Antron Brown, who recently became just the seventh professional driver
in NHRA history to sweep the grueling Western Swing, will be

Bob Pelligrini

a guest of Dave Despain on the popular Speed TV program Wind Tunnel on Sunday, Aug. 2. The show airs from 9-10 p.m. (ET).

"This is an awesome opportunity to showcase our sport of NHRA drag
racing and our MAR Matco Tools team to a vast motor sports audience,"
Brown said. "Dave (Despain) is a cool dude. Like me, we're both bike
(motorcycle) guys. I was on his show after we won at Houston last year
and it's an honor to be back on Wind Tunnel after the great run we've
had out west."

In a storybook finish, John Force won Funny Car at the 32nd Annual NAPA
Night Under Fire presented by Amalie Motor Oil, driving a replica of
his very first race car from 1973, the “Night Stalker.”

Force took the win against Cruz Pedregon in the final round with a
4.250-second pass at 283.07 mph to Pedregon’s 5.062 pass at 147.68 mph.
Pedregon lost traction and Force passed by him to take the win.

EVENT PHOTO GALLERY 

CompetitionPlus.com Director of Photography was wedding photographer
back in 1990 when Lorenzo "Killer" Brooks competed in the first season
of Pro Modified. During Friday's qualifying session at the IHRA Northern Nationals in Martin, Mi., Roger got an up
close and personal look at the once diehard nitrous racer's new
supercharged combination. There's asually an uneasy feeling the
overcomes a photographer when the vision through the Camaro lens reads
"Killer's Back" and the injector hat proclaims "KIL".

Al-Anabi Racing driver Von Smith said his experience thus far in 2009
has been “a privilege”, and after scoring five event wins out of eight
contested races in the Arabian Drag Racing League and taking home the
series’ championship for Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani – it’s also
been impressive.

The brand-new team consisting of veteran Top Alcohol Funny Car tuner
and Pro Modified crew chief Howard Moon, along with Smith, suffered two
major setbacks over the course of the Middle Eastern racing season.
Both incidents came in the form of high-speed top end accidents,
unfortunately destroying two racecars, but hardly enough to slow the
progress of the consummate professionals who maintained their composure
and pressed forward.

Two of the country's top sanctioning bodies for street-legal drag racing, the National Mustang Racing Association
and the National Muscle Car Association, will converge at zMAX Dragway Aug. 7-9 for the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals.
   
The three-day national competition will give fans the chance to witness
racing in both the NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals and the NMCA
Edelbrock Muscle Car Nationals at the world's only all-concrete,
four-lane drag strip.

The purchaser of this eBay auction  (closing Aug 07, 2009 9:20 AM PDT) will receive:

* A helmet worn by Tony Schumacher
   
* 2 full event tickets to the remaining 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event of your choice

* 2 weekend passes to the US Army Racing Hospitality Area
   

LITTON HEAD OF CLASS IN LOADED TOP FUEL FIELD

Pontieri (Pro Mod) and Gugliotta (Pro Stock) reset track records, top divisions

Want to know what perfect conditions combined with a perfect race track can add up to for drivers?

New records and incredible racing.

Track records fell by the wayside Friday night and the new season marks
for speed and E.T. were set by several drivers as Bruce Litton (Top
Fuel), Tony Pontieri (Pro Modified) and Frank Gugliotta (Elite
Motorsports Pro Stock) all topped their respective classes during the
opening night of the IHRA Northern Nationals presented by Dart
Machinery Friday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich.

Racing kicked off today for the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
Division 7 event presented by Korbel at Infineon Raceway with the Force
sisters Courtney and Brittany both of Yorba Linda, Calif., qualified
one and two in Top Alcohol Dragster.

Courtney is coming off her first NHRA national event win two weeks ago
at Pacific Raceways near Seattle taking the No. 1 spot in opening day
qualifying with a lap of 5.315 seconds at 264. 44 mph. Sister and
teammate Brittany is right on her heels running 5.340 at 261.67 and
looking for a little revenge as Courtney got the best of Brittany in
their semi-final match up at Pacific Raceways.

Crew Chief Jerry Darien turns the wrenches for both Force teams and has
them nearly a tenth of a second ahead of former NHRA Pacific Division
Champion Chris Demke and the rest of the dragster field.  Demke,
Sunland, Calif., is third with a 5.434 second, 260.61 mph run.

Dave Grubnic will return to Top Fuel drag action at the wheel of a
Kalitta Motorsports dragster at the annual running of the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series national event in Brainerd, Minn., Aug.
14-16, at Brainerd Int’l Raceway.
 
Grubnic’s dragster will serve as a testing vehicle for the team, and
will also participate in the two NHRA events following the event in
Minn., Reading, Pa., and Indianapolis.
 
“Connie ]Kalitta, team owner, tuner, and drag racing legend] has some
things he wants to try out and bringing Grubnic’s car back out is the
best way for him to do that,” said Kalitta Motorsports general manager
Jim Oberhofer. “NHRA limits our testing time, so having another car out
there racing will help us try some new things without compromising the
performance of our two full-time racers (Red Line Oil Top Fuel dragster
driven by Doug Kalitta and DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car driven by Jeff
Arend).”

"You
just can't run with those Harleys,” said Matt Smith, his frustration
with the current state of competition on the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
division boiling over in his words.

“We're running for third place,” he continued, the recorder held by his
publicist Judy Stropus getting every word. “If we can keep going to the
semifinals, we'll be all right. We'll be in the Countdown and maybe
NHRA will do something (about the dominating Harleys) before the
Countdown starts.”

Matt Smith was boiling over with frustration and after losing another race to a Harley he would hold his tongue no longer.