Matco Tools Top Fuel team owner Mike Ashley announced earlier in the season that he planned to run a second car as a compliment to the current point leading dragster he owns and is driven by Antron Brown. Unforseen delays have now convinced Ashley to scrap the idea of racing a limited schedule this season.

Mike Edwards Racing has added Contemporary Corvette.com as an associate sponsor to the Young Life/A.R.T. Pontiac Pro Stock for the
Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. The newest marketing partner with Edwards
will actively support and help promote the race team as part of the
strategic partnership in respect to particular goals during the events
at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The company was also on the
car for the NHRA stop in Reading.

“We are very fortunate to have a company like Contemporary Corvette
come on board and help us at this most crucial stage of the season,”
Edwards said. “We will do everything we can to make this partnership
stronger and more valuable for them as we do with all of our marketing
partners. By adding support to our team, it only helps us elevate our
entire business model at all levels in promoting Mike Edwards
Motorsports’ team message.”

Standing in the staging lanes Friday evening, Kenny Bernstein stated that he is close to signing a primary sponsor for 2010. He is working to complete the deal and hopes to be able to make an announcement this weekend.

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Competitionplus.com Director of Photography Roger Richards was the
victim of a theft sometime between Thursday evening and Friday morning
while on assignment at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

The scooter, which Richards used to encompass many race tracks after a
stroke hampered his mobility, was chained to a fence near the O’Reilly
Raceway Park control tower. He arrived in the morning to find the lock
cut from the chain and the scooter gone.

Aeromotive Fuel Systems confirmed that Ford Racing has selected them to
provide the fuel system for the 2010 Ford Cobra Jet. Aeromotive will be
supplying one of their brand new Stealth Fuel Cells as the heart of the
bulletproof fuel system. The Stealth Fuel Cell developed for the Cobra
Jet is a 6-gallon aluminum racing fuel cell with an Aeromotive
Eliminator fuel pump and filter inside the cell itself. The Eliminator
Fuel Pump is capable of supporting up to 1400 horsepower in these
applications; so running out of fuel pump is out of the question.

“We were very pleased with our 2008 Cobra Jets, but for 2010 we knew we
had to up the standard for our turn key drag cars. We partnered with
the best in the business to come up with a fuel system specifically
engineered for drag racing these supercharged, fuel injected motors,”
said Brian Wolfe, Director of North American Motorsports at Ford Motor
Co. “Aeromotive has done an excellent job and we are proud to have them
on our 2010 Cobra Jets.”

Charlie Westcott, Jr., of Parma, Mich., leads a field of 21 Super Stock
HEMI® Dodge Darts and Plymouth Barracudas after final qualifying for
the Mopar HEMI Challenge at the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals.
Westcott, Jr., blistered the quarter mile track at O’Reilly Raceway
Part at Indianapolis with an 8.491 second elapsed time in his 1968 HEMI
Barracuda.

Westcott, Jr., has a bye run in the first round.

Jim Daniels, Yardley, Pa., drove his 1968 Dodge Dart HEMI to the second
fastest time with an 8.519 second clocking. Daniels won the most recent
Hemi Challenge at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

When it comes to history, tradition and great racing, nothing matches the spectacle that is the Amalie Motor Oil North American Nationals presented by Dodge at New England Dragway.

For the 12th consecutive year the IHRA Nitro Jam tour will be back at
the historical Epping track with championships to be decided and
Ironman hardware to be claimed.

Drivers have seen their championship hopes realized and dreams
shattered at the legendary quarter-mile and with only three races
remaining in the 2009 season, this year’s event promises to once again
make a huge dent in the title chase of all 10 of IHRA’s championship
classes.

For 25 years, Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School has been teaching some
of the biggest names in the sport how to speed down the track.
 
Alumni include such NHRA Full Throttle Series regulars as Larry Dixon,
Tony Schumacher, Ashley Force Hood, Robert Hight, Antron Brown, Doug
Kalitta and Tony Pedregon.
 
However, the school is open to anyone who has a desire to see what it’s
like to make a quick run down a quartermile dragstrip. Experienced
racers also attend to improve their skills.

A special-edition gold chrome U.S. Army-themed Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher Impact! Racing helmet will be auctioned during the Don Schumacher Racing Open House on Friday, Sept. 4, to benefit Riley Children’s Foundation and Riley Hospital for Children.

Schumacher, a seven-time U.S. Nationals winner in the Top Fuel
category, is eager to showcase the new design, created by Steve
Dekkenga of S.D. Enterprises Paint and Graphics in Spring Lake, Mich.,
who has designed a number of DSR race-car and helmet schemes. “This is
a great looking helmet. Steve really did a knock-out job with the gold
chrome.

Rickie
Jones can’t remember a time when he wasn’t at the race track. The son
of noted race car builder Rick Jones, Rickie always tagged along with
his dad as he would visit drag strips across the country to make sure
the Pro Stock and Pro Mod cars that he built were meeting the racers’
expectations.

Eventually Rickie started working in his dad’s shop and then he was bit
by the racing bug himself. He started with his own Junior Dragster and
now as he’s on the verge of making the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s playoffs,
in a 200-mph Pro Stock car. Every now and then, the younger Jones has
to take a step back and make sure this is all real.

“This is a dream come true,” the 22-year-old Jones said. “At the
beginning of the season we set our goals and they were to try and
qualify for every race and make it into the top 10.”