Donald Long, drag radial promoter and owner of Duck X Productions, is outrageous, sometimes profane, but always incredibly shrewd. And his generic challenge to the NHRA Funny Car class has landed him a customer.

Two-time Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon, can, when he wants to, grit his teeth and toss out “Drop dead” vibes with the best of the sport’s hard-nosed mavericks.

So the $50,000-to-win match-up that’s tentatively slated for March 2020 is between Pedregon in his Snap-on Dodge Charger Funny Car and Marcus “The Axeman” Birt in his Radial Vs. The World entry that is believed to be the first nitrous-aided car on drag radial tires to dip into the five-second range in quarter-mile elapsed time.  Birt’s car is a Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built C7 Corvette with Pat Musi Racing Engines power.

The flames and fireworks were flying just as fast as the cars at the 42nd Annual Kelly Night Under Fire, Aug. 10, 2019 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
 
The production presented to a packed house also featured several surprises.

“I could not be more proud of how hard our team worked or appreciative of the overwhelming response from our fans,” said Bill Bader Jr., Summit Motorsports Park president. “It was the largest-attended Kelly Night Under Fire in the event’s 42-year history. Great weather, great performances and perhaps the best Kelly Night Under Fire we’ve ever produced!”

Mendy Fry and Jeff Arend drove to victories this weekend past at the 48th Pepsi Nightfire Nationals at Firebird Raceway located outside of Boise, Idaho.

Fry took home the title, successfully defending her 2018 event title, running a 5.62 elapsed time at 254 miles per hour to defeat Adam Sorokin.

Scott Oksas started his Pro Mod career 10 years ago with the hopes of putting together a competitive program.
 
A decade later, he now has a win for the ages.
 
The Los Angeles-area native benefitted from some first-round luck against Stevie “Fast” Jackson and then rode a string of three straight incredible runs in his turbocharged RJ Race Cars Ford Shelby Mustang. That included a event-winning blast of 5.882-seconds at 247.38 mph in the final round against Doug Winters to claim victory at the third annual Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod presented by J&A Service, Elite Motorsports, Big O Tires and benefiting One Cure at Bandimere Speedway.

It’s an off week for the NHRA Mello Yello Series – but not for Terry Haddock.

The veteran nitro Funny Car and Top Fuel driver finds himself behind the wheel of a 1937 Ford Coupe at the World Series of Pro Mod event Aug. 9-10 at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., near Denver.

“I have been driving this car for six or eight months,” Haddock said. “I haven’t taken it out at any NHRA stuff. I’ve been running it at No Prep stuff and just a bunch of local stuff, Outlaw stuff here in Texas.”

In more than half a century as a racing journalist, Al Pearce has spent countless hours driving, flying, riding buses and motorcycles, and taking trains to cover races -- and in at least one instance, hitching a ride when a colleague left him stranded. He estimates he’s spent at least a year’s worth of hours catching a few winks in his car in getting from Point A to Point B.

Before the end of this calendar year, Pacific Raceways will see construction of motorsports garages that are part of Phase One of the sweeping tech innovation center initiative on this multipurpose property, according to facility President Jason Fiorito.

His family, which has owned the 320-acre multiuse property southeast of Seattle for decades, also owns an excavation business that has been a source of revenue to operate the racetracks, which include a showcase 2.25-mile road course that incorporates the dragstrip. And that gravel on the grounds, which has been used for such projects in the past as a new runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, is about to fetch some serious money to prop up the new construction.

After victories in Denver and Sonoma this year, Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson sits just four wins shy of tying “The Professor” Warren Johnson for the second winningest pro driver in NHRA history. The two powerful forces will come together during the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals on August 31 and September 1 for a one-time-only match race, appropriately titled, “Back To School,” to reveal plans for the upcoming 50th anniversary of Pro Stock.

Johnson’s impressive 97 career victories in an NHRA pro category (second only to John Force’s 150 wins) make him the winningest Pro Stock driver of all time but with 93 wins and no signs of slowing down, Anderson is hot on the heels of the Professor.