True to form, three-time NHRA World Champion Larry Dixon of Indianapolis won the Top Fuel portion of the Northern Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park Saturday although he had to share the spotlight with four jet dragsters and the still amazing “Original Jet Truck” owned and driven by Bob “the King of Quake” Motz.

Dixon, who won NHRA championships in 2002 and 2003 while driving for the legendary Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, added a third title in 2010.  On Saturday, he was the only driver to escape with an unblemished record in the round-robin format.

For 38 years the Night Under Fire show at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio operated as an ever-growing affair, with larger crowds, better competition and a fireworks show to cap off the evening that got bigger each year. Then came 2016. It rained. Oh, how it rained! But in the face of artistic and financial disaster the Bader family, operators of what many call “America’s Race Track,” did the right thing, and called it at 5:20 PM on Saturday evening.

Persistent rain showers on Saturday and a rainy Sunday forecast forced Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) officials to cancel the remainder of the PDRA Summer Nationals at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park. The all-eighth-mile series was set to enter first round of eliminations before rain entered the Tulsa area Saturday morning. 

Past European Pro Mod champion Mattias Wulcan finished Friday as the provisional No. 1 qualifier in Pro Extreme at the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Summer Nationals at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park. It’s the first provisional top spot for the Darlington event winner. 

MotorManiaTV (MMTV) added a new dimension to their capabilities by building a portable production unit capable of being shipped anywhere in the world and then sending a crew to produce an event.  MMTV CEO Mark Walter said “this basically removes any geographical restrictions of our ability to deliver the best streaming drag racing has to offer at virtually any location world wide”.
 
MMTV worked with David Anderson who built and Produced the NHRDA’s Diesel TV production unit to put together this portable kit.  Diesel TV was built as a unit to be portable and utilize track facilities as a base of operation for production, unlike MMTV’s fully self-sufficient mobile production units.

It's a "Beeeauuutiful Smoky Burnout" at the 64th annual World Series of Drag Racing, presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts.
 
Veteran announcer Al Tucci will bring his famous call to the world's longest continually running drag racing event on Aug. 25-27 at Cordova International Raceway. It is the first time in Tucci's three-decade plus career that he has called the World Series.

Until he tore his rotator cuff while trying to right things after a highway incident, Hector Arana, Sr. was a very competitive and popular rider/team owner in Pro Stock Motorcycle.  Since the flat tire and resultant surgery (how embarrassing – injured changing a flat!) Arana has somehow become much more.  Chalk it up to the media’s having suddenly discovered that this almost always ebullient individual appears to be even more out-going than he was before.  Or maybe it’s something as simplistic as his current inability to work on the team’s Buell motorcycles, leaving him more free time to espouse his views on a wide range of topics, many of them drag racing-related.

Like a top level professional athlete, Arana’s approach to his rehab and eventual return to competition has been thoughtful and, well, professional.  Unlike the high school kid who jumps up after being stuffed at the line of scrimmage by an SEC-bound 290 lb. defensive lineman, and assures his coaches and trailers he’s fine, only to discover a full quarter later that his aching leg is indeed broken, Arana has taken the advice of his doctors to heart, and isn’t rushing things.  He’s in this for the long haul, not just next weekend’s race.

The race car factory at Jerry Bickel has cranked out a new beauty. Check out this new hot rod destined for Chad Green, who plans to run the new Corvette in PDRA's Pro Nitrous division. 

Championship driver Mike Janis has done many things in his career, but this weekend he accomplished a first.

Janis made his first trip to Colorado from Buffalo, N.Y. – with a purpose – to compete in the World Series of Pro Mod at Bandimere Speedway in his Camaro.

“The big pay day for sure,” said Janis why he made the trek to Bandimere. “It’s like a once in a lifetime chance to race for this much money. And it’s all in fairness the way they structured it with the turbo and the blower cars, it’s a pretty even playing field. I’ve never been in Colorado. It’s beautiful out here. I don’t think Pro Stock or anyone has ever had a pay day like this. This is huge. I think one time we raced back in the IHRA days, we raced for $25,000 but this is just huge. We’ve never raced for this much money before. This would be the kingpin if I won.”