It's been a long time since Jason Harris was a rookie drag racer.

In truth, he's only a rookie in 2020 in the sense that after a decade-and-a-half as a nitrous aficionado and two-time world PDRA champion, he's moved on to another method of boost; Pro Boost, to be exact.

And while he's still in search of his first Pro Boost victory entering this weekend's finale at Virginia Motorsports Park, he's a serious championship contender.

In fact, when the tour rolled into GALOT Motorsports Park for its Oct. 9-10 event, Harris held a narrow lead in the standings over John Strickland.

In a pandemic-crippled marketplace, learning how to market outside of the box can be the difference between success and failure. Forward-thinking marketing strategist/drag racer Alex Laughlin believes his decision to focus on using an influencer, social media-based marketing platform has made the difference in his survival in the rough and tumble world of drag racing sponsorship.

"There's no doubt about it that it has worked in our favor, especially with everybody being at home for so long," Laughlin said. And anything that you could do to be on social media because everybody's at home looking at their phones, right? And hell, so many people still are. From state to state and how all of the regulations differ, there's still plenty of places that people are not back in the office. They aren't back at work, especially people in the service industry in many other cities and states. They're still just kicking it.

First-year Top Fuel racer Justin Ashley, from Melville, New York, joined Pro Stock rookies Mason McGaha and Kyle Koretsky as the nominees for the 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year award it was announced today on NHRA.com. Ashley, whose father Mike won three NHRA Funny Car national events including the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 2007, had a stand out season which included a win at the NHRA Summernationals and a Top Ten finish in the Top Fuel category. With two races left Ashley could finish as high as 5th in the Camping World Top Fuel point standings.
 
“I think overall this Strutmasters.com Top Fuel team powered by MANSCAPED™ had a fantastic rookie season,” said Ashley, upon hearing the news of his nomination. “Just putting things in perspective we are racing the best drivers and teams in the world. These teams and drivers are the best at what they do so to be able to come out in our rookie season and just have an opportunity to be competitive and have a chance to win at every race we went to speaks volumes of our season. I also feel really good about how we represented ourselves off the track.”

For those of you on the east coast where drag strips are like convenience stores, out in the west that is not the case. 

However, smack dab in the middle of Washington State there is a track which has been operating for fifty years. Honestly, for the first forty years, it bounced back and forth between sanctioning bodies. And it had a bit of a rough reputation for not being, well the nicest facility in the world.

One main reason for the poor reputation was Proboscidea louisianica, a plant in the family Martyniaceae is native in parts of the western United States. The locals call them goat heads.  The goat head looks like a Chinese torture device..They will tear up your shoes, your feet and a race car tire in a heartbeat. It is a noxious weed that is harder to get rid of than cockroaches. 

The markers of autumn's start in Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley are evident every year. The leaves are beginning to turn, and the harvest has begun. And unlike the migratory birds that are headed South, Midwest vintage drag racers head North to Rock Falls Raceway and the annual Fall-Out Vintage Drags.  
Organized by Vintage Drag Racing 101, the 5th edition of The Fall-Out enjoyed its best car count yet at 160 cars. Unseasonably warm weather contributed to spectator attendance that surpassed all previous years at the spectacularly upgraded  quarter-mile facility just outside the city of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Featuring period-correct pre-1967 dragsters, gassers, and stockers racing in a classification format, The Fall-Out also included a car show, which enjoyed strong participation on both days, and the swap meet featuring many vendors trading in a wide assortment of vintage race car parts.

In drag racing's formative years, car clubs were at the forefront in organizing the sport in the post-war era. The Fall-Out shares that tradition, with several organizations participating, including Meltdown Drags Association, the Brew City Gassers, the Gopher State Timing Association, the Scavengers Car Club, and Who Are Those Guys? Car Club.

Longtime NHRA tuner Eric "Hop" Lane was killed on Monday evening after being struck and killed by a car while walking back from a restaurant last night near Mineral Wells, Texas.

Lane, 47, was from Avon, Ind. He worked the recently completed NHRA FallNationals with Cruz Pedregon Racing, where he joined the team for the last three races of 2019.

According to a statement issued by Cruz Pedregon Racing, the team was taking time off between the Dallas and Houston NHRA races to enjoy fishing and being together away from the track.

As far as race promoter Donald "Duck" Long is concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with his premier Radials vs. the World class.

Created by Long in 2010 as an official class to prove his beloved radial racers were every bit as good, as fast, and as worthy of respect as any of their slick-tired brethren, RVW initially pitted mostly front-halved, radials-clad rides in direct competition against similarly constructed cars with true 10.5-inch slicks out back.

Over the years, though, radial tires have grown in size to accommodate ever-escalating speeds and 33-inch tall, 10.5-inch wide slicks were allowed to meet similar needs. Additionally, the front-halved cars from both camps gradually began dropping out, giving way to full-tube-chassis machines.    Lately, though, Long is feeling tempted to push RVW to even farther reaches.

A 2020 season shortened and shifted by the COVID-19 public health crisis will conclude this weekend as the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) will crown its world champions at the Proline Racing Brian Olson Memorial World Finals, Oct. 22-25 at Virginia Motorsports Park. It’s the series’ sixth race in a season that was originally set to include eight events.
 
“There’s nothing like closing out the season with our biggest race of the year,” said Tyler Crossnoe, race director, PDRA. “In terms of car count and excitement, this race is always huge. We’re going to crown our 2020 world champions, hopefully set some new records and see some incredible racing.”

It started with a third-place qualifying position and finished with a trip to the winner's circle at South Georgia Motorsports Park. That was the basic path to X275 victory at No Mercy 11 for Blake Copson of Bridgewater, MA, who also won the Duck X Productions Magic 8 event earlier this year at Orlando, FL.  

Driving a turbocharged '03 Mustang Cobra for team owner Manny Buginga, Copson ran 4.23 in qualifying to follow only Dom DiDonato's 4.22 and Ron Rhodes at 4.21 seconds in the top spot over 41 entries for the 32-car field.

"Manny put together a hell of a team and I just want to thank him for trusting me," Copson said shortly after

Chassis builder Murf McKinney considers himself to be just one of many drag racing fans who was horrified when he watched as Larry Dixon's Top Fuel dragster broke apart back in March 2015. The chassis buckled, breaking the car in half, sending the driver's compartment into the air high above Gainesville Raceway, and the other half also into the air before landing on the track, sliding to a stop down track.

McKinney said to himself as he watched on in horror, "Never again."

If only someone could have heeded to McKinney's words quicker.