“Big Daddy” Don Garlits is making a comeback to NHRA competition for
the first time since 2003, driving his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak
by Mopar® into the heat of NHRA Stock eliminations at the Mac Tools
U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. His historic first run in the Drag
Pak will be on Wednesday, Aug. 2, in A/Stock Automatic qualifying at
O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. The full U.S. Nationals event is
scheduled to begin Sept. 2 with final eliminations on Monday, Sept. 7.

Garlits hung up his helmet after Top Fuel qualifying at the U.S.
Nationals exactly six years ago in 2003. He last ran a stock class car
in 1963 when he competed in a 1963 Dodge Max Wedge drag package car
carrying “Garlits Dodge” graphics. His new Dodge Challenger Drag Pak by
Mopar has the same lettering emblazoned on its sides, along with the
same Mopar graphics from his historic run last year alongside “Miss
Mighty Mopar” Judy Lilly in Drag Pak prototypes at the Mopar Mile-High
NHRA Nationals.

John Force Racing crew chief John Medlen will join an all-star panel of
experts Dec. 1 at the inaugural International Motorsports Industry Show
(IMIS) Safety Conference at Indianapolis.
 
Medlen, who manages the Brownsburg, Ind.-based Eric Medlen Project that
grew from his son's fatal accident in a Funny Car in 2007, will join
Wayne State University's Dr. John Melvin and Safety Solutions Inc.
President Trevor Ashline. Melvin and Ashline helped sort through the
dynamics of Eric Medlen's crash and gave direction to JFR as it formed
the foundation for the safety project.
 
IMIS co-founder Chris Paulsen has put together an all-star line-up that
former CART Vice-President and Director of Operations Kirk Russell will
coordinate.
 
The list includes another name familiar to drag racers. Tom Gideon,
currently NASCAR's director of safety initiatives, was for 38 years a
General Motors engineer who became manager of the automaker's Racing
Safety Program. Among his projects today are the development and
installation of SAFER barriers.

For seven years a refrigerator white, 1964 Chevy II wagon terrorized
the IHRA landscape. The car was no best appearing candidate, but it
could run hard and win.

It rambled around the Carolinas and the Southeast, hunting and
gathering round wins and purses along the way. One month in 1974 this
legendary race car won as much as $15,000 in one month.

The high-winding Modified eliminator runner, known simply as Gene
Fulton’s white wagon, won three world championships with the ace engine
builder behind the wheel.

Veteran Funny Car racers Peter and Helen Russo are targeting a return
to racing on home soil for the 2009/10 Australian Drag Racing season.

Four-time Australian Funny Car Champions, the Russos have based their racing in the USA since the 1999 season.

Self-funding
their limited campaigns, the Russos won the 2000 AHRA Funny Car World
Finals held at Spokane, Washington, defeating a field that included
two-time NHRA World Champion Cruz Pedregon and NHRA national event
winner Gary Densham.

The Russos ran a best of 5.035 seconds with
their Dodge Avenger Funny Car at the NHRA Automobile Club of Southern
California Finals at Pomona, California in November, 2006, before the
debut of a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo the following season.

Three repeat winners re-established their dominance at Summit Motorsports Park outside Norwalk, Ohio this weekend as over 250 racing
entries did battle at the Goodguys 8th DuPont Blue Suede Cruise. Steve
Nichols (Funny Car), Darrell Wathen (B/GAS) and Sam Patrick (Nostalgia
Gas) went home victorious for the second year in a row as racers
enjoyed cool temperatures and an ultra-sticky racing surface which
resulted in spectacular runs in both pro and sportsman classes. Rich
Guasco’s “Pure Hell” and Dave Hough’s “Nanook” fuel altereds also gave
the fans their money’s worth over the weekend coming to the line for a
three-race match race which culminated in a thrilling Sunday climax run
with Nanook’s 6.460 @ 198.79 defeating Pure Hell’s 6.475 @ 214.11! The
crowd went wild!!!!

Nostalgia Funny Car action provided wild
side by side action. Sunday’s final round between low qualifier Peter
Gallen and Steve Nichols turned into the quickest side-by-side
Nostalgia Funny Car race in the history of Goodguys Vintage Drag
Racing. Gallen and his gorgeous “Poverty Stricken” ’74 Vega were
quickest in every round of qualifying and eliminations and it appeared
to be his race to lose. But his slightly tardy reaction times proved to
be his undoing in the money round as he lost a heartbreaker on a
holeshot to defending event champion Steve Nichols in the Mill Road
Boys ’70 Camaro. Gallen and his team put on a show that will not soon
be forgotten. His successive runs throughout the weekend were 6.048,
5.898, 5.919, 5.913 and 5.899 in the final.

The first national championship of veteran racer Troy Coughlin's
two-decade-long drag racing career is just a breathe away after the
driver of the JEGS.com Pontiac GXP Pro Street machine raced to a strong
semifinal finish at Sunday's third annual JE Pistons Muscle Car
Nationals at Milan Dragway.

The point leader in the Scorpion Performance Pro Street rankings since
winning the Chicago race in mid July, it turned out the only thing
capable of slowing Coughlin and crew down on the racetrack was a faulty
battery, which ended their latest national event winning streak at two
events.

"We're really excited in the JEGS camp," Coughlin said while driving
from Michigan to his home in Delaware, Ohio. "We've had the calculator
out trying to figure out all the point scenarios and we're not sure
whether we've clinched the title or not. I think it's going to be very
close. Either way, we've got one race left and it's our intention to go
win that race and close out the season strong."

Prior to this weekend's race, Coughlin held 190-point edge over
second-place Vinny Budano and a 530-point advantage over third-place
Chris Rini. Budano didn't show up for this weekend's race, while Rini
raced to a runner-up result.

NHRA North Central division Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competitors
closed out the 2009 season at Beech Bend Raceway Park this weekend. 
Defending event champion Bill Reichert scored the Top Alcohol Dragster
win again, increasing his lead in the division point standings, while
Mick Snyder, Demotte, Ind., earned his first Top Alcohol Funny Car win
of the year.

Reichert carried his No. 1 qualifying momentum into the winner’s circle
when he beat Brandon Booher of Urbana, Ill., in the final.  Although
Booher left first, Reichert laid down a 5.387-second, 261.22 mph pass
which was more than enough to cover Booher’s 5.658-second, 227.96 mph
lap.  This was Reichert’s fifth final-round appearance on the
divisional level this year and his fourth win.

The Top Alcohol Funny Car final was anticlimactic because Andy Bohl
broke on the burnout, giving Snyder a free pass to the winner’s
circle.  However, in the semis, Snyder beat No. 1 qualifier Steve
Harker, Gainesville, Ga.  This was Snyder’s third final-round
appearance this year and his first win while Bohl has had been to the
finals at his last three races. He also has one win on the year.

The NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Cecil County Dragway is
in the books with Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Duane Shields of Boulder
City, Nev., and Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Frank Manzo, Morganville,
N.J., taking home the goods. This event completes the fifth of seven in
Northeast division competition.

Shields worked his way from the No.6 qualifying spot all the way to the
Top Alcohol Dragster final to pick up the win. Dan Mercier of Montreal,
Quebec, the No.1 qualifier, had him off the line but Shields was able
to reel him in by posting a 5.423 second, 272.12 mph pass to secure the
win light.

Top Alcohol Funny Car was mastered once again by Manzo, picking up back
to back wins and his third in Northeast division competition. He
grabbed his 102nd divisional win of his career when Scott McNiece of
Brick, N.J., fouled at the starting line.  This marks Manzo’s 13th
divisional victory at Cecil County Dragway.

The NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series wrapped up this weekend at
Heartland Park Topeka.  Racers completed the long two day event, which
was the fifth of six events on the division calendar. The event
featured drivers in eleven categories vying for crucial points leading
to divisional and national championships.  Winning the Heartland
Championships presented by Aeromotive were Top Alcohol Dragster pilot
Brandon Lewis of Broken Arrow, Okla., and Roger Bateman, Winnipeg,
Manit., in the Top Alcohol Funny Car class.

Lewis made his way out of the No.2 qualifying position to pick up the
win with his 5.269 second, 273.00 mph pass.  He made his first trip to
the winner’s circle this season as Monroe Guest of Mannford, Okla.,
broke in the final.

In Top Alcohol Funny Car action, Roger Bateman picked up his third
consecutive win of the season. Lance Van Hauen out of Reinbeck, Iowa,
was a no show in the final which gave the win light to Bateman.   

As
NHRA celebrates the 55th anniversary of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
presented by Lucas Oil, the world’s most prestigious drag race is set
to provide its traditional offering of the very best in speed and high
performance for countless thousands of hot rodding enthusiasts. More
than 1,000 competitors in 12 different racing categories will perform
in front of the standing-room only crowd during the much-anticipated
Labor Day classic.

The Super Bowl of drag racing takes place at revered O’Reilly Raceway
Park at Indianapolis, Sept. 2-7. It is the 18th of 24 events in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series for 2009 and will be showcased
nationwide on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD, which will televise more than 10
hours of coverage of drag racing’s marquee spectacle.