The Funny Car driven by Tommy Johnson Jr. will sport a new, yet familiar, look the next time it hits the dragstrip. Throughout the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, Johnson will represent The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention, by campaigning the MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.

Top Fuel will be the headline act at the Santo’s Summer Thunder meeting at Sydney Dragway, January 17-18.

Rapisarda Autosport International will field four of the seven entries headed by local heroes Wayne Newby and Damien Harris along with American imports Ashley Sanford and Dom Lagana who will make his first appearance in Australia since November 2015.

Past NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champion Duane Shields will race in 2020 with backing from the Muscle Milk brand.

Shields, the 2011 NHRA Champion, will represent Muscle Milk in a multiyear agreement, starting with 20 events in the upcoming season.

“I’m proud to bring a new partner to NHRA drag racing,” Shields said. “It’s great to team up with the company that helped build the protein category, and that remains a leader in the industry.

I’m always amused when I hear drag racing fans, racers or officials talking about how, in the history of the entire high speed universe, there never has been a strike or a boycott of an NHRA national event.  If you believe the conventional wisdom, pro racers simply don’t have the fortitude to effectively rage against the establishment.

It’s an interesting theory and there’s a lot of data to support it.  I mean, it is really hard to get pro racers to agree on anything.  Sit in a meeting with four or more pro racers and they can’t even agree on refreshments and drinks.

However, the declaration that there’s NEVER been a boycott of an event run by the guys my partner always has called the High Sheriffs, simply isn’t true.  I know, because I was there.  So was my press relations partner, Dave Densmore.  The year was 1981 and the site was State Capitol Raceway outside Baton Rouge, La. 

Some combinations are an institution in drag racing. For instance, we could always automatically assume that Bill Jenkins was a Chevrolet man, and the talented “Dyno Don” Nicholson was pretty much a Ford man at heart, and we always picture Ronnie Sox in a Mopar. In the same vein, we could always associate Bob Glidden with a Ford-powered entry. Sure there were the flirtations with a Chevrolet in 1976 at Indy and the record-setting season of 1979 in a Mopar, but for the most part, the cagey veteran from Whiteland, Ind., was always a dyed-in-the-wool Blue Oval man.

However, a little over two decades ago, unbeknownst to many Pro Stock aficionados, the Hoosier legend nearly ended up in an Oldsmobile as part of a revered Hurst/Olds project. Just what changed his path at the last minute? That answer may never fully be revealed on the record, but the word on the streets is that the folks at Ford objected, and at contract time, they flexed their muscles by strongly suggesting that those pursuing their star driver “cease and desist.”

Taking a ride in the time machine back to the storied season of 1982, the Pro Stock division was in a transitional stage. Gone was the pounds-per-cubic inch formula that had enabled Glidden to dominate so ruthlessly with his Fairmont-bodied machines. In was now a standard 500-inch ceiling, and the trend was to go for smaller compact vehicles such as the Ford EXP, which Glidden debuted. It’s no secret that that year was one of those in which Glidden would just as soon forget. It wasn’t that Glidden was unhappy with Ford; he just didn’t have a good year.

Chris Winter is one of the new owners of Maple Grove Raceway. Winter is joined in the ownership group with Joe Casella and Jordan Levitt. The Mohnton, Pennsylvania facility is just under contract. The deal is not complete yet.

“The purchase has not gone through yet,” Winter said. “That’s where the mistake is. It’s just under contract. We still have to get through title and due diligence, which is why we didn’t want it to get out yet. Yes, the other pieces, the restaurant, the liquor licenses, the acreage is correct. When the deal goes through, which we’re hoping for late spring, early summer, we’re going to plan expansion. There will be a facility for go-kart racing, road racing, an off-road park, drifting – there will be other motorsports, but drag racing will be our primary focus.”

When the track when up for sale last June for $8 million, the concern with so many fans in the Northeast that it would be sold to developers. Their fear was that the facility would be turned into houses.

Holley will expand its popular training courses, enabling consumers the ability to learn carburetors from one of the most trusted names in performance. For more than 115 years, Holley has been producing quality fuel system components, and this course provides the opportunity to learn in a hands-on classroom environment in Bowling Green, KY.

The readers of CompetitionPlus.com have selected their drivers of the decade in the NHRA's Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

A major milestone calls for a major celebration, which is why Elite Motorsports team owner Richard Freeman wanted something big to help celebrate the 50th year of Pro Stock.
 
A $50,000 payout and a major spotlight definitely does it.
 
Both will happen at the inaugural Drag Illustrated World Doorslammer Nationals presented by Elite Motorsports, which takes place March 6-8 at Orlando Speed World Dragway. The event will put the spotlight squarely on the stars of Pro Stock and Pro Mod, offering up $50,000 to the winners in each class at the must-see event.

In the last two years, Ryan Oehler has made impressive progress in NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle ranks.

Oehler competed in a full season in 2018, finishing 13th in the points standings. He followed that up with an eighth-place finish in 2019, highlighted by a semifinal performance in Charlotte, N.C., in the spring. Oehler will pilot an S&S-powered Buell motorcycle with an EBR body in 2020.

“I want to be a championship contender (in 2020),” Oehler said. “I learned a ton in 2019. For me, the first few years, the bike did a lot of the riding, and I was just a passenger. Now, I’m riding the bike, and it is the passenger. Finishing in the top five (in 2020) would be epic.”