Consider this the ultimate venue for higher learning of the high horsepower variety.

Welcome to Nitro University and the professor will be none other than six-time world championship tuner Mike Kloeber.

Kloeber
has joined the staff of CompetitionPlus.com as their "on-staff" nitro
expert and in doing so has agreed to write a series of articles
describing the ins and outs of nitro racing from the technical side.

Kloeber explains the Nitro University syllabus as, "The purpose of this series is to bring a fuller understanding of the
major components of Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars with an insider’s
perspective. We will touch on many items in detail and how the
components and various systems are interrelated along with a few side
notes and an occasional story along the way.

The list of subjects covered will be vast and detailed to the degree
necessary for the above average fan and simple enough for the average
fan to come away with a better appreciation of the intricacies of the
modern “Nitro” car.
"

Strap yourself inside this high horsepower curriculum where the first lesson delves into the intracacies of the nitro chassis.

NITRO UNIVERSITY - FIRST LESSON, UNDERSTANDING THE NITRO CHASSIS

The 51st annual March Meet is the lead-off event in the NHRA’s 8-race nostalgia drag race series. The 2009 Hot Rod Heritage
Series, now in its second season, gets the green light at historic Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Mar. 6-8.

“We’re honored to once again kick-off the Hot Rod Heritage drag racing
series,” said Blake Bowser, vice president and general manager of the
Kern County Racing Association, operators of Auto Club Famoso and
producers of the March Meet. “Nostalgia drag racing fans are in for a
great weekend of racing, fun and affordable entertainment.”

According to the NHRA, the Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series was created
to “help preserve NHRA’s rich history and tradition while capitalizing
on the success of nostalgia drag racing competition.” Series champions
will be crowned in 14 categories based on year-end points.

Clay Millican plans to be hunkered down in front of his television set at 10 p.m. (ET) Wednesday night, Feb. 18, watching the debut of Drag Race High on Speed TV.  And he hopes a lot more interested viewers will be tuning in, too.

Over the next 10 weeks, viewers will see high school auto shop students
from San Diego-area high schools Ramona and El Camino build competitive
cars to race each other for the Drag Race High championship.

A leading dictionary defines the word "rebound" as meaning "to recover, as from discouragement, failure, or ill health,"

Tim
Wilkerson shakes the tires and falls behind early in his only Pomona
qualifying attempt. Because of the nature of the event and abbreviated
qualifying, Wilkerson isn't overly upset at the team's DNQ. He hopes
for a return to normalcy in Phoenix. (Roger Richards Photo)

among
other references to trampolines, basketballs, and scorned lovers.  With
that first definition in mind, while also looking strictly at the
record and seeing a DNQ listed as Tim Wilkerson's result from the first
race of the year, it might seem appropriate to assume the driver of the
Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang needs a rebound this weekend, at
the second race of the '09 campaign in Phoenix.  It might seem
appropriate, but the popular driver/tuner doesn't see it that way,
because the definition doesn't fit the story.

Had Wilkerson left Pomona with that same DNQ, but with four qualifying
runs on his record, he might very well feel differently, but his lone
shot at the tricky Pomona track left him much more philosophical than
frustrated, and more forward-looking than retrospective.  After all, it
was a bizarre and weather-plagued weekend for everyone, and in the end
two Funny Car teams were going to draw the short straws.  Wilkerson
just happened to be one of the two.

After the 2008 season Jim Halsey experienced, who could blame the
nitrous Pro Modified veteran for wanting to come out of the box
swinging for the fence?

If only reality would coincide with what looked good on paper.

This weekend in Valdosta, Ga., his test runs looked more like a broken
record, than a world record, on more than one occasion. But, that’s
okay; it was the first time out in a new car.

This was the routine: Launch like a banshee, lay down an incredible
60-foot clocking and at 62 feet, shake his ever-living brains out.

A source close to the situation told CompetitionPlus.com that an
announcement is forthcoming ensuring the NHRA Pro Modified series on
the tour for years to come. This announcement will reportedly come on
Tuesday.

Reportedly, a non-automotive sponsor has been procured and brings along
with it a multi-year contract, something the series has never had
before. Since 2002, Pro Modified has been fielded on a year-to-year basis.

Ashley Force Hood and her cat Simba were the focus of a photo shoot by noted photographer David Woo for his upcoming book
Top Dogs and Their Pets. The NHRA Funny Car star posed in her trademark
Castrol GTX firesuit along with a freshly bathed Simba for the upcoming
coffee table style book featuring celebrities and their pets. Simba,
always right at home at the races, kept the entire John Force Racing
family on their toes before the photo shoot running and hiding
throughout the Yorba Linda shop

“At first Simba just wanted to run around in the front lobby of our
shop. There are so many bright colorful things up there he was just
having a heyday running underneath funny cars and jumping over couches.
He just didn’t know where he wanted to go. We had to keep searching for
him and climbing under the race cars to coax him out,” said AOL’s
Hottest Athlete of 2007. “Once he got into the swing of things he tired
out a little from running around. That worked out pretty good because
we were all getting a little tired from chasing him all over the place.
It was a lot of fun.”

Andy Jensen, the man who last year turned the Pro Modified world upside-down before ADRL officials
banned his single turbo 1967 Chevrolet Camaro from the Pro Nitrous class,
is back this year with something even more radical, something he’ll
debut at this week’s Rock Batteries Spring Blast.

The Nescopeck, Pa., driver returns this week to Steve Earwood’s
Rockingham Dragway, where he was runner-up in last fall’s Dragstock V
event, with a turbocharged small block in the engine compartment of his
early model Camaro, a revamped entry in which he hopes this year to
challenge for the ADRL’s Pro Extreme title.

Kenny Bernstein was named as one of seven who will be inducted  into
the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in its annual ceremony
Wednesday, Aug. 12 at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit.

“We are very honored to have been chosen to join the elite members of
the motorsports fraternity known as the Heroes of Horsepower,” said
Bernstein.  “We have been fortunate through the years to have some
success on the racetrack and to be inducted into this prestigious Hall
of Fame is icing on the cake.”

Bernstein, a six-time NHRA champion, was the first to break drag
racing’s 300 mph barrier, and the first to win championships in Funny
Car and Top Fuel.  He holds the unique distinction of being the first
and only race team owner to have collected wins in each of America’s
three major motorsports series:  NHRA drag racing, NASCAR, and CART
(now IndyCar Series).

Brandon Bernstein will have one thought and one thought only hanging in
the back of his mind this weekend at the Lucas Slick Mist NHRA
Nationals at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Az.

The thought – 323 miles per hour; the mark Berstein set during the National Time Trials in January at Firebird Raceway.

Bernstein, told CompetitionPlus.com with a degree of certainty, the run felt fast.

First year Bernstein tuner Rob Flynn was skeptical of the run at first,
but the more he looked at the computer read outs and the overall
performance, the run checked out.

The run “checked out”, using youthful slang, when it’s noted Bernstein
ran five miles per hour faster than anyone had run before in the
history of recognized 1,000-foot drag racing.