The Mickey Thompson Tires Top Fuel Harley Series has been added to the competition roster for the upcoming Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil, Aug. 6-9 at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. 

The event will be the fourth of the season for the thrilling class, where riders cover the quarter-mile in just over six seconds at speeds approaching 240 mph astride their two-wheeled, nitromethane-fueled machines.

Darrell Zimmerman, one of NHRA’s original division directors handpicked by NHRA founder Wally Parks in 1959 to oversee NHRA’s West Central Division comprising the nation’s vast Midwest breadbasket states, died July 29, just two days shy of his 87th birthday.

Zimmerman, who grew up hot rodding cars in Big Springs, Neb., in the late 1940s, where street racing was the means of expressing their need for speed. But in 1954 Zimmerman and a group of friends were able to convince the local county commissioners to hold a drag race on the straightaway of the local oval track.

After more than 15 years of outfitting race teams with high-performance parts, Don Schumacher Motorsports Precision Manufacturing (DSM) is pleased to announce it is expanding into the automotive, defense, equipment/manufacturing, and aerospace industries.
 
Established in 2005, DSM was founded as a specialty parts manufacturer and R&D center for Don Schumacher Racing’s (DSR) fleet of championship-winning NHRA race cars, and has since grown to become one of the leading parts suppliers for race teams competing across multiple motorsports industries. Among its most high-profile projects are the DSM engine block and cylinder head assembly, utilized across the DSR teams, and a collaboration with Mopar, SRT, and BES Racing Engines to offer a variety of parts and components for the Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak race car. DSM is heavily involved in the NHRA’s popular Factory Stock Showdown Series, offering on-site parts support to Drag Pak owners, and was instrumental in Leah Pruett’s 2018 Factory Stock Showdown Series title campaign.

NHRA has announced that the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties at Heartland Motorsports Park, scheduled for Aug. 21-23 in Topeka, Kan., has been postponed until the fall with an exact date to be determined, for pandemic-related reasons.

NHRA and Heartland Motorsports Park are working together with the Shawnee County Health Department to develop a plan to reschedule the event.

After meeting with officials from the Jefferson County Health Department July 27-28, Bandimere Speedway isn’t going to shut down.
 
John “Sporty” Bandimere III said the speedway will remain open, but under strict conditions.

Bandimere Speedway is in Morrison, Colo., 20 minutes from Denver. Bandimere Speedway has been hosting races for 63 years.

CompetitionPlus.com learned Tuesday afternoon that Mike Salinas, the owner and driver of the Scrappers Racing Top Fuel dragster, is going to sit out the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Series racing season.

Salinas will be joined on the sidelines by his daughters, Jianna, who pilots a Pro Stock Motorcycle, and Jianna’s older sister, Jasmine, who drives an A-Fuel dragster.

The 67th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts World Series of Drag Racing event at Cordova International Raceway in Cordova, Illinois has been postponed. The event has been rescheduled for August 27-29, 2021. 

It has been a while since champion racer and ANDRA board member Peter Kapiris turned a tire under power on a drag strip, not just due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also thanks to work and financial demands.
 
Even so, when the time comes that these three issues line up the right way for the Victorian Operations Officer for family farming business, Kapiris Bros, he will be ready and rearing to go.
 
“I have kept up with the latest and greatest technology with the car. Even though financially and with work commitments I am not in a position to race at the moment, the car is absolutely ready to go and challenge immediately, we haven’t been letting it just sit,” Kapiris explained.

When major league baseball legend Babe Ruth called his legendary shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Stadium, and then delivered on the bold move, it was the stuff legends were built on. 

Friday evening, just ahead of the final Radial vs. The World qualifying session at the Magic 8 Drag Radial event promoted by Duck X Promotions, a lesser figure in world sports history pulled off a similar feat. However, instead of pointing a wooden bat at the fence, iconic small tire racer Stevie “Fast” Jackson made a proclamation as well. 

He intended to qualify No. 1, so as to not have to race teammate Marcus Birt in the final round of the event in Orlando, Fla. For Jackson, showing confidence and similar bravado is nothing new for the Evans, Ga.-based driver. Sometimes he hits, sometimes he doesn’t.