Dale
Creasy Jr. has started the ling road to recovery. Though the details of
his accident and injuries have been well-documented, what Creasy wants
to bring to the forefront is the large outpouring of well-wishes,
thoughts and prayers of the entire IHRA racing community.

“It
really has been overwhelming and means more to me than anyone could
ever know,” Creasy said. “There have been so many cards, so many
emails, so many phone calls…this has really helped my spirits.”

Creasy
was released from the Edmonton hospital Saturday, July 19. He is now at
his home in Beecher, Ill. where he has started the rehabilitation
process.

His body will take some time to heal, but Creasy’s mind
is ready to go when it comes to drag racing. In fact, Creasy will be in
attendance at the Torco Northern Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park
in Martin, Mich. Aug. 1-3.

Dan Davis, who will retire as director of Ford Racing Technology on
Aug. 1 after 11 years at the post, was honored with the first Women in
the Winner’s Circle Foundation’s “Leadership Award” in a surprise
announcement at the foundation’s annual luncheon at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway today.

Foundation founder Lyn St. James presented Davis with the award, which
honors individuals or organizations that have taken extraordinary
measures and shown outstanding initiative in promoting diversity within
the racing industry.

According to St. James, Davis was selected to be the first honoree for
his work in developing Ford’s unique Women’s Driver Development
Program, the first time an auto manufacturer created a program to
identify and develop young, female talent.

“We selected Dan as our first honoree months ago, well before his
retirement announcement,” said St. James.  “I’m just thrilled he was
able to be here today to be honored for all he has done.”

In this world of high dollar, dog-eat-dog world of nitro drag racing
Terry Haddock provides hope to the little guys struggling to keep their
bottom line afloat.

To those who have reached the pinnacle of success from the lowest of lows, he’s a reminder of where they came from.

He’s a John Force sitting in the pits of Gateway International Raceway
in the mid-1970s after consuming his last bologna sandwich he found
under the seat of the hauler. That’s the kind of racing budget he
boasts.

Simply put, Haddock’s a refreshing throwback to the old days when drag racers did it for love.

Haddock has the same passion and this insatiable desire to be part of
the game has him in an unfamiliar position this week – IHRA Funny Car
point leader.

Five days after a scary incident at the NHRA Schuck’s Auto Supply
Nationals in Seattle, Wash., Kalitta Motorsports and NHRA are closer to
determining what caused driver Hillary Will’s dangerous belt incident.
Will’s shoulder harnesses came loose at the finish line forcing her
head dangerously forward.

Jim Oberhofer said in a prepared statement that his driver’s safety
equipment accidentally caught a latch and released her strap.

“Hillary's chin strap caught the latch of her shoulder strap and it
released it,” said Oberhofer. “When she pulled the parachute, the
g-force caused her to slip out of the other shoulder strap because she
has a very narrow upper body.

“At NO time was there a mistake made by ANY of the team members failing
to strap her in. It was a fluke thing and they are addressing the
situation to make sure it never happens again.”

John Force will do what it takes to race competitively again, even if he has to race naked.

That’s what being the No. 17 qualifier in a 16-car field will do to a man.

Now the naked Force refers to is not the clothing on his person, the term refers to his Castrol GTX Mustang.

The carbon-fiber body that cloaks his chassis will be minus the
traditional paint with minimal Castrol identification. It’s all about
weight. It’s all about ensuring he’s not the odd man out during this
weekend’s 21st annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.

How bad did the DNQ at last weekend’s Seattle event hurt him?

David Powers Motorsports development driver Zach Beard won his fourth
Rotax Max Challenge event of the season Sunday afternoon at USA
International Raceway. Beard bested the 11-kart field at the Rotax
Summer Shootout at the Shawano, Wis. race track.

Beard earned the pole in the Rotax Senior division on Saturday and
started third in the main event. He passed the field with four laps
remaining to secure his fourth Rotax Max Challenge win of the season.
It was his first win at USA International Raceway. The other three
victories have come during the Midwest Region Series at South Bend,
Ind.

“We’ve done very well at the last five Rotax Challenge events winning
four races,” Beard said. “We’ve been doing a lot of testing for the
Grand Nationals in September and we like our chances to have a podium
finish.”

Beard, who drives a kart for MRP Birel America, will compete at the
Rotax Max Challenge Grand Nationals, Sept. 9-14, at USA International
Raceway. The top five finishers advance to the Rotax World Finals in
Italy.

Travel back in time when the NHRA annually hosted it's Memorial Day weekend back in Cajun County at State Capitol Dragway. The classic YouTube video features action from the 1986 NHRA Cajun Nationals during "Big Daddy" Don Garlits' last championship season. He and fellow world champion Gary Orsmby stage a streamliner showdown.

In a flash of 5.5 seconds and a top speed of 260 mph, Canadian racer Dave
Szybunka officially became the first student to graduate from Doug Foley's Drag
Racing School with an A-Fuel Dragster competition license.

Driving Tom
Conway's race-proven and title-winning rail, Szybunka spent two full days at
Atco Raceway in New Jersey taking the necessary steps to earn his license. Under
the one-on-one tutelage of Foley, a Top Fuel racer, and the steady guidance of
noted tuner/driver Conway, Szybunka proved to be a model student.

"The
course was a total success and having Dave as our first A-Fuel student made it
easy because he was a consummate professional from start to finish," said Foley,
who recently added the A-Fuel course to his roster of classes. "Having Tom and
his crew there made it feel like we were at a race and the ease at which they
performed their duties was exceptional. I'm really excited about the future of
the A-Fuel program."

On Friday afternoon, June 28th the first of four scheduled pro
qualifying sessions at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk
was largely aborted due to a temporarily insurmountable problem of
water seeping up through the track surface near the finish line. 
Valiant efforts by both the NHRA Safety Safari and the staff of Summit
Motorsports Park weren’t enough to keep the top end of the track safe
and dry, resulting in the cancellation of the evening’s activities.
 
A complete session of Pro Stock Motorcycle was completed, which was
followed by three-and-a-half pairs of Pro Stock cars before the action
ground to a premature halt.
 
But that’s not the whole story.  Mile-High Nationals P/SM runner-up
Steve Johnson was in the third pair of motorcycles, and was stunned to
find himself running through enough water in the right lane of the
track just beyond the finish line to scare himself silly.  Johnson rode
his Suzuki directly to the end of the track, where he informed the
driver of the Safety Safari truck that there was water on the track. 
He remained there long enough to hear the radio call made to, and
received by other NHRA officials in Race Control.  However, there was
no stoppage of the running, nor was the track checked for water by
members of the Safety Safari or other NHRA officials.

NHRA has announced that due to local sound ordinances, this year’s
NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series Southern California Shootout at Auto Club
Dragway in Fontana, Calif., scheduled for Sept. 12-14 will not include Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny Car.

NHRA expects to have all of its Heritage Series categories competing at the event in 2009 as California Speedway
is working through the California CEQUA process to modify the use
permit sound standards to make it more consistent with the industrial
use of the area in which the track is located.  

"We are very supportive of the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series at Auto
Club Dragway and look forward to running all classes at our events in
2009,” said track manager Beth Rice.