I've been spending a lot of time following sports these days-B-ball and racing, in particular. As this column is being written, I'm watching the 46-23 Los Angeles Lakers try to pull off a come-from-ahead loss to the 34-34 Milwaukee Bucks while clicking to the Speed channel to check out live coverage of the Formula 1 race from Malaysia. If the Lakers can't handle the Bucks, they're in trouble. Besides, the sound of 10 cylinders at 18,000 rpm is too intoxicating to deny so I'm sticking with the F1 race. I kicked the kids out of the family room and now have full control of the big screen with surround sound.
Schumacher is dominating in his Ferrari and Juan Pablo Montoya has a good hold of second in his Williams BMW, but the big news is Jenson Button aiming for a podium finish for Honda. (And even better, the lackadaisical Lakers couldn't put away the Bucks so I got to watch the Lakers win in overtime.)
Earlier, I was in March Madness mode, watching the University of Alabama, Birmingham, oust top-seeded Kentucky while surfing back to the NASCAR race from The Rock. I've also been keeping tabs on import drag racing and thoroughbred horse racing. It's prime time for both sports. The hoofed racers are aiming for Kentucky and the Triple Crown campaign, while the sport compact draggers got the 2004 season out of the gate at the recent NHRA Nitto California Nationals and they're striving for championships in the most challenging import race series.
I'm gearing up for the Santa Anita Derby, which takes place in a couple of weeks and is the first, biggest step for Kentucky-bound California thoroughbreds. The NHRA race was last weekend and I was hoping to see more; more new cars, heck, more cars, period. I had very high expectations going into the weekend, but with new rules comes new cars and building a car can take time.
I was overhyped last year; then, something like four of the first five pairs of cars off the line had experienced a problem. Then the last car oiled down the track and caused a long delay, which added to the frustration. This year's frustration was caused by the lower turnout and the lack of side-by-side racing.
Still, there were plenty of impressive performances at the Nitto California Nats. Like last year, there were those who changed a bunch of things and those who didn't, those who lost ground, those who started where they left off in '03 and those who came out quicker and faster than before.
Marty Ladwig, in Turbo Magazine Hot Rod, is a good example. Last year he seemed to be the only Hot Rod racer to retain his form from the year before and he parlayed his early season advantage into the class championship. At Fontana, he took it a step further. He wasn't as good as he was in 2003; he was better, practically in a league of his own. The existing class record was 8.45 with a 2; Ladwig had run an 8.45 with a 7 in E-Town when Gardella set the mark. Ladwig rolled off the trailer in Cali and screamed to an 8.32, a time he backed up in eliminations. In the off-season, the GM Racing program moved to Roush Racing in Michigan, and some magic was worked in Motown because this Hot Rod is running Pro FWD times.
Speaking of Pro FWD, the first 7-second FWD run could be history by the time you read this. Lisa Kubo came agonizingly close in Fontana, running an 8.02 (breaking her own mark of 8.04), which she backed up as the new record. Nelson Hoyos was rumored to have run a 7 in the off-season, so he may have something for Kubo in his home state of Florida when the NHRA stops there in a few weeks.
Kubo's impressive performance got Shaun Carlson's phone ringing. Shaun put the development of his FWD car on hold in order to make some history of his own. Shaun became the first import driver to make the jump to the domestics when he drove Darrell Alderman's Pro Stock Stratus R/T at the Winternationals in Pomona. See the specifics of Mr. Carlson's exploits on page 106.
After GM's 8.02 in Fontana, Mopar wants the NuFormz Neon at Moroso to take a crack at the 7s before Kubo gets there. Carlson has a new one-off tranny, which may raise more questions than it answers; either way, the plot thickens.
We expect a lot more action on the sport compact trail as the new cars hit the track and the slow starters get their acts together.
When the smoke cleared, four class records were set at Fontana by Kubo and Ladwig, as mentioned, and Paul Efantis in Modified and both ends of the All Motor Class. The new records in Modified and All Motor were due to the weight changes in the class rules. As the season gels, more records will fall and Turbo will be there for every pass.