The 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Awards Ceremony will be
held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles’ posh Westside on Monday, Nov. 16.

NHRA also announced that the entire NHRA Full Throttle Awards Ceremony
will be broadcast on the Web at NHRA.com on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6
p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT. It marks the first time the full event will be
available to fans via the Internet.

Perfectly situated on the fashionable Westside, adjacent to Beverly
Hills, the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza sits on seven acres with 726
newly renovated spacious guest rooms and a world-class spa and fitness
center, making the property a luxury resort hotel situated in the heart
of the city.

The Cummings name is synonymous with success in the sportsman categories of NHRA and IHRA. The family team, which is backed by Moser
Engineering and features drivers Britt, Slate, and Larry Cummings along
with Jody “Cool” Simoneaux has accounted event victories in no less
than seven sportsman categories. Brothers Britt and Slate Cummings have
three IHRA World Championship trophies on their respective mantles. The
team has claimed over a dozen division championships, and countless
national and divisional event victories over the past two decades. With
that being said, it will come as a complete surprise to many that
family patriarch Larry Cummings earned his first national event title
with a Super Stock victory in his Moser Engineering backed Cavalier at
last weekend’s IHRA Northern Nationals in Martin, MI.
 
Cummings has built an impressive racing resume throughout his career
that spans nearly four decades. He has accumulated countless divisional
victories, and a number of division championships. He was a constant
fixture in IHRA’s national top ten throughout the 1990’s. He was an
original member of the Budweiser sportsman “Super Team” in the 1980’s,
the first multi-car, sponsored sportsman racing team. Yet, in all those
years of successful competition, a national event title had eluded him.

When Chuck Ulsch covered the eighth mile at Gateway International Raceway in 3.98 seconds Aug. 8, he entered a realm few people thought
even possible just a couple of years earlier. He also picked up a
$5,000 bonus from Flowmaster Mufflers for being the first Flowmaster
Extreme 10.5 driver to post a three-second elapsed time in official
National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) competition.

“We congratulate Chuck and his entire team on an awesome performance,”
Flowmaster Senior Vice President of Marketing Richard Small said. “The
Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 class has become one of the tightest, toughest
classes anywhere in professional drag racing and to see one of these
cars finally break into the threes is really something special. That’s
why we posted this bounty, to reward a truly historic accomplishment.”

With a break in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle schedule, Doug Horne
brought a little of his magic to Bristol last weekend for the AHDRA
Thunder in the Valley Nationals and showed the fans in town why he may be considered the fastest thing on two wheels.

The Aberdeen, Md. native is in the midst of an impressive rookie
campaign in the NHRA, finding himself fourth in points behind Eddie
Krawiec, Andrew Hines and Matt Smith. He showed no signs of slowing
down as he captured the AHDRA Screamin’ Eagle Top Fuel division during
Sunday’s final rounds. In the process, he broke Tak Shigematsu’s string
of consecutive Top Fuel wins at three. Shigematsu was unable to attend
the event.

Jason Line has checked off many items from his racing bucket list over
the years – including a sportsman world championship title in NHRA
Stock Eliminator, a professional series title in NHRA Pro Stock
competition and great success as an engine builder in the world of
NASCAR racing. The one thing missing from the Wright, Minn. native’s
high performance resume is a Pro Stock victory at his home track,
Brainerd International Raceway.

The 19-time NHRA winner comes to his home state once again in pursuit
of the elusive victory. However, this time, he has a big wave of
momentum pushing his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GXP. He has
advanced to the last four final rounds, winning twice. He has claimed
four victories in seven finals this season and is currently third
overall in the highly competitive top 10 point standings in Pro Stock.
He showcased his driving skills by winning with holeshot starts in the
final two rounds at the last stop on the circuit -- Infineon Raceway in
Sonoma, Calif.

Don Bowles, 70, sat in his custom bus Friday afternoon watching a video.

The former class racing standout wasn’t watching one of his old videos of winning NHRA national events from back in the day.

Instead, the former U.S. Nationals runner-up, now out of retirement,
studied the video, fast forwarding and rewinding of the qualifying run
he had made earlier in the day at Zmax Dragway. He and his associates
were trying to figure out what was going wrong with the car as it
hurtled down the quarter mile.

Bowles has found a new lease on his racing life as a racer on the
National Mustang Racing Association’s Hot Street division. He’s also
got a second car, a NASCAR engine powered 2008 Mustang, but that’s a
story for another day.

Don Schumacher described his first ADRL experience as “interesting” and an “interesting way to run a race”.

The veteran NHRA team owner and past nitro legend told
CompetitionPlus.com that he attended the first day of the ADRL Gateway
Drags at Gateway International Raceway located outside of St. Louis at
the urging of series officials who had invited him to take a look at
their operation.

Schumacher accepted their invitation, but had wanted to see what the ADRL was about anyway.

Pat Musi believed there would come a day after his NMCA Pro Street
driving days slowed to part-time, that he would come to a race just to spectate. He’s learning quickly learning that those days aren’t
here.

Musi’s not complaining, as work in this depressed economy is sometimes hard to come by in his profession.

He was at the NMCA NMRA All-Star Nationals in Concord, N.C., assisting
Pro Street racer Vinny Demieri with his Camaro. He’s also assisted Joe
Dunne with his entry as well.

Joe
Bucaro smiles when he says stupidity inspires a racer to build a
398-cubic inch engine when the competition comes to the starting line
with nearly 250 more cubic inches.

The great equalizer for the Carol Stream, Ill.-based Nostalgia Pro
Street racer is that he gets a nearly 600 pound weight break. The class
he races in was formerly the top of the line division in the complex
world of street legal drag racing.

In the midst of a late summer Carolina heat wave, Charles Carpenter
extended his own hot streak at Farmington Dragway and claimed the King of Carolina crown at this weekend’s O’Reilly Thunder Jam event.

After falling to Kenny Rucker in the final round of last year’s
shootout, Carpenter was able to make it one round further and score his
first race win in over two years.

“We decided it would be in our best interest to stay close to home and
continue to work on our combination,” said Carpenter. “This Thunder Jam
race was a huge event last year and I knew it would be a great race
again this year. It feels great to get back in the winner’s circle
after the tough season we’ve had.”