Pro Mod pioneer Jim Feurer and his age-defying, nitrous-injected 1978 Mercury Zephyr aren’t finished drag racing yet.

Feurer, of Lacon, Ill., has just been booked in to match race Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick in the Fords at the Summit event, July 23 – 25, 2010.

“I match race the Zephyr several times a year,” said Feurer, who also raced the car in AHRA Pro Stock during the early 1980s.

Feurer match raced the Mercury several times in his home state during 2009, twice at Cordova Dragway Park, Byron Dragway and once at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, a suburb of Chicago.

Each season nitrous doorslammer icon Jim Halsey wonders how he’s going to top the previous season’s performance.

Last season, Halsey, his Camaro in outlaw trim, became the first of the nitrous racers to record a five second run, not once or twice but three consecutive times. He also ran as fast as 240-miles per hour, also uncharted waters.

This season Halsey became the first nitrous pilot to run in the 5.80s with a 5.86 elapsed time.  

"I knew from how the parachutes popped that it was a good pass," said Halsey, who raced quarter-mile only once in 2009 and won that event.

The boss can drive! That’s the message everyone has received at the opening round of the 2009-10 Arabian Drag Racing League season, where Al-Anabi Racing owner His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani is making his debut behind the wheel of a supercharged 1968 Camaro Pro Extreme entry.

Sheikh Khalid placed third in qualifying with a 3.859-seconds pass at 199.75 mph over the eighth mile at the Qatar Race Club facility, near Doha, Qatar. He initiated the run with an impressive .011 reaction time and then ran .959 to the 60-foot marker and 2.615 seconds to half-track.

CompetitionPlus.com has confirmed with multiple sources that Rahn Tobler, most recently crew chief for Cruz Pedregon, will be a part of Don Schumacher Racing in 2010.

Dennis Burnevik, who took on much of Don Ness' business when the chassis builder retired, has rolled another beauty out of his Sinned Customs shop in Minnesota. This Pontiac GXP belongs to Richard Otwell, a Texas Outlaw Pro Stock racer.

The recent SCSW, Inc. purchase of the Super Chevy Show series represents a completely different concept in the world of motorsports in general, and drag racing in particular. People with racing experience who have invested their careers in the sport are now invested in the series. The benefactors of the purchase will be fans, sponsors, racers and participants.

Drag racing facility owners and operators throughout the United States formed the American Promoters Association (APA) in early 2009. As part of their discussions and work through the APA, several highly experienced track operators became interested in the opportunity to build or acquire their own series. Those owners wanted to put their experience and dedication to the sport into a national series. They formed SCSW, Inc., and purchased the Super Chevy Show series.

The board of directors for SCSW is like a 'Who's Who' in drag racing history:  President - John Bandimere Jr.; Executive Vice President - Lex Dudas, Vice Presidents - Bill Bader, Charlie Allen, Bryan Pierce, and Secretary Treasurer - Billy Meyer.

NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car champion Robert Hight is headed to Florida this weekend. The newly crowned champion is not going to Disney World rather the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang driver will be serving as Grand Marshal of the Ford 300 NASCAR race on Saturday. He will be joined by team owner and 14-time Funny Car champion John Force throughout the weekend but Hight will be the center of attention on Saturday afternoon when he utters the most import words in all of motorsports, Gentlemen, start your engines!

“This is going to be an amazing experience. I have never been to a NASCAR race before so this will be a really fun weekend. I can’t thank Ford enough for giving me the honor of being the Grand Marshal for the Ford 300. It will be great to represent the NHRA, Full Throttle, Auto Club of Southern California, Castrol and all our other sponsors at such an important NASCAR race. It will also be fun to experience it with John. We’ll be spending some time in the media center as well as the driver meeting so it should be really interesting,” said Hight in advance of the trip.

After a season filled with tight point battles and incredible racing it was not easy selecting this year’s IHRA special award winners, but in the end five names rose to the top and will add their names to the IHRA history books.

Ed Hoover took home IHRA’s highest honor in 2009 as Sportsman of the Year, while Frank Gugliotta (Crew Chief of the Year), Kenny Lang (Pro Driver of the Year), Bobby Lagana Jr. (People’s Choice), Chris Gulitti (Sportsman Driver of the Year) and VP Racing Fuels (Sponsor of the Year) also took home end-of-season hardware for 2009.

“It was an extremely competitive and, at times, crazy year for the IHRA, but in the end our award winners from this past season persevered and showed what IHRA racing is all about,” said IHRA President Aaron Polburn.

CompetitionPlus.com's Director of Photography Roger Richards captures the volatility of Brad Personett's turbocharged Pro Modified during Thursday evening test and tune for the PSCA Street Car Super Nationals in Las Vegas.

THURSDAY PHOTO GALLERY

Qualifying begins on Friday morning.