Don Wootton got more publicity than he anticipated over the off-season and for the driver of a ADRL injected, nitro-burning doorslammer the attention wasn’t always positive.

Away from the scrutiny of the rules makers and the sanctioning body,
Wooten and his gang are working low key to find the right combination.

A 4.190 elapsed time at 190 miles per hour isn’t exactly a barn-burning
lap in the ADRL’s Pro Extreme division but what it is – is a very good
start in a bid to become competitive.

“The run was pretty soft and we really wanted to go from Point A to
Point B with it,” Wootton said. “We accomplished that and we also
discovered some gremlins with the car. We’re going to get it worked
out. We have it going straight now.”

Antron Brown hopes that what worked well for the boss will eventually funnel down to the employee.

In 2007, team owner Mike Ashley won his first national event at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan.

Brown has yet to win in Topeka but a semi-final finish last year has
success so close for the sophomore Top Fuel driver he can taste it.

"I'm excited to get back out there to Topeka. We came up just short
last year,” Brown said. “I always like performing at Topeka because one
of the guys I looked up to growing up, Gary Ormsby, has a great legacy
at Heartland Park. Topeka is a fun little town and we're ready to get
back to racing and to keep this Matco Tools dragster up there in the
standings."

Unless you’re the lead dog the scenery never changes.

In the dog-eat-dog world of NHRA Pro Stock, five-time world champion
Jeg Coughlin Jr. has grown fond of the view as his 714 championship
points ranks the highest of any NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
professional category.

Coughlin has reached the final round in five of the first eight of the
10  national events of 2009. He’ll be looking for more as he enters
this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Summernationals in Topeka, Kan.

Coughlin, 38, of Delaware, Ohio, is one of only four professional
competitors who has qualified for every race this season and advanced
past the first round of eliminations.

Morgan Lucas believes the Top Fuel program at this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Summernationals will heat up both literally and figuratively.

This weekend’s event, 10th on the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series tour, is expected to present the warmest conditions the
tour has faced thus far in 2009. That factor is certain pose a tuning
challenge to even the most seasoned decision makers.

Lucas speaks with authority when he says the weather will separate the contenders from the also ran operations.

"Topeka is going to be the first consistently hot conditions we're
going to face this year," said the 25-year-old from Indianapolis. "As
we've seen in the past, the teams that transition the best from cool
weather racing to hot weather racing are usually the ones in the hunt
for the championship at the end of the year. We want to be in that
group.

 
He’s been racing a long time, and has returned to quarter-mile action after taking some time away from the sport.
 
Driving his 1957 Chevy in the new Quick 32 Sportsman Series, Paul
Martin said he is looking forward to the six-race series which began
May 15-17 at Cayuga Dragway.
 
“This deal is real sweet,” he said. “It will be great with no travel involved and a group of high-caliber guys to race with.”
 
Qualifying his Shoebox Chevy eighth in the 12-car field on the doorcar
side of the series, Martin went to the second round in the opening
event. After this first of six events for 2009, he is sixth in points.

Jason Hamstra had two clearly defined goals headed into qualifying for the ADRL Quarter-Max Memphis Drags. He wanted to first ensure
he qualified safely within the sixteen car Pro Extreme field. Once
there he wanted his team to be the first to run over 200 miles per hour
in the eighth-mile with a torque converter-equipped doorslammer.

Hamstra succeeded on both counts, which came as a pleasant surprise.

“We had it set up pretty lazy because of the forecast for Saturday,”
Hamstra said. “We are pretty happy that it ran 200 miles per hour.”

In the final results from Maple Grove Raceway and the NHRA Northeast
Division Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series former division champion Frank
Aragona Jr., Freehold, N.J., won in Comp Eliminator and local racer Dan
Walleigh of Reading, Pa., won in Super Street.

Aragona turned on the win light with his ’32 roadster when Stephen Szupka, Willow Grove, Pa., broke in the final round.

Walleigh picked up his first NHRA win driving his ’60 Falcon past Scott
Steiner of New York, while defending division champion Mike Sawyer of
Acton, Mass., drove to the win over Jason Kenny, Kingston, Ont., in
Super Gas.

Joining in with victories of their own were John Benoit, Montpelier,
Vt., and Don Milson of Richmond, R.I.  Benoit went 6.801 seconds,
203.37 mph in beating Robert Tagliareni, Oakland, N.J., in the Speed
Shop Top Sportsman class and Milson held off Laura Zeffiro, Winchester
Center, Conn., in the Mx Industrial.com Top Dragster class running
78.450 seconds, 181.50 mph

Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Dan Kracht, Gretna, Neb., scored his first
win of the season at the Thunder on the Lakes event, a round of the
NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Brainerd Int’l Raceway.  Roger
Bateman, a Calgary, Alb., racer, made his way to the winner’s circle
for the first time this year in his Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Kracht, who was in the final round at an out-of-division race in Dallas
in April, scored the win in his second out of the year.  Starting from
the No. 1 qualifying spot, he laid down a 5.434-second, 242.58 mph pass
against runner-up Jared Dreher of Clinton, Ind.  Dreher red-lighted in
the final round.

Bateman squared off against Prior Lake, Minn.’s Bruce Carlson in the
first round of eliminations and had a bye run in the semis.  In the
final he was slated to run against Scott McVey, Winnipeg, Manit. 
However, in his win over Vern Moats in the semis, McVey damaged his
motor and was unable to make the call in the final handing the win to
Bateman.