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Torco's Competitionplus.com has
learned that tomorrow, Wednesday, November 1, Norwalk Raceway Park and Summit
Racing Equipment will jointly announce that the Official Mail Order Company of
the NHRA has signed a 10-year agreement for the naming rights to the venerable
Ohio quarter mile facility.  The cumbersome official title
will be “Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park,” a moniker not likely to be
utilized by the media due to its length, but who are we to
criticize?  We’ve also heard that the deal includes a significant
six figure annual fee.

The NHRA has announced
the 2007 AC Delco Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will return
to its original date on the last weekend of October.  Previously announced for the weekend of October 18-21,
the date change moved the race away from the weekend prior to the SEMA Show, and
also took if off the Friday statewide Nevada Day holiday, two factors that
undoubtedly had a very positive impact on this year’s exceptional Friday and
weekend-long spectator and industry turnouts.  Vocal protests from track management apparently didn’t
fall on deaf ears, with next year’s race date now slated for the weekend of
October 25-28.

Brian Olson, veteran announcer and chief backer-upper for Cory McClenathan,
learned this weekend that a lost bet can sometimes be a painful and embarrassing
situation.

Olson made the comment in Richmond to GM head man Fred
Simmonds, “If we win this race – the next event I’ll wear all pink when I go out
to back up Cory.”Being the manly man that Olson is one can only imagine the look
on his face when the Richmond victory celebration subsided and

Could Jack Beckman return to Top Fuel in 2007? No one knows – including
him.

“No comment,” Beckman answered when asked about it.

“It’s a
no comment because I just don’t know. I’ve heard the rumor from two other
people. I just don’t know. I’ve always wanted to be a professional nitro driver
and I’ve always expressed that in all of my stories and interviews. I want to be
a full-time nitro racer. If the deal comes through for this – it will be a Dodge
Charger with all the same guys. We are working on the money end of things now. I
think when the money end closes that we can answer the questions a lot
better.”

George Howard broke some more new ground this past weekend with his
First
Annual $100,000 Footbrake Classic at Montgomery Motorsports Park. 
The
happiest guy in the place Saturday night was Afton, Missouri racer Dan
Smith
who bested 79 other Footbrakers to take home the big check, the lion's
share
of the biggest payday ever for Footbrakers.

The second annual Heads Up Nationals will be held this
weekend, November 3-4 at Emerald Coast Dragway in Holt, Florida, near Pensacola
and just off I-10. The race will help benefit the National Cancer Society,
according to track manager Johnny Jordan.

On tap will be races in the anything-goes Outlaw Pro Mod
Eliminator, and already signed on for the class is NHRA fuel Funny Car pilot
and Pro Modder Mike Ashley, as well as about a dozen others. Also contested
will be ORSCA Outlaw 10.5 cars, ORSCA Limited Street, 5.30-, 6.0- and
7.0-indexed door cars, plus Emerald Coast’s own Real Street Eliminator. Info: www.emeraldcoastdragway.com.     

It took only four times for Torco's CompetitionPlus.com columnist Jack Beckman
to figure out how to win in a nitro-burner.

"Since Don Schumacher hired
me, it's been a steep, steep learning curve," said Beckman in the winner's
circle, "but I had a lot of help. Frank's (Hawley) been working with me some,
(Ron) Capps, (Gary) Scelzi, Mike Ashley. We sit down and talk. I had a lot of
help from my teammates at DSR. And it really is a team. It's a business
enterprise, but there really is a sense that we're pulling for each other. When
Richie won I couldn't jump up and down (because) I was strapped in the Funny
Car, and when Tony won, we were all happy for him. To get to share the podium
with two teammates up here it's just an amazing culmination to the day.

"And, God, I'm looking over there at the Matco Tools Funny Car and that's the
baddest group of crew members over there. Those nine guys, they're the ones that
made that car run.

David Baca didn't win the event but was a distant first place in the special
"powerslide" competition on Sunday.

If you can't win the race, be
spectacular. Those words summed up the sixth annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA
Nationals for Mach 1 Air Services Top Fuel driver David Baca.

Baca lost
with a 4.585 opposite of Brandon Bernstein only to find out his 320.66 mph
quarter-mile pass would not be slowed by the aid of his twin parachutes, which
failed to deploy after the finish line.

The Goodguys season-ending
Fuel & Gas Finals November 3-5 at Auto Club Famoso Raceway will serve as the
second and final event of the 2006 Goodguys Championship Series and is shaping
up to be a mad dash for championship glory. What was supposed to be a four-race
series this year turned into a two-race series following rainouts of the March
Meet in Bakersfield and the Northwest Nostalgia
Nationals in Seattle. With all 14 class championships on the
line at the upcoming Fuel & Gas Finals, each qualifying session and each
round of eliminations will take on added significance.

Championship point’s battles are extremely tight in six
of the fourteen Goodguys classes. Less than 20 points (one round of racing)
separate the number one and number two point’s earners in Top Fuel, Funny Car,
Junior Fuel, AA/GAS, A/GAS and Hot Rod Eliminator. Of those six classes, none of
the current point’s leaders have won Goodguys/VRA Championships. 

Scott Parks (Junior Fuel), John Rasmussen (Junior Fuel
B), Don Taros (Nostalgia Eliminator), Craig Wallace (Nostalgia III) and Ed Carey
(D/GAS) are currently leading their divisions and are seeking repeat
championships. For Parks, based in Burlingame, KS
and Wallace – they are seeking their 4th consecutive Goodguys/VRA
Championship. Taros, meanwhile is seeking his unprecedented 5th
straight class Championship in Nostalgia
Eliminator.