Not many girls growing up in the Winston-Salem, N.C., area were
attracted to fast motorcycles like Angie McBride.  She not only turned that fascination into reality more than a decade ago, she took her quickest two-wheel quarter-mile ride Monday.

It came during a test session in Cecil, Ga., but the 6.950-second
effort aboard the Nitro Fish Buell brought a satisfied smile and a big
boost of confidence as she prepared for the season’s first NHRA Pro
Stock Motorcycle race – the ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville
Raceway, Friday through Sunday.

“We had an awesome test session,” McBride said.  “We were the quickest
bike of the day.  We also had runs of 6.99 and 7.02 so I was very
pleased with what we did.”

Promoters George Howard and Steve Earwood weren’t ready to declare
North Carolina drag racing recession-proof Monday, but in the wake of
the success of their TCI Twin Tens event last weekend at Rockingham
Dragway they certainly were more optimistic about the 2009 season.

Clarkton’s Allen Britt and Lumberton’s Jerry Brewer walked away with
the biggest individual purses of the weekend as each claimed a $10,000
prize, Britt for winning the Pro race on Saturday and Brewer for doing
the same on Sunday.

What was most impressive to the promoters, though, was the field of 491 race cars representing eight states.

“We felt like our racers would support us, but we were still surprised
by the turnout,” Earwood said.  “Those are pre-recession numbers which
we think shows that even in hard times, people need entertainment and
they need diversions.”

Jim Deist, who created some of the first commercially available
parachutes for use in drag racing and founded Deist Safety in 1958 to
continue that work in other lines of driver safety, died March 9. He
was 80.

Deist learned the parachute-manufacturing business while working at
Irving Air Chute in the late 1940s, and his passion for drag racing led
him to combine the two. With the encouragement of early parachute
customer Mickey Thompson, he founded Deist Safety and soon added custom
seat belts and, in 1961, his first firesuit. Deist also expanded beyond
the dragstrip to include land-speed-record cars.

Aeromotive has announced their partnership with the Pacific Street Car
Association (PSCA) and its family of racers as an Official PSCA Associate
Sponsor. In addition to being a PSCA sponsor, Aeromotive will be
posting contingency on any of their fuel pumps in all classes for every
2009 event.

Aeromotive’s announcement of their partnership with the PSCA comes on
the coat tails of an extremely successful 2008 season. Their reputation
at the track was more than confirmed with back-to-back NHRA Pro Stock
champion, Jeg Coughlin and 2006/2008 IHRA Pro Stock Champion Pete
Berner, both waiving the Aeromotive flag, not to mention the recent
success of Aeromotive’s own innovative twin turbo Mustang. Aeromotive
fuel systems have become the most dominating and successful fuel
systems in the drag racing world.

Doug Foley's Drag Racing School has added multi-time world champion sportsman racer Lee Zane to its staff. With more than 130
victories to his credit, Zane brings an impressive resume to his new
job, including two NHRA championships, two divisional titles, and three
Driver of the Year awards.

"In my estimation Lee Zane is one of the top sportsman racers competing
on the circuit," Foley said. "The majority of our students are
interested in racing at the same levels where Lee has excelled --
weekend bracket races, outlaw events, and the sportsman level of NHRA
and IHRA competition. Why not learn from the best?"

A New Jersey native, Zane began his driving career in 1995 at the
longtime home base of Doug Foley's Drag Racing School, Atco Dragway
near Philadelphia. It didn't take long for the chassis builder to find
success and he collected more than 100 bracket race titles of the first
six years of his career.

In one fell swoop. the United Association of Journeymen and
Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United
States and Canada (UA) has put their stamp on drag racing through a
major associate sponsorship of Don Prudhomme Racing's Top Fuel team
driven by Spencer Massey and title rights sponsorship of NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series events in Chicago and Englishtown. Both
programs were announced today.

As the Major Associate Sponsor, U.A. and its International Training
Fund (ITF), will enjoy significant identification on the Top Fuel
dragster, driver and team uniforms; enjoy pit-side hospitality during
the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Series national events, personal
appearances by Massey and Team Owner Don Prudhomme, and other key value
elements.

“We are very pleased to welcome U.A. as a valued partner at Snake
Racing,” said Team Owner, Don Prudhomme.  “The U.A. is such a strong
organization and we are proud to have the opportunity to help in their
efforts to increase awareness of the great programs that U.A. offers,
not only to its existing members, but for new members as well.  Their
job training programs and facilities are very impressive, as well as
their Veterans In Pipe (VIP) effort, which assists returning U.S.
Military servicemen and servicewomen with job placement.  I am very
proud of our new relationship with U.A. and look forward to many years
of mutual success both on and off the race track.”

3-time NHRA Champion to make ’09 debut in Gainesville

Three-time and defending NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champion Bill
Reichert and his Rislone Engine Treatment team will begin their title
defense this weekend in Gainesville, Fla. 

Reichert is enthused with the opportunity to begin yet another title defense season. 

“We
just finished the car this past weekend, and we are very eager to get
it to the track," Reichert said. "We have really high expectations for
the car this weekend, and Gainesville has always been pretty good to
us,” said Reichert.

Subscribing to adage of leaving well enough alone, Reichert made few changes in the off-season. 

If you’re into nitrous doorslammer racing good news rests on the horizon.

 
The 2009 season could go down as the quickest on record.
 
That’s the consensus among the two leading nitrous drivers in Pro Modified – Mike Castellana and Jim Halsey.
 
Halsey and Castellana remain the only nitrous drivers who have breached
the quarter-mile’s five second zone and after a series of low-3.80s
appear headed for the 3.70s in the eighth-mile.
 
Halsey has a brand new, lightweight Tim McAmis Camaro for 2009 combined with a new Gene Fulton engine.

Ford Customer Service Division (FCSD) returns to Gainesville with The
Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing Experience, an interactive 4,800 square
foot display that features the "Quick Lane Challenge" and the
"Motorcraft Holeshot Challenge."

Motorcraft and Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center brands have partnered
with the NHRA for a brand awareness campaign that will give the
division a major presence at 10 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
events in 2009, starting with the March 12-15 NHRA Gatornationals in
Gainesville, Fla.

For the second consecutive season, Motorcraft and Quick Lane are the
primary sponsors on the Ford Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car driven by
Bob Tasca III in NHRA as well as a nine-race sponsor of the No. 21 Ford
Fusion driven by Bill Elliott in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

After nearly 10 years of providing racers with the top of the line
racing electronics products, Biondo Racing Products has teamed up with
the leader in motorsports safety equipment as the east coast
distributor for Sparco. The Biondo family has been running Biondo
Racing Products since 1989 and has grown into not only one of the most
trusted names in racing products distribution, but as racers
themselves.

As drivers, multiple time Champions, Peter and Sal proudly wear the
Sparco product, but have now decided to take their testimonial a step
further in offering Sparco to their loyal customers.