Buoyed by its extremely successful season-opener in Gainesville, Fla.,
organizers of the JEGS ProMod Challenge are pleased to extend invitations to the
second race of the 2008 schedule -- the 21st annual O'Reilly Spring NHRA
Nationals presented by Pennzoil, which runs March 27-30 at Houston Raceway
Park.

The field will be led by Gatornationals champion Joe Baker, the
current series points leader. Baker was a last-minute alternate for the race
that made the most of his opportunity by winning the event. The man he replaced,
Mike Knowles, whose car was damaged in a testing accident prior to the event,
will also compete in Houston, as will Chip King, who has competed in 49 of the
64 races in series history, the second most ever.

Reigning series
champion Josh Hernandez will try to make use of his hometown advantage.
Currently fifth in the JEGS points, Hernandez hails from the Houston suburb of
Conroe.

Roger Richards Photos

Matt
Guidera has won before but not like he did during the NHRA
Gatornationals. The Loomis, California-based rider scored his second
NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle championship title in as many years
by stopping Andrew Hines in the final round.

“We ran great all weekend. The event started off slow for us. We ran a
little faster than everyone else and I think we came around faster than
the other teams. We had everyone covered but not by a whole lot. The
field was close and showed parity today.”

There’s no definitive decision whether or not a two decade hiatus makes a driver a

Two-time Funny Car champion Frank Hawley qualified for the Funny Car class after a 23-year absence. (Roger Richards)

rookie
again. With that said, Frank Hawley, a two-time NHRA Winston Champion,
who left driving Funny Cars in 1984, has undertaken the task of
re-acclimating himself with the demands of driving a modern day fuel
Funny Car.

With all due respect, Hawley hasn’t been sitting by twiddling his
thumbs during the time away. On the contrary, he’s made a name as the
sport’s leading drag racing instructor.

Does his status within the sport lend to extra scrutiny?

Three individuals were honored and one received special mention at the just-completed NHRA AC Delco Gatornationals.
   
NHRA President Tom Compton, Media and Communications Vice President Jerry
Archambeault and  Gainesville Raceway Executive General Manager Don Robertson
were named honorary members of the All Fro team for their hands in establishing
the new tower and especially the third floor, Media area with Norm Froscher's
name on it.
   
Graham Light, Senior Vice President of Racing Operations, received
Special Mention for being the first person interviewed by Froscher in
the new $2 Million plus tower.

It’s been almost two months since Jon and James Herbert, sons of Top Fuel pilot
Doug Herbert, lost their lives in an automobile accident on Jetton Road near
their home in Cornelius, N.C. Since their passing, friends and family members
have sought ways to heal and to keep the memory of these two special young men
alive.

On Saturday, March 22, 2008, a
special ceremony will take place at Jetton Park. Friends of the family have worked
with park officials to dedicate a spot at the beach overlooking scenic
Lake
Norman to the memory of Jon
and James. 

Rev. Jody Seymour of Davidson United Methodist Church and Jeff Tarte, mayor of Cornelius,
will officiate the ceremony. Two benches, one in memoriam of Jon and one in
memoriam of James, will offer a place for friends and family to sit and
remember, reflect, and begin to heal.

In a rare four-car showing for all of the Ypsilanti, Michigan-based Kalitta
Motorsports nitro-fueled entries, Team Kalitta took the opportunity Monday to
test and refine the tune-ups of its race cars at Gainesville Raceway after this
past weekend’s running of the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville,
Fla.

The Mac Tools dragster team started “from scratch” Monday in an effort to
pinpoint the woes that have followed them since the end of the 2007 season. “We
basically took everything off of the car and started over,” crew chief Jon
Oberhofer said. “It was time to just step back and re-work the whole car.”

Doug Kalitta, driver of the “Big Red” Mac Tools machine, and his team have
struggled to get their hot rod to perform at the level that has seen them be
perennial championship contenders since Doug’s inaugural season in 1998, in
which he won Rookie of the Year honors. “It’s been tough,” Doug, a 43-year old
resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., said. “We know that our Mac Tools car can be one
of the most dominating cars on the tour, so it’s definitely been frustrating,
but I think we’ve taken the right steps now to get everything figured out and
get back to the level of performance we know we’re capable of.”

The torrential rainstorms that blew through Dallas did not dampen the excitement
level of participants at 2008 BrandSource Summit who were thrilled to spend a
few minutes with 14-time POWERade Funny Car Champion John Force and 2007 Rookie
of the Year and Funny Car rising star Ashley Force. The BrandSource Summit
brought together thousands of representatives from some of the biggest companies
including Whirlpool, Serta, LG, GE, Mitsubishi and many more. Fans lined up for
two hours to get autographs, pass along positive messages to the recuperating
elder Force and offer words of encouragement to Ashley, one of only two Funny
Car females competing at one of the highest levels of motor sports.

In addition to autographs, fans also snapped photos and gawked at Ashley
Force’s 8,000 horsepower Castrol GTX Ford Mustang which served as a high powered
backdrop. Both of the Forces enjoyed spending time with new and old fans. It
comes as no surprise to anyone who knows John Force that spending time at
sponsor appearances is as important as getting a win light during eliminations
at an NHRA POWERade national event.

Spring will soon make its long-awaited return, bringing with it birds
in song, flowers in bloom—and Mopar Performance HEMI®-powered 1968
Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Darts in full-throated roar as they
compete in pitched battle in the 2008 Mopar® HEMI Challenge Race Series.

The 2008 HEMI Challenge racing series resumes on Saturday, March 29 at
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Vegas HEMI Challenge stop,
held in conjunction with the über-popular Mopars at The Strip event, is
the fourth of eight legs in the 2008 HEMI Challenge points race (three
2008 HEMI Challenge points events were contested in late 2007).

The performance gains would be substantial; The cost would be devastating to many ...

The topic has not even reached the NHRA’s radar screen, but a month
ago, Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com asked multi-time champion Greg
Anderson what would he feel about increasing the cubic inch for the
NHRA’s Pro Stock division.

Anderson admitted a cubic inch increase would be great for the NHRA's
Pro Stock class. Virtually every other one of his opponents said
the move would the final nail in the coffin for their racing efforts.

Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com discussed the idea with several teams in
the wake of the real possibility IHRA’s Pro Stockers will soon dip into
the 6-teens, leaving the five-second zone on the not-so-distant
horizon. The consensus was the extreme cost would never be justified by
the meager amount of publicity and performance gains they'd achieve.

One might think the new wicker increase might be working well for Warren Johnson considering he’s

scored substantial top speeds during the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida.

“Truth be known, we’ve burned two holes in the body because of it,”
Johnson said. “We did that in Valdosta where the downforce is
compressing the rear so much.

“The situation wasn’t so bad in Gainesville but when we get to a
facility that is bumpy at the finish line – then we’ll have problems.
Someone is going to get in some serious trouble past the finish line.
There is too much downforce for these cars.