Defending world champion Jim Halsey picked up right where he left off at the end of the 2020 season by qualifying No. 1 in Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous at the season-opening Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech. Driving his Brandon Switzer-tuned ’68 Camaro, Halsey recorded a 3.65-second pass at 207.08 mph in the third and final qualifying session at GALOT Motorsports Park Friday night. 

Famoso Dragstrip has announced that a limited supply of spectator tickets are now available for the Good Vibrations March Meet, presented by Lucas Oil, taking place May 27-30, 2021

The state of California announced that as of April 1st it will allow venues to have a limited number of spectators. Famoso hasn’t been able to have any spectators attend drag races since last spring when shutdowns due to the pandemic occurred.

“We are so excited to have spectators at this year’s March Meet,” said Blake Bowser, Vice President of Famoso Dragstrip. “Race fans need to act fast though, because at this time we are limited to 20% capacity and this supply of tickets will sell out quickly.”

Don’t even consider that, at age 80, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme is too old for off-road racing.

And not just a little off-road action, but a lot.

Later this month, Prudhomme will compete in the NORRA Mexican 1000, a 1,000-mile race contested over five days. It will be his third consecutive outing in the marathon test; last year’s event was scratched due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prudhomme’s first attempt at such a race came in 1968, when he was chosen to drive a car owned by actor Steve McQueen when the latter’s movie-making schedule had to take priority. The engine burned up before the car ever got to the course.

This has been a long time coming for Top Fuel driver Greg Carrillo.

After not racing since July 21, 2019, mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carrillo will finally return to the track at NHRA’s Denso Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 16-18.

“I didn’t want to go through all this work and get people going like we did last year (2020) for Denver and you get everybody ready to go and you get sponsorship and you put all that work and effort into it and then the next thing you know, there’s no race,” Carrillo said. “I don’t want to put all this work into it and have nothing. 

Professional football player Fletcher Cox reached the pinnacle of success in February 2018, earning a Super Bowl ring when his Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots.

Three years later, Cox, who owns a front-running team in Drag Radial competition, is looking for a ring of another sort.

The 6-foot, 4 inch, 310-pound defensive tackle wants to see his driver Shawn Ayers win a Duck X Productions event. They've made it to the big dance before and nearly did again last weekend at the Sweet 16 4.0 event.

Tommy Johnson Jr. scored 21 NHRA national event victories in NHRA competition while racing Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Top Alcohol Funny Car. He also won four IHRA national events behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster and one while racing Top Alcohol Funny Car.

None of this success, he says, would have been possible if he hadn't been born the son of Tommy Johnson Sr.

"That's definitely for sure," Johnson said. "He loved drag racing more than anybody I know, and he grew back in the day, everybody would street race, and that's what; everybody he took it to the track right away when he had the chance, and that's where he took me. He and my mom met, and then they went to the drag races, and then when I was born, we continued to go to the drag races. So I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for him."

From 2017-2019, Aaron Strong didn’t do any racing in NHRA’s Pro Stock ranks.

Strong, who won the 2016 Seattle event, which was completed at the U.S. Nationals and beat Vincent Nobile in the finals, was back in the seat at the end of the 2020 season following an out-of-the blue text from Pro Stock team owner Richard Freeman.

“Richard sent me a text that said, ‘Is your Pro Stock license current?’ I texted back ‘yes.’ Then, I sent him back a text that said ‘Why?’,” Strong said. “He said Friday (Oct. 30) at noon that (Bob) Benza’s not going to race and if I could get down there, I could race the car. I woke up Friday morning not knowing I was going to race the car and my wife and kids got on a plane and I was going down the track Saturday. I hadn’t been down a dragstrip since the World Finals in 2016 at Pomona, (Calif.).” 

When you’re an 18-year-old nitro Funny Car driver, you’re bound to experience new things with each race.

That will be the case for Bobby Bode when he competes at NHRA’s Denso Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 16-18.

Bobby will be competing in his inaugural Four-Wide race. Bob, Bobby’s father/team owner and fellow nitro Funny Car driver, has talked to his son about what it is like competing in a Four-Wide national event because he has done it several times.

One week removed from the season opener for the Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service, veteran driver and MWDRS owner Keith Haney remained grateful a wild qualifying mishap didn't preclude a runner-up finish in the series' unique consolation Pro Mod Slammers race.

Running in the right lane at Xtreme Raceway Park (XRP) in Ferris, TX, Haney's 2019 "Black Mamba" Camaro launched hard, but just before halfway down the strip it abruptly lost traction and skidded to its left. Fortunately, Haney was on a solo pass as the car slid sideways and almost turned over, crossing the eighth-mile finish line in the opposite lane with the bottom of its Jerry Bickel-built chassis in full display to the starting area.

Steve Jackson's run to the RVW crown at Sweet 16 Apr. 1-3, began with a 3.59-seconds qualifying run that placed him fifth behind top qualifier Daniel Pharris, who ran a record-setting and historic 3.49, as it marked the first official radial tire pass in the 3.40s.

In the first pair out for eliminations Jackson opened with a 3.61 at 206.86-mph solo pass after Casey Bushmeyer's '63 Corvette was shut off on the line due to leakage. That set up a second-round clash of teammates as Jackson's screw-blown 2015 Camaro went up against the nitrous-breathing C7 Corvette of fellow Georgian Marcus Birt.

"We went out and just smoked the engine in the first round; I mean, just burned it up bad. Fire-slotted the block and the heads, a head gasket, and caught the car on fire. We had to change engines real quick after that with not a lot of time," Jackson said.