As Usual, Season Gets a Fast Start

Pomona Raceway will serve as an early proving ground when drag racing’s best arrive in three weeks to open the NHRA season.

Top-fuel driver Larry Dixon comes to the Carquest Auto Parts Winternationals on Feb. 9-12 to prove he’s ready to beat Tony Schumacher for the Powerade points championship.

Schumacher blew away runner-up Dixon and the rest of the field last year in winning his second consecutive title by a record 415 points.

A Pomona win also would let Dixon join six-time champ Kenny Bernstein in second place on the all-time list with 39 victories. Joe Amato holds the record for top-fuel victories, 52.

In funny cars, 13-time champion John Force wants to prove he can reclaim the top spot after finishing third in points in 2005 behind title winner Gary Scelzi and Ron Capps.

Hillary Will, 25, a Fortuna, Calif., native and top-fuel rookie who carries a “Girl Power” decal on her car, is out to prove she belongs in the sport’s upper echelon.

Then there’s top-fuel driver Brandon Bernstein, rookie of the year in 2003 and son of Kenny, who owns Brandon’s Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster. After a poor showing last year, the younger Bernstein is itching to prove he can push ahead of Schumacher, Dixon and the rest.

“I’m dying for some competition,” Bernstein, 33, said. “It’s Pomona. It’s Southern California. It’s one of the biggest races we have.

“I’m just really anxious to get back to it. To get that first round behind you and get a win feels really good.”

Brandon and Kenny were the first father-son duo in National Hot Rod Assn. history to win at the same event, at Las Vegas in 2001.

Two years later, with Kenny retired, Brandon got off to a fast start but then suffered a serious back injury in a crash at Englishtown, N.J., that forced him out for the rest of the season, Dad jumping back in the car.

Brandon returned in 2004 and finished third in points but slumped to seventh last year.

Over the winter, his father told him, “ ‘You’re going to have a season like that. I’ve had seasons like that,’ ” Brandon recalled. “ ‘Hopefully you’ll learn from them.’ ”

As for Pomona, site of the season opener since 1961, Bernstein said the top-fuel drivers -- who travel the quarter-mile in less than five seconds and can reach speeds of more than 330 mph -- have to be watchful of its shutdown area at the end of the strip.

At 2,147 feet, “It’s one of the shortest we race on,” he said. “You have to make sure you shut off the car right at the finish line, get that chute out and hit the brakes. I really focus on that when thinking about Pomona.”

And everyone is keeping an eye on the rookie Will, who drives for KB Racing and is being coached by the most famous woman in drag racing history, Shirley Muldowney.

In test runs at Las Vegas on Monday, Will posted the lowest elapsed time, 4.483 seconds, with a speed of 324.83 mph.

The second-fastest that day: Brandon Bernstein.

NASCAR’s Changing Stripes

The coincidence couldn’t have been more stark: On the day that NASCAR stalwart Ford unveiled a massive retrenching of its loss-ridden U.S. operation, including cuts of up to 30,000 jobs, prosperous Toyota announced it would join the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch series in 2007.

The series whose Daytona 500 is dubbed “the Great American Race” will soon include Japan’s largest automaker and its race-modified Camry. Few were surprised by the news. Toyota already races in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series, and last year it stopped making engines for the Indy Racing League to focus on NASCAR. Michael Waltrip announced he would be an owner-driver of one of the new Toyota teams.

There is a fear among some NASCAR teams that Toyota will be able to outspend Ford and GM -- which Thursday posted an $8.6-billion loss for 2005 -- as the U.S. companies try to curb their heavy losses.

But Jack Roush, head of the Roush Racing stable of Fords in NASCAR, said, “Like it or not, Toyota is a very important part of our economy today.... So they have every right to be here.”

Toyota, whose North American operations are based in Torrance, noted that the automaker and its dealers employ about 140,000 Americans.

Last Laps

* The International Race of Champions announced its roster of 13 drivers for its 30th anniversary season in 2006, including defending IROC champion Mark Martin and Tony Stewart from NASCAR and Scott Sharp from the IRL.

The four-race series opens Feb. 17 at Daytona International Speedway.

* Add another chapter to the amazing comeback of Alex Zanardi, the two-time CART (now Champ Car) champion and former Formula One driver who lost both legs in a crash during a 2001 CART race in Germany.

Using his two prosthetic legs, Zanardi helped carry the Olympic torch through his native Italy on Jan. 17. The Turin Games will open Feb. 10. Zanardi, 39, also won the 2005 Italian touring car championship last year, driving a specially outfitted BMW.

* Six U.S. motorcycle racing champions will be honored at the Team USA Speedway Testimonial aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach on Sunday.

They are Bruce Penhall, Sam Ermolenko, Billy Hamill, Shaun Moran, Greg Hancock and the late Jack Milne. Milne brought speedway motorcycle racing to Orange County more than 30 years ago, and most of the other riders live at least part time in Southern California.

Passings

Barbara Parks, the wife of NHRA founder Wally Parks, died of cancer Wednesday at 82, the NHRA said. The organization called her “an important, determined and very creative influence” in the growth of drag racing, hot-rodding and international car clubs.