Drag Racing

Sometimes it's hard to tell that Ashley Force is the daughter of legendary drag racer John Force -- except at 300 mph on the drag strip. John Force is arguably the sport's most popular driver not only for his 14 funny car championships but also for his boisterous personality.

Drag racing this weekend will end a tragic and tumultuous season, and decide a close championship fight in its 300-mph funny car class, in the series finale at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. Two of the four major classes of dragsters in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s top-tier Powerade Series either have been decided, or close to it, under the series' Countdown to the Championship format. Tony Schumacher extended his remarkable domination of the top fuel division by clinching his fifth consecutive title, and sixth overall, at the race two weeks ago in Las Vegas.

Before Ashley Force made drag-racing history last month by becoming the first woman to win a funny car race in the NHRA's top-tier Powerade Series, Melanie Troxel was one of the sport's established female stars. Troxel, 35, won four times driving top-fuel dragsters in 2006-07, then switched to funny cars this season -- where her husband, Tommy Johnson Jr., also competes. Not to be outdone by Force, Troxel on Sunday won the funny car race at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

It will be business as usual at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona today when the National Hot Rod Assn. opens its 2008 season with the annual Winternationals, which run through Sunday. Engines will roar, fat tires will lay down bands of rubber and cars will speed down the drag strip at upward of 300 mph. Off the track, however, the pro drag racing circuit hit an unexpected speed bump Jan.

After Tony Schumacher made a dramatic comeback to win the top fuel drag-racing title a year ago, the sport rolled out a new system for determining the championship in 2007. No matter. Schumacher made another stunning comeback under the new rules Sunday to win the season finale at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona and his fifth championship in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s top-level Powerade Series.

Pro drag racing crowns its champions at the final race today, ending a tumultuous season that could prove a turning point in the sport. The NHRA's top-tier Powerade Series -- where some dragsters reach 330 mph in a quarter-mile -- endured a driver fatality, saw its most popular driver seriously hurt in another crash, imposed new driver-safety measures, rolled out a controversial championship format, and agreed to sell the series to a firm vowing to better promote the sport.

Police were looking Thursday for the driver of a black car that was street racing with a silver BMW when the BMW crashed, leaving its 17-year-old male driver in critical condition. Both vehicles were traveling at high speeds Wednesday on Brookhurst Street near Garden Grove Boulevard when the BMW changed lanes and slammed into the back of a small-box truck stopped at a red light, police said.

Panning across a vacant strip of asphalt and empty grandstands, a homemade video clip on YouTube.com shows the now silent Los Angeles County Raceway, a drag strip in Palmdale that closed this summer. It's a requiem for a wind-swept parcel of land that presented drag racing for more than 40 years, a track that outlasted -- until now -- the march of progress that long ago doomed most other such venues.

A 19-year-old man was killed and at least two others injured, one of them critically, in a two-vehicle collision in the Monterey Hills area Wednesday afternoon that witnesses said resulted from a street race, police said. The collision occurred about 3:30 p.m. on North Huntington Drive near Monterey Road, police said. The dead man, a passenger, was identified as Mauricio Arzaluz-Mardones, of Los Angeles. The car's driver was critically hurt. The other vehicle fled the scene, police said.

A 19-year-old man suspected of street racing and causing a crash that killed a mother and her two children made his first appearance in court Thursday as he was charged with three counts of murder, the district attorney's office said. Robert Canizalez was arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in El Monte. He is being held on $3-million bail.