POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 14) - Brandon Bernstein continued his budding love affair with Auto Club Raceway at Pomona on Valentine's Day, posting low elapsed time of the first round of Top Fuel qualifying for the first Mello Yello Drag Racing Series race of the season, the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals.
After winning the season-finale at Pomona last November, Bernstein's pass of 3.761 seconds at 325.22 mph in his ProtectTheHarvest.com dragster put him atop the 19 cars that made runs Thursday.
"It gives us a lot of confidence," Bernstein said. "Obviously that win at the end of the year gave us a tremendous boost. Joe (Barlam), with a whole season as a crew chief under him now, I think it really gave him a big lift, and now he knows that when we perform at this level we can run with the best of them."
Bernstein captured his first Top Fuel win in three years when he went to victory lane here last year, and his car still obviously has plenty of speed.
"It was really good," Bernstein said. "The ProtectTheHarvest/MAVTV car just came right out of the gate nice, had the wheels up pretty good. It laid it down and felt like a really good run, especially at half-track. It was really marching.
"Joe was kind of funny. We got to the pits and he said, 'I had it kind of soft.' I'm like, 'Soft?' To run a 3.76 right out of the gate, that's a great start for us because you get behind the 8-ball sometimes when you don't get a good run on that first run. It's nice to be in that No. 1 spot right now. We'll see; a lot of racing left."
Bernstein and Barlam spent a busy off-season testing various combinations on their rail, but since he ran so well last November, a similar setup was on the car Thursday.
"Testing went well," Bernstein said. "Joe wanted to come into testing and try a few little things, but not much. Then toward the end of testing, we tried a lot of different stuff and went in different directions. But he said coming into Pomona, he's going to put the car right back where we left it. Obviously, it's right there where we left it, so that's nice."
Will it hold up? Bernstein hopes so, but if not, he's confident his team can go quicker.
"This track is so good, I really think you'll see some good numbers, even with some hotter temperatures," Bernstein said. "These guys know how to tune this track. You're going to see good numbers, even though it will probably get a little warmer."
From: Rob Geiger
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After winning the season-finale at Pomona last November, Bernstein's pass of 3.761 seconds at 325.22 mph in his ProtectTheHarvest.com dragster put him atop the 19 cars that made runs Thursday.
"It gives us a lot of confidence," Bernstein said. "Obviously that win at the end of the year gave us a tremendous boost. Joe (Barlam), with a whole season as a crew chief under him now, I think it really gave him a big lift, and now he knows that when we perform at this level we can run with the best of them."
Bernstein captured his first Top Fuel win in three years when he went to victory lane here last year, and his car still obviously has plenty of speed.
"It was really good," Bernstein said. "The ProtectTheHarvest/MAVTV car just came right out of the gate nice, had the wheels up pretty good. It laid it down and felt like a really good run, especially at half-track. It was really marching.
"Joe was kind of funny. We got to the pits and he said, 'I had it kind of soft.' I'm like, 'Soft?' To run a 3.76 right out of the gate, that's a great start for us because you get behind the 8-ball sometimes when you don't get a good run on that first run. It's nice to be in that No. 1 spot right now. We'll see; a lot of racing left."
Bernstein and Barlam spent a busy off-season testing various combinations on their rail, but since he ran so well last November, a similar setup was on the car Thursday.
"Testing went well," Bernstein said. "Joe wanted to come into testing and try a few little things, but not much. Then toward the end of testing, we tried a lot of different stuff and went in different directions. But he said coming into Pomona, he's going to put the car right back where we left it. Obviously, it's right there where we left it, so that's nice."
Will it hold up? Bernstein hopes so, but if not, he's confident his team can go quicker.
"This track is so good, I really think you'll see some good numbers, even with some hotter temperatures," Bernstein said. "These guys know how to tune this track. You're going to see good numbers, even though it will probably get a little warmer."
From: Rob Geiger
More...
