The NHRA crowned their four world-championship winning drivers crowned Monday evening during the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series awards ceremony at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The evening featured two very moving tributes. The first to NHRA founder Wally Parks, who died Sept. 28 at age 94, after a lifetime dedicated to growing and nurturing NHRA to position it as a worldwide leader in motorsports; and the other to Funny Car driver Eric Medlen, who died March 23 from injuries received in a testing crash at Gainesville Raceway four days earlier. Medlen, 33, a team driver for John Force Racing, was one of the bright young stars in the NHRA POWERade Series.

Click here for our extensive AWARDS CEREMONY - LEND-AMERICA PHOTO GALLERY 

The NHRA crowned their four world-championship winning drivers crowned Monday evening during the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series awards ceremony at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The evening featured two very moving tributes. The first to NHRA founder Wally Parks, who died Sept. 28 at age 94, after a lifetime dedicated to growing and nurturing NHRA to position it as a worldwide leader in motorsports; and the other to Funny Car driver Eric Medlen, who died March 23 from injuries received in a testing crash at Gainesville Raceway four days earlier. Medlen, 33, a team driver for John Force Racing, was one of the bright young stars in the NHRA POWERade Series.

Click here for our extensive AWARDS CEREMONY - LEND-AMERICA PHOTO GALLERY