POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 29) – Brandon Bernstein’s sophomore season rolled off to a good start with a semifinals appearance at the K & N Filters Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.

The Budweiser/Lucas Oil team qualified sixth with a 4.532-second elapsed time at 325.37 mph.

Bernstein was making his first race day appearance since his season-shortening accident May 18, 2003.

In the opening round of eliminations, Bernstein defeated a wheel-standing Cory McClenathan with a competitive 4.557/324.20 vs. McClenathan’s 5.218/201.64.

“It feels like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders,” said Bernstein after his first round win. “We just wanted to get the first round under our belt.”

In the quarterfinals, Bernstein proved he had gotten his groove back, running his career best elapsed time and speed, 4.487 seconds at 331.6l mph, defeating Clay Millican’s 4.556/308.85 effort.

“We could tell we were on a good run,” said an excited Bernstein. “The finish line comes at you very quickly and it’s a great sensation. A tip of the helmet to Tim (Richards, crew chief) and the team for that tune-up. We had to step up this round. These teams are all playing hardball.”

In the semifinals against Tony Schumacher, the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster suffered an electrical malfunction which slowed the car to 4.629/317.27 to give Schumacher the winning advantage, 4.474/330.55.

“One of the magnetos failed when we hit the throttle at the starting line,” said Bernstein. “When this happens, one set of sparkplugs doesn’t fire and you don’t create maximum horsepower.

“This is a better start to the season than we had last year, and all in all, it was a pretty good outing.

“It’s going to be a tough, long season, and we need to go for round wins.”

Bernstein finished third in the K & N Filters Winternationals and is tied for third in NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings.