John Nobile is noted for being pretty wound up at the racetrack.
 
But the veteran Pro Stock racer and IHRA champion said he’s “really excited” about watching his 18-year-old son navigate the minefield that is the factory hot rod class.

Vincent Nobile took his father’s new Ford Mustang out for a spin this weekend at the Lucas Oil Nationals. And the newcomer from Dix Hills, N.Y., was impressive even with a DNQ on the Brainerd quarter-mile.

Vauxhall Motors and the Redvictor1 Racing Team have partnered to support the MSA Pro Modified campaign with the new Redvictor 3 Street Legal Pro Modified Car. The team will be running under the VXR banner to promote the flagship Vauxhall performance range.

The Paone brothers have long been a figure in Mountain Motor Pro Stock. In recent years, the Paone team has fielded a Rick Jones built 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt with Ohio-based driver and engine builder Ron Miller behind the wheel. Unfortunately, the Paones have been sidelined thus far in 2010, but now the Canadian team has joined forces with driver and fellow Canadian, Tony Pontieri, to get back in the game.

“We’re certainly looking forward to being back,” told Amo Paone. “We plan to run the final two MMPSA races this year and the entire 2011 schedule. We’ll continue using Ron Miller Engines and look forward to working with Tony and all that he has to offer in racing expertise.”

Pontieri  has been a standout in Pro Mod for many years with experience in both nitrous injected and supercharged machines. He won the Canadian Drag Racing Series Championship in ’95 and ’97, then set the world record in 2008 at a 5.90 and finished second in a close points battle with Josh Hernandez in NHRA Pro Mod. Now Pontieri is looking forward to making the change to naturally aspirated machines.

During a recent event showcasing Automatic Pro Modified cars hosted by Carolina Dragway in Jackson, SC, racer Troy Jordan, while driving the Terry and Terri Green-owned Bladerunner Camaro blasted out a 3.923 elapsed time at 184.90 miles per hour. Proving the run was no fluke, he backed it up with a 3.93.

The progressives on the 3.92 run were:

.099
.930
2.587
3.923
184.90

The Midwest Top Sportsman Association (MWTS) will be holding two Top Sportsman Q32 Races at US-131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI on Saturday August 21st and September 4th.

Sunday’s Lucas Oil Nationals Funny Car final round was the stuff of storybook tales; a suburban Chicago plastic-bag manufacturer against the drag-racing instructor who rewrote the track elapsed-time record in the opening round, the underdog against a seasoned pro nicknamed “Fast Jack.”
 
“Fat chance,” some at Brainerd International Raceway might have thought about Bob Bode’s quest for a victory over well-funded Don Schumacher Racing shoe Jack Beckman in the first final-round appearance of his 10-year career. After all, Bode said he didn’t remember winning a round all last season.
 
But fat is what a betting man’s wallet would have been Sunday. Bode pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Funny Car history, clocking a 4.248 at 253.66 mph to top Beckman’s 8.338 / 86.32.
 
“All of it is kind of like a dream. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and it’s not real,” the Barrington, Ill., resident told reporters immediately afterward. “I was over there, watching guys you all talk to [Top Fuel winner] Larry Dixon. “I dreamed for a long time - 10 years - of being where he was. Now I’m standing in that same spot and you guys are talking to me. Is that incredible or what?!

Despite his first-year status as an ADRL Extreme Pro Stock driver, Cale Aronson hates the thought of being called a “rookie.”

“I’ve grown up in mountain-motor Pro Stock; I know the history of the class, all of its major players, and I’ve been driving these cars a few years now,” the son of Pro Stock pioneer Chuck Aronson says. “It just doesn’t sound right to me and I certainly don’t feel like a rookie.”

It’s taken some time, but with a brand-new Jerry Haas-built 2010 Mustang, prodigious Jon Kaase horsepower and the sponsorship of CarSafe behind him, the Chillicothe, Missouri-based racer is beginning to make his presence felt in the ADRL, both on and off the track. He reached his first final round at the most recent race, just a week ago at Madison, Illinois.

Unfortunately, a bizarre incident on the Gateway International Raceway starting line took away Aronson’s chances for a win against Brian Gahm. While preparing to stage, a 10-pound ballast weight fell from beneath the front of his car, breaking the pre-stage beam and also starting the seven-second clock ticking when Gahm bumped into his own stage beam.

Ron Capps is firm in his belief – if you’re going to have a nostalgia class, then keep it nostalgic.

Capps, a veteran on the NHRA Full Throttle Series, has found a comfort zone racing off-seasons on the NHRA’s Hot Rod Heritage Series behind the wheel of nitro-burning, nostalgia Funny Cars more commonly referred to as AA/FC’s. Lately he’s become disheartened with the efforts of some to bring modern day advancements into a style of racing aimed at reliving yesteryear.

“It should be nostalgic,” Capps said. “I got into this because I loved watching those cars growing up. I just loved the way they looked.”

Sadly, Capps says, the movement is getting away from the original intent in a hurry.

Shane Gray laid another brick in the foundation of his rookie-of-the-year campaign at the Lucas Oil Nationals. However, Jeg Coughlin sent out another notice Sunday to the Pro Stock class at Brainerd International Raceway - he wants a fifth championship.
 
Coughlin, taking his Victor Cagnazzi-owned JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt to a third straight final round, posted a 6.614-second elapsed time at 208.04 mph to claim his fourth victory of the season when Gray jumped the gun by a mere one-thousandth of a second in the Tire Kingdom Pontiac GXP, lighting the red light for himself and the win light for Coughlin.

Gray's official numbers were 6.654 / 207.21.
 
“I feel a bit fortunate,” Coughlin said, “because we barely made it up there for the finals. I heard something odd with the motor in the semis, and that engine is probably our best. So, we didn't want to damage it. The guys thrashed and put our No. 3 motor in there for the final and we used up every bit of that 75 minutes between rounds to get up there and race Shane.”
 
He got his break when Gray red-lit. And he knew it.

Andrew Hines said Sunday after winning the Pro Stock Motorcycle final of the Lucas Oil Nationals that his “head is on straight, unlike last year.”
 
But, it wandered a little as he rode his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson through the water box. Jim Underdahl was in the other lane, prepared to grab some glory on the eve of the Countdown he had no chance of enjoying.
 
That’s when the memories flooded back to childhood.
 
“I grew up with Jim,” Hines said. He recalled riding dirt bikes with him in Colorado while Hines’ brother, three-time champion Matt Hines, tested his bike, along with Greg Underdahl, Jim’s dad and with Gary Tonglet, whose sons GT and LE race also race against him.
 
“His dad, he’s a smart guy. And I know he wants to whip me,” Hines, the No. 1 qualifier, said. “Hungry little guys like that, you can’t take them for granted. You never know what could happen.”
 
But for Jim Underdahl, it was hard to argue Sunday with Andrew Hines’ string of 6.9-second passes.
 
Underdog Underdahl joined Funny Car’s Bob Bode and Pro Stock’s Shane Gray as first-time finalists at Brainerd International Raceway, but Hines overwhelmed him in the end.