Or the Snake, who was also there?

I think Courtney may be better off doing the finish line interviews, instead of in the booth. Or, maybe she'll step up her game, and get better doing the color commentary. I guess we'll see.

I find Courtney to be very well versed on drag racing, I think she's doing a great job.

 

[sammi]

Congratulations to NHRA's event and competition staff. The racing gods threw every trick in the book at them and the race ended well. Probably one of the more memorable Winternationals. Congrats to Tony Stewart winning one of NHRA's monuments. I think this team now has the brain power and the race craft to be a serious contender. Congrats to Matt Hagan and his low profile, high functioning team. His guys aren't flashy, but they get the job done. They are now making "Dickie Venable" runs and doing it more often. Congrats to KB Titan for again dominating. One has to wonder how much Greg Stanfield's personal tune-up is in his car. He is much better than the other zillion Elite cars. Congrats to Billy and Bobby and the Capco boys. Flying under the radar, they showed they have a driver that can leave on time and the tuneup is very competitive. Congrats to Joe Costello and his long awaited return. His sportsman packages are outstanding.

PLEASE NHRA lose the super loud "young people" music. This isn't a rave.

Its beginning to look like RWR adding a second car was not a great idea. Justin Ashley and Antron do fine with solo car teams. Model those two examples. Running old parts in top fuel yields predictable and messy results.

 

[JRW]

Congratulations to NHRA's event and competition staff. The racing gods threw every trick in the book at them and the race ended well. Probably one of the more memorable Winternationals. Congrats to Tony Stewart winning one of NHRA's monuments. I think this team now has the brain power and the race craft to be a serious contender. Congrats to Matt Hagan and his low profile, high functioning team. His guys aren't flashy, but they get the job done. They are now making "Dickie Venable" runs and doing it more often. Congrats to KB Titan for again dominating. One has to wonder how much Greg Stanfield's personal tune-up is in his car. He is much better than the other zillion Elite cars. Congrats to Billy and Bobby and the Capco boys. Flying under the radar, they showed they have a driver that can leave on time and the tuneup is very competitive. Congrats to Joe Costello and his long awaited return. His sportsman packages are outstanding.

PLEASE NHRA lose the super loud "young people" music. This isn't a rave.

Its beginning to look like RWR adding a second car was not a great idea. Justin Ashley and Antron do fine with solo car teams. Model those two examples. Running old parts in top fuel yields predictable and messy results.

Def agree on the music,nothing wromg with a little quiet time,cant believe they still have that dj guy. Rwr is def struggling and now the rear end issues.

 

[Eracer]

Good day at the drags. Great to see Smoke and Elite success. Greg is a machine. Congratulations to the Gordon's. Tough day for the NHRA and our hero's the Safety Safari who got it done.

 

[stitcherbob]

Was a good race, glad the tv stayed with it the whole time. As an East coaster, I don’t understand how they can have the two races at Pomona, billing as the longest running drag strip in the U.S., CA be the holy land for hot rodding, In and Out be the sponsor, and having the 75th anniversary festivities, all this and HAVE A CURFEW!
They should have special consideration in the event of a late night. I was in the Amish country of Maple Grove when they finished the race after 10pm. The cows didn’t give sour milk because nitro racing went past their bedtime….. and how about those poor folk in Florida that used to expect a NASA launch every so often and now get hundreds of SpaceX flights at midnight to 5am?

 

[mick]

agree that rwr is struggling. clay with first and only round win in E1 yesterday. the guy who signed the multi-year agreement
to sponsor tony's car; wonder what he is thinking right now.
super.com was on clay's car. seems to be a booking site like kayak.com or other similar sites.

 

[GumbyWVU]

Def agree on the music,nothing wromg with a little quiet time,cant believe they still have that dj guy. Rwr is def struggling and now the rear end issues.

Amen! I posted a thread comment a couple years ago about how bad that "DJ" crew - Logan and his sidekick- is, much to the consternation of his sidekick. The music selection is terrible and worse when amplified to the degree it is. Now imagine sitting behind that station and having to also witness the spectacle of the "dancing" that goes with it. It's terrible. Whatever happened to the rock, esp classic rock, they used to play?

 

[Mike]

Even stock and super street have a noise factor. In a scheduled day from 8am til dark like many Saturdays are, giving the crowd a decibel break, whether from care or loud music, is itself a good change of pace.

 

[sammi]

My wife and I were sitting at the North Pomona metrolink stop waiting for the train back to Redlands while Q2 was in progress. MAN, it was loud there, at least a mile away from the track. Pomona Raceway is in the middle of Pomona/LaVerne. We sat through Q1 and some of Q2 and saw very few cars go one to one. Super glad the track finally came around. I am thankful that NHRA and Lynsi Snyder have kept fuel racing in Southern California.

 

[mick]

My wife and I were sitting at the North Pomona metrolink stop waiting for the train back to Redlands while Q2 was in progress. MAN, it was loud there, at least a mile away from the track. Pomona Raceway is in the middle of Pomona/LaVerne. We sat through Q1 and some of Q2 and saw very few cars go one to one. Super glad the track finally came around. I am thankful that NHRA and Lynsi Snyder have kept fuel racing in Southern California.

also thankful fuel racing is still at pomona. mark, how long is the metrolink ride back to redlands from the north pomona stop?

 

[camaro]

. . . Congrats to KB Titan for again dominating. One has to wonder how much Greg Stanfield's personal tune-up is in his car. He is much better than the other zillion Elite cars.. . .

not sure if I heard correctly but Stanfield Sr. is running a Haas Car and I believe all the other Elite cars are RJ chassis. Don’t know if that has anything to do with anything, but it’s noteworthy

 

[T.Smith]

Okay, I will listen to the reason, we are here to learn, you are dealing with these issues at the track, Much Respect to You ! Is a metallurgy problem with the gearsets like Strange has been having for a few years now? And how would a little less grip not reduce strain on the drive line and engines of the nitro cars? Bottom line is the show suffers greatly, and so the the following in the future. Just trying to understand.

I believe these issues surfaced at the end of 2023?? We went from rear-ends that would last 50 runs to lasting as little as 2 runs and removing the cover off the rear-end in between every round in a very short period of time. From what I gather, there was a change in how those parts are constructed and the material used to construct them. There seems to be a bit of a tug-o-war as to how to fix this issue, and whether if the powers that be think it's worth ($$$$) fixing. The teams have made changes to try to combat this issue, there have been some new parts tested and others in the pipeline.

Hopefully Tony Shoe's explosions were isolated incidents. However, I do agree 2-hour clean ups are unexpectable. Reducing track prep is not the answer as other classes have developed a dependency on this type of track prep and I think these parts would still have the same issues.

These are my thoughts and not anyone else's.

 

[T.Smith]

Yes, they were a little hard to listen to over the PA at the track yesterday. She is pleasant enough, and is well-spoken, but I just don't think she adds much of interest to the commentary. I couldn't care less if there is a woman on the mic or not, but she better know a LOT about drag racing, and have a lot of pertinent information to talk about as a color commentator. When you get a so-so announcing team like this, I REALLY miss the days of Bob Frey and Alan Reinhart. Those guys would always fill the down time with really interesting drag racing info. Even during the back up and pre-stage time periods, they would always have interesting things to say. Not meaningless drivel. I even remember hearing the great Linda Vaughn doing color commentary at Pomona from time to time years ago, and for those who were not there, she really knew her stuff, believe it or not. Why couldn't they get, say, Brittany Force to do a stint during the fuel sessions? Or a guy like Bruce Larson, who was in the house on Saturday. Or the Snake, who was also there?

I think Courtney may be better off doing the finish line interviews, instead of in the booth. Or, maybe she'll step up her game, and get better doing the color commentary. I guess we'll see.

I agree, I am very "meh" on Courtney Enders. However, to be fair, she should be given a chance to evolve. I said the same about Mike Dunn and Tony Pedregon. I disagree on Larson and Snake. Too old and we need to move on. Definitely not Brittney. At least Courtney Enders gives a sh*t about drag racing outside her own circle.

 

[mick]

as long as amanda busick doesn't go away. i know she doesn't do every national, but hope she continues to work
the majority of them. i'm fine with the current crop. in fact, i really enjoy galvin's delivery maybe the most of all.
lohnes always comes across as excited about whatever the subject matter, which is refreshing.
...... facebook post mentioned james stevens was stable sunday and scheduled for surgery today (monday)

 

[sammi]

also thankful fuel racing is still at pomona. mark, how long is the metrolink ride back to redlands from the north pomona stop?

My wife (loves drag racing btw)and I took the Metrolink "fast" train from Redlands to Pomona North and it took roughly and hour and 10 minutes. Very easy ride in a clean car with USB power at every seat on our car. Metrolink is very chill about bringing a bag of donuts and large coffees on the train. We bought senior all day Metrolink passes for $7.50 each and a train runs every hour. We then jumped on the LA Metro Yellow train (a 20 yard walk from the Metrolink station, which actually has a free clean public bathroom) for a quick blast to the Fairplex LaVerne stop which dropped us about 100 yards from El Merendero. $1.75 each and trains run every 10 minutes. Interestingly, there is an abandoned Metrolink stop a GOVX coin throw from the race tower. The best part of the day was not paying the Fairplex their ripoff parking fee or driving on the 10 freeway.