Peaceful coexistence was nothing more than wishful thinking when it came to the nitrous versus supercharger combination racing in the Quick Eights, during the formative years of Pro Modified. The nitrous to blown ratio at the time was roughly nine to one on the IHRA tour and even lesser in the southeastern Quick Eight events.

Walter Henry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, lived in the middle of the nitrous action, yet fought tirelessly for supercharged inclusion into the Quick Eights and later Pro Modified.If you had a supercharger, you might as well have been a leper.

There might have been a blown car in the mix from time to time, but in the southeast, the blown cars were largely “California” cars and that stuff just didn’t fly out on the east coast where most of the IHRA races were.  And, the nitrous cars didn’t really concern themselves with the racers with the appendage protruding from the hood.

For the past eight years, clutch specialist and successful sportsman racer Dallas Glenn has been fully immersed in Pro Stock and with the help of RAD Torque Systems and Silver State Plumbing, a lifelong dream of driving in the factory hot rod class is coming to fruition in 2021.
 
“RAD Torque Systems and Silver State Plumbing have really made this Pro Stock dream a reality for me,” Glenn revealed. “I’ve been dreaming of racing Pro Stock since I was a little kid and when Jason [Line] and Bo [Butner] stepped away from driving last year, there was a car available. RAD Torque Systems and Silver State Plumbing stepped up and it was a no-brainer.”

Scotty Pollacheck had a season to remember in 2020.

The veteran Pro Stock Motorcycle racer finished a career-best third in the NHRA season points standings and won his inaugural national event title, capturing the crown at the Denso U.S. Nationals Sunday at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis in September.

Pollacheck will try to continue his success in 2021 as he will be back with Matt Smith Racing piloting a Gen 2 Erik Buell Racing motorcycle, the same one he drove in 2020.

“We are back with Matt and Denso came on as a primary sponsor and Strutmasters is sticking with us for a third year in a row,” Pollacheck said. “We are not really changing a lot. Michael Ray is still going to be the crew guy for us, and Matt is going to do like he always does, the tuning. Last year was awesome other than the (COVID-19 pandemic) that shut down stuff.

Aftermarket parts supplier Edelbrock is closing its Torrance, California, headquarters and manufacturing plant and shifting its operations to separate facilities in-state and across the country. 

Edelbrock’s administrative offices will be moved to a 300,000-square-foot facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi, while most manufacturing processes will be transferred to its San Jacinto, California, plant, located about 95 miles east of Torrance.   

When asked about the move, Edelbrock Group Chief Commercial Officer Chris Douglas cited the company’s merger with COMP Performance Group in early 2020 as a primary factor. “We had seven campuses between us across the country,” he explained, “so it made a lot of business sense to sit down and ask, ‘What skill sets do we have at these various locations, and where can we make our organization stronger and combine efficiency?’ 

How fitting that Jim Halsey's nitrous-huffing '68 Camaro figured so prominently on posters and online advertising for the annual U.S. Street Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park. The current PDRA Pro Nitrous World Champion lived up to the pre-race hype Jan. 31, driving his multi-hued machine to a very tight holeshot victory over screw-blown rival Todd Tutterow in the Carmark Engineering Outlaw Pro Mod final.

"Pretty cool to win like that, especially when you're up against guys like Tutterow with these big, badass blower cars. It's kind of tough for us," admitted Halsey, who eked out a three-thousandths-of-a-second margin of victory thanks to leaving with a .012 advantage off the start. 

The Funny Car Chaos and Outlaw Fuel Altered series are excited to welcome Victory Lane Quick Oil Change of Plano, Texas as the presenting sponsor of our season-opening event, “Nitro Madness at the Motorplex” on Friday & Saturday, March 26-27th in Ennis, Texas. This partnership also offers exclusive coupons and special contests for race fans as we near the big race weekend. Victory Lane of Plano is the newest franchise to hit the DFW Metroplex and is owned by esteemed Top Fuel and Funny Car crew chief Jim Oberhofer. The Oberhofer family has decades of history in drag racing across the United States and is thrilled to offer a special promotion only available at Victory Lane Quick Oil Change of Plano, Texas.

Race fans can take advantage of two exclusive special offers both in-store and online. Headlining the special program is our “Crew Member of the Day” contest where one lucky winner will be named an official crew member of 2X Funny Car Chaos World Champion Ken Singleton and the “High Risk” team! This package includes event admission for the winner and one guest, exclusive behind the scenes access in the pits and on the starting line with the team, as well as a special Funny Car Chaos + Outlaw Fuel Altered goody bag stuffed with series merch and more! You can only sign up in-store at 1161 W. Parker Road of Plano, Texas and sign-ups will be open starting this weekend.

Despite racing with heavy hearts after track worker Daniel "Chaps" Stone was killed in an on-track accident Friday night, management, staff and competitors at south Florida's historic Bradenton Motorsports Park pressed on Jan. 29-31, to complete the annual U.S. Street Nationals presented by Diamond Pistons.

Beyond the obviously tragic accident that also involved Pro 275 racer Paul Major, it was a remarkably clean race with no other accidents, on-track incidents, or even major cleanups throughout the rest of the weekend. 

Wrapping up about 8:30 Sunday night, reigning PDRA Pro Nitrous champ Jim Halsey emerged as 2021 U.S. Street Nats Outlaw Pro Mod champion in his '68 Camaro, barely edging out number-one qualifier Todd Tutterow in the final round.

Randy Meyer Racing didn’t have to look far to find a new primary driver when Megan Meyer announced her retirement last year, as her sister, Rachel, has been named Megan’s replacement. Rachel will drive the newly rebranded NTK Sensors A/Fuel dragster tuned and owned by her father, Randy Meyer.   
 
“This is something I have always dreamt of doing with my family and I’m excited I finally get the chance,” said Rachel Meyer, a product design engineer. “I’m lucky to have bosses who will work with my work schedule and allow me to take off to go racing, as well as NGK and Lucas Oil for helping me out this upcoming season.”  

WFLA.com has confirmed a Bradenton Motorsports Park [BMP] employee died on Friday afternoon after being struck by a race car during the 2021 U.S. Street Nationals.

The incident happened when a race car reportedly experienced a hung throttle and struck Daniel Stone, 56, while traveling at a high rate of speed. The report confirmed Stone died at the scene. Officials canceled the rest of the day's competition.

The Manatee County Sheriff's department arrived on the scene at about 7:40 PM.