Two-time Pro Modified champion remembers a magical weekend in St. Louis

Mike
Ashley knows well the crossroads between nitro Funny Car and Pro
Modified intersect in St. Louis, at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St.
Louis, Mo., to be exact.

The two-time Pro Modified world champion will be pulling double-duty
driving his front-running 1968 Camaro Pro Modified in the Jegs ProMod
division as well as the second nitro Funny Car on his Gotham City
Racing operation.

Ashley, the mortgage banker from New York’s Long Island, remembers the
first time the two divisions intersected. Two years ago, in Ashley’s
first full season as a nitro Funny Car driver, he sat out the event as
he transitioned his team from Del Worsham’s operation over to Don
Schumacher Racing.

Antron
Brown has taken NHRA drag racing by storm since making the unprecedented move
from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Top Fuel. The 32-year-old racer from Indianapolis earned the pole at the 2008 NHRA season-opener
in Pomona, Calif. and hasn’t looked back. Arguably the
hottest driver on tour, Brown recently earned his second win in three races on
April 27 at Atlanta Dragway after making his third straight final round
appearance. Brown made NHRA history on March 28 becoming the first driver in
NHRA history to earn wins in both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle. Now with 18
wins to his credit, he looks to advance to his fourth straight final round when
the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series visits Gateway International Raceway near
St. Louis May
2-4. While Antron Brown qualifies for a starting spot in the O’Reilly Midwest
Nationals on May 3, another famous Brown, Big Brown, looks to add his name to
the horse racing annals when he battles a challenging field at Churchill Downs
during 134th Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky. The Derby
favorite, Big Brown looks to follow-up his impressive victory in the Florida
Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 29 as trainer Richard Dutrow
looks to field the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Big Brown
will start on the outside post on Saturday.

The timeworn theory that if one is good, two are
better is a point well-taken in NHRA professional racing camps.  Two cars
provide twice as much data and that, in turn, should improve
performances.
 
In her first season behind the wheel of a Funny Car,
Melanie Troxel has been learning the nuances of the Gotham City Racing ProCare
Rx Dodge Charger R/T.  The lessons are good ones and – based on the numbers she
ran last week at Atlanta – she is on the cusp of competitive elapsed
times.
 
She will find out Friday when the three-day O’Reilly Midwest
Nationals begins at Gateway International Raceway in nearby Madison, Ill. And
she will have a teammate with whom to compare notes – team co-owner Mike Ashley,
who is making his second 2008 Funny Car appearance, driving the Lend
America/Gotham City Racing Dodge Charger R/T for at least the next five POWERade
Series events.

Pro Modified veteran racer Troy Coughlin is hoping for a quick return
to the JEGS ProMod Challenge after a first-round accident last Saturday
in Atlanta that totaled his JEGS.com Pontiac GTO. Coughlin was slightly
dazed in the accident but otherwise unhurt. His Jerry Haas racecar
wasn't as lucky, although a post-race inspection shows the current
safety specs worked perfectly in Coughlin's favor.

"I've never felt safer in a racecar and the accident proved the faith I
have in these cars, the NHRA rules, and this class in general is
justified," Coughlin said. "Everything worked exactly as advertised and
the fact I got out of the car under my own power after such a hard hit
is testament to everything we've worked towards in the area of driver
safety."

Coughlin was just a few hundred feet into his first-round race with
Tony Pontieri when he encountered some severe tire shake. The extreme
motion pushed him out of the groove where the car suddenly bolted to
the right and into the retaining wall.

John Force has been burning the candle at both ends with his rehabilitation and workout

Yep, he's John Force, master of the weight room. (Roger Richards)

regimen. He’s worked out in the gym for seven days a week since his accident last September.

On the road, if the hotel doesn’t have a gym he maintains his routine with stretching and the larger rubber band exercises.

Last weekend, he came into the Atlanta area for a few days early to do some promotional work
with Coca-Cola. The hotel had a great gym and Force visited to get in a
workout.

“I’m not trying to fool anyone, I do a pretty extensive workout on
several different machines,” Force said. “I got into the workout and I
really got excited.”

That’s when Force happened upon Kim Anderson, wife of Pro Stock icon
Greg Anderson. She told Force her husband would be there soon.

Friday won’t be a typical day for Mike Ashley or Amanda and Wesley Michno of St.
Clair, Mo. 
 
Ashley, Chief Business Strategist/Executive Vice President
of Lend America, a nationally direct mortgage lender, will present the Michnos
with the $250,000 top prize in Lend America’s “Homefree Mortgage Giveaway” in
the their home at 8 a.m.  The event will be featured exclusively on television’s
“Inside Edition” on Monday. 
 
Ashley, an NHRA Funny Car and Pro Modified
driver, then heads for Madison, Ill., site of this weekend’s O’Reilly Midwest
Nationals at Gateway International Raceway.  He will be competing in his second
Funny Car race of the season. 
 
“What gratifies me the most,” said
Ashley, “is that, in addition to helping Amanda and Wesley, we’ve taught them
how to manage their debt for the future and now they can pay off their 80/20
balloon mortgage and stay in their home.”
 
Ashley and Roger Burgess
(co-owner of ProCare Rx) are the co-owners of Gotham City Racing, a two-car
Funny Car team that features Melanie Troxel and Ashley – at least for the next
five NHRA POWERade Series events. 

Shouting out to all European Racers – MSD Ignition and Racepak will be
on hand at European Drag Racing Championship kick off at Santa Pod, May
23 – 26.

Four-time NHRA champion Gary Scelzi is the all-around winningest driver at
Gateway International Raceway, with three Top
Fuel victories (2000, 1999, 1998)
and one Funny Car title (2004). He also holds the Funny Car elapsed-time track
record of 4.724 seconds, set in 2004. He's also been low qualifier at Gateway
five times!

So, you can understand why the driver of the Mopar/Oakley
Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car is looking forward to this weekend's NHRA Midwest
Nationals, the seventh round of the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. After
a tough start to the 2008 season, in which his best results were two
quarterfinal finishes, "Wild Thing" is aching to get to a track where he's
enjoyed past rewards.

"I think now the timing is absolutely perfect to go
to Gateway," said Scelzi, of the track located just over the bridge from St.
Louis, Mo., in Madison, Ill. "With the beginning of the season that we've had,
we need to go to a place that I've had success at.

Cory Mac is enjoying one of his finest seasons to date. (Roger Richards)

Cory McClenathan will roll into Gateway International Raceway for the
NHRA Midwest Nationals this weekend ranked fourth in the point
standings with one of the most consistent race cars on the NHRA tour.
 
McClenathan made his only final-round appearance of last season at
Gateway, in Madison, Ill., just over the bridge from St. Louis. He lost
to Melanie Troxel, but a lot has changed since he last visited this
track.
 
"Obviously, last we year we had some success and did well there," said
McClenathan, who joined Don Schumacher Racing this season. "I got beat
in the final, but I thought we had the best car there pretty much all
race day. But, at this point in time, it’s a whole different place, a
whole different car, a different crew chief, a different crew,
everything. I'm much more comfortable now than I was last year."
 
McClenathan qualified No. 1 at last weekend's race in Atlanta, his
first top spot of the season and 31st of his career. He advanced to the
quarterfinals for the second time this season, but lost on a holeshot
advantage to eventual race winner Antron Brown.

ABC’s popular morning show, Good Morning America, will once again
feature the NHRA POWERade Series during a segment expected to air at
7:45 a.m. ET Thursday morning.

With gas prices reaching $4 a gallon and fuel efficiency on everyone’s
mind, Good Morning America will be shooting on location at a gas
station in Indianapolis to focus on the issue and they’ll be utilizing
the crew of the second-place Matco Tools team as their expert mechanics.