The Flowmaster American Drag Racing League (ADRL) presented by the National Guard has named LenMar Motorsports the title
sponsor for its season-ending national event Oct. 24-25, at the Texas
Motorplex in Ennis, Texas. LenMar Motorsports is a one-stop race shop
in Mansfield, Texas, just south of Dallas.

“We’ve been talking a lot lately about wanting to do more advertising
and this race is about the biggest sponsorship we could get out there,”
said Gaylen Smith, co-owner of LenMar Motorsports with Mark Eddins and
an ADRL Pro Extreme racer himself with a LenMar-built 1970 Barracuda.
“We love the outlaw racing, we’ve always done it, but we want to get
the LenMar name out there beyond just our local business.”

Through all of the trials and tribulations he and the RaceRedi
Motorsports Pontiac GXP Pro Stock team faced this season, Justin
Humphreys has been able to flash a smile and say, “Things will get
better.”

And
they did . . . all at once.  Even as he continues savoring his first
Pro Stock victory Sunday at Charlotte, the second-year driver from
Monrovia, Md., is plotting ways to return to the winner’s circle as
soon as possible.  Maybe even as early as this weekend.

The late Steve Engel, the popular Pro Mod racer who lost his life
Sunday in Indianapolis, will be remembered and honored by his fellow
racers on the JEGS Pro Mod Challenge beginning this weekend with
memorial stickers on all of the racecars participating in the series.

Fellow racer Tim Tindle had the stickers designed and distributed in
time for this weekend's 23rd annual O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA
Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. It is the eighth of 10 races on the
JEGS Pro Mod Challenge and the first since Engel's death.

Thomas Patterson gained a measure of what his Pro Modified race car experiences regularly last weekend.

The veteran Pro Modified driver from Houston, Texas, was one of the
hundreds of thousands of residents, affected by Hurricane Ike which
slammed into the Texas coast last weekend.

Patterson learned that his physical body cannot cut through the wind as well as his Dodge Daytona-bodied race car can.

“A whole lot of wind,” Patterson said, taking time away from his
massive property clean-up efforts. “You certainly didn’t want to run
out there and stand in it. We weathered out the storm and it got scary
at times.

“I’ve never seen so many trees knocked down in my whole life as there
are on our property. We’ve spent most of our days since the storm
clearing out the tree damage.”

You name it in drag racing, chances are Steve Reyes has snapped a picture of it.

The revered drag race photographer, who has covered drag races all over
the world for the last four decades, had to be in Concord, N.C. for the
unveiling of the tomorrow’s drag strip - zMax Dragway during the NHRA Carolinas Nationals.

“This is the 110th different Drag Strip I’ve ever been to and I just
wanted to see it,” said Reyes, whose legend draws respect amongst his
peers. “It’s beautiful and big and everything but I still like
Freemont, my home town.”

Pro Stock racer and Countdown finalist V. Gaines has no problem
whatsoever if race fans want to consider his Kendall Dodge as a dark
horse for the title.

Gaines, the highly successful businessman who escapes the business
demands by racing Pro Stock, entered the championship phase as the
eighth seeded driver.

“We look forward to the challenge and opportunity,” Gaines said. “We
know we have an extremely fast car, and a great team, we just have to
do the right things at the right times. Right now we’re hampered a
little bit by not having our crew chief Clyde but hopefully he’ll be
back next week. If we can just get by the next couple of weeks here,
we’re going after that championship.”

On the eve of the JEGS ProMod
Challenge event to be held at this weekend's 23rd annual O'Reilly Super Start
Batteries NHRA Nationals at the Texas Motorplex, series organizers have
announced the creation of a new and perpetual award to honor the memory of Pro
Mod racer Steve Engel, who died Sunday in Indianapolis.

Beginning this
year, the Steve Engel "Big Man, Big Heart" Award will be handed out annually to
the Pro Mod racer that best exemplifies Engel's gregarious spirit and generous
nature. The award will be accompanied by a $10,000 cash prize that will be
donated to the charity of the recipient's choice in Engel's name.

"Steve
was a formidable racer, but he was an even better man," fellow driver Troy
Coughlin said. "There are very few people that have the zest for life and the
complete passion for drag racing that Steve exhibited every day.

The New Jersey State Police released their findings regarding Scott Kalitta’s tragic Englishtown racing accident.

The results mirrored what many suspected; that Scott Kalitta died as the result of blunt force trauma.

The NJSP confirmed an engine explosion transpired prior to the finish
line and when the vehicle's body separated from the chassis, it
deployed a damaged parachute system. Kalitta, according to the report,
was running 300-miles per hour when he crossed the finish line.

Damage to the parachute included tearing, burning and tangling.

He should have known better.

A race fan hurled a water bottle onto the Rockingham Dragway racing
surface just moments before two cars were to stage during the recently
completed ADRL Dragstock event in Rockingham, N.C.

There’s never a good time for an object to be hurled onto the racing surface but this incident had championship implications.

Charles Carpenter and Burton Auxier were battling for the last
remaining spot in the ADRL’s Battle of the Belts Championship
competition scheduled for next month in Dallas, Texas.

Carpenter came into the race ninth in the points, with Burton Auxier
trailing closely behind. When Harold Martin, who was in the eighth and
final points position, failed to qualify, it left the door wide open
for Carpenter and Auxier to stage a battle for last man standing.

Following weekend meetings with Bob Fox and his team at Charlotte, NC, Moore Good Ink is pleased to announce that Diamond Pistons, Trend Performance, and Spintron have joined the growing ranks of the Moore Good Ink ad agency.

In recent years, Diamond has enjoyed a dramatic rise in piston
production, capitalizing on their reputation for quality and on their
remarkable successes in the high profile, tough racing markets.  In
2007, Jeg Coughlin won the NHRA Pro Stock championship with Diamond
pistons, and in the preceding four years with KB Racing, Greg Anderson,
and Jason Line, Diamond was the piston of choice.  Trend pushrods and
wrist pins are the items of choice for NASCAR championship winners
Hendrick Motorsport and Joe Gibbs Racing.