John Wright driver of the Nostalgia Fuel Altered
Association AA/FA 'Chaos' Topolino survived this wreck with just a
bruised finger. The car hooked right toward the centre line
against the similar machine of Tony Betts during qualifying then
corrected, hit the left guard rail before barrel rolling several times at the
Shakespeare County Raceway's Open Sport Nationals run over the end of the August
Bank Holiday in England. (Roger Gorringe Photo)

Veteran driver would welcome a mix of distances in 2009 …

The IHRA has plans to incorporate 1,000-foot drag racing into a mix of eighth-mile and traditional quarter-mile venues in

2009. The NHRA has yet to reveal whether  1000 foot racing will continue beyond 2008.

The NHRA announced a temporary scale back to 1,000 foot drag racing for
the nitro division through the 2008 season following the tragic death
of Funny Car racer Scott Kalitta during the NHRA Supernationals in
Englishtown, NJ.

Veteran nitro Funny Car racer Ron Capps, a drag racing purist by his
own admission, wouldn’t mind seeing the NHRA run quarter-mile at
certain venues while scaling back to 1,000-foot on those tracks with
shorter shutdown areas.

Mopar® has  relaunched Moparspeed.com, its Team Mopar racing Web site
for  motorsports enthusiasts. The revamped Web site will feature
exclusive new  content, including a weekly Team Mopar driver blog
section and updated  desktop wallpaper graphics featuring Team Mopar
race teams available for  download. The site changes also include
enhanced navigation and design.  

Headlining the new Web site’s debut will be blog entries from two-time 
Formula Drift champion Samuel Hübinette and four-time NHRA POWERade 
champion Gary Scelzi. Blog entries will be posted each week from Team 
Mopar drivers including: NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson, SCCA
SPEED  World Challenge GT pilot Cindi Lux, SCORE Desert Series off-road
racer  Brian Collins and USAC Racing Series circle track drivers Brady
Bacon and  Brad Sweet.

Though Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC (THE) took a small sabbatical from
drag racing, the team never stopped working towards building a premier
engine program. The results of the NitroFish car driven by Richie
Sevens and powered by a THE engine for the Brainerd, Minn. and Reading,
Penn. events gives credence to that. 

"Although we have not been at the race track competing for the last few
events, we have really been working hard on our engine program," said
Tom Hammonds, owner/driver of THE.

Headed by 30-year engine builder Jim Oliver, THE's engine program is in
its second year, and this season has leased engines to Kenny Koretsky
and Jim Yates, with both drivers resulting in qualifying.

"Up until the time we leased an engine to Koretsky in Las Vegas this
season, we did not know where our program was," explains Oliver.  "All
we had was an engine dyno, which gives you a number, and it's just a
number unless we had one of the top players' engines on the same
machine. We can say wow their engine is 30 horsepower better than ours,
but until then we just had a number."

Mark Thomas knows it’s the little things that have kept him from
successfully defending his IHRA Alcohol Funny Car

championship in 2008.
The veteran driver from Louisville, Ohio, has won 29 career national
events but none of them have come this season.

He’s frustrated, but the likable Thomas, a past sportsmanship winner, keeps the negatives at bay.

“You come off two championships in a row then you come into a year
where little things keep happening over and over," Thomas said. “Yeah
it’s better than knocking the hinges off of it every run. But it’s one
small thing after another. Yeah it’s tough and we’re not getting beat
up over it. I mean if someone said you could take two championship
years and one terrible year out of three years or just three
middle-of-the-road years. That’s a no brainer. The longer you do it the
more you’re going to see everything happen that can happen.

Morgan Lucas has confirmed his Lucas Oil A-Fuel dragster entry for the
Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Top Alcohol division will be with 17-year old
Zach Beard in the cockpit.

The son of noted tuner, Lee Beard, crew chief/team manager for Antron
Brown’s David Powers Racing Top Fuel dragster, has afforded the young
man a racing background from a first-hand perspective.  His father has
earned 53 wins and 59 poles and is considered one of the best nitro
crew chiefs in NHRA racing.

If the 54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals wasn’t already the
busiest weekend in drag racing, bear in mind, try seeing it from Morgan
Lucas’ perspective.

This
24-year Brownsburg resident is going to be driving his own personal
Indy 500 this week all around the ‘Circle City’ with all the social
functions, hospital visits, the introduction of the new Lucas Oil
Stadium, and oh yes, a fierce battle in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel
points standings during the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, the main event
which holds the week all together in keeping Lucas going straight.

NHRA race fans will get their opportunity to rub elbows with some of drag
racing’s best drivers and owners on Wednesday night at LANDSHARKS on 810 Broad
Ripple Ave. for the inaugural Rock-n-Race Party, a racer appreciation
get-together sponsored by Lucas Oil Products, Applebee’s and Pinnacle Vodka
benefiting the Rupert’s Kid’s foundation.  After 9 p.m., the public is invited to
gather in this social setting to meet the drivers and team
members.

           

For more information please log-on to www.land-sharks.com.

Pete Berner had visions of a fun-natured poke at the tight nature of the 2008 IHRA Pro Stock championship battle.

Never did the Crete, Ill.-based driver figure a caricature t-shirt design would become a clear vision of reality.

Berner, the 2006 IHRA world champion, pulled to within three points of
proverbial “underdog” Jeff Dobbins by stopping John Montecalvo in the
final round of the IHRA Sooner Nationals in Tulsa, Ok.

Few track owners are as sensitive to the effect of escalating fuel
prices as Steve Earwood, whose Rockingham Dragway sits equidistant
between the Carolinas’ major population centers: Charlotte,
Raleigh-Durham, greater Greensboro and Columbia.

“We’re two hours from just about anywhere in the Carolinas,” Earwood
said.  “We have a great location, but with the economic situation being
what it is, we know that even a two-hour drive burns up a lot of cash. 
That’s why we’re making free gasoline part of our purse package at the
North Carolina Open bracket races on Sept. 6th and 7th.”

The two-day event will pay daily cash purses of $3,000 to the Top
Eliminator winner, $1,500 to the Footbrake champion and $250 to the
winner in Junior Dragster.  In addition, the Saturday and Sunday events
will be the last in which drivers can earn points applying toward
Rockingham Dragway track championships and berths on the team that will
represent the track at the IHRA bracket finals.