NO PEGGY LEES
IN THIS LOUNGE

11/7/03

Photo by Jeff Burk

y workspace is a desk in my mother's kitchen and right above this desk is (gasp) a Ronald Reagan calendar. Today is October 30, according to this colorful salute to "Bonzo", and if nothing else, that date signals the end of yet another year of NHRA POWERade drag racing. 28 points years all in all. Actually, it's just a couple of years with the Coke people, but, aawww, you knew that.

Anyway, my first impulse was to write something along the lines of what else is new? Is that all there is? Where's Peggy Lee? Oh, she is, is she? Fortunately, I stomped out that fire with a few belts from a King Cobra malt and addressed the subject in a little more adult fashion. At least, that's what the fashion I used to see when I was at the L.A. Times, and it wasn't King Cobra either. Try Old Taylor, Old Grandad, Old Crow, or Old Factory Whistle, one blast and you're all through for the day. However, enough Henny Youngman, on to 2003 and its innards.

TOP FUEL

The Burkster and I will undoubtedly endeavor within the next month or so to give our reader an appropriate and much more filled out accounting of the 2003 season, both NHRA and IHRA, but I thought I'd use this space as a teaser or more correctly an outline. I guess just see it as a release point for some of my frustrations and exultations.

All in all, 2003 was much better than I thought it would be and in an area I thought where we might not see any real improvement ... E.T. and MPH. My high point this season was Doug Kalitta's 4.42 at Chicago. I thought in January that we'd be real lucky to see anything below a 4.47 or at very best a 4.46. Scott Kalitta's oh-so-close-to 334, 333.95-mph charge at the Texas Motorplex is close to that. I know this prejudice towards elapsed time and speed performance is not shared by all at the White House, but believe me, to potential fans, not to mention many hardened observers, "what did they run?" is a question that is asked and responded to enthusiastically nearly all the time.

Hooray for Larry Dixon. He won the title for the second year in Don Prudhomme's, Dick LaHaie-tuned, Miller Lite dragster and he did it this season without being the fastest or quickest Top Fueler out there. Going into the final race of the season, Dixon's 332.75 at the first Las Vegas race is his only contribution to the "Best of" list at the tail end of National DRAGSTER. The rest of the slots are dominated by the Kalittas, Tony Schumachers, Cory McClenathans (I still can't believe it, but hey ... nice to see a somewhat different name) and Kenny Bernsteins.

Dixon's win echoes the sentiments Austin Coil shared with me in 1982 when he was crew chief for the Rislone/Team Strange/"Chi-Town Hustler" that Frank Hawley drove to back-to-back Winston Funny Car titles in 1982-1983. The "Chi-Town Hustler" Dodge could run 5.95s and 5.97s at the drop of a hat, but there were cars out there, Don Prudhomme's Pepsi Trans Am, Billy Meyer's 7-11 Trans Am, and "the Blue Max" that were capable of running a tenth better.

Said Coil, (and I paraphrase), "That's all well and good. I might be able to get this car into the low 5.80s or might not depending on conditions, but I can get it to run 5.95s under any conditions, and 5.95s will win way more races than it will lose. I want whomever I'm racing to be aware that they're going to have to beat a mid-5.90 every time they come up against us, and I'm betting that most of the time they won't."

Just speed that on-track scenario up 1.4 seconds and I think you have what Dixon and company were able to pull off all season, or at least, the latter half.