After finishing second the first two seasons of the PDRA, Franklin nearly resorted himself to forever holding that number two badge. Jay Cox led the points for much of the year and Franklin sat in his familiar number two spot. But when do-or-die time came, Franklin turned up the heat.

Franklin and Cox were neck-and-neck in points going into the final race of the year. Both qualified well at the PDRA World Finals and worked their way through the rounds. As fate would have it, the

two met in the semi-finals. With just a handful of points separating Cox and Franklin, whoever won that round would be the world champion.

“ I joked about that round before we ran, saying,‘ Why couldn’ t somebody take care of it before it got to this point,’ but afterwards I realized there was no better way: everything coming down to that run and having it all in your hands,” Franklin expressed.“ That’ s the way you want to have it. I went into that round feeling really confident. We were running really good and at that point I knew all I could do was go in there and do my job.

Somebody comes out a winner and somebody comes out a loser. There wasn’ t any pressure at that point, because I’ ve already finished second twice.”

Franklin was clearly up for the task. He took a slight starting-line advantage and never looked back. Cox ran into trouble, slowing to a 5.761 while Franklin powered to an impressive 3.699. In just under four seconds the championship was determined and Franklin would wear the number two no more.

“ It feels really good. It’ s something you dream

of- to be able to win a world championship. To race against the competition level that we have, it’ s very gratifying to win the championship. I was starting to question whether I would, but we had a storybook day at Virginia Motorsports Park. The car was perfect, the Pat Musi engine was perfect. My crew and everybody did great. Everything just came together. I just thank the Good Lord for blessing us with what we have.

“ Lee [ Sebring ] was down there in the Top End Zone with the camera right in my face before I ever got out of the car,” Franklin remembered of the championship-determining run.“ He caught a little bit of emotion there. It was exciting. It felt like the weight of the world was lifted. We had a final round to still go to, but I didn’ t even care about it at that point. We went back and decided just to go for the record. We had great air, great race track, and you don’ t get those opportunities all the time. Lee even called it, saying we would run a 3.67 next round and that’ s exactly what we did.”

After winning the championship and having all the pressure off, Franklin put together the best

PHOTO: NATE VAN WAGNEN