NHRA officials confirmed the Top Fuel Harley motorcycle category will compete at eight events on the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule. The first race of the season will take place at the season opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Pomona, Calif. Feb. 9-12.
 
The series will also race at the NHRA Arizona Nationals, the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals, NHRA SpringNationals, Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties, NHRA New England Nationals, NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, and the NHRA Northwest Nationals.

WIX® Filters, a global manufacturer of filtration products, has joined Kalitta Motorsports as a chief technical partner through a multi-platform sponsorship agreement and has been named the Official Filters of Team Kalitta, which competes in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).
 
J.R. Todd will be WIX Filters' lead NHRA driver, with his DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car featuring associate branding from WIX. Todd will debut the car at the February 10th Circle K Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.

Tanner Gray, the newly appointed driver of the Valvoline Chevy Camaro Pro Stocker for Gray Motorsports, recently wrapped up two test sessions in preparation for the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
 
Tanner takes over the seat of the family car from his father Shane Gray, who decided to step away from driving at the end of last season. Shane will remain an active member of the Gray Motorsports team moving forward as Tanner's driving coach and team manager.

For the last few years, T.J. Zizzo has competed on a limited NHRA Top Fuel schedule.

Zizzo confirmed to CompetitionPlus he will be doing a handful of races in 2017, but he’s not happy with the state of the sport – especially for part-time teams.

With more than 100 years of combined motorsports and performance automotive leadership, two of the industry’s most iconic companies, MOMO and WELD Racing, join together to create a global portfolio of storied high-performance brands and product lines under the leadership and guidance of the Cisneros Corporation.  

Both MOMO and WELD were founded through on-track performance. As a result, the companies’ products have yielded proven advantages for racers, street, and off-road enthusiasts. The combination of MOMO Automotive Group and WELD Racing creates a global design, performance, and manufacturing powerhouse with a passion for motorsports and a drive for innovation.

With the 2017 NHRA season nearing its starting date, Kalitta Motorsports will welcome Global Electronic Technology to their sponsorship family. Global Electronic Technology will be a major associate sponsor on the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster driven by Doug Kalitta and also will have branding on the remainder of the full-time Kalitta Motorsports entries driven by Troy Coughlin Jr., Alexis DeJoria and J.R. Todd.

“I am really excited about this deal with Global Electronic Technology,” said Jim Oberhofer, Vice President of Operations, Kalitta Motorsports. “Steve and Samantha Bryson (owners of Global Electronic Technology) are great people and we have found such synergy in what we do. We know this relationship will be beneficial to both parties.”

The sport of drag racing is typically a warm weather sport, right? Not if you attend the DragstersForSale.Com 3rd Annual Practice Tree Race Presented by TEAM DFS. Over 150 of the Midwest and Tri-State regions drag racers converged on the VFW Post 1114 in Evansville, IN this past Saturday to try to take home $4500 in prize money in the “Top Bulb” event with the Bottom Bulb Racers chasing over $1500 in prize money.

The event brings in racers from all over the Midwest for the chance to win weekend race entries to events promoted by The Dillman family and their No Box Nationals that will be taking place at I-57 Dragway this summer. Loose Rocker Promotions supplies weekend entry for a skilled racer for their racing series, and if that is not getting a bracket racer’s blood moving the chance to square off against 32 racers for entries to the Spring Fling Bracket Race Series and The Million Dollar Race for the mere cost of $50 and $100 respectively will most definitely get you moving to Evansville.  

Strong storms and a tornado have wreaked havoc in Valdosta, Ga., including significant damage to South Georgia Motorsports Park. As many as 11 deaths are attributed to the storm, according to the Valdosta Times newspaper.

Robert Hight admits it hasn't been as easy as he's made it look.

Being the President of a drag racing dynasty, all while serving as a team driver. has been a juggling act of duties in which Hight believes he's always challenged to deliver results. Results are necessary both on and off the track. 

"There’s a lot of people’s jobs around here (which) aren’t that easy, you know," Hight admits. "To have a good team, you’ve got to have good people and everybody do their job and do their part. Every day something comes up. It’s not just you get on an airplane, go to a race, drive a race car, come home, and do it again next week. You know, you’ve got to deal with all kinds of problems, and things that can come up. A sponsor needs you here or there. Some new sponsor is interested, now you’ve got to make sure that everybody gets what they need. It’s always a moving target."

Dom Lagana set low elapsed time and top speed Saturday at the Santo’s Summer Thunder meeting at Australia’s Sydney Dragway and earned the inaugural “Trackburner” award for the quickest Top Fuel pass.
 
But his 4.62-second blast at 523 kilometers per hour (324.97mph) brought him only a fifth-place finish for event sponsor Santo Rapisarda and Rapisarda Autosport International at the third of six 400 Thunder Series races. However, it did mean that tuner Lee Beard had Lagana running more than a tenth of a second quicker than any of his challengers.
 
Points leader Wayne Newby led the three-car RAI team with a runner-up finish to Darren Morgan in the Top Fuel class. It was a spectacular final round, as Morgan crossed the finish line with his engine ablaze because of a suspected connecting rod failure. Newby-Lagana teammate Damien Harris took third place in this second race with the unique “All-Run, Three-Round” format.