The nitrous-injected Pro Modifieds are knocking on the door of the
five-second zone and the IHRA has adjusted their rules to get them
there quicker. In a statement issued today, the IHRA's technical
department has reduced the minimum weight for the nitrous cars by 25
pounds.

If it’s 8 p.m. on Friday night at an ADRL race; it must be time for
qualifying to begin. At least that’s the way it’s been for the
Flowmaster American Drag Racing League presented by the National Guard
almost since its inception four years ago.

That’s going to change July 25-26, however, at Maryland International
Raceway (MIR) for the inaugural ADRL 1-800-GO-GUARD.com U.S. Drags. The
addition to ADRL’s all-pro show of the Sonny’s Extreme Pro Stock
Challenge presented by Purvis Ford has required a slight revision of
the qualifying and elimination rounds schedule.

The biggest change comes in conducting two qualifying sessions on
Friday evening with a third and final qualifying opportunity on
Saturday before eliminations begin, instead of the other way around.
That first qualifying session also has been moved forward to 6 p.m.
with the second scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. Saturday’s action will
begin with qualifying at noon, as it always has, but the opening round
of eliminations moves ahead one hour to 3 p.m.

Twenty of the top Pro Mod racers in the world will battle for points and
prestige at the JEGS ProMod Challenge presented by Lend America, to be held June
19-22 at the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals in New
Jersey.

Points leader Tony Pontieri will look to extend his championship
lead and hold off the likes of Steve Engel, Josh Hernandez, Eddie Ware, and Joe
Baker -- all winners on this year's JEGS tour.

That front-running group
is sure to get a challenge from two-time series champion Mike Ashley, who hails
from New York, and Jay Payne, another former champ. Canadian racer Raymond
Commisso also considers Old Bridge Township Raceway Park to be home turf, while
Danny Rowe and Kirk Kuhns look to solidify their top-10 rankings.

With 42 consecutive round wins in a bank and an undefeated season on
the line, Frank Manzo will have a lot at stake as he heads to route 66
Raceway in Joliet, Ill., for this weekend’s highly anticipated JEGS
Sportsman Allstars competition. Manzo, of Morganville, N.J., has not
lost a round of Top Alcohol Funny Car competition since July 1, 2007,
and he’s well on his way to a 12th national championship with five wins
in five events thus far in 2008. However, Manzo’s toughest test will
likely come in the JEGS Allstars, a special event that features the
best drivers from each of NHRA’s seven geographic divisions.
          
In addition to his current win streak, Manzo has also won nine-straight
rounds of competition in the JEGS Allstars, claiming wins in each of
the last three events. All told, Manzo has appeared in seven Allstars
final rounds since 1995, winning six times and earning one runner-up
finish. Last season, Manzo defeated arch rival Jay Payne in the final
round to claim the $7,000 first place prize. He also went on to capture
the title at the Torco Race Fuels Route 66 Nationals the following day,
claiming an additional $7,000 as part of the JEGS double-up bonus,
which is available to any Allstars champion who also wins on Sunday.
Manzo’s 2007 victory helped the Northeast Division squad claim the
overall team title, and the $20,000 bonus that accompanies it.

Clay Millican will race in 2008 as part of an operation funded by
Memphis, Tenn.-based businessman and Top Sportsman racer Mark Pickens,
owner and operator of Motorvation, a leading manufacturer of
performance products.

Pickens procured Millican's contract from the Knoll Gas Motorsports operation through Evan Knoll.

The team anticipates racing anywhere from five to eight races in 2008.
The debut race for the team will take place at the NHRA U.S. Nationals
in Indianapolis.

Timing is everything and with summer on the horizon Joe Hartley has
picked an opportune moment to return to competition on the NHRA circuit.

With just 15 competitors on the entry list for the upcoming O'Reilly
NHRA Summernationals at Heartland Park, Hartley has a better than even
chance of making the field when you consider how well he performed lat
year at what he considers his home track.

“This race is one we’ve typically done poorly at,” joked Hartley. “It’s
going to be tough to live up to what we did last year. The only thing
we can do is go some rounds, which is probably better then qualifying
No. 1 like we did. Without the night session last year, it was a little
easier for us to hold down the No. 1 spot.”

Torque
converters on Pro Modifieds, who’d have thought?

A torque converter in a full-fledged national Pro Modified race may
have been a far-fetched idea in the early stages of the class, but
after the IHRA Motor City Nationals in Milan, Michigan, the
performances of two teams has a cast of other supercharged teams
pondering replacing their clutches with a torque converter for their
Lenco transmissions.

Jason Hamstra (6.053) and Carl Spiering (6.054) qualified fourth and
fifth to mark the first time two cars have qualified in the top half of
the Pro Modified field with torque converters.

The Lenco drive combination was legalized in 2004 and for the most
part, Hamstra has been the poster boy for perfecting the combination.
Milan marked the first time out with the combination for Spiering.

Twenty-five year old Spencer Massey has experienced the Midas Touch in 2008. He'll be looking for the same success during the Jegs All-Star event. (Roger Richards)

Current NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster and IHRA Top Fuel points leader Spencer Massey will be among the favorites to capture
the Top Alcohol Dragster title when the 24th annual JEGS Sportsman Allstars
takes center stage during the Torco Race Fuels Route 66 Nationals at Route 66
Raceway in Joliet, Ill., June 7. Massey, of Ft. Worth, Texas, returns to the
JEGS Allstars race as a blocker after defeating Marty Thacker in one of the most
memorable final rounds of 2007. After an even start, Massey edged Thacker at the
finish line by nine-thousandths of a second.

The JEGS Allstars is a special
event for competitors in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. Each year, the best
racers in eight categories from each of NHRA’s seven geographic regions meet in
Joliet to compete for individual and team honors and a share of more than
$100,000 in posted awards.

Thus far in 2008, Massey has
reached the final round four times in six starts, including a win at the recent
NHRA national event at Atlanta Dragway. Massey has also logged some runs in a
Top Fuel dragster, collecting two wins at IHRA events.

Caterpillar, the primary sponsor on Rod Fuller’s Top Fuel dragster and
an official NHRA partner, and David Powers Motorsports (DPM) have
entered into a partnership to pilot an Engineering Rotational
Development Program (ERD) at the team’s Brownsburg, Ind. race shop.

The objectives of the ERD program are to gain unique engineering
experience and to focus on areas of development for engine performance.
The engineer also will gain exposure to unique manufacturing analysis
processes, development of Caterpillar network, cross-functional
marketing experience, and dealer/customer facing. DPM crew chiefs Lee
Beard and Rob Flynn will assign projects to be completed by the ERD.
DPM will provide the ERD a work area, network connection, performance
reviews, and challenging projects. The ERD rotation is scheduled to
being on June 2, 2008.