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