Unless his irons in the fire get red hot, Top Fuel driver Bob Vandergriff Jr., plans to compete on a limited basis in 2009 and work towards full sponsorship for 2010.

“We are still talking to a few companies and have a few things in the
works,” Vandergriff said. “It’s pretty late in the year and I’m still
waiting for a few answers.”

Vandergriff confirmed he should know something before the weekend is complete.

“We’ll believe it when it happens,” Vandergriff added. “We’re just
going to survive for a year and wait for the economy to get better.
We’ll spend a little bit of money in 2009 and come back out and hit it
hard in 2010. We are doing everything we can to stay out here.”

Melanie Troxel knew it was just a matter of time before the gremlins that had plagued her from time
to time exorcised themselves. Friday qualifying in Pomona proved her
right as she jumped to the top of the field with a 4.105 second run at
304.25 miles per hour.

“We’re a little disappointed the season is coming to an end,” Troxel
admitted. “We kind of feel we are finally getting into a stride. I
think the plan is to carry that momentum over into the next season.”

Troxel credits the relentless dedication of tuners Brian Corradi and
Mark Oswald as key factors in keeping the team focused despite the
hardships they’ve endured along the way.

J.R. Todd would love nothing more than to keep his No. 1 spot in the Top Fuel field at the NHRA AAA Finals in Pomona, but he’s a realist considering Saturday’s qualifying schedule.

“The dragsters run second on Saturday,” Todd explained. “There’s a very
good likelihood they will have the cooler session to run in the evening.

“You always have to watch out for that Army car and Alan Johnson. As
soon as you count them out they will come back and bite you.”

This comment comes from the only driver to defeat Schumacher dating back to July.

Jerry Toliver confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com on Friday that he will be driving in 2009 for veteran team owner Jim Dunn.

Toliver,
of Tumecula, Ca., drove this season for Don Schumacher Racing with
limited results, reaching the quarter-finals only twice. He opened the
season with a promising No. 2 qualifying position but struggled in the
middle portion before qualifying No. 2 in Memphis and No. 3 recently in
Las Vegas, Nev.

Toliver has five career national event victories
in ten national event finals during his NHRA career. Two of those
victories came at Pomona. 

TROXEL ASSUMES POLE IN HOT CONDITIONS THAT CONFOUND CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS

Todd, Line and Krawiec round out provisional pole-sitters

With
air temperatures in the mid-80s and track temperatures exceeding 100 at
the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals on Friday, first year Funny Car
driver Melanie Troxel delivered a stunning 4.105-second pass to assume
the provisional pole in Funny Car.

The run was particularly impressive given the soaring heat that kept
every one of the five championship contenders in Funny Car from getting
his car down the Auto Club Raceway under power. The most notable of the
five was points leader Cruz Pedregon, who remained unqualified and will
have just two more attempts on Saturday to get in the field and keep
his championship hopes alive.

Tony Bartone is in his final weekend as the driver of Jim Dunn’s nitro flopper. This weekend could be his last as a nitro Funny Car racer, and possibly nitro altogether.

Bartone plans to race next season, but on a smaller scale and in his old Top Alcohol Funny Car stomping grounds.

“I’m gonna get back some time and spend it with my family,” said
Bartone, a 28-time winner in the Top Alcohol ranks. “You can run about
eight or ten races less than on the professional series. That’s the
game plan for right now.”

Yes, Bob Glidden was walking around in Larry Morgan’s pit area in Pomona.

Yes, Morgan was very happy about it.

“I love him like a dad,” Morgan admitted, about their peculiar
relationship which has had more break-ups and reunites than rocker
Tommy Lee and wife Pamela Anderson.

“He’s more than welcome to be here. I’ve even told him I’d get him a car if he wanted it,” Morgan added.

Call it reorganization should the speculation comes to pass.

Sources indicate the departing crew on the U.S. Army Top Fuel team will
be replaced with members of the FRAM Top Fuel team thus putting in
place a vicious circle of raiding where members of at least one DSR
Funny Car team will replace the repositioned dragster crew members.

Confused?

Cory McClenathan isn’t. He’s been around drag racing long enough to know that nothing lasts forever.

Robert "Jocko" Johnson, who built some of drag racing's
swoopiest machines, including his notable but unsuccessful "JockoLiner"
with "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, died Nov. 14 of a massive heart attack.
He was 72.

Johnson first came to drag
racing renown for his work porting and polishing cylinder heads,
carefully massaging them by hand in the days before CNC machines.

Morgan Lucas couldn’t help but smile as he signed autographs on Thursday afternoon after ending up second in a Morgan Lucas Racing logjam atop the provisional Top Fuel field at the NHRA AAA Finals in Pomona, Ca.

He didn’t want to brag or beat his chest after the opening session, but
after the season he and his team has endured in 2008, such a display of
superiority is something that MLR has needed for a while.

“I’m very proud of the guys out here for what we’ve done,” Lucas told
CompetitionPlus.com. “This is my dream for the whole team to have the
two cars running one and two. Nothing would make me happier than to see
both cars go to the finals, I really wouldn’t give a damn who won the
thing as long as both cars are there and both cars run well. That’s
been my dream for this team all along. Today it almost takes us to that
level.