Rookie of the Year Candidate Gunning for His Place …

Matt
Hagan knew the moment he signed on with Don Schumacher Racing to drive
a Funny Car his career would change forever; he just didn’t have an
accurate assessment of how much. Instead of the hoping, guessing and
being spread thin, he’s got the security of stability, a benchmark for
the multi-car teams he’d battled hopelessly as a single-car independent.

The end result on Sunday at the Firebird Raceway National Time Trials
was a career-best elapsed time with a run of 4.091 seconds, 305.56 mph,
placing him third quickest for the weekend. Hagan notched six passes in
two days.

Two-time and reigning Super Comp world champion Shawn Langdon completed the necessary passes to upgrade his NHRA competition license to Top Fuel Monday at Firebird International Raceway.

Langdon guided his Lucas Oil/Dixie Choppers Top Fuel dragster through a
3.882-second pass at 306.46 mph to cap a four-day test session that
yielded more than enough runs to earn his license. He also went 3.942
at 282.36 mph Monday, with several intermediate runs carded over the
weekend.

"I was really nervous coming into the weekend for a number of reasons,"
Langdon said. "To be standing here now having made 10-plus launches,
half passes, and today's two full pulls is awesome. I have a great team
around me with Stewie
(crew chief John Stewart) and Morgan (Lucas, teammate) and they helped me every step of the way.

If you would have asked 2-time PSCA Outlaw 10.5 Champion Doug Sikora if posting a career best ET while shaking down his new ProCharged combo would make him happy, he probably would of came back with some sort of sarcastic remark.

In
2008 Sikora struggled finding the magical 6-sec 200 MPH mark when he
was nitrous assisted, and it almost drove him crazy. Well, in Las Vegas
this past weekend on the fifth pass with the new set-up, a 6.95, 205
popped up on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway scoreboards and his highly
talented crew knew they were on the finally right track.

With
the Las Vegas Pro Stock test session and the opening of the 2009 NHRA
Full Throttle season just days away, Steve Kent Racing today announced
the signing of Jerry Eckman to the team.

Eckman, himself a former U.S. Nationals Pro Stock champion, brings his
years of tuning expertise to a team that enters the NHRA Pro Stock wars
committed to an all out assault on the 2009 schedule. Eckman will add
another level of experience to a team that finds former Comp champion
Rodger Brogdon at the wheel of a 2009 Pro Stock Pontiac GXP out of the
Jerry Haas Race Cars shop.

Successful Year Highlighted by Charity Dinner and Driving Schools

B.R.A.K.E.S.,
the non-profit organization founded by professional NHRA drag racer
Doug Herbert that promotes safe and responsible driving, will soon
celebrate its one-year anniversary.  Over the past year, the
organization has generated funds to support its mission of saving
lives, has held B.R.A.K.E.S. Pro-Active Driving Schools™ and has
significantly raised awareness about the importance of safe driving in
teens and young adults.

Herbert, 10-time NHRA Top Fuel National Event Champion, was testing in
Phoenix on Jan. 26, 2008, when he received the devastating news that
his two sons, Jon and James, had been killed in a car accident.  After
learning that excessive speed and reckless driving were contributing
factors in the accident and that over 6,000 teens are killed every year
in auto accidents, Herbert set out to form a non-profit foundation to
help prevent other parents from experiencing the loss he had endured. 
As the one-year anniversary of the accident approaches, Herbert is
reflecting on the past, as well as looking towards the future.

Veteran NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock racer
Jeg Coughlin Jr. is ready to defend his title at the 2009 edition of
the Las Vegas Pro Stock Showdown at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway on Jan. 31.

Coughlin, of Mooresville, N.C., won last year’s Pro Stock Showdown at
The Strip at LVMS and went on to capture the 2008 Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series Pro Stock championship.

“I am more then ready to get behind the wheel and start the 2009 NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season,” said Jeg Jr. “Being in Las
Vegas for the  Pro Stock Showdown gives everyone a chance to
reacquainted and see which teams’ hard work  in the off season paid off
on the track. It's kind of like our spring training – you want to show
everyone you’re ready to play. Last year we were fortunate to win the
shootout and go into Pomona with a little boost of energy as a team.”

Eric "Rick" Rickman, a member of the original NHRA Drag Safari that
toured the nation from 1954 through 1956 setting up events and
spreading the word about our sport, died Jan. 24. He was 90.

Rickman was a Hot Rod magazine photographer assigned to the team by
NHRA founder and Hot Rod Editor Wally Parks to chronicle the team's
adventures. Rickman, who has photographed everything from drag racing
to salt lakes and midget racing, came by his life's calling card quite
by accident.

Having to choose where to race has never been an issue for Mountain Motor Pro Stockers before. However, that's just what many
racers face with the addition of Extreme Pro Stock in the National
Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL). Long time Mountain Motor
contender John Montecalvo has been a consistent presence at IHRA events
for years, but he is now faced with the decision to choose between
following the IHRA or ADRL schedule.  Four of the ten events in each
series conflict, making it difficult - if not impossible - to run for
Championship points in both organizations. Making decisions even
tougher, one of the conflicting weekends happens to be the first race
in both series. Montecalvo admits this isn't an easy decision to make:

Sophomore Driver Thunders to Quickest Pre-season Lap …

What
do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an
enthusiastic nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered
weeks of employment uncertainty?

If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you
get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781
seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty
of the previous month.

The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new
team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much
anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a
three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all.

John Force has won fourteen NHRA Funny Car world championships and pending a reversal of current fortunes, he could emerge as one of drag racing’s best story tellers. Force carries a 7% voting lead over fellow finalist Pat Musi headed into the final hours of the second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories Showdown.

Voting for the competition ends at 5 p.m., EST.

The No. 1 seeded Force spins a yarn about his antics with older brother Louie Force and proudly proclaims his sibling as an unheralded hero. The story spans from incidents in their childhood through his rise into one of drag racing’s premiere drag racers.