Wesley Motorsports is expanding its role in providing pre-race vehicle prep and onsite chassis tuning for Challenger Drag Pak owners. The latest competitors running out of the newly expanded Wesley Motorsports facility are David H. Davies and Warren Walcher, two seasoned veterans who've competed in the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown and NMCA Factory Super Cars classes for the last two years. During the 2022 race season, both Davies and Walcher made significant performance strides as the team at Wesley Motorsports applied their knowledge and skills in chassis set up to make the Drag Pak’s suspension work more consistently when harnessing the supercharged HEMI’s 1500-plus horsepower.  

The last name of Pink is synonymous in drag racing. 

Ed Pink, nicknamed the “the Old Master,” was a popular American drag racing engine builder in the glory days of nitro racing. His company, Ed Pink Racing Engines, supplied motors to star racers like “TV” Tommy Ivo, Shirley Muldowney and Don Prudhomme.

Last month, Bill Pink, Ed’s son, tried his hand at drag racing at the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School in Gainesville, Fla.

Fourth-generation racer Gaige Herrera has been added as a rider for the Vance & Hines team in 2023, joining four-time world champion Eddie Krawiec as they will ride Suzuki Hyabusa entries tuned by Andrew Hines. Herrera qualified in four of six events last season.  

Herrera comes to Vance & Hines and the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle  division with experience in both Pro Street and Outlaw disciplines of bike racing. 

"This is such a tremendous opportunity," Herrera said. "I never expected to get a call with an invitation to join the Vance & Hines team, and when I told my dad [longtime drag racing fixture Augustine Herrera], he was as excited as me."

PremiAir Racing team owner-driver Peter Xiberras snapped a nine-round losing streak to defeat local racer Phil Read in the A-Final of the Atlantic Oils Top Fuel Slam meet at Sydney Dragway, January 27-28.

NHRA star Larry Dixon upstaged his Rapisarda Autosport International teammate Wayne Newby to win the B-Final and Shane Olive took out the C-Final on a solo when team boss Phil Lamattina was a no-show.

“It’s been a while,” said Xiberras, who also paid tribute to Sam Fenech, the much-loved Doorslammer racer who lost his life at Willowbank Raceway earlier this month.
“This one was always about Sam.” 

They aren’t exactly the Odd Couple, Tony Schumacher and Tim Wilkerson.

But the new NHRA teammates with the Joe and Cathi Maynard / SCAG connections seemed an unlikely pairing at first.

Schumacher, for example, has a Top Fuel-leading 86 victories and eight series championships. Wilkerson has won a respectable 22 Wally trophies but no Funny Car titles. Both have won the U.S. Nationals – Wilkerson twice but Schumacher an unprecedented 10 times. They were born nine years apart, almost to the day. One competes in the Top Fuel class, the other in Funny Car. Schumacher is a driver; Wilkerson is a team owner, tuner, and driver. Schumacher’s demeanor is more nonchalant, while Wilkerson constantly is tiptoeing that tightrope between high performance and high anxiety – Schumacher is breezy, Wilkerson intense.

Check out this slick new classic piece of American hot rod ingenuity from the Jerry Bickel Race Cars shop outside of St. Louis. The beauty is destined for Dean Marinis and Happy Pappas and is expected to see plenty of action in the PDRA's Pro Nitrous division as well as NHRA Pro Modified. 

Two decades after she last drove a Top Fuel dragster, accolades continue to roll in for Shirley Muldowney.

The first woman to win a nitro championship, Muldowney on Sunday night (Jan. 22, 2023) was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall of Fame during the group’s annual convention in Concord, North Carolina. The inclusion of Muldowney, 10-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel, multi-time road-racing titlist Scott Pruett, and racer/journalist Dick Berggren brings the total number of members in that Hall to 121. Muldowney is the second woman inducted by the NMPA following IndyCar/NASCAR driver Janet Guthrie in 2020.

Working on the crew for Tim Wilkerson’s NHRA nitro Funny Car team gave Nick Danner an even bigger itch to drive.

Danner scratched that itch when he attended the renowned Frank Hawley Drag Racing School last month and obtained his Super Comp license.

The legendary George Bryce shares how he got started in the racing and engine-building trade. The former NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion shares some great stories from his long (and still going) career.

For more great engine tech, check out @EnginePerformanceExpo, which returned LIVE on YouTube on January 13th & 14th, 2023.

 
Another season of thrilling heads-up racing at Bradenton Motorsports Park is set to begin this weekend with the U.S. Street Nationals presented by M&M Transmission, Jan. 26-29. With Outlaw Pro Mod headlining a lineup that also includes drag radial classes like Pro 275 and X275, the U.S. Street Nationals is also the official season opener for many of the country’s best outlaw racers. 
 
Outlaw Pro Mod presented by FuelTech and PJS Racing will pay $32,000 to the winner of the 32-car qualified field. The entry list includes heavy hitters like four-time and reigning PDRA Pro Nitrous world champion Jim Halsey, two-time and reigning PDRA Pro Boost world champion Todd Tutterow, two-time and reigning NEOPMA Pro Mod champion Mike Decker Jr., reigning FuelTech Radial Outlaws Series Radial vs. the World champion Jason Lee, Melanie Salemi, Stan Shelton, JR Gray, and Jason Scruggs.