Pro Stock veteran Robert Patrick has put in more than his share of laps
in Pro Stock. The Purvis, Ford-sponsored driver from Fredericksburg,
Va., has driven mountain motor IHRA Pro Stockers and even did a lengthy
tour of duty in the NHRA 500-inch Pro Stock ranks.

Patrick has won a world championship and has at one time held the title
as driver of drag racing’s quickest naturally aspirated doorslammer at
6.266 seconds.

Earlier this week he added yet another chapter to his storied career.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports that on November 10, the assets of Evan
Knoll will be auctioned off to satisfy a mountain of outstanding debt.
The article cited a court document filed by Foley and Lewis Racing,
Inc. as its source.

Any details, according to the report, could be hard to find since the
future of Knoll’s businesses were reportedly sealed by Van Buren County
Circuit Judge William Buhl in an agreement reached by parties in one
bank's attempt to recover $15 million it loaned Knoll to purchase a
private jet. Buhl was not quoted in the newspaper report.

Mickey
Thompson has just introduced a new feature to its company
web site – the “Buy Now” feature. This new feature will allow consumers
access to easy, one-click shopping, instant price and shipping cost
comparisons, and a simple shopping-cart style check out that makes
purchasing tires and wheels quick, easy and fun.
 
Here’s how it works: Once a tire or wheel category is selected, a page
is displayed reflecting a list of products in the category along with
the corresponding part number for each tire or wheel, and a unique “Buy
Now” button for each product. When the “Buy Now” button is selected, new search engine technology searches the top Internet sales
locations for pricing, and links the user to the shopping cart for that
unique part number. 

Big Money Racing Heads to Ennis to do “Battle”
 
Southern
legend “Big Money” Bil Clanton is no stranger to competing on the ADRL
tour’s biggest stage. Clanton will once again take the family owned ’53
Studebaker to Ennis, TX this weekend for the 4th Annual LenMar
Motorsports ADRL World Finals, an event which includes the championship
deciding Battle For The Belts. The “Battle” pits the top eight points
earners during the 2008 season in a winner take all race for the Belt
and a $20,000 winners share. Clanton is in the field for the special
event which will take place Friday evening, making him one of only two
drivers to qualify for every Pro Extreme Battle For The Belts since the
inaugural 2005 season.
 
“We are very proud of the fact that we have qualified for the Battle
For The Belts every year,” said Clanton. “I think that says a lot for a
low budget team such as ourselves to remain competitive against these
guys in Pro Extreme.”

Carpenter looking to end 2008 and start 2009 on a high note

Charles
Carpenter will head to Texas Motorplex for this year’s ADRL LenMar
World Finals with a different agenda on his mind than he did in 2007.
Last year, Carpenter was solidly in the field for the Battle for the
Belts championship playoff. This year, he just missed the cut for the
Battle, but that won’t change his excitement for 2008’s final race.

“All things considered, we’ve had a great season,” said Carpenter. “To
come out with a brand new car and run like we have is something we’re
proud of. We didn’t win any races, but we got to some final rounds and
set new personal bests in elapsed time and speed. We hope to lower
those numbers even more this weekend.”

Family safe in blaze that damages 25% of Don Schumacher’s home

A fire broke out at NHRA team owner Don Schumacher’s home leaving a
significant amount of damage in its wake. Schumacher wasn’t home at the
time, but his wife and daughter were and they safely escaped with the
family pets.

The Schumacher's were adding new gutters to their home and reportedly
the construction crew had soldered the ends when they burned into the
soffit. Unbeknownst to them, this started a fire on the roof. The crew
had left for the day.

Every year at the Halloween Classic, a six day bracket race held at
Firebird Raceway in Boise Idaho, a very special event on Saturday night
gets the crowd really riled up. This show is known as the Firebird Air
Show, a wheel standing contest.  The 2008 champion was 64-year old Bill
Heard who pulled off the winning run of 224 feet in a Pinto sans the
front end.

Veteran photog Brian Losness shared a few shots from the competition.

Mike Neff, driver of the Old Spice Ford Mustang, and Bob Tasca III,
driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang, are two of the five
nominees for Rookie-of-the-Year honors in the NHRA Funny Car class.
With only two races remaining in their rookie seasons, Neff and Tasca
talk about the challenges they’ve faced this season and what each of
them has learned.

MIKE NEFF – Old Spice Ford Mustang –

ON BEING UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR.

“I
would be very honored and proud to accomplish that. That’s a great
award. Robert [Hight] has won it and Ashley [Force] has won it. I just
think it’s a neat accomplishment if that would be something that we
could do. I look at it that it’s a team effort, so it’s not just about
me but it’s about the team. I feel like the team has as much to do with
it as I do, really. A lot of it is based off of performance, and that’s
what makes you look good and get good results. So, I would be really
honored and happy for all of us if we were able to accomplish that.”

Unlike other racing series that follow NASCAR’s lead and arbitrarily reset their points order after a prescribed number of

The Battle for the Belts that determine each year’s ADRL world
champions initially came about as a means to entice racers to make the
long tow to Texas, series president Kenny Nowling says, but have now
become a defining point of ADRL racing culture.

events,
the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League (ADRL) presented by the
National Guard employs a unique, end-of-year “playoff” amongst its top
racers to determine each season’s world champions.

The top eight points earners in each of four professional ADRL classes
will face off in the Battle for the Belts tournament this Friday night
(Oct. 24) to open the 4th annual LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals
at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas. Only Belts contenders
will race each other, eliminating the potential for non-qualifiers to
play the role of “spoiler.”

Funny Car points leader Tim Wilkerson
took part in a national NHRA teleconference to assess his thoughts
and plans for the final two
events remaining in the six-race NHRA
Playoff, the Countdown to 1: the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals next
weekend and the Auto Club Finals November 13-16 at Auto Club Raceway at
Pomona. The following is a transcript from that press conference.

Q: Tim, you've been one of the great stories this year in
NHRA if not in all of sports. You've won more races this season, six –
including two of the four playoff races – than you'd won in your first
12 years of racing. Of course, you're in the points lead now for the
first time in your career as well. Are the last two races business as
usual for you, or are you doing a little scoreboard watching, watching
what the drivers behind you are doing?

Wilkerson: I'm trying not to watch what they're
doing. Let's put it that way. I think it's hard not to. You try to just
do your own deal and whatever happens happens. That's what we've done
all year. I heard Jeg talk about being on offense. I remember talking
with (NAPA crew chief Ed) Ace (McCulloch) and (NAPA driver Ron) Capps
in the past, when they were doing so well. It come down to the last few
races, they ended up getting beat by a little bit. I believe that's
exactly what happened to them. They started playing defense. Let's just
run good enough, let's get in the show.