Johnny West has been around drag racing since the 1970s, driving Funny Cars.

He drove for respected owners, including Roland Leong and fellow Arizonian Johnny Loper and reached three final rounds.

Harkening back to his days of racing is what’s driving West these days as he’s piloting a fuel altered.

“Three or four years ago a partner of mine and I decided to build a true fuel altered more like in the classic 1980s type of thing and go back to the plan A days when I first started out racing,” West said. “It kind of picked up from there and now we are trying to promote this classical type of fuel altered, a real fuel altered. We are trying not have a Funny Car type of chassis that has a whole bunch of wings on it and some sort of a makeshift body and call it a fuel altered.”

The Southeast Gassers Association (SEGA) began its tenth year of operations Mar. 20, with its 2021 season opener at Emerald Coast Dragway in Holt, FL. It marked SEGA's second trip to the eighth-mile strip on the Florida panhandle in just four months as it also hosted last year's final SEGA event.  

Four official SEGA classes ran down the track, where 62 total entries of strictly 1967 or older body styles were eventually narrowed down to winners Ben Christopher in A/Gas, Ken Rainwater in B/Gas, Larry Floyd in C/Gas, and Robert Peffley in Super Stock. Beginning at noon, in just over nine hours the typically tight SEGA show delivered two rounds of qualifying, all eliminations, and even winner's circle celebrations.

Elapsed times and speeds are not reported by SEGA, as founder and promoter Quain Stott prefers instead to focus attention on close, heads-up racing without creating pre-determined favorites based solely on stats.

Two-time NHRA champion Del Worsham understands when he rolls through the Texas Motorplex gates next Thursday for the Funny Car Chaos season-opener, he will do so with a target firmly etched on his back.

Worsham is a Big Show regular making the bounty on beating him at a premium.

In the interest of fair reporting, the opportunistic opponents will be gunning for Worsham's reputation, which is as top-notch as it gets. However, he's coming to race with pretty much the same outfit as many of his adversaries have.

"We have a 40-foot gooseneck trailer and a duallie that we use for licensing and upgrading," Worsham said, and when we go run the Alcohol Dragster that I grew up running."

Troy Coughlin Jr. didn’t waste any time getting comfortable in the Camaro his uncle Jeg drove last year for Elite Motorsports.

Coughlin Jr. advanced all the way to the final round of the season-opening AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway March 14 before losing to Greg Anderson.

“It felt good just to be back out there in front of a bunch of fans and have the chance to compete,” Coughlin Jr. said. “It was great to come out and do well with our group and I really enjoy being with my guys on the team.”

At the Gators, Coughlin Jr. defeated his teammate Aaron Stanfield, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and Mason McGaha before falling to Anderson when his Camaro shook the tires.

A full day of racing was contested on Friday at South Georgia Motorsports Park as a generous assortment of Stock and Super Stock racers brought their best to the table. The event on Friday marked the first of three $20,000 races at the inaugural Johnson's Horsepowered Garage Southern Sportsman Showdown, and it was an enthusiastic battle of muscle and wit. In the end, it all came down to a Stock versus Super Stock final round in which Aaron Allison emerged victorious over Marion Stephenson.
 
The margin of victory in their close race was just .008-second. Allison clocked a .024 reaction time to Stephenson's .073 and ran 9.017 (8.95 dial) to a 10.296 (10.27).
 
"This race is who's who of Super Stock," said Allison, the NHRA Division 3 Super Stock champion in 2016. "You look around, everybody is a world champ or national event winner, so this is really big."

SEMA is on track to deliver an exciting in-person SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) November 2-5, 2021. With exhibits included in the LVCC’s newly constructed West Hall, the entire SEMA Show floorplan will be optimized and offers room for new features and enhancements for an improved overall attendee experience.

“The industry is eager to reconnect,” said Chris Kersting, SEMA president and CEO. “The return to an in-person SEMA Show gives resellers a chance to engage with an amazing gathering of suppliers, new products, stunning vehicle builds and networking opportunities. We are excited to provide our industry with a world-class marketplace that will help them grow and expand their businesses.”

Keeping up with the Joneses in a class like the NMCA’s Dart NA 10.5 class takes grit, determination, and in many cases, cubic dollars to fill the 400-plus cubic-inch naturally aspirated engines in the front-running cars. New Jersey’s Rick Riccardi has no grit and determination shortage, but the longtime racer doesn’t have the same pocketbook depth as some of the other racers in the class.

An on-track incident at Atlanta Dragway in 2015 turned his 1980 Mercury Capri onto its lid and pushed him into a chassis rebuild. With the assistance of Matt Wirt Racefab Engineering and many other supporters, Riccardi completed the rebuild and got back into action in 2016 but pulled back not long after, vowing to put together a brand-new engine combination that would be up-to-date with others in the class.

Riccardi is one of those hands-on competitors with a burning desire to understand the function of every component attached to his machine. To satisfy his urges, he’s worked hand-in-hand with longtime engine builder and induction specialist Dave Jack of Dave Jack Cylinder Heads to develop a state-of-the-art small-block Ford that he expects to run at the front of the NA 10.5 pack.

There was plenty of talk and plenty written about the expected changes in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class in NHRA’s Camping World Series in 2021.

There was change at the season-opening AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway March 12-14.

By the weekend’s conclusion, it was more of the same.

World champion Matt Smith was the race winner and his Matt Smith Racing team also had a strong outing as one his teammates – Scotty Pollacheck advanced to the semifinals before losing to Ryan Oehler.

For at least a decade, success seemed to come easily for Funny Car racer John Force. His reputation morphed from leaker to legend almost as fast as his 337.33-mph career-best speed. He seemed untouchable, even sold T-shirts with the word emblazoned on them. As if 2007 (the year the sport lost John Force Racing rising star Eric Medlen and nearly lost Force, as well, in a catastrophic accident at Texas Motorplex) weren’t jarring enough, along came 2020. Coronavirus and all its attending issues had a negative impact on everyone to some degree. But for Force, a man with a staggering $8 million payroll, the pandemic packed an especially powerful punch.

Force planned to come back with his full four-car team as soon as the sanctioning body gave everyone the green light. In the meantime, he tried to keep all of his employees working, even against the adamant advice of his attorneys. He tried to remain loyal to his staff, his sport, and himself. But overwhelming financial dictates made him do something decidedly un-John-Force-ish: throw in the towel for a full year. He said he couldn’t bring himself even to say “coronavirus” or “COVID-19.” He just called it “19.” He dreaded it for its ruinous potential, both medically and financially, and finally had to admit that he had found an enemy tougher and meaner and more unforgiving than he ever thought nemesis Al Hofmann could be.

But just like he did when he was young and lived in his car parked in brother Walker’s driveway and existed daily on a boiled egg and soda pop, John Force survived. Nothing coronavirus threw at him could stop him. Walker Force wasn’t surprised. Years ago, he said of the brother called a daredevil, “You can knock him down, whip him, stomp on him, but the next day he’ll be knocking on your door.”   

A change of scenery to a new team didn’t stop veteran crew chief John Collins from getting results.

Collins, in his first race with owner/driver Cruz Pedregon, guided the former world champion to a semifinal-round finish at the season-opening AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway March 14.

“It was all good,” Collins said. “I was hoping for a little bit more. We still have a little bit of work to do on the car, performance-wise. The parts are a little different, but as far as Cruz and his organization I couldn’t ask for any more than what he has been doing. He has given us everything we’ve needed and everything we’ve asked for.”

Pedregon qualified No. 7 with a 3.971-second run. He then proceeded to defeat Chad Green with a 3.973-second lap at 322.81 mph in round one.