One day, after a bunch of major delays..... a race I won't forget. Check out the crowd estimates....
FORCE WINS KEYSTONE NATIONAL TITLE
September 17, 1990 at 4:00 a.m.
Would you have wagered a substantial sum that funny car pilot John Force could win his seventh Winston Drag Series event of the season, better his cross-lane competition for the second time in as many meetings, and wrap up his second consecutive Sunoco Keystone Nationals dragster title yesterday at Maple Grove Raceway?
The odds had to to be stacked pretty high against a three-peat for the 41-year-old Yorba Linda, Calif., driver, but in 1990, the “Force is with him.”
Last night, in the Sunoco Keystone Nationals delayed for nearly five hours because of rain and a wet track, Force drove his Castrol GTX Olds Cutlass to a final round victory over Mark Oswald of Cincinnati in 5.331 seconds or 271.32 miles per hour to continue a winning streak that has set the National Hot Rod Association on its ear. Force pocketed $25,000 for his 12th career win.
Force remains unbeaten in final round competition this year, having reached and won seven. He has also reached the finals in two specialty races this season, making him nine for nine in ’90.
Force was one of three top qualifiers to win yesterday as Gary Ormsby took the Top Fuel category and Darrell Alderman won the Pro Stock.
The seven Winston Series wins ties the 1976 seasonal mark of Don “The Snake” Prudhomme.
Force also bettered Oswald back in June during the Le Grandnational in Canada. Force finished second to Oswald in the 1987 Sunoco Nationals.
Ormsby, the NHRA Winston Series Top Fuel defending champ, took his Castrol GTX machine (294.97 mph) to his sixth victory of the season by thumping Gene Snow. It was the driver’s first Keystone title and also worth $25,000.
Alderman, an Illinois native, powered his Dodge Daytona (188.36 mph) to his third win of the 1990 calender in five tries by bettering defending Winston NHRA Pro Stock champ Bob Glidden.
Joe Amato of Old Forge burned an exhaust valve in his semifinal run and had to retire for the day. He has never won a top fuel race at Maple Grove.
Yesterday’s show, despite the rain and long wait, was run in front of a record crowd at Maple Grove. For the second time in as many years, a best-ever audience of 48,000 was on hand to see the drag racing event. The weekend attendance was also estimated at 88,000, up from 76,000 a year ago.
Even with the rain, few of the near 50,000 in the stands left before the final race was run and the skies opened again as the top three categories were completed.