This legendary figure is truly one of sport’s most amazing performers and right now if he won a round or two or three this year, race fans can say they saw performances unlike any they’ll see in their drag racing lifetimes.

Del Cox Jr. is about as opposite of Karamesines as the law will allow. I’d seen “the Greek’s” name a billion times on qualifying sheets as I had with Brown and Massey and to a lesser degree Langdon.  At this year’s NHRA Winternationals, Cox debuted as a Top Fuel driver, wheeling the car in which Spencer Massey won the 2008 IHRA title. Prior to that, Cox started out in Junior Dragster at age 9, and went on to compete in Competition, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster eliminators. At Pomona, the 28-year old Downey, Calif., rookie was handling Texas-based Mitch King’s Bexar Waste-sponsored entry with the renowned tuner/teacher Paul Smith spinning the wrenches. (In sharp contrast, Karamesines first competed at the Winternationals in 1964, about 17 years before Cox was born). Most sports don’t come anywhere near that kind of contrast.

King does not qualify for the nitro poverty program as his is a two-car team, the Cox car and one that he drives. However, the budget doesn’t allow much beyond that and Smith’s tuning talents.

Being a press guy of sorts, I was able to get into the Pomona Raceway deadline room and snatch up the Top Fuel qualifying sheets where my eye was caught by No. 12 Top qualifier Del Cox Jr. – 4.020. First thought was: Where did he come from?

As luck would have it he drew Schumacher, who put him away in round one after a near dead even start (.093 to .095 at the lights) and 3.848 to 4.000 in the traps. In the next three NHRA national events he would go 0-3, two of those losses coming from Schumacher, but none of them an embarrassment.

Spectator experience made me take notice. Here was a guy I knew nothing about and yet I got the feeling that he had something on the ball… seemingly mistake-free driving coupled with a tune-up that kept him somewhat competitive. He sounded like a perfect candidate for a year or so of IHRA experience, especially when you consider his predecessor Massey’s 2008 campaign. Hey, it turned out I was right.

When IHRA’s season got underway, my suspicions were a bit more confirmed. After three nationals in a 10-race event schedule, Cox currently resides in first place in IHRA’s Top Fuel World Championship points competition.

He qualified No.one at IHRA’s curtain raiser at State Capitol Dragway and racked up a semi-final finish. At the IHRA Springnationals in Rockingham, he qualified No. one with a 4.635/315.64 and won the race. (IHRA still races fuel cars on the quarter.) Cox held on for a semi-final finish at the association’s Texas Nationals at brand new all-concrete Dallas Raceway and this allowed him to pass former IHRA champ Bruce Litton for the temporary points lead.

While the season is still young, it wouldn’t be out of line to think that he could bag the season championship in his rookie season. It’s been done before but not often. Of course, last year Massey pulled off the trick and nearly ten years before that former Alcohol standout Gary Scelzi pulled off the trick with NHRA in 1997.

The old and the new of it still hold a fascination for me. True, the new names of bolt-in drivers don’t necessarily mean long distinguished careers waiting, not like in the 1960s through the 1980s, but if nothing else, it breaks the numbing regularity of seeing the Forces, Schumachers, Kalittas and Bernsteins overshadow everything.

And it goes almost without saying that the seasoning in the drag racing stew really perks the bite when a Chris Karamesines makes the lists. Drag racing’s history and future on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet… all right with me.