Kalitta Air Careers livery will adorn the side of the Top Fuel dragster driven by Shawn Langdon in a bid to recruit pilots and mechanics at the upcoming Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Wash., from July 21-23, 2023. This initiative extends beyond the dragster to include a comprehensive employee-recruiting strategy across various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as traditional media outlets, including aviation journals and other digital and print publications. Additionally, plans are underway to incorporate an on-site component in the near future.

The Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel dragster will represent the company for the remainder of the 2023 season, except for the Nevada NHRA Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in late October, where FES Lighting will be the primary partner for Langdon’s Toyota team.

The Snake will return to one of his most famous pits ever.

NHRA legend Don “The Snake” Prudhomme will serve as this weekend’s Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals grand marshal, marking his return to the Pacific Raceways where he has a staple in the 1970s as a Bill Doner booked in racer and an NHRA icon. 

Prudhomme, a four-time world champion, secured his legacy with back-to-back wins in the NHRA FallNationals Funny Car category during 1975 and 1976 in Seattle. The legendary driver will participate in several special events scheduled throughout the weekend at the race track.

This past weekend was emotional for racers and fans alike as the final Mile-High Nationals were contested at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., near Denver.

There were countless memories in the 65 years of racing at Bandimere Speedway, especially at the 43 Mile-High Nationals events.

One historical moment came at the 2008 Mile-High Nationals. That was the first NHRA national event that Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars raced to 1,000-feet.

There was a time when NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Gaige Herrera looked like fictional boxer Ivan Drago in the movie Rocky 3. Then the seemingly unbeatable rider performed the equivalent of cutting himself with a red-light. Then he sustained the equivalent of getting knocked out in the next race.

Virginia Motorsports Park's Night of Fire on July 22 will be hosting the third annual Summit Racing Equipment PDRA ProStars race, where racers from the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) will compete in a single-day shootout for over $60,000 in payouts. This event has been highly anticipated by both racers and fans alike.

PDRA series director, Tyler Crossnoe, expressed the excitement surrounding ProStars.

 
Emotions were running high for the Bandimere family as it said goodbye to the final Mile-High Nationals Sunday at the speedway that has borne its name for 65 years.

Back on April 21, NHRA and the Bandimere family jointly announced the 2023 Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway would be the last NHRA national event at the historic track. 
First opened in 1958, the Bandimere family has agreed to sell the current property and land, with the 2023 racing season marking the end of drag racing at the facility.

“It’s bittersweet,” said John Bandimere Jr., the track president. “At chapel (Sunday morning), it was really emotional. The thing is, I keep thinking to myself, if you could just take this place and pick it up where it is and put around 300 or 400 acres around it for parking would be awesome, but you can’t do that. It is now a matter of just asking the Lord to find us another location if that is what he wants us to do, and that’s what we are working on.”

The 2023 NHRA season has been one of extremes for veteran Top Fuel driver Clay Millican.

He had either lost in the first round or won the race. The latter happened in memorable fashion at the last Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway on Sunday before a sellout crowd.

Millican clocked a 3.872-second elapsed time at 299.60 mph to defeat Doug Kalitta’s 4.454-second lap at 211.23 mph in Morrison, Colo., outside of Denver.

Troy Coughlin Jr. once admitted there’s a balancing act when it comes to qualifying and doing it while racing in qualifying. It’s a pretty simple philosophy cited the third-generation drag racer. Make your best run every time, regardless of the situation. 

And for Coughlin, the balancing act over the weekend at the final NHRA Mile High Nationals would have put him in the same caliber as the Flying Wallendas, a tightrope act that made them famous on a tightrope. 

Coughlin was smooth as peanut butter as he swept the weekend at Bandimere Speedway by winning the #2Fast2Tasty crown, qualifying second in Pro Stock, and winning his second NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series event of 2023, stopping points leader Dallas Glen in the final round. 

Sometimes – for whatever reason – stars align.

Everything that can go right – does go right.

That was definitely the case for Matt Hagan this weekend at the final Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., just outside of Denver.