Jerry Eckman raced many years in NHRA POWERade Pro Stock and the
experience has never come in handy more than it has the last two
seasons.

Eckman, who serves as crew chief for Tom Hammonds, is regularly dipping
into the log books as he tries to find the right combinations for what
can be sometimes unpredictable racing surfaces. He heads into the NHRA
Southern Nationals in Commerce, Georgia this weekend with a past win
under his belt at the established facility.
 
Five races into the season Team Hammonds has qualified only once.
Eckman explains that the team has been working with new set-ups and
trying out new things to find the right combination which has not
always presented the result for which they were working toward – a win.

Chassis fabricator Tommy Mauney, who won IHRA world championships in
both Pro Stock (1990) and Pro Modified (1995), is among the headliners
descending this week on Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway to compete
in the annual Holcomb Motorsports Spring Civil Wars presented by TCI.

Mauney will race in the Carolina Outlaw Pro Mod Shootout contested for
the first time in conjunction with the Civil Wars.  Sharing center
stage will be eighth-mile racing in Outlaw Pro 10.5 Shootout that pays
$7,500 to the winer and competition in the PTRA/TCI Super Series
featuring Real Street, True Street and Top Street.

Pro qualifying will begin with a single session at 8 p.m. Friday and
continue at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday.  Single elimination
finals in the pro categories will begin at 12 noon on Sunday. 
Saturday’s show also will crown champions in three PTRA index classes –
5.30 seconds, 6.0 seconds and 7.0 seconds.

Racing NHRA Top Fuel is
nothing new for Elkhart, Indiana’s Terry McMillen. What will be new
for the IHRA regular is racing with the dual role of driver and car owner.

"We're excited about
being in Atlanta,"
McMillen said. "We planned on running several of the NHRA races this
season; Atlanta
wasn't really one of them, but our crew chief, John Smith, has done a great job
of getting a handle on this car and getting our crew to jell in a short amount
of time. We've got 10 laps on this new chassis and combination, and John
already has us in the .60s."

McMillen operates under
the Hoosier Thunder Motorsports moniker and will compete this weekend with
additional backing from Ole Country Smokehouse of Anderson, S.C. Primary
sponsorship comes from Torco Race Fuels and Amalie Oil.

On a sunny afternoon in suburban Atlanta, an 8,000 horsepower NHRA Funny Car and drivers Melanie Troxel and Frank Haley
had the rapt attention of special kids from the Dream House for
Medically Fragile Children, their siblings, parents and Dream House
staff.

Troxel will drive the special Gotham City Racing Dream
House Dodge Charger R/T in this weekend’s national event at Commerce,
Ga., and Hawley will be at the controls of the ProCare Rx Dodge Charger.
 

Troxel
happily gave up her accustomed seat inside the car for a spot on the
front wheel while she signed autographs and the grinning children took
turns sitting behind the wheel. 

Roger Burgess remembers a weekend, last year, when he joined a group of
friends attended the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. While
his associates were mesmerized with the thunderous sounds of the
nitromethane-burning entries, the Atlanta, Ga.-based businessman was
infatuated by the antics of the Pro Modified division.

So infatuated was Burgess, founder of ProCareRX, he went out and
purchased himself a Pro Modified car to call his own and a few more for
good measure.

“I actually wanted just one and I ended up buying a few of them,”
Burgess said as he laughed. “I specifically watched Pro Modified run
that weekend. They just looked like they were having a lot of fun.”

Yes, former IHRA Pro Stock champion Steve Spiess is racing in NHRA Pro Stock this year. No, he’s not doing it exclusively.

Spiess was running Pro Stock during the IHRA Spring Nationals in Rockingham, NC, and fared quite well, qualifying tenth.

Team
Jegs racers Jeg Coughlin and Troy Coughlin hosted Top Fuel racers Cory
McClenathan and J.R. Todd Monday at their annual Jegs outing at the
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The four drag racing stars
and several of their friends, family, and media members spent the day
learning how to drive the school's high-performance Acura TSX A-Spec
sport sedans. Retired Formula One driver and MOSCC instructor Tommy
Byrne gave the group plenty of classroom instruction before turning the
drivers loose on the famous 15-turn, 2.4-mile road circuit.

"We
have a lot of things we do each year with our various sponsors, but
nothing compares to Jegs Day at Mid-Ohio," said McClenathan, a Team
Jegs racer who put his Fram dragster in the winner's circle of the last
NHRA POWERade event in Las Vegas. "It's something I look forward to
even though, once again, I'm flat worn out. I'm aching in places I
didn't even know could ache."

Paul Blevins, one of the successful
campaigners in NHRA's Modified class with a U.S. Nationals title, world
championship, divisional championships, and national records to his
credit, and later a standout racer in the Pro Stock ranks, died April
22.

Blevins, who ran his cars out of the respected Duffy's
Performance Specialties shop on the East Coast, was a four-time
Division 1 champion and multi national record holder in Modified with
string of Modified production racecars.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson has only had three weekends
off from competition and to the seasoned rider from Irondale, Alabama,
the layoff has been long enough. 

“It seems like forever since we’ve raced,” said Johnson, who will
compete in this weekend’s NHRA Southern Nationals. “I know it’s really
only been about three weeks, and our team has been really busy, but
there’s nothing like real, on-the-track competition to keep your blood
flowing.
           
“We’re ready for this coming weekend, believe me.  We’ve been testing
four times since we raced in Houston, and while we did find some things
that will improve our performances, I’m not going to go out on a limb
and make wild promises.  I’d rather wait and see how quick and fast we
are in Atlanta, and take it from there.”
           
The goal this coming weekend is to make four good qualifying runs on
Friday and Saturday, and then win two or three rounds of racing on
Sunday.  “Yeah, we’d like to win all four rounds, but we have to be
realistic,” Johnson said.  “If we can make it to the semifinal round
we’ll know we’re headed in the right direction.  That’s a realistic
goal for us right now.  It’s extremely tough competing against the
Buells and Harley-Davidsons because they have a significant cubic inch
advantage over the Suzukis.  We’re not discouraged by that, though.  It
just makes us work that much harder.”

With five races of the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series under his belt,
Doug Herbert, owner and driver of the SnaponFranchise.com Top Fuel dragster,
anxiously awaits the first race near his North Carolina
home.

Just a few short hours away from
Herbert’s business and race shop in Lincolnton, N.C., Atlanta Dragway has always provided a
golden opportunity for friends and family members to watch Herbert traverse the
quarter-mile in his 8,000 horsepower hot rod.

“I’m looking forward to Atlanta for several
reasons,” said Herbert. “We went to our first final of the season here last
year, so doing that again would be cool, only this time we want a win instead of
a runner-up.