The Kids Are Growing Up at a Fast and Furious Rate.(News)(racing sanctioning bodies chage rules)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

The import scene is growing up, the kids are branching out into TV and drag races are fast becoming merely the focal points of bigger events centered around this sociological phenomenon known as import culture. It's sort of like the movie The Fast and the Furious but without the truck hijackings, Uzi shootouts and exploding Toyotas.

Import culture got its name because the cars were originally known simply as imports. And most of them were imports, Honda Civics and Acura Integras. Gradually they got the more generic sport compact moniker, because domestic carmakers wanted in on the action with their Ford Focuses, Dodge Neons and Chevy Cavaliers. But the idea is the same as it has ever been: Go faster than the other guy, look cooler doing it and maybe, just maybe, get a girlfriend.

That simple notion, applied to this slice of the racing world, has gone from illegal street racing a decade ago to four well-established, well-sponsored racing series. They're getting more and more corporate backing and increasingly more tie-ins to activities that have nothing to do with racing but everything to do with import culture.

At the end of the 2002 racing season no clear leader emerged among the big four sanctioning bodies. It's like professional boxing, we need a title unification fight to crown a champion.

While the National Hot Rod Association has just completed its 51st year sanctioning rear-wheel-drive V8-powered competition, it only just completed its second full season of sport compact drags in 2002. As it continued to learn the ropes, there were rules changes and category shuffles throughout the year. After Matt Scranton drove his V8-powered rear-drive Turbonetics Celica 198 mph at the season's first race, the NHRA moved all V8-powered cars into their own category and eventually banned them altogether at season's end. Scranton broke 200 mph halfway into the year, by the way, and finished the year winning the Pro V8 title. R.J. Simrock won in Pro and Jimmy O'Connor took the modified

title.