Oftentimes when a person establishes a new company, they use their own name; Harry’s Auto Parts; or the name of the place it’s located; Spring Haven Auto Parts; or some bination of the both; Harry’s Spring Haven Auto Parts. Not so for Red Roberts.

After service to his country in the Army, Roberts went to work with Bill Hays and his successful Hays Clutches company. After the purchase of Hays Clutches by new owners and the elimination of Roberts’ position in 1968, Roberts continued his rise within the industry as the sales manager for Weber Speed Equipment, then owned by Harry Weber.

With his knowledge of clutches, Roberts branched out on his own, starting the clutch company that has become synonymous within the industry, McLeod Clutches. Where though did the name McLeod come from? 

It doesn't hurt to play both sides of the fence. Or in this case, Pro Modified standout Khalid alBalooshi will have both a centrifugal and roots-style supercharged entry in 2021. Here's his latest hot rod, a conventional supercharged entry, built by the fine folks at Jerry Bickel Race Cars. 

Emotion filled the voice of Manny Buginga as he talked about the FuelTech Outlaw Street Car Reunion VIII held at Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend. The event, which featured the renamed BCOP 275 (X275) class in Blake Copson’s honor, was the first time Buginga has his own Pro 275 car at the racetrack since Copson’s unexpected passing on March 6, 2021. 

The event featured the wild highs and lows of a drag race that ended in victory and a visit to the winner’s circle for the Buginga team, coupled with the waves of sadness knowing that Copson would never be able to share in the team’s victories again. Along with his own championship-winning Corvette, Copson piloted Buginga’s X275 car with massive success in recent years and was an accomplished driver with a string of wins under his belt, part of the new generation of drag racers the sport so desperately needs. 

A full house was on hand at Shadyside Dragway Apr. 17, for the second of 11 scheduled Southeast Gassers Association (SEGA) events this year. And thanks to an all-run policy for eliminations, for the first time in series history all four official classes--A/Gas, B/Gas, C/Gas and Super Stock--required five rounds of competition to determine race winners.  

Seventy-nine total entries of mandated 1967 or older body styles eventually were whittled down to winners Gabriel Burrell in A/Gas, T.J. York in B/Gas, Larry Noel in C/Gas, and Mark Hackett in Super Stock. None were repeat victors from the season opener last month in Holt, FL, but all were veteran SEGA drivers with multiple victories from past seasons.

The year was 1963. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the U.S. President and assassinated in November of that year. The Vietnam War began ramping up, and Zip Codes were introduced by the Postal Service. For us car guys, an AC Cobra made its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Closer to our drag racing world though, the NHRA formally announced the inaugural group of Division Directors; Darwin Doll, Buster Couch, Bob Daniels, Dale Ham, Darrel Zimmerman, Terrel Page and Bernie Partridge.

In December of 2020, we lost the last remaining member of that group, Darwin Doll when he passed away, but not before leaving a legacy that will last forever more. A crowd came together in April to pay homage to the man who had given so much of his life to the sport he loved. As a side note, 1963 was also the year Darwin and Pat Doll were married which began a partnership dedicated to our sport.

Greg Anderson envisioned a perfect last NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway next week.

His former mentor and fellow Pro Stock legend Warren Johnson would be out on the racetrack, going for his 98th victory, while Anderson tries to pull within one victory of the all-time class leader with a 96th and second of this young season.

In Anderson’s fantasy, Kurt Johnson, his sidekick from the early days and Warren’s 40-time-winner son, would be racing, too. After all, the Commerce, Ga., venue and property that the NHRA is selling for commercial development is just about 30 miles from the Johnsons’ homes at Sugar Hill.

Officials for World Wide Technology Raceway and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) announced the postponement of the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series regional event scheduled for this weekend (April 23-25) to September 30-October 3, due to weather concerns.

After consulting with a number of weather service providers, the decision was made to postpone the event, since the forecasts call for rain throughout the weekend. The decision was made early in an attempt to provide racers adequate time to alter travel plans.   

Tom Hammonds' new 1969 Camaro is not just another Camaro race car.

The former NBA superstar commissioned doorslammer artist Jerry Bickel to create an NMCA Extreme Street car like nothing before.

When describing the stock 3200-pound, 1969 Camaro as nothing like before, Bickel describes it as, "Having more engineering than we've ever put in a car."

Second-year, second-generation Pro Stock racer Kyle Koretsky has (the second-hand-ish) nickname “Kid Chaos.” It’s a play-on-words taken from dad Kenny Koretsky’s reputation as “Captain Chaos.” But Kyle Koretsky rather likes it.

“Yeah, I like it. Gives a little twist to it,” Koretsky, the newest KB Racing team who’ll turn 32 next month, said.

It’s fitting. He caused a little chaos in his previous appearance here, advancing to Pro Stock’s final round against Erica Enders at the 2020 Finals. (He missed his chance to earn a Wally trophy in his rookie season by leaving the starting line .051 of a second too early.)

Heading into the final NHRA Southern Nationals, May 1-2, Kalitta Motorsports wants to say thank you to all our loyal fans with a special promotional VIP hospitality offer. Fans heading to Atlanta Dragway can get a once-in-a-lifetime, all-inclusive experience with the multi-time world championship team. So far this season Kalitta Motorsports has been one of the most dominant teams on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series with J.R. Todd’s season-opening victory at the Gatornationals and Shawn Langdon’s runner-up finish. Last weekend at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Doug Kalitta took runner-up honors. Currently, Todd is No. 2 in Funny Car points while Langdon and Kalitta hold the No. 2 and No. 4 positions in Top Fuel, respectively.