Roger Richards Photos

The 2008 IHRA season has proven to be the year of the nitro rookies.

Twenty-five year old Spencer Massey has won two races thus far in IHRA Top Fuel. He won in his first national event.

Top Fuel freshman Spencer Massey won his first Top Fuel event just days
after procuring his license and twenty-one year old Dan Wilkerson drove
his way to a provisional IHRA Funny Car world record on his first pass
as a professional drag racer. Wilkerson also reached the final round in his first outing.

Massey is the senior of the two having two more races under his belt.
He is also the point leader based on victories at those first two events.

Fred Farndon's weekend began and ended with this run during the IHRA Motor City Nationals in Milan, Michigan. The veteran Top Fuel driver drew first blood on a 15-oildown weekend for the event during the first session of Top Fuel qualifying. (Photos by Roger Richards)

Allen
Johnson seeks his first win in 2008. (Roger Richards)

NHRA POWERade Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson and his Mopar®/J&J
Racing Dodge Stratus R/T team will look to put their first “W” in the
2008 win column when they head to the drag strip at Heartland Park
Topeka [Kan.] this weekend for the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals.

Johnson has been one of the most consistent drivers in the NHRA Pro
Stock series this year. He is fifth in the points standings, has
qualified no worse than six through the first eight races and has
advanced to at least the quarterfinals in seven events. Those solid
performances have made his struggles to get into the winner’s circle
even more perplexing for the Greeneville, Tenn. native.

In 220 professional starts, reigning NHRA POWERade Pro Stock champion Jeg
Coughlin Jr. has failed to qualify for eliminations on just 13 occasions, or a
nominal six percent of the time. The superstar racer is much more likely to
reach the final round (28 percent chance) or win the race outright (18 percent)
than anything else.

Nevertheless, Coughlin missed the NHRA's last stop in
Bristol, Tenn., by .003 seconds, ending an incredible streak of 70 consecutive
starts that dated all the way back to the 2004 national event at Heartland Park
Topeka.

"It stings, but it happens; it's part of drag racing," Coughlin
said flatly.

No one is immune. The most prolific racer of all-time, John
Force, extinguished a record run of 395 races at last year's Vegas event. Pro
Stock legend Warren Johnson had 303 successive starts before stumbling in
San Francisco in
2002. Joe Amato had the longest streak in Top Fuel ended in 1995 after 191
successful outings.

At Bristol Dragway’s Night of
Fire on Friday, May 30, folks of all ages will be astounded by a rather unusual
match race between two “jet trains,” the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and the
Cannonball Express.

So who is the brain trust behind the
jet trains?  It’s none other than K.C.
Jones himself… that’s Kenneth Charles Jones for those keeping track.

K.C. Jones will send his Chattanooga
Choo-Choo jet dragster down the quarter-mile at Bristol Dragway with the same
courage and gusto as his heroic railroading counterpart, the legendary Casey
Jones, who hailed from Tennessee.

“My father’s nickname was R.R.,
which looked like railroad,” explained Jones. 
“When my parents named me, they wanted a Casey Jones.  They named me Kenneth Charles so that my
initials would be K.C.”

Kevin Jones was just one of a handful of nitro racers who tested the limits of mechanical boundaries in Milan. (Roger Richards)

IHRA Vice President of Operations Skooter Peaco has experienced easier race weekends.

You know the situation is tough when you can order a pizza and have time to eat between clean ups. (Brian Wood).

Over the course of the three-day event there were eighteen oil downs resulting in several hours of racing downtime.

One of those marathon oil downs transpired on race day delaying the event by nearly an hour.

Peaco searched his memory for when he’s had a more frustrating day.

Max Naylor’s plan for the 2008 season was a lot different than what
he’s experienced thus far. He’s on the right track now since failing to
qualify in

Max Naylor is having a tough season, but he remains optimistic. (Roger Richards)

four of the first eight races and yet to make his way past the opening round.
That’s a free fall considering he earned two pole positions in 2007.

“The things started coming around after Vegas,” Naylor said. “We’ve got
to go back because we were chasing phantoms for the first few races of
the season. We have to get everything set
back to where it was. I think we’ll be good from this point on.”

The largest phantom Naylor chased started in the paint booth when, in
the process of repainting the car to accommodate his new Vegas Fuel
Energy Drink sponsorship, overspray corroded many of the electrical
connections on his Dodge Stratus.

Sunday's final results from the Motor City Nationals presented by GM
Performance Division & Heritage Newspapers at Milan Dragway.  The
race is the third of 11 in the 2008 Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam Drag Racing
Series:

Top Fuel -- Bruce Litton, 4.678 seconds, 287.66 mph def. Scott Palmer, broke.

The Sixth Time is the Charm for Paul Lee

Tops Dan Wilkerson in the final round to claim first career IHRA national event championship

Paul Lee finally secured his first nitro Funny Car national event victory.

Five
times Paul Lee had advanced to an IHRA Knoll Gas Nitro Jam final round.
Five times he had come away empty-handed. All that changed at Milan
Dragway when Lee defeated Dan Wilkerson to claim the Ironman at the
IHRA Motor City Nationals.

“This feels great, I’m very happy and excited but at the same time this
is a relief,” Lee said after his 4.956/305.49 pass toppled Wilkerson.
“You want to win so badly and you keep going to final rounds. I would
go rounds and go rounds, but that final one kept eluding me for some
reason. You need luck to win one of these things, and today we just had
the luck.”