Running the quickest lap ever in doorslammer drag racing history certainly makes Canadian racer Raymond Commissoo the man to beat this season in GSA NHRA Pro Modified competition. This year marks the first time in nearly a decade the Pro Modified division will race minus the "exhibition" label.

Commisso topped his Monday afternoon 5.809 elapsed time with a 5.78, 252.57 pass in testing at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga.

Since joining R2B2 Racing full-time, Commisso has gone from a freewheeling and mostly underfunded independent to a well-supported professional driver and his performances on the racetrack have taken a noticeable upturn. He currently holds the national elapsed time record of 5.881 seconds and has recorded the quickest run in history at 5.817 seconds. People are starting to take notice.

Veteran Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan, who has accomplished much during his highly-decorated NHRA racing career, still needs to check off two pesky items that stand out near the top of his drag racing bucket list.

Item one – A win at the tradition-rich Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals, one of NHRA’s major events

Item two – An NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world championship title

If early season performance indicates anything, the Anaheim, Calif. native may be well on his way to crossing both off the list in 2010.

The Inaugural AHRA Nitro Showdown at Desert Thunder Raceway in Midland, Texas has been expanded to two complete days of drag racing action, now scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, May 15-16 because of extreme interest from sportsmen competitors.

Saturday’s racing will include the Nitro Showdown highlighted by 8,000 horsepower nitro methane-burning Top Fuel dragsters along with a duel of Jet Cars featuring “Rolling Thunder” vs. “Her-a-cane.” Sportsmen racing will continue through Sunday for the more than the combined 250 competitors in the Pro, Super Pro, Motorcycle, Street and Jr. Dragster classes.

Ever wonder what dragsters looked and sounded like “back in the day?”
 
Fans of nostalgia drag racing will get those answers when the Geezers Reunion at The Grove presented by Yuengling returns to Maple Grove Raceway on July 2-3.
 
Among the many events planned on the nostalgia weekend is a cacklefest that will include several cars that might’ve raced here when the facility was known as Maple Grove Dragway.  They will be paraded – or pushed – down the track.

With the intent of better reaching and servicing its fan base, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) has retained the services of Hedges & Company, a database marketing agency in Hudson, Ohio, to assist the world’s largest motorsports sanctioning body with a comprehensive database marketing initiative in 2010.

“We’ve launched our database marketing initiative in order to better communicate with NHRA fans and to add value for our sponsors and partners,” said Gary Darcy, senior vice president, sales and marketing, NHRA. “Aligning our efforts with Hedges & Company makes perfect sense given their extensive knowledge and success in database marketing and the drag racing marketplace.”

After a decade of existence as an exhibition class, the Pro Mod cars are now a fully sanctioned NHRA class, and team owner/driver Roger Burgess couldn't be happier.

"A lot of people contributed a lot of time and effort to make this happen," Burgess said. "By becoming an official class it legitimizes everything we've been doing. Racing for Wally (trophies) is going to be very exciting. Everyone wants one of those little gold men. They are the NHRA's iconic symbol of success.

"Being on ESPN2 also will help tremendously, especially with bringing corporate sponsors to the table for all of our competitors. This is big year for us."

No one’s going to forget the 52nd edition of the March Meet. It had everything: record runs, the largest funny car field since 1980, John Force presiding as Grand Marshal and even an extra day of nostalgia drag racing at Auto Club Famoso Raceway near Bakersfield. But memories that last forever were the winners of Nostalgia Funny Car and Top Fuel, Leah Pruett-LeDuc and Adam Sorokin.

A day after Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for directing, Pruett-LeDuc made history herself. She whipped the boys, becoming the first female Funny Car winner in the illustrious annals of the March Meet. Driving the Plueger & Geiger Mustang, she defeated NHRA veteran Gary Densham in the “Teacher’s Pet” Camaro for the crown. Pruett-LeDuc ran a 5.811 at 242.65 mph to Densham’s 5.986 at 236.34

Raymond Commisso established the standard for which the NHRA newest professional division, Pro Modified, will be judged.

Commisso, a part of the R2B2 Racing team, thundered down the South Georgia Motorsports Park to a 5.809 elapsed time at 251.40 mph. This is the quickest Pro Mod legal run ever.

Five members of the drag racing Coughlin clan are headed to the Sunshine State for some intensive testing this week. Four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. and reigning NMCA Pro Street champ Troy Coughlin Sr. will use Bradenton Motorsports Raceway just south of Tampa Bay to shake out their racecars, while Division 3 titlists John and Mike Coughlin will be joined by Las Vegas Super Comp winner Troy Coughlin Jr. at Palm Beach International in Southeast Florida.

"Can you tell we're tired of snow?" Jeg Jr. said with a laugh. "It's pretty rare when we all have the same time off to go test but it's come together now and I know we're all excited. Each of us has some things they need to try to figure out with our racecars, which is exactly what testing is for, so we're going to Florida with a laundry list of things to do."

Top Dragster competitor Alan Jones of New Orleans walked away from this scary crash during the opening round of the Harland Sharp Elite 8 race Sunday at the Mardi Gras Nitro Jam at State Capitol Raceway.