The GM Performance Parts LSX Shootout (held as a part of the Nitto Tire NMCA
World Finals in Memphis, TN, at Memphis Motorsport Park - Oct. 11-14, 2007) is
still seven weeks away, but the momentum is building fast.  As the time closes
in on this inaugural event, more and more heads-up, index and True Street racers
-- all relying on LS power -- are finalizing plans to attend this first-ever
event.  Hundreds of LS-powered auto show enthusiasts will also descend on the
Memphis area this weekend to compete for special LSX Shootout car show awards
and winners jackets both days - Saturday and Sunday.  Many of these competitors
are planning to join the LSX Shootout Tours (2) that depart from Chicago and
Dallas on Oct. 11th and head to Memphis for the BIG event!

Caterpillar Inc., its dealers and David Powers
Motorsports (DPM) have reached an agreement in principle for the 2008 racing
season that brings the worldwide construction equipment industry leader to NHRA
POWERade drag racing. The partnership follows a successful technician recruiting
pilot program started this season by Caterpillar, some of its dealers, DPM and
the National Hot Rod Association.

The agreement would benefit Caterpillar and its
participating dealers by providing an innovative recruiting approach to find new
dealer service technicians. Many Cat dealers are experiencing a shortage of
service technicians, and the NHRA drag racing
format offers a rich recruiting environment of qualified candidates with
experienced mechanical backgrounds.

DPM has already worked with Mustang Cat (Houston),
Fabick Cat (Fenton, Mo.), Wagner Cat (Aurora,
Colo.), Peterson Cat (San
Leandro, Calif.), Ransome Cat
(Bensalem, Pa.) and will next partner with MacAllister
Cat. The Cat dragster will sport the classic Cat yellow and black colors and the
MacAllister Cat logo during the 53rd annual U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis,
Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

Doug Foley owns a two-car
team that competes on the IHRA Knoll Gas Nitro Jam tour. A recent incident has
him concerned following the IHRA Canadian Nationals in Grand Bend, Ont., and he
wants to give his fellow racers a heads up. The source of his concern is a
possible change in border-crossing procedure.

Nothing appears on the
IHRA website announcing a change in policy.

“Our drivers were told
that from now on we were going to have to be bonded,” Foley said. “We were told
that a broker was going to be necessary for the paperwork required. You will
need to be bonded and all of that will need to be done before you get to Canada. We are
going to have to do that and it is certain to be costly to the teams.”

The IHRA’s Skooter Peaco
confirmed that a few teams and racers had been stopped before and after the
Grand Bend event. He even added he was one of them.

Foley, who owns the
dragster driven by Terry McMillen, said the IHRA always provided the teams with
a letter that was intended to make the border crossing as easy as possible.

“It was the understanding
that we were coming in to put on a show and once we were done, we were
leaving,” Foley said. ‘We could get out without paperwork or permits or any of
that. They told us that was no longer allowed.”

"Dyno Don" Nicholson might be fifteenth on our "Top 20" Mountain Motor
Pro Stock list, but that's only because he ran the big engines for a
relatively short time during a celebrated career that spanned five
decades. In the annals of drag racing history, and in the hearts of
drag-racing fans around the world, no matter what he drove, “Dyno” was
at the top of the mountain, pun absolutely intended.

Nicholson’s drag racing roots extended back to the colorful,
no-holds-barred days of Super Stock and Factory Experimental
competition of the 1960s and 1970s. At that time there were very few
national events of the calendar, so most of the top guns of the day
made their reputations, and livings, on the match-racing circuit.

In 1961, Nicholson won the Stock title at the first running of the
Winternationals at Pomona, California. That began a string of victories
that soon led to Nicholson becoming a staple on the lucrative
match-racing trail.

Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com
has learned the NHRA is aggressively taking a stance against team orders and
diving with the Countdown entering its second phase this weekend.

Reportedly, a letter was
issued from Graham Light to the professional teams pointing out this practice
will not be tolerated.

Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com contacted a member of the NHRA’s management team to confirm
the authenticity of the letter but the official couldn’t immediately verify or dispel
the letter’s contents.

Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com obtained a copy of the letter issued and it leaves no room
for interpretation.

Leading up to Charles Carpenter’s trip to Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports
Park in Norwalk, OH, all talk in the shop revolved around one thing: going
rounds. Carpenter did more than just go rounds Saturday night, as he captured
the Pro Nitrous crown at the inaugural Flowmaster ADRL Chevy Drags with a final
round win over fellow North Carolinian Rod Houck. The win was Carpenter’s second
ADRL national event victory of 2007 and fourth major win overall.

A policy and its
enforcement threatens to push one of drag racing’s and the NHRA’s longstanding
icons from the show.

Ollie Volpe says his team
has had enough and the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis will be the last time
you’ll see the Mr. Gasket trailer on the Manufacturer’s Midway at NHRA events.

“We’ve been doing this for
20 years, but after Indy we won’t have our big rig at any of the events,” said
Volpe, Racing Services Manager for Mr. Gasket. “The people who will really
suffer from this will be the racers, and I feel really bad about that.”

Volpe said the issue isn’t
that NHRA has rules, but rather the selective way they enforce them.

“They have their rules and
they are going to stick by them,” Volpe said. “We own a company and we can’t
push out a gondola to display our products. If I can’t do that, I’m not
bringing in an 80-foot rig just to display four products.”

Although three-time NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Champion Greg Anderson will try to
approach it as just any other race, the 53rd annual NHRA Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals may be the biggest race of his career.   

First and foremost,
Anderson, driver of the KB Racing LLC-owned, Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac
GTO, along with every driver on the O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis
facility, wants to win what is considered by most as the largest and most
prestigious event on the NHRA circuit.

Secondly, and maybe more important
from a historic point of view, Anderson, who has won five times in six final
rounds at Indy, including four-in-a-row, is trying to become the only
professional driver to win the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals five consecutive times. 
He won here in 2001 and 2003-2006 and was runner-up in 1999.  He also earned the
No. 1 qualifying position three times (2004-2006).  

"Obviously, winning
four-in-a-row at Indy has been pretty cool for me," said Anderson.  "I think
there is only two other Pro Stock guys that have done that -- Bob Glidden and WJ
(Warren Johnson). I don't believe that anyone in any professional class has ever
won five straight, so if I could do it that would put me alone in the record
book.  That would be a heck of a feather in our cap, winning
five-in-a-row.”