The International Hot Rod Association is pleased to announce that Summit Racing Equipment will continue their long-standing relationship with the IHRA by renewing their commitment to IHRA's sportsman racers through class racing and bracket racing programs.
 
The renewal of the partnership with Summit Racing Equipment also includes some updates to the existing sportsman programs. The Summit Pro-Am Tour will be replaced and move from a divisional based system to a national based points system in 2017.  The change in structure will eliminate "divisions" and return to utilizing a national points based system that will improve a competitor's ability to pick and choose the races he or she wants to attend without having geographical constraints. Additionally, the Summit SuperSeries will feature an increased and expanded Summit World Finals purse.

Strange Engineering will continue its vast support of the sportsman drag racers.

Strange, the leading manufacturer of driveline products, announced today they will once again pay contingency in the NHRA and NMCA series.

“Strange Engineering has always looked for ways to reward its loyal customers by putting money back in the hands of the racers,” said Strange Engineering’s Jeff Stange.

CompetitionPlus.com readers believe the Pro Modified division created the most excitement amongst their top tier eliminators during the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Season.

The Pro Modified division, sponsored by J&A Services, runs at only 10 events during the 24-race series but still had enough action to edge out the fuel Funny Car division, 42 to 36-percent of the 5,000 votes cast. Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle were third and fourth. 

Competing on a limited NHRA Pro Stock schedule is a challenge and one Deric Kramer knows all too well.

Kramer drives for his father David Kramer as part of a team that has run in 52 career national events since 2012.

Two roads diverged in a two-lane blacktop path, and for Del Worsham, he decided to take the one less traveled.

A two-time NHRA champion, Worsham chose family over fame, walking away from a championship contending Funny Car ride to return home to the family drag racing operation,  to race alongside his father, Chuck Worsham. 

Worsham is no stranger to the less traveled path, having stepped away from a championship ride with Alan Johnson and Al Anabi racing to mentor rookie driver Alexis DeJoria in 2012. And before he knew it, he was back behind the wheel of the DHL Funny Car driving again. 

"A lot of things really kind of played into it, but the major reason and the biggest thing on my mind, the biggest thing that influenced me to make this decision was I’m not getting any younger, and my dad’s not getting any younger," Worsham admitted. "My dad’s out there racing still with our family car, and they’re doing well, and he’s active."

Worsham has a strong loyalty to his father, who back in 1991, gave the teenager his first chance to drive a nitro-burning Funny Car. Truth be known, the first time Worsham ever drove a fuel Funny Car was before he'd ever exceeded 100 miles per hour in a street car. 

There's not a class of drag racing Allen Johnson loves more than Pro Stock, and he's not shy about admitting it either. Neither is he shy about talking about the sweeping changes NHRA made, and how they could have made the transition better for those involved.  

A full year into the NHRA's conversion of the factory hot rods from carburetors to electronic fuel injection has the Johnson feeling mixed emotions.

In July 2015, NHRA handed down their sweeping changes to the Pro Stock division aimed at creating more fan interest and while Johnson admits he was no fan of those moves, he's jumped into the challenge feet first.

There is speculation the 2016 racing season was the last at Texas Raceway in Kennedale, just 10 miles from Fort Worth. According to a media report online at http://kennedalenews.com/texas-raceway-last-season-p4681-196.htm,

Texas Raceway has a contractual agreement with the City of Kennedale that the 2016 season would be the final season for Texas Raceway. The city of Kennedale has expressed an interest in redeveloping the land and area around Texas Raceway according to the online report posted Nov. 23 by the Kennedale News.

However, if that indeed is the case, a mixed message is on Texas Raceway’s answering machine. The message, which CompetitionPlus.com listened to Nov. 28, states the following on a recording:

As a tradition established years ago, CompetitionPlus.com has asked members of the racing community to provide our readers with what they are most thankful for during this holiday season. This year's featured person is JR Todd, the natural driving phenom, who drives the SealMaster Top Fuel dragster for Kalitta Motorsports. 

Popular Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Angie Smith has announced plans to compete on a Matt Smith Racing Buell V-Twin in 2017 and beyond. One of only 16 women in the NHRA's 65-year history to have won a drag race at the professional level, Smith is the wife of two-time world champion Matt Smith, who will continue to serve as her crew chief and compete himself.
 
"I'm back on a Buell and super excited about 2017," Angie Smith said. "I've had a lot of success racing Buells in the past and we've been able to keep at the forefront of the technology with those bikes through the various customers we help so I expect we'll be strong right from the start."