He was 25 when he reached motocross racing’s “retirement” age, but far removed from kicking back in an overstuffed chair.

Von Smith then doubled the number of wheels he used for racing and
slipped seamlessly into drag racing.  He began with muscle cars and
segued into a variety of racing categories – Top Sportsman, Alcohol
Funny Car and Pro Modified. 

Now, 20 years later – and without any knee surgeries that precipitated
his earlier decision to bid farewell to motocross racing – Smith and
Howard Moon, Al-Anabi Racing team crew chief and tuner, are preparing
for the 2009 National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) season. 
The goal, of course, is to present team owner Sheik Khalid Bin Hamad Al
Thani of Doha, Qatar, with multiple race victories and, ultimately, the
championship trophy.

They are joined by rising star K.A. Balooshi of Dubai, who will be at
the controls of an Al-Anabi Racing Pro Mod Nitrous 1968 Chevrolet
Camaro.  

SPEED TV will televise four hours of the fourth annual Whelen Geoff
Bodine Bobsled Challenge from Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid,
N.Y., beginning at noon, Jan. 18, and at 2 p.m., Jan. 25. Catch Jeg
Coughlin Jr.'s dominating opening day, Morgan Lucas' win in the NASCAR
versus NHRA portion of the program, J.R. Todd's race day surge, and Bob
Vandergriff Jr.'s painful-looking wreck that had the Top Fuel veteran
sliding more than half a mile down the course on his head.

Eliminations continue for the second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories Showdown, a competition which places sixteen of drag racing's personalities head-to-head in storytelling competition. Over the next four days, you will be presented with the semi-final round stories of each respective contestants. They are paired on an NHRA eliminations ladder seeded by reader vote last week.

Today's competition features the No. 4 seeded Gary Scelzi squaring off with the No. 1 qualified John Force. The second match up will be the No. 10 ranked Pat Musi matching up with No. 3 Don Garlits.

Popular Funny Car Driver Takes Mike Aiello “Person of the Year” Award as well as Professional Driver of the Year …

Tim Wilkerson is living proof that one doesn’t have to be a champion, to be a champion.

The veteran Funny Car racer from Springfield, Ill., parlayed a strong
2008 championship runner-up into the first-ever double victory for the
tenth annual CompetitionPlus.com DOT COM Awards as voted on by the
readers of the popular Internet magazine.

Wilkerson not only claimed the Professional Driver of the Year award,
but also the prestigious Mike Aiello Person of the Year accolades. In
both categories Wilkerson scored just over 50% of the votes. A total of
10,055 votes were cast in this year’s competition.

NHRA President Tom Compton, left, congratulated NHRA Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher, who won his second Jerry Titus award.

Tony
Schumacher, whose record-setting NHRA drag racing season was capped
with a fifth consecutive Top Fuel championship, was announced as winner
of the Jerry Titus Memorial Trophy at Saturday night's 39th annual
American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association All-America
Team ceremony, presented by A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

In the closest margin in over a quarter-century, Schumacher edged
NASCAR Sprint Cup titlist Jimmie Johnson by one vote. Shirley Muldowney
received one vote more than Bobby Allison in 1982.

Roger Burgess, owner of R2B2 Racing, has temporarily suspended racing
operations of his two-car Nitro Funny Car team.  The R2B2 Team cars
raced last year with driver Melanie Troxel competing at all 24 events.
Frank Hawley drove the second car at a limited number of events.

“I stepped into the ownership role only 7 months ago when I bought out
my former partner (Mike Ashley)” said Roger.   “We had two complete
race team operations and staff for both teams.  At that time, I was new
to the ownership role so I didn’t feel it would be a good idea to make
any changes.  My plan was to finish the season and then evaluate things
after Pomona.”

Scelzi vs. Force, Musi vs. Garlits Will Bring the Closest Races of the Competition …

The second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories competition has been
narrowed to just four of the best storytellers in drag racing
competition and beginning tomorrow, the “race” will narrow the field to
the two finalists.

The annual event pits sixteen of drag racing’s icons, drivers,
journalists and those who have been around the sport, in a friendly
competition where readers seed the field through votes and vote on the
winners who are paired on an NHRA professional ladder. This is drag
racing without the cars and the horsepower determined by the quality of
story they tell.

Charles Carpenter is lucky he didn’t get himself hurt – hurt real bad. But, it was a chance he was willing to take to go fast.

Carpenter, of Charlotte, NC, had a mountain-motored 1955 Chevrolet that
was capable of running 8.80 elapsed times in 1983, a feat rarely
achieved outside of the professional ranks during that era.

A longtime fan of the double-nickel Chevrolet, Carpenter’s shoe box was
barely safe enough to run 9.90s. That didn’t stop him from pushing to
limits that defied logic.

Carpenter had to be the quickest and fastest of his body make and that
led him by the end of the 1983 season to bolt on a nitrous oxide kit
that upped his pace to solid [and unheard of] 8.30s.

Elite Motorsports, J.R. Carr and AgriPack Will Field New Pontiac at NHRA Season-opener …

Richard Freeman and Elite Motorsports continue their expansion within
Pro Stock and in their latest venture, the multi-car team has purchased
a turn-key 2009 Pontiac GXP built by Jerry Haas. The end destination
for the brand new car is NHRA Pro Stock.

The combination of J.R. Carr and AgriPack and Elite Motorsports along
with Frank Gugliotta will compete at next month’s NHRA Winternationals
in Pomona, Ca., using horsepower from Frank Iaconio.

A report filed by the Kalamazoo Gazette says three former employees of
the former Knoll Gas/Torco Race Fuels empire have purchased portions of
the business from a court receivership and plan to be back in the
race-fuel business.

The principals in the new company, known as BOLT LLC and Competition
Race Fuels Inc. told the paper that former owner Evan Knoll will have
no involvement in the company.