SALINAS WAKES UP TOP FUEL CLASS WITH HIS FIRST-EVER RACING VICTORY

Written by Susan Wade, photos by Burghardt Photography    Mon, 2019-04-08 18:00




Mike Salinas warned everyone, “We’re here to win, and we’re not messing around.”

He said it with such a serious tone in his voice that he suddenly became – all in one – a modern-day Don Garlits with his grit, a Don Prudhomme with that felony-grade chip on his shoulder, a Kenny Bernstein with his business sense, and a John Force with fierce family loyalty. But he wasn’t trying to emulate them.  

“I have four people watching me [his daughters]. That matters to me more than anything in the world. I’ve been racing a lot of years and I’ve never won anything,” he said after securing the No. 1 starting spot at this weekend’s Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. “I set the bar for my family, and if I don’t win, how can they win?”

After Sunday’s career-first victory, when he outran Brittany Force, Doug Kalitta, and Clay Millican at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he never has to ask that question again. But he probably will. He’s that relentless.

Tuner Alan Johnson has an eye for talent – with four Top Alcohol Dragster titles with brother Blaine and a combined 12 Top Fuel championships with Gary Scelzi, Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon, Del Worsham, Shawn Langdon, and Brittany Force. And he saw that same drive in Salinas.

“Anytime somebody has the desire to race Top Fuel and has the financial ability to fund it on his own, you know that guy’s got some passion. We’re trying to reward him, our team, with some wins and a really good run at the championship. And this race here is a pretty good beginning to that.”   

Salinas and Johnson might not have a warm-and-fuzzy friendship – if they do, it’s in a boxer-trainer kind of way. But it’s working, as the Scrappers Dragster owner-driver would verify.

“I’ve done everything in my power. I’ve given Alan everything he needed, didn’t question anything. We don’t talk until he needs to ask me something. That’s the way our relationship works: ‘Do your job. I do my job. Let’s go have some fun. Let’s go win,’” Salinas said.

He was runner-up at Bristol, Tenn., last June in his first final-round appearance. But the San Jose, Calif., businessman, who’ll turn 58 at the end of this month, had his NHRA Coming-Out Party at the U.S. Nationals last September, leading all five qualifying sessions. But his chance to seal the deal wilted when he suffered a heat stroke in the cockpit. And after he hit what he regarded as an early slump this season – a semifinal finish at Pomona, then a quarterfinal effort at Phoenix, and a first-round loss at Gainesville – he was determined to rebound here.

“Since we fell on our face in Arizona and Gainesville, we didn’t want that to happen again. So they actually stripped that car four times and we found our problem,” he said earlier in the weekend. “Now we’re just happy that we found our problem, and now we can go race.”

He did. In a blend of baseball and racing parlance, he “raced for the cycle,” finally getting the home run he knew he was capable of hitting. And his winning 3.801-second elapsed time at a best-of-the-meet 330.39 mph not only topped Force’s 3.810, 321.42. It also beat a 4.333 193.74 by points leader Doug Kalitta and a 4.350 264.23 from Clay Millican, who was making his second straight final round.

He jumped to second place in the standings as the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series action moves to Houston Raceway Park this coming weekend for the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented By Pennzoil.

Winning his first Wally trophy in his second final round just makes Salinas raise his own bar. “I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life,” he said. “I have something in my head. And I am a goal-achiever. I don’t do things like other people. I just achieve goals.”

Adam Sorokin, a second-generation drag racer who recently won his second Bakersfield March Meet Nostalgia Top Fuel title, is Salinas’ coach when it comes to the psychology of competing.

“What he did teach me this weekend was don’t think too far ahead, live in the moment, don’t think behind you, don’t think in front of you, do your job, and that will get you to the end,” Salinas said.

But this end appears to be just the beginning. 

 
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