Russell Jumps at the Chance to Sit in Amato’s Hot Seat

Joe Amato has won six Budweiser Shootouts at Pomona Raceway--no one else has won more than two--and had reached the semifinals in the 2000 all-star top-fuel event before it was postponed last November for three months.

Since then, however, Amato has retired, having undergone two laser eye surgeries to repair torn retinas.

So when the Shootout resumes today as part of the 41st AutoZone Winternationals, Darrell Russell, a rookie from the Federal-Mogul alcohol-fuel ranks who did not compete at all last year, will be driving Amato’s 6,000-horsepower, nitromethane-burning dragster.

“I feel like I’ve been in college football and now am the first-round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys,” said Russell, 32, a native of Houston.

His first competitive run will be against Tony Schumacher, 1999 National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel champion, in today’s semifinal round at 1:45 p.m. Gary Scelzi, defending series and Budweiser Shootout champion, will race veteran Kenny Bernstein in the other semifinal.

The first time Russell made a full 1,320-foot pass in Amato’s dragster--two weeks ago at Firebird Raceway, near Phoenix--he ran 301 mph in 4.77 seconds.

“I was totally intimidated,” he said Friday. “The speed difference between my alkie dragster and Joe’s top fueler was mind boggling.”

His top speed in the alcohol-fueled car had been 259 mph.

“My mind wasn’t ready for such a change,” he said. “Mentally, I was behind the car. When it reached the finish line, my mind was at about the 1,000-foot mark. The feeling is awesome. An alcohol car will accelerate hard to half-track and then taper off. The top fueler just keeps pulling away. I had never anticipated such a difference before.

“Joe says that’s natural, that I’ve got to get my brain trained until it’s on autopilot.”

Amato, a five-time NHRA champion and winner of 52 national events between 1982 and 2000, choose the untried Russell over such veteran drivers as Cory McClenathan and Bob Vandergriff Jr.

“The night I announced my retirement, Gary Scelzi told me about Russell,” Amato said. “He had raced against him in Federal-Mogul and gave me a strong recommendation.

“I was vacationing in Maui a few days later when I decided to call Darrell. We talked for nearly an hour and I was impressed. I invited him to come to my Christmas party in mid-December, and we finalized our deal there.”

One reason for selecting a newcomer, Amato said, was that he could teach him from scratch the way he wanted him to run the fueler, whereas a veteran driver would have his own ideas.

“When Darrell told me he was intimated, I told him, ‘That’s good. If you didn’t feel that way, you’re either Superman or an idiot,’ ” Amato said.

“I have sort of a double rookie team. Jim Walsh, Russell’s crew chief, is in his first year as the boss, but he has been with me 15 years, working for other crew chiefs. He and Darrell have been working well together.”

Walsh’s advice for his fellow rookie in today’s run against Schumacher: “Just treat it like another qualifying run. Don’t worry about anything, don’t even think about who’s in the lane next to you, don’t think about anything but getting down the strip.”

Although Russell did not drive last year, because of lack of sponsorship, he is a four-time division champion and the winner of seven Federal-Mogul class victories, among them the 1997 U.S. Nationals.

He met Scelzi at the national events, Scelzi having been a top-alcohol dragster driver before being tabbed by Alan Johnson to drive the family top-fuel car after Blaine Johnson was killed in an accident during the U.S. Nationals in 1996.

“Gary and I had become pretty good friends and he told me he’d mentioned my name to Amato, but I was still blown away when I got a call from Hawaii,” Russell said. “I was at work in my computer business. Gary still keeps an eye on me, giving me a tip or two when he sees something that can help me.”

Russell, in a solo run, ran a respectable 4.769 seconds elapsed time Thursday.

Coincidentally, Scelzi and Russell were paired for their Friday qualifying run, Russell’s first side-by-side top-fuel run.

Scelzi, running in the quicker left lane, barely edged his rival-protege, clocking 4.634 seconds to Russell’s 4.687. At the halfway mark of qualifying, Scelzi stood fifth, Russell 10th.

“I may have hired my own assassin,” Scelzi quipped. “I fully expect Darrell to do as well as I did in moving up from an alcohol car.”

In his rookie year, Scelzi won the Winston championship and repeated the following year. In 1999 he was second to Schumacher, but came back last year to win his third crown in four years.

First day top fuel leader Doug Kalitta did not improve his time Friday, but retained the No. 1 spot at 4.578 seconds. Three more drivers showed up to make a 16-car field for Sunday’s final eliminations.

Tommy Johnson Jr., Don Prudhomme’s newest funny car driver, took over the top spot in his class with an impressive 4.838-second run at 310.98 mph.

“It was one of the smoothest passes I ever ran,” said Johnson, who became Ron Capps’ teammate during the off-season. “It was such a soft run, I would have guessed it was maybe a 5.10. I think that time is the equivalent of a 4.5 in a fuel dragster.”

The final two qualifying rounds are scheduled today for 1 and 3:30 p.m., with the Shootout final at 4.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Facts

* What: 41st AutoZone Winternationals.

* Where: Pomona Raceway.

* When: Today, noon. Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m.

* Television: Today, ESPN2, 6:30 p.m. (delayed); Sunday, ESPN, 5 p.m.; and ESPN2, 8 p.m. (delayed).