Come hell or high water, Morgan Lucas intends to race his way to the winner's circle.

The driver of the Lucas Oil Stabilizer Top Fuel dragster team refuses
to allow his failure to score a position in the Countdown to 1 to serve
as an excuse for giving up on the season.

He's simply refusing to hang his head.

"We're taking the higher road and working on constantly improving,"
said Lucas. "We missed the Countdown, but we're not going to let it get
us down. We have a strong team and now with Jimmy Walsh on board, I
look forward to seeing things improve that much more."

14-time champion says team just a little off on tune-up …

A lesser team owner might have already made a change.

The key word being lesser.

Clearly 14-time champion John Force is not just any other team owner or driver, for that matter.

He's not making changes to his tuning combination of Austin Coil and
Bernie Fedderly. The thought is out of the question says Force.

It has been six long months since 25 year old Australian Top Alcohol
Dragster driver Kate Harker has been behind the wheel in competition.
At this weekends O’Reilly Auto Parts Supper Start batteries NHRA Fall
Nationals Harker will take the seat of the Randy Meyer Racing, R2B2
Motors A/Fuel dragster.

R2B2 Motors with the support of CEO, Roger Burgess will be the lead
sponsor on the Meyer Racing Team dragster at this weekend’s event held
at the Texas Motorplex. The company builds, restores, customizes and
sells hot rods, muscle cars, exotic cars, popular high-end SUVs and
custom motorcycles for customers worldwide. R2B2 Motors is also an
authorized Eliminator Boat Dealer.

“Diana and I would like to thank Roger and his wonderful people for
their continued support of our racing programs.” Said Kate “Roger
understands how tough it can be off the track and the dedication
required to make a successful business. We are privileged to know Roger
and are gratefully for the opportunities that he has presented us.”

In the award-winning movie Slingblade starring Billy Bob Thornton as a
mentally-challenged paroled felon, a group of good 'ole boys pored over
every ounce of a tiller engine wondering why the small engine wouldn't
start.

Thornton's character Carl Childers walked over to the unresponsive
engine, loosened the gas cap and stated the not-so-obvious obvious
reason.

"It's out of gas," he determined.

Pro Stock Motorcycle championship contender Chris Rivas could easily be
tempted to look into the gas tank of the G2 Motorsports Drag
Specialties S&S Cycle V-Twin Pro Stock Buell as the team struggles
to hunt out a gremlin plaguing the bike of late.

“They’re all my kids and I want the  best and safest tracks for them,”
said Georgia Seipel, Infineon Raceway track  manager. Aptly nicknamed
“Mama” by drag racers, Seipel added, “People become extended families
in drag racing. When someone gets injured, it’s like having someone in
your family injured.”

“Mama” Seipel will fit in perfectly the family-friendly atmosphere of
the 17th annual California Hot Rod Reunion, Oct. 10-12, Bakersfield,
Calif. Seipel has been named a Reunion Honoree, alongside with Steve
Davis, John Edmunds, Walt Rhoades and Butch Maas. Junior Thompson is
the Reunion Grand Marshal, and all are being celebrated for their
contributions and impact on drag racing and hot rodding.

Crossland Construction Company, one of the nation’s largest general
contracting companies, will support Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller during
the 23rd annual O’Reilly Fall Nationals, Sept. 18-21, at Texas
Motorplex near Dallas. Crossland Construction, with locations in
Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, also partnered with Fuller for
the Topeka, Kan. race in June.

"We wanted to support someone who represents the audience and
demographics that our industry serves, and there was no better fit for
that than our hometown hero and Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller,” Crossland
Construction Director of Development Pat Carroll said. “His association
with Caterpillar combined with the NHRA fan base puts us right in with
our customer base. We see the Dallas market as a growth opportunity for
our business and the fact that the majority of our large earth moving
equipment is purchased from Caterpillar dealers makes a perfect fit for
the association."

 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.”