Rod Harvey set to debut new car ahead of International Challenge
 
Rod Harvey will officially debut his new Rick Jones-built Toyota Camry race car at the upcoming Brisbane Jamboree at Willowbank Raceway.

The local debut will come ahead of a trip to the United States, where Harvey will race at two prestigious events at Orlando Speed World – the World Sports Compact Challenge (October 26-28) and the World Sports Compact Finals (December 3-4).

Kansas City International Raceway "KCIR" and I-70 Speedway were originally built by the same group in the late 1960’s to serve the Kansas City market.  Both facilities closed within the past 10 years and will now get a fresh start with the help of multiple companies, including the same corporation that revamped Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas, and National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio.  Both tracks will be rebuilt on the property in Odessa, Missouri that originally housed I-70 speedway. The facility will be named I-70 Motorsports Park and home to both race tracks.

A quarter-mile dragstrip will be built on the Odessa property, along with a half-mile clay dirt oval.  The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) will sanction the dragstrip and while the dirt track will hold special feature Sprint Car action from several different sanctioning bodies.

Glen Cromwell took the wheel of the NHRA's vehicle understanding there could be no rear view mirror. 

For Cromwell, serving as the first blue-collar NHRA President since Wally Parks, holding the leadership role in motorsports largest sanctioning body is not just a job. It's a passion. While he shoulders many new responsibilities with his new role, he understands there's a team in place ready and willing to help him. 

"I get the benefits of having Peter Clifford still here as our CEO and he’s been a tremendous mentor in guiding me through the first six months, which has helped a ton," Cromwell admitted. "You add that with just a great team, our leadership team, and it’s just a great team that is around me. I don’t think I have time to sit back and really think about it. We have and continue to develop a very forward facing and we’re always thinking ahead of what we can do to make things better for all of our stakeholders and the entire sport."

Let's go ahead and get this out of the way: PDRA Pro Boost driver – and PDRA chaplain – Tommy D'Aprile does pray to win.

Well, OK, it's a little more complicated than that. So let's let him explain when we asked if he prays for victory.

"I pray about everything," D'Aprile said. "I pray, 'Lord, I want to win this race this weekend. My desire is I want to qualify No. 1 and I want to win.' But what I do after that is I say, 'Lord, your will be done, not mine.' If I don't get my way, I'm not going to say, 'Ah, I prayed about it, and nothing happened.'"

Warren Johnson has had some ambitious projects in his storied career, but the one he's working on might be the king of the hill. 

Johnson says he's headed to Bonneville, possibly as early as this year, and attempting to run 370 miles per hour. What really makes the project off the charts is he will try the feat with a naturally, aspirated 260-cubic inch engine built off of the LS platform. Yes, the same engine more commonly associated with 1955 Chevies in Modified Eliminator. 

While Johnson admits he's over NHRA and Pro Stock to a point, he's not over the challenge to coax horsepower out of combustion engines. 

On an oppressively hot weekend at Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, KS, past Pro Mod world champion Jason Hamstra beat all comers June 30, to earn his first victory with the Frankenstein Engine Dynamics Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS).

“We haven’t had a lot of racing luck this year, and it was so hot, the track was very hot and it really wasn’t like the normal prep we’re used to,” said Hamstra, who started his supercharged ’69 Camaro from second-place in the 16-car qualified field. “Conditions were definitely challenging, so it was good to finally have it all come together.”

A celebration of life honoring Tom "Mongoose" McEwen will be held Saturday July 14, 2018, at 2 PM,at the Sheraton Conference Center at 601 W. McKinley Ave. on the Fairplex in Pomona, Ca.

McEwen, who passed away at his home on June 10, was 81.

The world of Mountain Motor Pro Stock first created in the IHRA, has always marched to the beat of its own drum. With the demise of the IHRA as a professional drag racing entity, this style of factory hot rod competition is alive and well over in the PDRA.

Thanks for engine builders Sonny Leonard and Jon Kaase, there is an active contingent of the Blue Oval brigade.

Marc Caruso was being put on the spot, but his answer would have been the same regardless. The PDRA Pro Boost standout was formally invited to the DRAG ILLUSTRATED World Series of Pro Mod on Wes Buck’s weekly Facebook Live Show, creating a bit of breaking news in the process.

But a live invitation can present plenty of possibilities. In this instance, though, Caruso already knew his answer.

“Is that a trick question? It would be our pleasure,” Caruso said on the show. “We’re locking it in. It’s a pleasure to be there and I’m honored.”