Steve Torrence, the reigning three-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion, flexed his muscles again Friday in Q1 at the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Torrence clocked a 3.741-second pass at 328.94 mph to capture the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot in the Capco Contractors family-owned dragster.

Like for many drag racers, the last 13 months have been crazy for two-time NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion Robert Hight.

Hight won the world title in 2019 and then in 2020 he only competed in the season’s first two races before John Force Racing parked its operation because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE BONINFANTE GROUP has hired Tom Kundrik, one of the most respected key players in the drag racing and performance industry, to come on board as ProTorque’s Director of Motorsports and Sales, effective immediately.

Over the years, ProTorque’s commitment to quality and customer service has been a major proponent in the company’s tremendous growth and success. Now, ProTorque’s president, Joe Rivera, is making bold moves to continue to improve the company’s service and support.

“ProTorque has added an industry icon to our team,” stated Rivera, whose proactive insights enabled Kundrik’s hire. “Tommy is joining us to handle what we believe will be an overwhelming response to the new, patent-pending technology we have in development and which has already set records.”

NHRA announced today that Capital City Motorsports Park has signed on as the newest NHRA member track in the NHRA Southeast Division.
 
Located in Montgomery, Alabama, Capital City Motorsports Park is overseen by owner Ben Willis. Willis and his team coordinate racing and facility operations at the facility.

If you’ve paid attention to radial-tire drag racing for any length of time, you will recognize this Mustang — it’s the record-setting, race-winning Mustang formerly owned by Josh Klugger. The Mustang is the first car to ever crack into the 5-second zone in the quarter-mile on the radial tire, the first car into the 3-second zone in the eighth-mile in the Pro 275 class, and also captured an NMCA Radial Wars championship. It’s safe to say that it’s part of radial-tire racing history and has been one of the trendsetters over the last several years.

But nearly every car finds a new owner at some point, and this legendary machine is no exception to that rule. A couple of years ago, New Englander Peter Volpe purchased the car and raced it a couple of times in Pro 275 with his father Peter Sr., then put his plans on hold when rules makers allowed Pro Mod cars into that class — until now. A planned winter revamp turned into more of an overhaul, and his team prepared the car for its assault on the Limited Drag Radial class.

As the 2021 NHRA Camping World season rolls on this weekend in Las Vegas at the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, so does the business to business partnerships with Stringer Performance and Mainline Sales Inc. MSI National, a Mainline Sales Inc. Company, has expanded their current race sponsorship to include a new product line from their manufacturer portfolio with GARAGEpipe, a division of the Phoenix, Arizona based AIRpipe USA.

“We love our partners and when MSI National introduced us to GARAGEpipe we knew instantly that they would be a great fit going forward with our race teams. Fans are going to be impressed with the ingenuity and engineering behind their products.” remarks excited team owner, Doug Stringer.

GARAGEpipe is an innovative collection of air pipe that is designed and packaged for the customer looking to install or replace an existing air system in any garage, workspace or even that man (or woman) cave. The unique design and construction offers aluminum pipe with reinforced fittings that can be customized to fit into most spaces with the option of having 1 to 5 stations which gives the consumer amazing flexibility when it comes to their air system needs.

John Bartunek felt like he had a calling. After years of racing in fast doorslammer categories, the transplanted North Carolinian took a backseat to driving and instead helped friends. Still, Bartunek felt a calling to the drag strip.

"When you drag race your whole life, you always dream of doing something," Bartunek said. "I think the drag strip is just kind of a calling. I always wanted to own a drag strip, and this one came up here. And since I retired, I thought it'd be a good time."

Bartunek finalized his purchase of Union County Dragway, an all-concrete eighth-mile drag strip located in Union, South Carolina, right in the middle of Spartanburg and Columbia.

John Zappia has successfully defended his Direct Mining & Industrial Summer Slam championship after wrapping up the title on Saturday at Perth Motorplex.

Zappia's Dananni Hotshots/Tony's Auto Wreckers Monaro Top Doorslammer was in near flawless form, clocking the quickest time of the 2020/21 Summer Slam in what was acclaimed as the season's best event.

“We came out for the first run, and the car left hard with a 0.975 60 foot and rattled the tyres, so I pedalled and short shifted second and we still came up with a 5.72 at 256mph,” he said.

Jason Rupert knew he needed to call an audible as time grew short for this weekend’s Denso NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas. That said, Rupert selected Jonnie Lindberg to serve as his interim driver while he procures his driving credentials for NHRA competition.  

Rupert, who is also a three-time Funny Car champion in NHRA's Heritage Series has been working towards procuring his big show competition license but as time for the event came closer for the event, it became apparent it wasn't going to happen. 

Rupert made incremental passes this winter to shake down the new car earlier this year in Bakersfield, Ca.