In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) has decided to postpone the series’ season-opening East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech at GALOT Motorsports Park in Benson, N.C, series officials announced today. Originally scheduled for April 2-4, the race will be made up at a date to be determined later.
 
“We waited an extra week to see if things would calm down, but at this time we feel it’s best to postpone the East Coast Nationals,” said Tyler Crossnoe, series director, PDRA. “Without knowing what's going to happen next with this coronavirus, it's hard to lock down a make-up date. As time passes and we get closer to knowing when this will be over, we'll look at our options and we’ll announce a new plan as soon as it's safe to get back to racing.”

The season opener of the 2020 Red Line Shirt Club Funny Car Chaos Championship Series presented by Entech Oil took place March 13th and 14th at Pine Valley Raceway in Lufkin, Texas. This event marked the first major event of the new decade at Pine Valley and over 2,000 spectators and racers made it through the gates for two days of Funny Car-filled fun and entertainment. Thankfully, not a single drop of rain landed on the property and the Funny Car Chaos racers put on a great show.

The year was 1997 and when the NHRA schedule rolled around to the second Houston race of the season, which took place in late October at Houston Raceway Park, the entry list had a new name on it -- Jeg Coughlin Jr. By the end of the weekend, the record books also included that name as the surprise winner of the event.

Although he was a well-respected and championship-winning driver in the Sportsman ranks, Coughlin's late-year foray to Baytown, Texas, marked just his second start in Pro Stock. He had debuted the prior weekend in Dallas and had plans to finish the year in Pomona, Calif., but he was mainly thinking about getting a little seat time and prepping for the 1998 season.

With the National Hot Rod Association currently on hiatus due to the growing COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, leading online drag racing magazine Competition Plus has decided to fill the gap with a fun, new online drag racing league.

The Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association (VHRA) founded by CompetitionPlus.com launched this week on CompetitionPlus.com with an online, fan-vote style competition complete with multiple rounds of qualifying and eliminations.

With NHRA drag racing at a standstill because of the coronavirus pandemic, Matt Smith is trying to make the best of the situation.

Smith, a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion, the last coming in 2018, said his team is keeping busy.

Leah Pruett isn’t shy in front of a TV camera and she isn’t afraid to meet with marketing decision-makers, something fans have come to expect from the driver of an 11,000-horsepower dragster who has run at speeds more than 334 miles an hour. But her boss is starting to think of her admirably frenzied quest for sponsorship dollars and social-media supremacy as a “distraction.”

She clearly is proud of her message to the younger crop of drag-racing fans and proud of her ability to stay afloat in the sport when other talented racers have been sidelined with financial concerns.

Paul Noakes, driver of the Tri Corp Transportation Dragster for Leverich Racing, had one wish for this weekend.

He said, “The biggest message that I've got is I hopefully get a round-win so I can at least say one thing on the TV: Don't give up your dreams.”

Like almost the entire sports world, NHRA drag racing is stuck in idle because of the coronavirus pandemic.

On March 16, the NHRA announced it was suspending all NHRA drag racing for 30 days in response to the situation.

The Santo’s Super Thunder meeting scheduled for Good Friday, April 10 at Willowbank Raceway, Queensland has been cancelled.