Once Cory McClenathan makes one qualifying pass in the FRAM Tough Guard Top Fuel dragster this weekend at the 28th annual NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway, he will have clinched a spot in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.

Winning the event is what "Cory Mac" is also aiming to accomplish. He's
been close this season in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series,
having reached the final round three times so far without taking the
trophy. That, two semifinal finishes, 20 round wins and one pole
position have placed him squarely in fifth place in the points rankings.

"The objective for me is still to go to every race and try to win,"
said McClenathan, the 1997 Brainerd Top Fuel champion and runner-up
last year, "and if we can end up moving up in points before the
Countdown starts, that would be the optimum objective for me." The
playoffs for the top 10 in points begin following the U.S. Nationals on
Labor Day for the final six events of the season.

Terry Housley, a former IHRA Top Sportsman world champion and two-time
ADRL Pro Nitrous National Event Winner, will be piloting the Folson,
Ca.-based, Ballance Racing '53 Corvette at this year’s Street Car Super
Nationals, Nov 19-22 at "The Strip" at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the
Hughes Performance Pro Street class..

Joining the team as well for the Super Nationals will be Terry's son
Blake, who joins the established team of Mark, Bryan, Chris and Irv
Balance.

“Adding Blake Housley will give us the much needed experience to
compete at this very competitive race," says team owner Irv Ballance.
"We're all really excited about the additions to our team and look
forward on improving on our semi-final finish at last year’s SCSNs."

NHRA announced today it has reached an agreement with K&N
Engineering, Inc., to renew its sponsorship of the popular K&N
Horsepower Challenge, a lucrative bonus event for Pro Stock
competitors. The bonus event will adopt a new qualifying procedure
where a special fan vote will determine the final driver to make the
starting lineup and a special fan promotion will center on a
Harley-Davidson giveaway.

The K&N Horsepower Challenge is a special race-within-a-race bonus
program for the top Pro Stock drivers in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series. The K&N Horsepower Challenge will continue to be
conducted at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk,
Ohio. The race features a special elimination pairing with eight Pro
Stock drivers in the field, including seven who accumulate the most
points in qualifying during the 24-race Challenge series and one driver
who is selected to the starting lineup for the event via a special fan
vote.

Tony Shortall got a call Thursday morning. By midnight he was in Brainerd, Minn., for the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals.

Shortall confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com that he will be helping two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon with his Funny Car team this weekend in the absence of tuners Dickie Venables and Kurt Elliot.

Venables and Elliot reportedly left the team days before the event, but as of Friday morning there was no official team statement available. A call to Pedregon was not returned before this story was uploaded.

 
Bob
Gilbertson has picked Paul Smith as the crew chief of his Rinnai
Tankless Water Heaters nitro Funny Car for his return to NHRA
competition at the up-coming Carolinas Nationals Sept. 17-20 at zMAX
Dragway @ Concord.
 
Smith has been involved in nitro drag racing for over 40 years and is
regarded as one of the most savvy crew chiefs on the tour and he's
known for being able to get his drivers into the show on many occasions
when the larger funded teams struggled and didn't qualify.

National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Executive Vice
President of Competition Bert Corzine today announced changes to the
series’ national-event weekend schedule, beginning Aug. 21-22, at the
ADRL Summit Racing Equipment Ohio Drags III in Hebron, Ohio, near
Columbus.

Most significant to National Guard ADRL race teams and fans is the
addition of a fourth official qualifying session for all five
professional classes. The long-standing open test session has been
eliminated from the ADRL national-event program in favor of three
official qualifying opportunities on Friday, with a single, last-chance
qualifying session starting at noon on Saturday, followed by a brief
pre-race ceremony and elimination rounds.

At this weekend’s Lucas Oil Nationals, Summit Racing Pontiac driver
Jason Line will once again return to the site of the start of his NHRA
drag racing career, Brainerd International Raceway.  This year,
however, the talented Minnesotan will take this reunion one step
further, as, in addition to his responsibilities with the KB Pro Stock
Racing team, he will also climb behind the wheel of a 1980 K Stock
Automatic Chevy Malibu owned and normally campaigned by Peter
Boslovitch.  As Line explains, it was an opportunity to do a favor for
a long-time friend.

Dark clouds covering the recently completed Hurst/Olds National Meet
last weekend in Indianapolis recently yielded a ray of hope. One of the
four Hurst/Olds stolen from a hotel parking lot has been recovered, but
stripped of its valuable parts.

The 1979 black and gold Hurst/Olds was recovered with the basic body
undamaged along with the engine and transmission still intact. The
thieves apparently spray painted the gold exterior paint black to make
it less noticeable. The classic car was missing the wheels/tires, black
interior and chrome.

Phoenix Drag Tires, the flagship brand of Coker Tire’s Performance Division, is pleased to announce that the wait is over and production
is now complete on its brand new PH56R 14.5/32.0-15R drag radial. 
Available in the legendary F9 compound, the tire is representative of
Phoenix’s commitment to develop the fastest tires in all of drag racing.

Performance Division VP Mike Crutchfield says that based upon the
tremendous success he’s seen in testing, you can expect an immediate
impact on the results of the NHRA Lucas Oil and other series.  “The
secret is out regarding the Phoenix Radial’s success.  About a year ago
we developed the PH55R 13.6/32.0-15R and introduced it in competition,
and it’s been at the top of the qualifying order and race results in
super stock and comp eliminator ever since.  So it’s only natural that
we would build upon the success of this tire by offering the slightly
larger PH56R 14.5/32.0-15R for a wider range of applications.