Team Owner driver Peter Xiberras will be chasing his third consecutive Top Fuel title when the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship 2022-23 season begins at Alice Springs Inland Dragway, September 1-2.

While a championship is a long-term goal, Xiberras will focus on a win at Alice Springs to kick-start his campaign and erase the memory of being the first winner in recent times to have won a TF championship without winning a round of the series. 

"Last season, we took out our second Top Fuel title, and remarkably, we did it without winning an event – it all came down to our consistency," said Xiberras. "We finished runner-up five times and a fourth once and this season we want to not only defend our title, but we also want to claim some event trophies along the way.

Competing against powerhouse big-budget nitro teams is a challenge, to say the least.

However, it is one low-budget racers, nitro Funny Car driver Dale Creasy Jr. and Top Fuel driver Krista Baldwin, accept with open arms.

At the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., Aug. 19-21, Creasy and Baldwin were rewarded for their hard work and perseverance as each clocked career-best elapsed times.

Creasy clocked a 3.967-second pass at 327.43 mph to keep eventual event champion Bob Tasca III honest as he came in with a 3.891-second ET at 330.63 mph.

Leading Australian Top Fuel team - Rapisarda Autosport International - has confirmed plans to race at all rounds of the 2022-23 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship.

“The family sat down after the final round of last season in June and mapped out a race schedule for the next 12 months,” according to Santo Rapisarda Jr, son of team owner Santo Rapisarda. “First and foremost on our mind was to commit to the Burson Top Fuel 2022-23 championship series.” 

Iconic Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher has been fined $20,000 and docked 50 championship points for alleged safety violations, including disabling safety systems and bypassing performance restrictions.

In a statement posted on NHRARacer.com, NHRA’s official site for distributing competition notices, NHRA detailed their charges.

Australia’s most traveled drag racer John Zappia will make his 125th trip across the Nullarbor Plain from his hometown in Perth, Western Australia, to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory for round two of the 2022-23 Australian Doorslammer Championship at Alice Springs Inland Dragway, September 1-2.

Zap’s first interstate trip was to race at Willowbank Raceway, Queensland, as part of the Wild Bunch series in 1991.

Bruno Massel III, an NHRA Comp Eliminator world champ and star TV personality, will unveil a new look for his Chevy Cobalt at the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals, Aug. 31 through Sept. 5 in Indianapolis.

“Vital Brew Coffee will be launching our new partnership at the U.S. Nationals next weekend where they will be the primary sponsor of my Comp Eliminator racing program for the 2023 season,” Massel said. “Coming off back-to-back final round appearances the past two weeks at the NHRA Heartland Nationals in Topeka and Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, it’s safe to say we have some momentum going our way heading into the US Nationals with Vital Brew Coffee onboard.

The last time Tommy Johnson Jr. competed fulltime in the NHRA he was in 2020 when he was driving a Funny Car for powerhouse Don Schumacher Racing.

That COVID-19 shortened season Johnson finished second in the season points and had three wins.

Without a ride in 2021, Johnson Jr. subbed in for fellow DSR nitro Funny Car pilot Matt Hagan, who was sidelined with COVID-19, for two races and won the Reading, Pa., event last fall.

It’s no secret that no entertainment device or system is capable of replicating the sound and feel of live professional drag racing. But the closest thing to doing so will be on the market Friday (Aug. 26), thanks to GameMill Entertainment.

That’s when the “NHRA Speed for All” video game will be released, bringing the most up-to-date version of drag racing gaming to fans on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC. The suggested retail price is $49.99, and the game can be purchased at Amazon and Walmart.

GameMill’s latest offering provides the player with realistic video and audio straight from trackside. The game includes tracks that currently host NHRA national events, and also some – such as Tucson (AZ) Dragway – that don’t, which allows players to experience facilities in every corner of the country.

NHRA Division 3 Director Will Tharpe could only stare at the collection of ten trophies and wonder what if?

He was at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Ky., preparing for this weekend's NHRA Division 3 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. Still, it was the one that needed to happen, that got away from him and drag racing. 

After two great days of racing to set the fields of the most recent NHRA North Central Divisional event at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., the skies opened and killed any hope of racing on Sunday, Aug. 7, at the facility, which had been closed since 2019.