Funny Car racer Jack Wyatt loves to think of his makeshift crew at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals as a band of brothers, but reality suggests it might be more of a gathering of misfit toys. 

Wyatt raced the weekend with a conglomeration of 1990s crewmen, many of whom used to work for Del Worsham over the years. 

“I was on my way to Bristol with really no help, and I called these guys up, dusted them off, and brought them back out here and put them to work,” Wyatt said.

They might not win the race, but there’s no shortage of memories when it comes to telling stories of the old days. 

 
There were two winners at the final round of the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel championship that was played out at Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin, June 18-19. 

Xiberras bounced back sensationally from a round one red light in round one to clinch back-to-back championships when his nearest rival Phil Lamattina stumbled and lost to teammate Shane Olive in the second round.  

The other victor was Damien Harris, who won the meeting after defeating Xiberras in the A- Final and also claimed his second win of the year for Rapisarda Autosport International.

NHRA Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson will debut a Trick Flow Specialties Ford Mustang Funny Car at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. The 22-time Funny Car national event winner, who most recently earned runner-up finish at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, will switch from his familiar green and black Levi, Ray & Shoup livery to Trick Flow’s dynamic blue and orange for this exciting race. Wilkerson will be chasing his second win at America’s Racetrack, Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. The veteran driver won the wildly popular NHRA national event in 2010, defeating John Force in the final.

“We are excited to be representing Trick Flow Specialties this weekend at Norwalk,” said Wilkerson, who has 47 career Funny Car final round appearances. “We have a great relationship with Summit Racing Equipment and Trick Flow Specialties is a great partner. This weekend will be a huge event and we will be looking to go some rounds and get back into the winner’s circle at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.”

Four-time and reigning NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car Champion Bobby Cottrell pulled off the hat trick to start the 2022 Heritage season campaign by capturing a massive win on Saturday afternoon at the Holley Hot Rod Reunion from Bowling Green, Kentucky.
 
With only five Nitro Funny Cars entering the event, Cottrell qualified second in the Austin and O'Brien '69 Camaro dubbed "The Northwest Hitter" and improved his performance in every round of competition.

Cottrell eliminated local favorite Eric Stevens aboard the "Bluegrass Thunder" '69 Camaro Nitro Funny Car in the first round, running a stout 5.738 at 256.45 miles per hour. Cottrell's time was low of the round, giving him a bye in the semi-finals, which meant an automatic berth into the final round.

Greg Kamplain is currently sitting in an enviable position. Not only is he leading the points in the Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund, with the potential to win $100,000 at the end of the season, but he’s also sitting at the top of the national NHRA points race in the ultra-competitive Competition Eliminator category. The experienced driver from Brownsburg, Ind. is quick to note that there’s still a lot of NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series action left this season. 

It didn't take United States congresswoman Diana Harshbarger long to realize she was in the perfect place on Father's Day eve. She was a guest of former Pro Modified crew chief Randy "Crusher" Lewis (Randy Moore) at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. 

Harshbarger has been a staunch supporter of the RPM Act, bipartisan legislation to protect Americans' right to convert street vehicles into dedicated racecars, and the motorsports-parts industry's ability to sell products that enable racers to compete. The bill clarifies that it is legal to make emissions-related changes to a street vehicle for the purpose of converting it into a racecar used exclusively in competition. It also confirms that it is legal to produce, market, and install racing equipment.

Nothing much this past weekend fazed Justin Ashley, Sunday’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals Top Fuel winner. 

The 136-degree temperature Sunday afternoon on the storied Bristol, Tenn., racetrack didn’t. (“It was a challenge, but it’s always a challenge [each race]. Honestly, I try to do the same thing every time,” he said. “But it’s the crew chiefs, Mike Green and Tommy DeLago, who did a great job in looking at the track and analyzing it.”) 

Two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Ron Capps has been around drag racing long enough to know it's not how one starts a race but how they finish that counts. On Sunday, the NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored driver's race day started off ugly with an uppercase U. 

Capps entered eliminations as the No. 9 seeded driver and was on his way to victory over Paul Lee in the opening round when the engine grenaded in his Toyota Supra GR, causing severe damage to his new Funny Car body. If not for the quick thinking of a crewmember who guided him down the track with his disheveled race car at 270-plus miles per hour, he might have crossed the centerline or collided with Lee. 

Pro Stock icon Warren Johnson said there was no such thing as an ugly win, just a win. With all due respect to the professor of Pro Stock, he likely never saw what happened Sunday during the Thunder Valley Nationals final round. 

It's not often race fans are treated to a pedalfest and a blow-up in a Pro Stock race, but that's precisely what happened when Elite Motorsports teammates Aaron Stanfield and Erica Enders met in the money round at Bristol Dragway. 

Jerry Savoie said when he began his NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racing career almost a dozen years ago at age 52 that he “just wanted to win one race.” 

It has turned into a series championship and 14 victories, with his triumph Sunday at Bristol, Tenn., at the Thunder Valley Nationals.