Following an incredible season on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour
and at numerous Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events across the United
States and Canada, Chevrolet has won the 2008 NHRA Manufacturers Cup,
one of the longest and most enduring standards of racing excellence.
This year marked the 17th time that Chevrolet has won the NHRA
Manufacturers Cup, the most ever by any automobile manufacturer in the
history of the sport.

The NHRA Manufacturers Cup has been awarded since 1964. It is presented
to the automobile manufacturer whose current models in Pro Stock, Super
Stock and Stock earn the most points for qualifying and category
victories at NHRA Drag Racing Series national and divisional events.

Veteran Pro Stock racer Larry Morgan didn’t feel any affects of the recent Mopar pullback and with good reason, he never had any support to lose.

Morgan, who drives the Lucas Oil-sponsored Pro Stock, said he hopes to return in 2008 with the same sponsorship intact.

Vic Edelbrock, President and CEO of the Edelbrock Corporation,
recently awarded the Vic Edelbrock Sr. Memorial Scholarship award at
the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now in its fifth year, this
scholarship is endowed by Vic Edelbrock and the Edelbrock Corporation
in support of continued automotive education through the WTI Foundation
and WyoTech. This scholarship is based on an essay submission and is
awarded annually to a WyoTech student who exemplifies hard work,
dedication to the automotive industry and outstanding citizenship. The
2008 recipient of this five-thousand five-hundred dollar scholarship
award is Barry Derheim of Sioux Falls, IA.

Tony
Schumacher, who became the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to win
five consecutive POWERade Series world championships with a
record-setting season, headlined the four world-championship winning
drivers crowned Monday evening during the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series awards ceremony at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City.

Auto Club Ford Mustang driver Robert Hight’s 2008 season did
not wind up being the dream season he had hoped for with an
early exit at the Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals. While Hight missed the chance to win his first
Funny Car championship, ultimately winding up in fourth place, in
arguably one of the toughest Funny Car fields in the past 20 years the
lifelong Dodgers fan experienced the ultimate baseball highlight as
Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda was on hand to give his team a post season
pep talk.

In the wake of the current world economic crisis, the Brett Stevens
Racing team elected not to travel to Western Australia to contest the
Goldenstate Championships in order to consolidate their resources for
the remainder of the 2008/2009 ANDRA Championship Drag Racing series.

Far from taking a break however, they have been in overdrive at their
Queensland based workshop concluding their most recent testing schedule
and also working on a number of exciting new projects which they are
hoping to launch in 2009.

The testing at Willowbank Raceway proved extremely promising for the
next round of the Top Doorslammer series with team driver Steve Packman
running his SP Racing Falcon to a personal best speed of 249.17
mph/401.00 kph, making him the third fastest legal trim Top Doorslammer
in history behind Brett Stevens (252.66 mph/406.76 kph) and Gary
Phillips (249.86 mph/402.27 kph).

If
it happened at an American Drag Racing League (ADRL) national event,
chances are Urban Hillbilly Action Videos (UHAV) caught it all on tape.
There was plenty of action at Rockingham Dragway in September during
the ADRL’s Hushpower Dragstock V and the Springfield, Missouri-based
video company will soon release its thrill-a-minute take on the race,
for sale via a new and improved Website (www.urbanhillbilly.us ).

You can call Pomona Greg Anderson’s home away from home. For the fourth time in his career, the three-time NHRA Pro Stock champion won both the opening and season-ending events at the Pomona Fairplex.

Some were just easier than others. He defeated Kurt Johnson in the final round.

“It was for second place in the points but first place for the day,”
said Anderson, who had mortally wounded an engine during qualifying.
“Second isn’t so bad and we’ll have to settle for that.

Cruz Pedregon made sure he didn’t back into his second career NHRA Funny Car world championship. Instead, he flung the door open and drove his way into the winner’s circle.

Pedregon, who assumed the NHRA POWERade points lead following his
victory at the NHRA ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals, scored his 25th career
national event victory which was very reminiscent of his 1992
championship season. That title was procured when he put together a
string of five straight victories.

Winning a championship can be a draining experience. At the end of the
day that began with a four way championship battle, Pedregon was
understandably worn out.

Chuck
DeMory has long been a friend of CompetitionPlus.com (when he's not
trying to prove to us he used to be a boxer) and wanted to share a
goodbye with his fellow competitors and friends. After a drag racing
career spanning decades, he's selling everything and walking away from
IHRA Pro Stock, and drag racing. We're honored to carry his goodbye.