An NHRA spokesperson confirmed on Friday the sanctioning body is planning to go in a different direction with its chief starter personnel. As of now, it appears Mike Gittings, who is the fourth full-time starter (Buster Couch, Rick Stewart, and Mark Lyle) in NHRA, could be the final one.

"NHRA is going in a new direction regarding the structure and role of the starter position," Jessica Hatch, NHRA's spokesperson said in a prepared statement delivered to CompetitionPlus.com.

Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com that the NHRA plans to employ regional and divisional starters for 2019.

Like Shawn Reed, Kebin Kinsley, and the Scott Palmer/Tommy Thompson team, Texas drag-boat racer Kim Davidson wants to go quick and fast on land, too. And in a few short months, he has made big strides with the Diesel Tech Services Dragster, which last fall was locked in a garage at Leander, Texas, just north of Austin, surrounded by raging floodwaters.  

Davidson has teamed with 2018 NHRA Rookie of the Year candidate Jim Maroney, who in only six appearances for strategic partner Terry Haddock earned one round-win (against Brittany Force, at Denver) and beat all of his first-round opponents on the Christmas tree.

With championship aspirations heading into the 2019 NHRA Pro Mod season, veteran driver Steve Matusek today revealed a major partnership with Garrett Advancing Motion and its technology-driven line of turbochargers.
 
Matusek will team up with the turbocharger powerhouse, adding a proven and innovative name to an already impressive list heading into the NHRA Pro Mod campaign. Matusek, who also joined Elite Motorsports’ burgeoning Pro Mod camp in the off-season, will run Garrett Advancing Motion turbochargers on his Pro Mod Mustang as he enters the season with big expectations.

The offseason hasn’t been a time for rest and relaxation for two-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion Erica Enders.

Not at all.

Enders, who won world championships in 2014 and 2015, has been busy testing and mapping out her schedule for the 2019 season as a driver for the Elite Motorsports team.

On Jan. 6-8, Enders tested her teammate Jeg Coughlin’s 2018 Camaro in Bradenton, Fla.

Admittely, 2018 was a tough season for NHRA Pro Modified racer Chad Green. He's hoping to get off on the right track this season and to do so, he's taken delivery of a new nitrous-injected beast from Jerry Bickel Race Cars. Green is expected to head to Bradenton for some shakedown, and full testing runs soon. 

Piloting an NHRA nitro Funny Car was always a box Chris King wanted to check off his bucket list.

Now, King’s dream is getting closer to becoming a reality. King, who has gone rounds in the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks, recently completed his requirements to receive his nitro Funny Car license by making laps in Paul Richards’ Funny Car tuned by Paul Smith.

Like some drivers whose resume is all about racing, King is on the other end of the spectrum.

The hashtag #10yearchallenge has become popular on social media, as people have been posting photos of themselves in 2009 to compare to photos of themselves in 2019.

Though she's quite active and popular on social media, Ashley Sanford hasn't made a #10yearchallenge post, but she's thought a lot about it. Sanford turned 25 years old on Monday, so much has changed as she's grown from a teen-ager to a successful race-driver. 

"It's funny, everybody's been doing these 10-year posts, and it's definitely crossed my mind, especially with my birthday and that," Sanford said. "Ten years ago, at 15 years old, I had no idea what was going to happen to Ashley Sanford's life. I know I loved racing, but in my wildest dreams I didn't think I would become a race-car driver. I didn't really think I could pursue that." chasing her first Australian Christmas tree since making her debut down under in 2017 has finished runner-up at the first two rounds of the 400 Thunder season.

Veteran Drag Racer Shawn Reed and A-Fuel Driver Josh Hart join Bob Vandergriff Racing in 2019. The two drivers will join teammate Jordan Vandergriff competing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.  Reed plans to compete in seven to eight races, with the intent to add more to the schedule. Hart will be running a full season in his A-Fuel Dragster but hopes to earn his Top Fuel license in the spring and compete at four races in 2019.

“On behalf of, myself, Ron Douglas, Joe Barlam and all of our crew personnel I can say we are excited to welcome Shawn and Josh to the team, they truly seem appreciative and grateful for the opportunity to race with BVR and have a chance to win races any time they show up at the race track which certainly means a lot to all of us moving forward,” said team owner Bob Vandergriff.

It's been extinct for nearly a decade, but the influence of the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA) continues to resonate throughout the small-tire radial racing world.

"I think it's safe to say there would be no Donald Long if it wasn't for ORSCA," declares "Stevie Fast" Jackson, a multi-time winner of the flamboyant promoter's drag radial extravaganzas at South Georgia Motorsports Park. "I think at least for me and in the minds of a lot of people, ORSCA was the platform that pretty much started all small-tire racing."

With Johnny Fenn as series president and Outlaw 10.5 as its marquee class, ORSCA raced on the eighth mile from 2004 to 2010, primarily at small- to medium-sized facilities from Alabama to the Carolinas. In time, unsustainable purses and the ever-increasing cost of keeping up with frontrunners like Jack Barfield, Mike Hill, Tim Lynch, Steve Kirk Jr. and Terry Robbins effectively killed the class--and ORSCA--but not before catapulting the careers of tuners such as Steve Petty and Billy Stocklin, as well as drivers including Jackson, Keith Szabo and Eric Dillard in the radial-ruled EZ Street and Limited Street divisions.