Demke, Whiteley Successful at Sonoma

Courtesy of the Pro Sportsman Association/Todd Veney

At the Western Region event in Sonoma, Calif., Winternationals and Gatornationals champion Chris Demke earned his first regional victory of the season in Top Alcohol Dragster and rookie Annie Whiteley her third in Top Alcohol Funny Car, both from the No. 1 qualifying spot.

Demke, shut out since his Gatornationals victory in March except for a Jegs Allstars win last month (which doesn't count for points), paced the field in qualifying with a 5.30 and in eliminations overcame the electrical gremlins that have plagued the team for weeks for his first win ever at Sonoma. "This team had won at every track in California – Pomona, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Palmdale, Fontana – except this one," he said.

Demke nearly remained winless at the picturesque facility in the wine country north of San Francisco but had just enough to take out Ray Martin in the final, 5.44 to 5.45. "The engine shut off and came back on twice on that run," said Demke, who survived a close one in which both drivers made their first runs out of the 5.30s all day.

Demke's engine shut off completely at the 5.2-second mark in round one, but he still coasted to a 5.39, 252 win over Bill Dunlap's one-of-a-kind, driver-forward car. A 5.33 in the semi's took care of past Winternationals runner-up Don St. Arnaud and set up a final-round match with Martin, who had qualified with a 5.40 and had run consistent times of 5.38 against Johnny Ahten and 5.39 against Joey Severance. Another run in that range would have been enough in the final, but Martin slipped to a 5.45. Demke was away first with a .068 light and won by half a car length with a 5.44.

"It seemed to shut off for a long time both times," Demke said. "I was saying, 'No, this can't be happening,' but it came back on both times. Now, that's disturbing – it feels like your head's going to hit the dashboard. It would have run another 5.30-something, no problem, if that hadn't happened, but it still ran just good enough to win."

Whiteley had no such problems, laying down the best runs of her young Top Alcohol Funny Car career in the semifinals and final. After qualifying No. 1 for a very fast field with a 5.62 and winning a tight first-round race with Clint Thompson, 5.62 to 5.63, Whiteley unloaded one of the great runs of all time in the semifinals, a track-record 5.508, against Steve Gasparrelli, who bowed out with an otherwise fine 5.65 at nearly 261 mph.

"They run a lot better when you hit your shifts," joked Whiteley, who considers Sonoma her favorite track. "Until that run, the car kept feeling like it was going to wash out on me, and I kept short-shifting. I told [crew chief Roger Bateman] that I didn't know why I couldn't get past that spot, and he said he didn't know either and suggested that we switch lanes. I had no idea that run was a 5.50. All I knew was that it was the smoothest run I made all weekend."

Whiteley stayed in the left lane for the final against Phoenix Regional winner John Lombardo Jr., who had been running low 5.60s all day. Lombardo, who had eliminated Keeter Ray in the first round and Shane Westerfield in the semi's with almost identical runs of 5.602 and 5.601, lost traction immediately and slowed to an 11.10 while Whiteley disappeared into the distance with a 5.53 – more than a half-tenth quicker than anyone else had run all weekend.

It was the third win of Whiteley's first full season behind the wheel of an Alcohol Funny Car and the first at which her husband, Top Alcohol Dragster points leader Jim Whiteley, didn't also score. "Las Vegas was special because it was my first win, and Tulsa was special because the final was my first full run at night and because Jim won right in front of me," Whiteley said. "This one was awesome because of that 5.50. Roger and the Strasburgs given me a phenomenal car."