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JUST FORGET THAT YOU HEARD
IT HERE FIRST
You can set your watch by it: People fall into the predicting business at the beginning of January. Whether your interest is fly-fishing or fencing, scribes of the various sports disciplines can't fend off the urge to become Kreskin. And why is that? Because there's nothing else to do. That especially includes drag racing because it's an outdoor sport and most of the "outdoors" is in a state of climatological ruin (snow, rain and ice) save for the two loony bins of California and Florida.
With that feeble defense out of the way, let me proffer this treatise on what I think might happen in the three pro classes. Actually, save for individual events in Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock, I think generally it shouldn't be too hard to pick year-end champions, save maybe for Pro Stock.
I also think that predictability is doubly true for what will be the low e.t. and mph for the three classes with Pro Stock maybe being the only toughie. Below are my picks and my rationale for said prognostications.
TOP FUEL
In 2002, 13 of the 23 NHRA national events went either to defending champion Larry Dixon Jr. in Don Prudhomme's Miller Lite dragster or now retired Kenny Bernstein's "Budweiser King" dragster. Dixon got nine of those wins and will be returning with a new car sporting a few off-season engine changes, but basically the same high 4.5-second to low 4.6-second combination. Bernstein's son Brandon gets the weight of the world put on his shoulders because he will be debuting as a fuel driver in calendar 2003. Rookie world champions are rare, but not impossible as shown by Gary Scelzi when he replaced Blaine Johnson in the Johnson Family dragster in 1997. However, when Scelzi took over the wheel of the Johnson car he had over 10 years in blown Alcohol cars; the younger Bernstein has had a year and change worth of seat time. The point of all this? Dixon should win the title by a bunch this season.
The other competitive drivers number only about four. Doug Kalitta and Darrell Russell with Joe Amato's Bilstein dragster nailed three 2002 national event titles, Tony Schumacher got two and Doug Herbert and Cory McClenathan got one apiece and that's 2002 in a nutshell. With Bernstein out of the picture, it looks to me like Dixon is free to do what he wants.
I would not be surprised at all if Dixon set a year's record for most national event wins in a season with maybe as many crowns as he and Bernstein won together. The other dragsters just aren't as consistent as Dixon's Dick LaHaie-tuned dragster. Frankly, if he doesn't pull this off, it'll rank with the collapse of the L.A. Lakers as a "What the hell happened here?" item.
One thing that should make that dreary Top Fuel landscape a little brighter
is that it's been reported that Don Garlits
got a four-race Summit Performance deal and
that Shirley Muldowney MIGHT be backed by Action
for nine races. Certainly that's not enough
to challenge for the POWERade title, but what
the hell, it helps erase the usual-suspects
label that haunted the former "Kings of the
Sport."
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