He’s always wanted to drive a NHRA race-winning Top Fuel dragster, and
now Clay Millican has.   There were no headlines, however, because he was making test laps in the Matco Tools car usually driven by Antron Brown.

Brown couldn’t stay for Monday’s test session last week in Commerce,
Ga., so Millican did double duty driving his regular ride, the MPE
Motorsports Hope4Sudan/Motorvation dragster. The team was searching for
a combination that can put Millican in NHRA’s winner’s circle while
preparing for the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals, Friday through Sunday, at
Gateway International Raceway, near St. Louis.

“We want to make our car run more competitively off the starting line
and Lance (Larsen, team crew chief) wanted to make that happen during
testing,” explained Millican.  “Lance’s quarter-mile tune-ups always
ran strong at the finish line.  The 1,000-foot distance has really hurt
our car’s performance, but it definitely ran better during testing. 
The new tune-up changed how the car reacts.  It’s like a baby wanting a
pacifier and is happy when he finds the one he wants.

Morgan Lucas believed it was easier to teach Shawn Langdon how to drive
a Top Fuel car than trying to explain to his high school classmate what
the experience felt like. The two attended Jurupa Valley High School in
Mira Loma, Ca., and were friends in their senior year.

“That’s the hardest question there is to answer,” Lucas said. “Someone
asks you how to drive one then I can explain it. But if you ask me what
it feels like – then I am at a loss for words. You can’t give an
analogy because there’s nothing to compare it to. You could always say
it feels like being strapped to a rocket, but who’s ever experienced
that?

“You just guide it, you’re never in control. You’d have a better chance
of controlling a mentally unstable female going through the changes of
life than being in total control of a Top Fuel car. There is so much
unpredictability in these cars. There is so much that can happen.”

Larry Dixon offers a word of caution to the competition.

The Alan Johnson/Al Anabi team may have stumbled but they haven’t
fallen. This weekend’s NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway
International Raceway could tell the story.

“It’s no secret our team isn’t getting the performance we all want, but
I think we may have started down a path that could give us some
information,” Dixon explained. “Our current car is a Brad Hadman
chassis. For almost my entire career before this year, I’ve driven a
Murf McKinney chassis.  We are doing some research to determine if the
different chassis react differently with regard to steering input. If
that ends up being the case, I may not have been communicating
effectively with Jason. (crew chief Jason McCulloch).”

Dixon opened the season with a DNQ in Pomona but thundered back to win
the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville two races later. Since that
victory the team has steadily backtracked to a semi-final,
quarter-final and then two weeks ago a first round loss.

One of the top parts manufacturers in the sport of drag racing will be
participating as a special award sponsor in the new Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts for 2009.
 
Bear's Performance Products will be the posting the Dash 4 Cash award
at each Quick 32 Sportsman Series event, starting with the season
opener at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario May 16 and 17.
 
“This new series is just what was needed,” stated Kevin Zimmer,
Marketing Manager of Bear's Performance Products. “It will provide the
serious Sportsman racer with some great venues and competition, and we
look forward to being a part of it. And this new series will be a great
tie-in with the Pro Modified Racing Association which will compete with
the Quick 32 Sportsman Series at several of the events.”

A new team that has signed on to compete in the 2009 Pro Modified
Racing Association Tour will be applying years of experience in the Pro
Modified field. Headed up by Billy Leverentz, the Oddy Automotive/Kulik
Automotive Pro Modified team is well-versed in the class, as Leverentz
worked with Pro Modified legend Jim Oddy.
 
”I worked with Jim
for many, many moons,” said Leverentz, who purchased Oddy’s Automotive
Inc. “I have built a lot of engines over the years. I got involved with
cylinder head work along with camshafts, but I did it all. Jim and I
worked well together. We’d try different things and then take it to the
track. There were some bizarre combinations, but they usually worked.”
 
There
was a short stint in drag racing with a 13-second 1966 Dodge Charger,
but Leverentz said he got involved with truck-pulling, both as a
competitor and building engines for the sport.

Angie McBride will be among the Pro Stock Motorcycle riders seeking a
starting berth in the 13th annual O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at
Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., May 1-3, thanks to
co-sponsorship from Haltech Engine Management Systems and XXX Racing
Fuel.

“We are very excited because this was unexpected,” said McBride.  “I
was prepared not to race, but Matthew (Smith, her fiancé and team
owner) talked with Steve Nichols at Haltech and Thomas Goss at XXX
Racing Fuels and they were able to put something together for this
race.”

“Haltech Engine Management Systems, in conjunction with XXX Racing
Fuel, is proud to announce the co-sponsorship of the Haltech XXX Buell,
driven by Angie McBride,” said Nichols.  “This is our first foray into
pro motorsports as far as a sponsor is concerned.  We are a supplier to
a lot of race teams and we will be interested to see how our dealers
and the public respond to the sponsorship.”

David Hope will ride at this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals
to bring awareness of the Breast Cancer of the Ozarks (BCFO). His Vroom Racing Buell will carry the traditional pink ribbon insignia at Gateway International Raceway and beyond.

“My dad and I have been talking about becoming involved in a good cause
for quite a while,” explained Hope, “and as we thought of the important
ladies in our lives that we care about we decided that we needed to do
something to help keep them safe.  There is my mother, my sisters, my
special lady, Sonia, aunts, cousins, friends, the women working at our
dealership, and they all can be struck down by this deadly killer,
breast cancer.  Fortunately, none of them are dealing with the disease
at this moment in time, and we’d like to do everything we can to keep
it that way.”

Officials of the National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL)
announced that  QUARTER-MAX® Chassis and Racing Components will be the
title sponsor for round three of the 10-race 2009 National Guard ADRL
tour May 22-23, at Memphis Motorsports Park in Millington, Tennessee.

“I’m very excited about making this announcement,” QUARTER-MAX®
President Rick Jones said. “After watching the ADRL grow the last few
years, I’ve wanted to do something with them for a long time and this
just seemed like the ideal opportunity for us to get involved.”

The QUARTER-MAX® Memphis Drags II will feature the National Guard
ADRL’s unique, all-professional-class racing over an eighth-mile drag
strip, including Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous, Pro
Extreme and just added this year, Extreme Pro Stock, in which
QUARTER-MAX® sponsors the 2008 Pontiac GXP it also built for veteran
driver Pete Berner.

Every good book has an opening chapter.

For NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car points leader Ron
Capps the opening chapter in his growing bestseller began with a 1997
victory at Gateway International Raceway, the site of his first career
nitro Funny Car victory.

He’s since added victories in 2005 and 2007, and with the points lead
and three victories thus far in 2009, he’s looking to add another
winning chapter during this weekend’s NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals.

"Any time this track across the bridge from St. Louis shows up on the
schedule it's pretty exciting for me personally because it's where I
got my first professional win in Funny Car," said Capps. "And it was
the inaugural race at this track.

Bloomberg.com reported today that Source Interlink, publishers of such
titles as Hot Rod and Motor Trend, has sought bankruptcy protection as
it moves towards becoming a private company.

Source Interlink publishes 75 magazines, mostly about cars and motorcycles.