Kicking off the Mile-High Nationals weekend, race
fans jammed the downtown streets of Golden, Co., for the Mopar Big Block Party
on Thursday, July 10. There was plenty of fun to be had ranging from classic
car viewing to the traditional autograph session.

Kenny Sargent, host of SpeedFreaks Motorsports Radio
Show, served as the emcee and the Chicago-based rock cover band, Maggie Speaks,
performed. Race Central Radio’s host Kurt Hansen brought his ESPN Radio program
as well.

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Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller and his David Powers Motorsports crew showed
up at the Mopar Big Block Party in Golden, Co., sporting new t-shirts
emblazoned with the image of a circus monkey. Fuller said the shirts
were in response to a driver said his team resembled circus monkeys. Of
course, the back of the shirt has a dark side reference.

Billy
Harper has the hottest car in the ADRL right now, consistently laying
down low-3.9-seconds passes over the eighth mile that have carried him
to three consecutive Pro Nitrous national-event wins and propelled him
into the Battle for the Belts points lead.

Halfway through the 2008 racing season, the Battle for the
Belts points chase in all four professional classes of the Flowmaster
American Drag Racing League (ADRL) presented by the National Guard is
in full swing.

Each year the last national event on the ADRL’s schedule serves dual
purposes: it crowns champions with Friday-night Battle for the Belts
showdowns between the top-eight points earners in each class heading
into the event, and on Saturday presents a whole new race and the
ability for competitors to begin earning points toward entering the
next season’s Battle for the Belts.

Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane/Custom Accessories Shelby
Mustang team’s season kicks into high gear this weekend as they head to
Denver for the first of three races that make up the NHRA's Western
Swing. The rookie driver will visit Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma over
the next three weeks with the mission of moving his team solidly into
the top 10 in points.

“I’ve never been to Denver or Seattle as a driver, and I’ve only been
to Sonoma as a spectator with John Force back in the late 90s, so I’m
looking forward to these tracks,” said the 10th place driver. “These
next three weekends are pressure-packed. As we approach the deadline to
make it into the playoffs, it’s really going to come down to, I think,
how the cars perform on the West Coast Swing.”

With every track on the schedule presenting its own challenges to
teams, racing at Bandimere Speedway this weekend puts drivers at an
elevation of 5,800 feet, which affects everything from a crew chief’s
tune-up to the aerodynamics of the car.

Veteran Nitro Tuner Jimmy Walsh has rejoined Tuttle Motorsports and the
Vis Viva "Living Force Energy" drink Top Fuel dragster driven by Steve
Torrence. Walsh previously worked for team owner Dexter Tuttle in 2006
before accepting a position with Kenny Bernstein's Funny Car team early
in 2007.

"I'm glad to have him back," Tuttle said. "We are similar in the way we
think, and we get along very well.  Jimmy is just a good guy that you
know will take care of your equipment. His accomplishments tuning a
race car speak for themselves."

Walsh has more than 25 years of experience in NHRA drag racing. In
2006, Walsh helped Tuttle Motorsports secure three event victories and
an eighth place points finish for (then driver) J.R. Todd in the NHRA
championship standings. Walsh also spent 20 seasons with Joe Amato's
race team prior to joining Tuttle's operation.

Jeff Dobbins leads the IHRA Pro Stock points midway through the season. (Roger Richards)

As usual, the battle at the top of the Torco Pro Stock points standings
is extremely tight, which is why the Mopar Canadian Nationals will be
critical as a number of teams will look to cut the distance between
themselves and current points leader Jeff Dobbins.

Just 109 points separate Bob Bertsch, currently in sixth position in
the standings, from Dobbins at the top of the heap. There are four
drivers in between them. Chances are, at the end of the year, the 2008
World Champion will be one of those six drivers, which is why the race
at Grand Bend Motorplex is so critical.

Dobbins, a two-time winner this season, leads the pack with 327 points.
IHRA Spring Nationals champion Elijah Morton is second with 300 points.
Frank Gugliotta, the winner in Milan, is second with 300 points. John
Montecalvo, the San Antonio winner, is fourth with 284 points while
Pete Berner is fifth with 239. Bob Bertsch rounds out the top six
contenders with 218 points, but his standing is better than it may
appear as he is the only driver eligible for the 41 bonus points for
attending every race.

In an unprecedented move, NHRA drag racing’s top nitro tuners are
gathering in a unified movement to combat the complex issue of trying
to slow their cars in a safe and economical manner. They are also
aggressively attacking safety and involved in the procedure is the NHRA.

Clearly the move is intended to return drag racing to its quarter-mile
roots. In the meantime, the crew chiefs will do their best to comply
with a thousand-foot racing drag strip. Some prefer this as an interim
band-aid until the issue of safety is better resolved.

“The way I see it, we have been racing to 1,000 feet for years and
hanging on for the last 320 feet,” said John Force Racing crew chief
Austin Coil. “This change is nothing but good. When you get to the top
end is when the track get a little slippery and you get parts breakage.
This change really won’t affect performance numbers that much for the
fans. The speeds and times won’t be that much slower. This change just
provides everyone more room to slow down and we can still race hard.
The Funny Cars and Top Fuel Dragsters are on rev limiters at the top
end and like I’ve said, when you are on the rev limiter you really
aren’t seriously racing anyway.”

NHRA released its 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule
today featuring 24 events. In addition, NHRA announced an event purse
increase in excess of $1.3 million.

Beginning in 2009, national event winners in both Top Fuel and Funny
Car will each receive $50,000, an increase of 25 percent.  Pro Stock
national event winners will receive $25,000, while Pro Stock Motorcycle
winners will receive $10,000. At the most prestigious drag racing event
in the world, the 55th running of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, winners
in the top two nitro classes will receive a check for $100,000, while
Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle winners will earn $50,000 and
$20,000, respectively.  

Increases at national events also were announced for runners-up,
semi-finalists and second round finishers.  At the Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals, increases were announced for semi-finalists and second round
finishers in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock categories, while Pro
Stock Motorcycles received increases for runner-up and second round
finishers.   In all, the total increase in event purses in the four
professional classes is $1,353,700.

NHRA announced that beginning in Denver, the monetary fines imposed on
the professional categories associated with the current oildown policy
will be eliminated until further notice. The point deductions, however,
associated with oildown violations at national events, will continue to
be enforced.

“This move is designed to ease the financial burden on the race teams
given the cooperation we’ve experienced by everyone in the racing
community to minimize oildowns at national events,” said Graham Light,
senior vice president of racing operations, NHRA.

Currently, professional teams are allowed one oildown violation prior
to any penalty and can earn an additional credit after 25 consecutive
oil-free runs at NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events.  Although the
monetary fines associated with violations will be eliminated,
professional teams will still lose points based on the current policy
which includes loss of 10 points for each infraction during
eliminations on Sunday and additional point deductions if violations
occur multiple times at the same event.

The grueling three-race NHRA Western Swing, a series of events contested on
consecutive weekends in Denver, Seattle and Sonoma (Calif.), gets underway on
Friday at Bandimere Speedway. Just the very nature of this midseason, summer
racing tradition, and the way it separates a majority of the teams from their
racing and engine shops back east, makes it imperative to be fully prepared for
any contingency that may pop up along the way. It's a challenge that Mike
Edwards feels his Young Life/Penhall Pontiac GXP team is ready for as they begin
the first leg of the stretch this weekend at the 29th annual NHRA Mile-High
Nationals.

"The Western Swing is going to be tough on everybody -
personnel and equipment," Edwards said. "You have to be fully prepared for
anything that can happen. For us, considering that our engine shop is all the
way back in North Carolina and our race shop is in Oklahoma, going out on the
Western Swing is like going into no man's land. If you don't have a part, or
you're missing something on the transporter, you just can't go into the other
room and pick one up. All of our engines have been fully freshened and the
transporter is stocked with all the parts and pieces we'll need. Hopefully we
can put some good runs together and maybe win a race or two."