Each year our “crack”
staff of prognosticators joins together shortly after the final test session to
determine the champions of the upcoming season. We had a 60% success rate last
season and we feel good about our chances this year. Here’s how we see it all
shaking out for 2007.

There are some things,
like riding a bike or tying a shoe, which you never forget how to do. Is
driving a Funny Car one of them?

Kenny Bernstein certainly
hopes so.

The NHRA legend, who made
his name in the nitro-coupe class during the 1980s before retiring in 2002 as a
two-time Top Fuel champion, is returning to the driver's seat this season,
piloting the Monster Energy Dodge Charger Funny Car, beginning with this
weekend's 47th CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

Bernstein, one of only
three drivers to score at least four Funny Car championships, hasn't driven a
fuel “flopper” since leaving the class after the 1989 season, but he is
expecting a smooth transition.

Thursday is the beginning
of a new era for NHRA POWERade
Series regular Whit Bazemore.

The Indianapolis resident, a stalwart in the
Funny Car category over the past decade, will be making his debut in Top Fuel
when the 2007 begins in Pomona,
Calif. at the season-opening CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals.

Expectations are high.

Bazemore moves to Top Fuel
after a 19-year Funny Car career, where he had scored 19 victories and annually
finished in the top 10 in the points standings. He combines his vast knowledge
and experience with the high-budget David Powers Motorsports
racing team and backing from Matco Tools.
Everything is in place to make a solid run at a series title.

But back in 1990, the situation was quite different.

Back in 1993 I was editor of the old National Muscle Car Association’s
magazine. I still recall walking through the pits of the Fastest Street
Car Shootout in Memphis and smelling fresh rubber as competitors filed
their Super Street tires down until they put down a 10 and half-inch
footprint. We were certainly strict back then, but this dramatically
illustrates a problem that has once again cropped up in today’s 10.5
classes.

Super Street started off as a companion class to the NMCA’s Pro Street
category, loosely based on the Outlaw Super Stocks that ran out of the
Chicago area back then. The distinguishing factor was the small tires
they utilized, which were limited to a 10.5-inch width. The class
quickly took on a legendary status as these 3000 lb. cars dropped from
9 to 8, then to 7-second elapsed times. But controversy arose over the
actual footprint of the slicks. How close should you adhere to the
tire’s original 10.5 inches? At what point in a tire’s lifespan do you
measure its width--fresh out of the mold, off the car, on the car,
before a race or after? How do you measure it? What do you measure it
with?

Acknowledged as one of the sport's best bracket racers
during the 1970s and early 1980s, Don Young rose to the pinnacle of IHRA
sportsman racing before being killed in a 1985 racing accident at the age of
38.

Young captured consecutive Winston championship titles in
1984 and 1985 and remains the only drag racing champion to be honored
posthumously. A husband and father, Young's success on the drag strip had also
transferred to an expanding auto repair and machine shop business in Carrollton, Ga., just
west of Atlanta. 

Perhaps
it was a tempest in a Top Fuel teapot. At least Mike Kloeber, Clay Millican's
crew chief, has begun to work with David Powers, Rod Fuller's team owner, in
putting a  positive spin on the situation.

But
call it the January Surprise, the latest in drag-racing politics.

"Monogate"
hit the Firebird International Raceway scene Saturday morning with Powers'
literal and figurative out-of-the-box approach to track-sanctioned preseason
testing at the National Time Trials.

DPM
rolled out the first modern-day monostrut-wing dragster, the
Valvoline-sponsored car for driver Rod Fuller. Kloeber used the word
"confused" to describe his feelings after finding out in a call two
days earlier from race-car builder and longtime associate Brad Hadman that
Powers had purchased the hardware -- and seeing it sitting in the pit across
the aisle.

No publication worth the ink it’s printed with – although in our case
that probably means the pixels you see on your screen – lets the year
end without some sort of review. I could select the Best and Worst of
the Year, but in this instance I’ll just nominate what I think were the
most important stories of 2006. Of course, one man’s version of what
was important isn’t necessary another’s, so ultimately you’ll decide
what you think were the most meaningful stories of the past 12 months.

I don’t think there was one story that’s worthy of being the biggest
news of the year, but unlike Time Magazine, I won’t insult you by
suggesting that you are the story of year.

On the morning of May 30^th,
2007, NHRA.com posted a release on their website stating “a definitive
agreement” between the NHRA and an entity called HD Partners Acquisition
Corporation (HDP) had been signed whereby all assets related to the
professional side of NHRA racing, and rights “to commercialize the NHRA brand,”
would be acquired by HDP, and that “upon consummation of the transaction, the
acquired assets will be held in a wholly owned subsidiary” of HDP. The
agreement provided some details about some of HDP’s principals, some details
into the management structure of the future subsidiary, and the major  considerations of the proposed transaction.

The announcement quickly led to
an flock of “NHRA Sold” headlines. None 
were true because (1) this announcement was peppered with
forward-looking statements regarding a proposed
acquisition, not a completed transaction as implied by these headlines; and (2)
the NHRA was not “sold”—nor can it be (the reasons why to be discussed in a
future installment).

Dark clouds usually dissipate after
a brief storm. However, if you’re Jerry Eckman, those clouds are still
lingering - a painful reminder of the relentless storm he’s weathered
for more than a decade.

Eckman’s wearied eyes speak without
his lips moving. If they could convey a message, more than likely they
would utter, “Enough.”

He used to bite his lip, opting for silence.

Now Eckman is ready to talk. Friendships be damned, political correctness be damned. He wants his life back.