Forget the fact that Friday’s weather conditions at the NHRA Summit Southern Nationals provided the optimum opportunity for the
Pro Stock Motorcycles, the real story for the Screamin’ Eagle
Harley-Davidson sponsored Andrew Hines driven machine was that the team
is getting up to speed on the newly introduced four-valves per cylinder
engine combination.

A 6.877 elapsed time at 195.03 miles per hour was enough to put the
former champion’s bike atop the 12-bike provisional field on Friday.

“The conditions were excellent and this was really, really nice for
Atlanta,” Hines said. “Last year here was really hot and humid and
really caught us off guard.”

Last race it was the hired gun. This weekend it could be the boss.

Morgan Lucas drove his way to the Top Fuel provisional No. 1 position
of the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals with a 3.844
elapsed time at 308.21 miles per hour. If the run holds, it will mark
his third career No. 1 qualifier since 2005. One of his two previous
pole positions came at Atlanta Dragway in 2005.

Lucas’ effort follows up a No. 1 effort by teammate Shawn Langdon, two
weeks ago at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas.

Greg Anderson spent much of his week leading up to the NHRA Southern Nationals 160 miles north of Commerce, Ga., testing in the motorsports hamlet of Concord, N.C.

There were lots of cars testing at zMax Dragway and it was as if the test session was a mini NHRA Pro Stock national event.

The conditions were identical in North Carolina to what he would
eventually encounter in Georgia just days later. Had you told the
multi-time champion that would be the case, he would have never
believed it.

Spend time racing long enough at Atlanta Dragway and perfect weather
conditions is something that likely will never come to mind.

Babe Ruth would have been jealous.

Just like the veteran long ball hitter, Ashley Force Hood called her shot and the end result was an upper deck shot.

The second generation nitro racer and defending NHRA Summit Southern
Nationals Funny Car champion heard her dad tell his crew chief Austin
Coil that he planned to run a 4.10 during the second session and he
landed atop the field with a 4.100.

“I was two pairs behind him in qualifying,” Force Hood recalled. “He
said, ‘let’s put a .10 on the board.’ He went out and did it.

Funny
Car driver Ashley Force Hood returned to Atlanta Dragway for the first
time since her historic win here a year ago and she picked up right
where she left off, earning the provisional No. 1 qualifying position
at the 29th annual Summit Racing NHRA Southern Nationals.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the sixth of 24 races in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series were Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel),
Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

A year ago in Atlanta, Force Hood became the first female in the
history of the NHRA Funny Car category to win a race when she defeated
her father, John Force, in the final round. Fast forward a year and
Force Hood is again best in class, posting a performance of 4.073
seconds at 310.05 mph in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to assume the
overnight lead. If her time holds through Saturday's two rounds of
qualifying, it will be her first No. 1 of 2009 and fourth of her career.

The IHRA’s 1999 Pro Stock world champion has an itch to go racing again.

Chris Holbrook has procured primary sponsorship from California Custom Cleaning Products to cover the parts overhead and travel costs to return. The team will compete using the former Chuck Demory operation.

The current plan is to debut next weekend at the IHRA’s Spring Nationals in Rockingham, N.C.

Chassis builder and Pro Modified driver Andy McCoy will drive for the
Ray Family at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, Mo., and two
weeks later at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

Team driver Scott Ray is recovering from a heart attack suffered in March.
 
“Scott is recovering well from his recent surgery but still needs a
couple of more weeks to get the doctors okay to return to the driver’s
seat,” Team owner Stan Ray said.

Last May when then President Bush announced that Americans would be
receiving stimulus checks it is doubtful that he knew Georgian Jujuan
Prater would use the money to make her own high horsepower purchase.
She knew exactly how she was going to stimulate the economy as well as
her need for speed.

“When President Bush sent out the stimulus check I went out and bought
the Ashley Force 46” Sanyo TV with it. I bought it because her picture
was on it. I had gone to our local Wal-Mart and nobody had them out. I
knew they had come out but I didn’t see any. I had a friend that worked
in the electronics department and I asked her if they had the Ashley
Force Sanyo TVs. She went back to check and she was gone for about 45
minutes. They had everybody looking and they were the last TVs back
there since they had just come in. They dusted it off, brought it out
to me and I bought it that day,” said Jujuan Prater, from Bremen,
Georgia.

NHRA officials announced today that San Antonio Raceway, in Marion,
Texas, has joined the NHRA Member Track network.  The facility, which
hosts both quarter-mile and eighth-mile events, includes aluminum
grandstand seating, a two-story tower complete with a media center and
hospitality suites, a 600-foot concrete launch pad, concrete walls the
entire length of the track, and 15 acres of paved pit parking.

Hawaii Racing of Simi Valley California along with Ford Racing will be rewarding two PSCA Ford Racers during the 2009 season.

Hawaii Racing will award the PSCA Ford Racer (Excluding Mustang Maddness) who accumulates the most PSCA Championship Points, a Ford Racing BOSS Engine Block.

Hawaii Racing will also award the 2009 Mustang Maddness Champion a Ford Racing BOSS Engine Block as well.
 

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