Roger Richards

The
NHRA is leaving no room for Pro Stock rule improprieties during the
Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. The
sanctioning body has dispatched its tech officials to look over the
cars of the eight drivers in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a
special $50K race within a race contested on Saturday.

“They [NHRA Tech Officials] have been living with us all weekend,” Roy
Johnson, crew chief on the Pro Stock Dodge Stratus driven by his son,
Allen Johnson.

Are the inspectors looking for anything in particular? According to
the  drivers CompetitionPlus.com interviewed, the areas being checked
range from wing angle to engine displacement and the largest infraction
for a Pro Stocker, the use of nitrous oxide.

Jim Head refuses to criticize the management of Summit Racing Equipment Raceway Park for repaving the second 

half of the drag strip. The noted engineer of military runways just believes the process was an unnecessary expense.

“I would not have done that and that’s just my opinion,” Head said of
the track’s decision to undertake the major project a week before the
NHRA Nationals. “There are no circumstances that would have forced me
to put new asphalt on this track.”

SREMP reportedly spent six-figures to repair a racing surface that
percolated water following rain storms. Head believes the drainage
problem was one that needed rectifying, a problem the Bader family,
owners of the facility, corrected before repaving from the eighth mile
into the shutdown.

Jason Line and Greg Anderson run on the same team but have used distinctive paint schemes to differentiate
their identically prepared Pontiac GXP Pro Stockers. In Norwalk, for
this weekend’s NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, they have suited up as an army of one.

Line will trade in his tangerine-colored Pontiac for Anderson’s candy apple red entry used last season.

“There was nothing wrong with my Summit Racing GXP – after all, we won
two races with it earlier in the year,” said Line.  “However, over the
last few weeks it just wasn’t responding the way we wanted it to, so we
made the decision to switch to the car Greg ran last year. It’s a
proven piece that we feel gives us the best chance to win.”

Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Guidera found Summit Racing Equipment Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio a

Roger Richards

fitting venue to complete some unfinished business.

The four-time national event winner felt like he had the No. 1
qualifying spot in Englishtown but ended up second. This time he left
no doubt with a 7.001 elapsed time at 187.11 which served as a
provisional No. 1 qualifying effort at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA
Nationals.

“We’re on a little bit of a mini-streak right now,” Guidera said. “We'd
like to keep it going and hopefully get a number one qualifying
position; that would be just remarkable for our team.”

If at first you don’t succeed try again.

Roger Richards

That phrase sums up the efforts of Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson during
the first day of qualifying for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA
Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

Johnson admittedly missed the combination in his first shot at the
Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park but made up for the miscue in
his second shot at the famed race track.

Johnson gave a measure of credit to the improved atmospheric conditions
that rolled in for the Friday evening session. Looking forward Johnson
was not optimistic.

For once in 2009, not being the fastest car in the John Force Racing stable had its advantages.

Roger Richards

A tricky track, some of the hottest temperatures the nitro racers have
faced in 2009 and a team that has struggled to find last season’s
groove worked perfectly for Mike Neff during the first day of
qualifications for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in
Norwalk, Ohio.

Neff and his teammate Robert Hight finished one and two in Friday’s provisional qualifying.

Credit a track temperature that exceeded 130 degrees and a racing
surface from the last 400 feet that featured fresh, but unproven
asphalt.

Larry Dixon admits he’s past the courting stages in his new racing relationship. He's loving his 8,000 horsepower, Alan

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Johnson Racing Al Anabi Top Fuel dragster.

And, the more he drives her, the more he likes her.

“I got a new girlfriend,” Dixon explained Friday evening after
qualifying No. 1 in Norwalk, Ohio with a 3.976 elapsed time. “It takes
awhile to find out the personalities and all those things that take
place; it's just a matter of everybody adjusting for it.” 

Dixon has found his comfort zone during the recent three week swing on
the NHRA Full Throttle tour winning two of the three events.

“It's just been about getting into that comfort zone,” Dixon said.
“They were working on the car and I was working on my driving. The big
turnaround was a month ago, when we left Bristol and went to Atlanta
and ran for a couple days. They really got to work on the motor and the
clutch set up and hot lap the car in hot conditions like this. All the
tracks we've gone to have been pretty warm so we've been able to work
well on those set ups. We had a cool weather setup but not a warm one
and the warm one is working right now.”

Larry
Dixon raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifier at the 3rd annual Summit
Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports
Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

Mike Neff, Allen Johnson and Matt Guidera also took the
provisional top spots in their respective categories at the 12th of 24
events on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Dixon, drove his Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster to a
3.882-second pass at 301.74 mph to become the provisional top qualifier
in Top Fuel. If it stands it would be Dixon’s third No. 1 qualifier of
the season, 34th of his career and a first at Summit Racing Equipment
Motorsports Park.

Six-time
NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher has
been nominated for the ESPY Best Driver Award, it was announced today
by ESPN.

The ESPY Awards, for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly, was
created by ESPN in 1993. Sports fans can vote for Schumacher and their
other sports heroes in each of 37 different categories via an online
poll at: www.espys.tv  or at  www.espn.mobi. Voting begins today and
concludes at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on July 11.

Schumacher, 39, driver of the U.S. Army dragster, finished the 2008
season in dominating fashion, by winning a record fifth consecutive and
sixth overall Top Fuel championship. He raced to 15 victories and
became only the third driver in NHRA history to claim the coveted
Driver of the Year Award. An elite panel of motorsports journalists
voted Schumacher the Driver of the Year over NASCAR drivers Jimmie
Johnson and Carl Edwards, among others.

A multitude of pioneers of drag racing will converge on the York Expo
Center, York Fairgrounds for the presentation of the 8th Annual
Musclecar Madness, July 10 - 11, at the York Reunion brought to you by
York Traditions Bank and GGS Technical Publications Services.
 
Top fuel veterans Jim and Alison Lee and their popular driver Tom Raley
will reunite and visit with a whole host of drag racing legends who
will be in attendance for the two days.  Pioneers who provided the
impetus for today's championship drag racing will be in abundance
including Jerry Baltes, Wally Booth, Gordy Foust, Bob Tasca, Sr., John
Healey, Earl Wade, Bob Harrop, Jack Werst, Wally
Bell, Hubert Platt, Phil Bonner, Sam Auxier, Jr., Al Joniec, Jere
Stahl, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins, "Miss Hurst Golden Shifter" Linda Vaughn,
"The Voice of Drag Racing" Jon Lundberg, Arlen Vanke, Bruce Larson, Joe
Jacono, Bob Chipper, George Snizek, Jerry Jardine and the list goes on.