In the words of the Grateful Dead, “What a long strange trip it has been,” for rookie Mike Neff and the Old Spice Ford Mustang team.

Pressed into service for the final two races of the 2007 Neff entered
the 2008 season with high expectations but also a very grounded senses
of self. As the newest member of John Force Racing Neff was still
getting acclimated to his 8,000 horsepower Ford Mustang as the season
opened up in Pomona. The rookie driver was quickly tested over the
first third of the season never making it past the first round in the
first eight races.

Then there was the breakthrough weekend in St. Louis which saw the
former crew chief not just win his first round of competitive
competition as a driver but reach his first final before being narrowed
beaten by Tim Wilkerson. The same day that Neff notched round win
number one team leader and boss John Force won his historic 1,000 round
in the pair that preceded his run. Force seemed as equally excited
about Neff’s first win as his 1000th at the top end.

No matter what the outcome of this weekend’s, Nov. 13-16, annual running of the Auto Club of Southern California NHRA
Finals
at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.), Hillary Will, driver of the
Palm Beach Int’l Raceway/KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster, knows that
she will finish the 2008 POWERade Drag Racing Series in the highest
points position of her three-year career.

Will, the world’s fastest female, is currently in second place in
POWERade points with only 41 points separating her position and Larry
Dixon in fifth place. If Will and the Jim Oberhofer-led (crew chief)
Palm Beach Int’l Raceway team qualify for the 16-car eliminations
field, they will be guaranteed a top-five finish, a remarkable
turnaround from the Ken and Kenny Black-owned team that finished last
season in 13th place and in 10th in 2006.

Two round of racing. Forty points. Less than nine seconds. That is all
that stands between Robert Hight and his first Funny Car POWERade
Championship.

All season long Hight has been the focus of the championship hunt. He
opened the season with a win in Pomona at the Winternationals and he
followed that with a runner-up finish in Phoenix. He led the points for
the fourth year in a row, something only he has done at least once
during the last four seasons in the Funny Car class.

Then there was a bit of a swoon as Hight and his team struggled to work
out some performance kinks that had plagued the championship caliber
team. His team was consistently a top qualifier and still struck fear
throughout the Funny Car ranks but the early career dominance that
propelled him to the 2005 Rookie of the Year Trophy and back-to-back
championship runner-up finishes was hit or miss on race day.

With the final race of the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season this
weekend and five riders still mathematically in the fight, the POWERade
Pro Stock Motorcycle world championship could very well come down to
the final pass of the season at the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club
Raceway in Pomona.

For every story of unprecedented courage told here on the pages of CompetitionPlus.com, there are millions of others that will go untold.

In the days to come, CompetitionPlus.com will bring you five stories of incredible bravery, dedication and determination. Stories of people who did not let accident or illness end their dreams of racing.

The first lady of drag racing Shirley Muldowney, fourteen-time world champion John Force, second-generation Top Fuel driver Brandon Bernstein and cancer survivors Jack Beckman and Steve Torrence have all shared with CompetitionPlus.com their innermost struggles and fears coupled with undying determination to live.

This first chapter of our three-part series deals with the emotions from the crashes of Muldowney, Force and Bernstein.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, NHRA is proud to make available to all
active and retired military personnel one free ticket to enjoy the
racing action at the Auto Club NHRA Finals on Friday, Nov. 14.

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event at Auto Club Raceway at
Pomona is being held this weekend (Nov. 13-16).  It is the last race of
the 2008 season and the final event of the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s
Playoffs, where NHRA POWERade Series world champions will be crowned.
The race will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD.

The PMRA Champion will return for 2009.
 
Winner
of the 2008 Pro Modified Racing Association season, Hamilton, Ontario’s
Bruce Boland, plans to return to PMRA racing next year.
 
“I plan to run in the PMRA next year,” Boland said earlier this week.
“I’m going to show Brown (Terry) how to win three years in a row,’ he
added with a smile. “And with three different cars.”
 

With the 2008 NHRA season finale looming this weekend at Auto Club Raceway, U.S. Army Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher finds himself in a surprisingly less than celebratory mood.

Despite clinching his fifth consecutive POWERade world championship in
Las Vegas two weeks ago, Schumacher is aware his existing U.S. Army
team will be disbanding at the conclusion of the Auto Club of Southern
California Finals.

Schumacher’s crew chief, Alan Johnson, is leaving the organization to
start his own Top Fuel and Funny Car operation in 2009 and most of the
U.S. Army crew will be joining Johnson.

Much of the racing world already knew, but a press release on Tuesday
afternoon confirmed that Doug Herbert would no longer be with Snap-On
Tools after Pomona.

“We were actually working on a final 2009 agreement when I got a call
on Friday”, said Herbert, a 10-time NHRA national event winner. “I was
surprised because we’ve had such a great run, it’s unfortunate that my
contract came up for renewal at such a bad time but we will move on. 
I’m thankful for everything Snap-on has done for my team and for all of
their support over the last 16 years.”

“We appreciate the long relationship that we have had and we are open
to discussing opportunities with Doug Herbert Racing again in the
future when the financial situation of business improves,” said Alicia
Smales, Vice President Marketing of Snap-on Tools, in a letter to
Herbert.

A Rash of Crashes Inspired Debate 24 Years Ago …

According to a December 1984 Super Stock & Drag Illustrated
article, NHRA officials pondered the belief that 1,000-foot drag racing
provided a safer alternative to the traditional quarter-mile strip. The
debate came on the heels of scores of high-speed finish line crashes
most notably Shirley Muldowney’s crash earlier that season when the
antiquated wheel/tire design failed between the 1,000 to 1,320 foot
marks.

The nitro cars of that era were on the cusp of 260-miles per hour.

The article, penned by noted drag racing journalist Bob Abdellah,
confirmed that the highest ranking drag racing officials believed
1,000-foot racing would make drag racing safer.