Agent 1320 has heard from several usually reliable sources that NHRA is taking steps to slow down or stop the rash of Top Fuel and Fuel flopper engine explosions. We hear that NHRA was contacted by the state of California after Doug Herbert’s incident. Supposedly the letter states that California citizens are being injured by explosions on L.A. County-owned property and the state would like to know what they (NHRA) are doing to prevent any more of these incidents.

Our sources tell us that NHRA is in negotiations with a well known Top Fuel/ Funny Car ex-crew chief with the idea of him developing some solutions to the problem through dialog with the Top Fuel and Funny Car teams.

DRO contacted an NHRA official who assured us that he had heard nothing to back up these rumors. So for the time being these rumors will be just rumors, but if they prove true things could get very interesting in drag racing, very quickly.

IHRA Pro Stock hitter John Montecalvo ran a 6.599/208.76 during testing on December 9. 1999 at Darlington, Dragway in South Carolina according to Montcalvo’s PR rep Bobby Bennett Jr.

Montecalvo’s Jerry Haas-built Monte Carlo is powered by an 800+ cubic inch Sonny Leonard big block Chevy. The engine is rumored to be one of Leonard’s unique, five inch bore center engines.

Alba L. Colon, GM Racing program manager for NHRA’s Pro Stock Truck program from 1998 to 1999, has been named program manager of the Chevrolet and Pontiac drag racing programs. In 2000, Colon, seen here with Pro Stock Truck driver Jerry Haas, will manage technical resources for Pontiac and Chevrolet in various NHRA drag racing classes and will work with top teams using GM products to develop the necessary parts, setups, and strategies to win races and championships. She joins engine specialist Larry Kubes on the GM Racing drag race team.

Just happened to notice the Super Chevy Show ad in the November 12, 1999 issue of National Dragster (page 125). Look closely and see what’s missing in the schedule of events for 2000. All of the tracks are listed except three. Guess who owns those three tracks? That’s right! The IHRA. Not only can the "I" sanctioning body names not appear in any ad in National Dragster, but evidently the "I" track names cannot appear either.

We suggest a compromise. Remember the "Dinosaurs" television show a few years ago? The baby’s name for its father wasn’t "Daddy" but rather "Not The Mamma." How about if it’s "NHRA" and "Not The NHRA." Whaddaya think? Oh, now we’re just being silly.

Okay. So Ed "the Ace" McCulloch didn't sign on with Jerry Toliver's World Wrestling Federation Funny Car team, as appropriate as that might have seemed. Instead, the six-time U.S. Nationals winner set up shop at Don "the Snake" Prudhomme's Copenhagen camp where he was reunited with Dick LaHaie, with whom he perfected his tuning skills when both toiled in the employ of Conrad Kalitta.

In his first weekend out, McCulloch helped put driver Ron Capps on the pole for the first time in 16 months. Congratulated on Capps’ 4.853-second qualifying performance, McCulloch, in typical self-deprecating fashion, allowed that all he had done since making the move to Camp Copenhagen was to change shirts. "These guys already knew what they were doing," he said.

With McCulloch at Prudhomme's, questions remain regarding Toliver, Jim Epler and the two WWF cars. Both WWF crew chiefs are reportedly baling out despite access to what may be the biggest budget in the sport over the next five years, a rumored $25 million.

With Rob Flynn and Chris Cunningham leaving Toliver's Stone Cold Corvette team to join Alan Johnson and driver Bruce Sarver and Wayne Dupuy leaving Epler's Undertaker Pontiac for a reunion with Phil Burkart and the NitroFish Pontiac, jobs abound at WWF central.

Dale Armstrong, who created the void filled by McCulloch when he left Camp Copenhagen after engineering an impressive turnaround, is a logical candidate. The question is, does he want to do it? After all, Double-A Dale opted for a classic car show instead of a trip to the AAA of Southern California World Finals. He could be burned out after tenures with both Kenny Bernstein and Prudhomme.

As for the other vacancy, rumors suggest that Terry Manzer, architect of Tim Wilkerson's victory at the 1999 Route 66 Nationals, is the likely replacement for Dupuy.

Biggest surprise of the season finale, of course, was Toliver's upset of nine-time Winston Champ John Force in the Funny Car finals, especially since the former boat racer had to drive his Stone Cold entry out of tire smoke to do so.

Odds that Toliver would be able to out-pedal the unchallenged master of the art had to be greater than the odds on Billy Meyer getting taxpayer approval for a $64 million drag racing facility. Meyer's bid, by the way, failed by a 55-45 margin.

It was the first career win for Toliver, the first win for a WWF car.

One of the most popular winners of a post-season award was Antron Brown, the Team 23 bike rider who was named by AAA of Southern California as the 1999 winner of its Road to the Future award which came with a check for $20,000.

Said Brown, "Man, I've never seen a check with that many zeroes."

The other significant year-end award, the Winston Rookie of the Year Award, was grabbed off by first year Funny Car driver Scotty Cannon, hardly a racing novice after winning six IHRA Pro Modified Championships but certainly a newcomer to fuel racing.

Mike Dunn, Ken Veney and Darrell Gwynn ended the season as they began it, with a victory at Pomona. However, with Mopar flying the coup, the team's status for 2000 remains unknown.

Gwynn, still chasing his first Winston Championship almost10 years after being forced out of the cockpit himself by an accident during a European exhibition that left him paralyzed, may have a deal for the year 2001 but, when he left Southern California, he still didn't have a firm commitment from a major backer for 2000.

Nevertheless, Gwynn signed Dunn to a new contract as driver in anticipation of signing that major sponsor before the start of the season.

The only apparent survivor of the Pennzoil purge was Comp Eliminator racer Mike Ferderer who celebrated by claiming Super Comp honors at the AAA Finals. No mystery here. Ferd apparently just had a extra year on his contract.

Steve Johns' Pro Stock Truck victory at Pomona was significant in that it gave team owner Jim Kessinger his fourth career victory with a third different driver. Johns, another Comp Eliminator refugee, followed Tim Freeman and Mark Osborne to the podium as a Kessinger driver. Freeman won the 1998 Sears Craftsman Nationals at St. Louis; Osborne this year won the MAC Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., and the O'Reilly Nationals at Houston.

Rumor is that Johns will have a new teammate to start the new millennium and that Kessinger will start the year with a major sponsor and new team colors. Think purple.

Matt Hines’ eight-point victory over Angelle Seeling for the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship was the closest race in the history of the category — but not in history.

Two Top Fuel finishes were even closer than the Hines-Seeling race. In 1987, Dick LaHaie beat Joe Amato by 42 points, the equivalent of 4.2 points in today's calculations where what once was100 points is now 10. In 1981, when Jeb Allen beat Gary Beck for the title, the margin was 31 points — 3.1 points today.

During the Winston Series Awards Ceremonies held the Tuesday following the AAA Finals, incoming NHRA President Tom Compton announced that next season, all 23 races in the Winston Series will be televised either live or same day/delayed on only two networks, TNN and ESPN. That should provide a shot in the arm especially for the many teams trying to compensate for lost sponsorship.

Also of significance, Compton's confirmation of 24 "NHRA Today"-type magazine shows to air on race weekends.

Doug Herbert's engine explosion on Friday night at the AAA Finals may have brought to an end NHRA's policy of bringing VIPs to the starting line to experience the ground shaking power of Top Fuel dragsters.

Flying shrapnel, which injured 14 photographers and spectators, could as easily have taken out a corporate CEO, which certainly would not have helped the sport's already fragile image.

Obviously, the containment systems currently in place don't work. Stuff still flies off the top of engines and liquids still are blasted out the bottom. It's one thing when attrition ruins a live television shot or extends one round of racing to almost two hours. It's quite another when those who pay to watch the sport wind up in the hospital.

Until we devise a system that keeps parts and pieces confined within the guardwalls, ours no longer can be considered a fan friendly sport — and that's what we always have had going for us. Ideas anyone?