POMONA — Three years ago, when Justin Ashley was a 26-year-old up-and-comer in Top Fuel drag racing, he made it all the way to the Winternationals final, where he was set to face off against Leah Pruett and possibly record his first NRHA event victory.
The year was 2021, and because of the pandemic, the Winternationals were held in the dead of summer when temperatures were close to 100 degrees. Ashley was in his dragster at the starting line when his crew pushed it away. Ashley got out of his dragster and was transported to a nearby hospital.
He was suffering from heat exhaustion, and thus unable to compete.
On Sunday, Ashley again was deprived of competing in a Winternationals Top Fuel final.
And again, the problem was weather-related, only this time it was mid-afternoon rain, hail and lightning that emptied the stands and doused the track at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
After it became clear there would be no more racing Sunday, the NHRA announced the finals for Winternationals would be held in two weeks at the next event in Phoenix.
Ashley was set to square off against veteran Tony Schumacher for the Top Fuel title. Matt Hagan and, believe it or not, 75-year-old John Force were set to meet for the Funny Car title.
With rain being forecast for 3 p.m. Sunday, the start time for the elimination rounds was changed from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m. But that wasn’t early enough.
However, the crowd was treated to plenty of early-round action before, as expected, it started raining around 3 p.m.
The Top Fuel field had only 15 entries, giving No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force a first-round bye. She was still required to make a run, and she did it impressively, clicking off a run of 3.714 seconds with a speed of 336.91 mph.
But Brittany lost to Ashley in the third round when both dragsters had their engines blow. Ashley was the better survivor.
Schumacher, the No. 2 qualifier, had no trouble getting past the first round with a run of 3.752 seconds. His qualifying position was his best since returning to racing fulltime in 2022 after a three-year hiatus. He has 86 wins overall but only one since his return.
In the second round, Schumacher, the son of drag racing icon Don Schumacher, eliminated Mira Loma’s Shawn Langdon, who was both the top qualifier and Top Fuel winner in the NHRA season opener at Gainesville, Fla., two weeks ago. Langdon had engine problems and shut down his dragster.
In the first round, Langdon beat Krista Baldwin, a third-generation Top Fuel drag racer from Upland who had early engine problems. Her grandfather is 92-year-old Chris Karamesines, nicknamed “The Golden Greek,” and her father is Bobby Baldwin.
The Top Fuel first round started off well, with No. 9 qualifier Clay Millican beating No. 8 Antron Brown in a tight race. Millican nipped Brown by .064 of a second.
A much anticipated first-round Top Fuel matchup between four-time national champion Steve Torrence (2018-2021) and car racing legend Tony Stewart ended in a buff of smoke. Stewart lost traction and shut down while Torrence completed his run in 3.695 seconds with a top speed of 336.65 mph.
Stewart, in his first year of racing an 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster, is now 0-2 in elimination finals, having lost to Ashley in the first round at Gainesville.
Steve Torrence’s day ended in the second round when he smoked his tires and lost to Ashley.
Billy Torrence, Steve’s 65-year-old father who is now racing full time, made it through the first two rounds. In the second round, he beat Doug Kalitta, the defending Winternationals champion and also the defending national champion. Kalitta was another victim of smoked tires.
Billy Torrence had a good run in the first round with a time of 3.716 seconds and a speed of 335.98 mph. Billy was beaten off the starting line by Josh Hart but was able to chase him down. Billy was eliminated by Schumacher in the third round of the finals.
Billy Torrence, who has been racing part-time since 2013, said he decided to start racing full-time this year after he learned from Bobby Lagana, Steve co-head crew chief, that it was difficult to find a crew that was willing to work part-time.
Billy continues his role as the president and owner of Capco Contractors, a major Texas-based pipeline company that has employed as many as 600 employees. Steve is the vice president.
“We’ll both be back at work at 6 a.m. Monday morning,” Billy said. Weather permitting, of course. They will be flying to their home in Kilgore, Texas, on their 10-seater jet piloted by Steve.
Steve and Billy did well at Gainesville, Fla, where Billy beat Steve in the semifinals. But Gainesville was not kind to a key member of their team, Steve’s wife Natalie Jahnke Torrence.
Natalie, from Rancho Cucamonga, was sitting on a scooter on Thursday of that week when the scooter tipped over and fell on top of her right leg and broke it. She was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where a pin was surgically put into the broken leg. By the way, Natalie is seven months pregnant with her and Steve’s second child. She made it to Pomona but was limping badly. The break did not require her to wear a cast.
In Funny Car early-round action Sunday, Hagan reached the final by beating Buddy Hull, Jeff Diehl and Gainesville winner J.R.Todd, in that order.
John Force got past Jim Campbell, Bobby Bode and Ron Capps. This will be Force’s 627th final, but undoubtedly the first of its kind – two weeks later and at a different site.
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