Robert Hight has experienced a lot of success at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park spanning from two No. 1 qualifying efforts in the past two years to a final round at last year's event.

So far success has eluded one of the pre-season championship favorites
in 2009. Entering the 3rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
Hight will be in the middle of his longest winless drought of his
career – last win 2008 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals - as well as his
longest drought for No. 1 qualifiers as the streak hits ten entering
Norwalk. His Auto Club Mustang team sits in 12th place in Full Throttle
points, 80 points behind rookie Matt Hagan who holds down the coveted
No. 10 spot.

Sunday was a big day for the family of former IHRA Pro Modified World
Champion Quain Stott when his first cousin’s son Dylan and daughter
Mattie both won championships in the rain-plagued IHRA Summit Pro-Am
Series race at Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway.

Dylan Stott, 17-year-old former Carolina Coalition Jr. Dragster
champion, was the upset winner in the featured Top Dragster class,
beating veteran Ken Batchelor of Leland in the final round after
forcing Arden’s Michael White into a breakout foul in the semifinals. 
Mattie Stott beat Jason McCandless, the grandson of former Pro Stock
standout Herb McCandless, to win the Beginners Division in the Jr.
Dragster class.

Rocky wants to give one lucky NHRA fan an “Experience of a Lifetime.” 

As part of the NHRA “Experience of a Lifetime” national sweepstakes,
Rocky, a leading manufacturer of work, western and outdoor footwear,
will give away tickets to the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals Oct. 29- Nov. 1,
which includes a behind-the-scenes VIP tour of the race and reserved
seating for all four days of the event.

The promotion will begin at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals,
June 25-28, in Norwalk, Ohio, and end at the O’Reilly Super Start
Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals, Sept. 24-27, in Dallas.

The Northeast Outlaws Pro Mod Association bills itself as providing “extreme racing.”
 
Fans who attend the Rumble at the Grove this Saturday should see plenty
of it as cars featuring 800-plus cubic inch motors and 2,500 horsepower
blower motors will be zipping down Maple Grove Raceway’s quartermile
strip at 200 mph.
 
There will be two classes of competition with Nitrous cars taking on
Normally Aspirated ones, and Blowers vs. Turbos. The drivers will be
battling for a $3,000 first prize in each category.

Rocky, a manufacturer of premium outdoor, work, and Western footwear, has inked a deal with Kalitta Motorsports to be a primary sponsor
of Doug Kalitta’s No. 50 Top Fuel dragster at the Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk at Summit Motorsports Park June
25-28.

This exciting new partnership includes an original paint
scheme for the race car, which will prominently feature the Rocky logo,
as well as a name change to the Rocky Boots Top Fuel dragster for the
event and activities around it.

“The Kalitta team has turned
vehicle overhauls into an amazingly speedy science by living and
breathing the same motto Rocky Work lives by: 'Work smarter not
harder,' ” said Chris Lorenzo, marketing manager for Rocky Work.
“Kalitta fans, people we want to reach, make that connection.”

Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson believes last season's Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio was the most fun he's had in his drag racing career.

Johnson, of Greeneville, Tenn., has 50,000 reasons to back up his declaration.

Johnson defeated Greg Anderson with a perfect .000 reaction
time off the tree to bank the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge
grand prize in 2008, but still walked away from his Norwalk visit with
a nagging sense of unfinished business.  In last year’s main event,
Johnson set low ET of the race yet was still knocked out in the
quarterfinals on a holeshot loss to fellow Mopar HEMI®-powered driver
Larry Morgan.

Bill Bader Jr., whose family owns Summit Motorsports Park at Norwalk,
Ohio, adamantly insists that driver Randy Adler's crash there two
weekends ago during the Super Chevy event did not occur because of water on the track.
 
Nevertheless, the Baders are absorbing a six-figure repair bill for
half the length of the racing surface as this weekend's Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals (with the Pro Stock K&N Horsepower
Challenge) approaches.
 
After more than five hours of discussions Friday with engineers, NHRA
Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Graham Light, and track-prep
consultant Wayne McMurtry, the Baders began ripping up and replacing
the asphalt racing surface from the eighth-mile to the finish line.
 
That, they said, will fix the drainage problems that the track has
experienced lately. However, a prepared statement from the family said
this problem is unrelated to the seepage trouble that popped up during
last year's rain-soaked national event. Those, the statement said, were
"due to heavy rains in the days leading up to the event, which raised
the water table. Those problems were cured with the installation of
drainage in those areas."

A year ago, Top Fuel racer Morgan Lucas entered the Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals fighting to get into the top 10. This
time,
a much-improved Lucas and his GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster team
arrive in Northern Ohio just one round out of the coveted top five.

What a difference a year makes.

Under the guidance of crew chief Jimmy Walsh, Lucas, who at 25 years of
age is the youngest racer in the nitro ranks, finds himself solidly in
the running for the Countdown to 1 playoffs and a chance at the 2009
Full Throttle championship. His car is winning eliminations rounds at
virtually every stop on tour and he even scored his first national
event victory in Top Fuel earlier this season in
Atlanta.

As the season works its way towards the halfway point, Rislone Engine
Treatment Top Alcohol Dragster driver Bill Reichert and his championship-winning
team find themselves enjoying a lofty spot high up in the NHRA Top
Alcohol Dragster points. But despite being only one point away from
first place, the team certainly isn’t about to rest on their laurels.

“We’ve been having a great season thus far,” said Reichert, the
three-time and defending NHRA Top Alcohol champion.  “Working our way
into the field for the Jeg’s Allstars race in Joliet a couple weeks ago
was a victory in and of itself, but to go there and win the whole
deal…well…that was pretty spectacular!”

The Grease Monkey Thunder on the Mountain event, a round of the NHRA
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Bandimere Speedway, is in the books. 
Grand Junction, Colo., racer Jim Whiteley took his Top Alcohol Dragster
to the winner’s circle for the second time in two weeks and Roger
Bateman, Winnipeg, Manit., won his second Top Alcohol Funny Car title
of the season.

Whiteley was the event’s No. 1 Top Alcohol Dragster qualifier and due
to a short field of cars, there were only two rounds of eliminations
instead of three. However, Whiteley more than earned the win when he
ousted Denver’s Eugene Tumbarello in the first round and then laid down
a 5.580-second, 259.26 mph pass to beat Ed Schmeeckle of Gothenburg,
Neb., in the final.  Schmeeckle ran 5.649 seconds at 252.85 mph in his
first final-round appearance of the year.