Wally Parks must be looking down, proud of the Museum that bears his name.  With
one of the most ambitious schedules of events and exhibits in its history, the
Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of
Southern California, expands on its mission of preserving and protecting the
history of the performance car movement in Southern California. Among the
highlights during its 10th anniversary year are:

-- Sat., Mar. 1: Museum
board member Steve Gibbs and Dusty McWilliams will host a special seminar,
"Rebuilding the Rattler." Gibbs and McWilliams will work on the legendary Top
Fuel dragster in the "Wally's Garage" section of the Museum while Mike Kuhl of
the Kuhl & Olson team will provide commentary.  Sponsored by
A&EDesign.com, American Shine Products, Classic Industries, Pyrotec E3,
GoJaks (Zendex Tool Corp.), Grand Products and Injen Technologies, the $20
seminar provides a unique look inside the world of automotive restorations.  The
ticket price includes Museum admission and refreshments.

Last Thursday in Pomona, Napa Auto Parts Dodge driver Ron Capps suffered a minor eye problem
that prompted a visit to an ophthalmologist on Friday morning.  “I got something in my eye, but the problem’s
been solved,” Capps told us.  “It
happened a couple of times last year. 
Just clutch dust pieces, something like that.  Ya know, I’d get on a plane to fly home and
suddenly I’d feel something in there. 
It’s not fun, but it was never serious.”

Capps acknowledged that he
was up most of the night Thursday because of the irritation, and further
admitted that the eye had been slightly scratched, but there was no cause for
concern, as everything was fine by the next day.

Qualifying in Pomona is just scratching the surface

Glidden
and the engineers at Mickey Thompson have been burning the midnight oil
in developing many different combinations of tire for introduction to
Pro Stock as well as several other quick doorslammer venues.

Billy
Glidden considers himself a realist. Because of that, qualifying 11th
for Sunday’s final eliminations didn’t elicit a celebration.

‘It’s pretty exciting but once qualifying is over, you have to focus on
eliminations,” Glidden said. “You can’t lay on that too long. I’m used
to going and winning rounds. This is a different deal.”

The following are the pre-entries received for the 9th annual CSR Eastern Spring Test Nationals presented by Torco's CompetitionPlus.com hosted by South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga. 

Part of Gary Densham says to keep racing and the logical side says it’s
time to take a break. Is he really making the Pomona weekend his last?

Those questions were raised after Densham put his Chevrolet Impala into the sand laast Friday during the NHRA Winternationals.

"Hey
I screwed up, and this may be our last race anyway, so if you’re going
to screw it up I guess this is the time to do it,” Densham proclaimed
over the PA system in a post-run interview with announcer Alan Reinhart.

Has  Densham experienced second thoughts?

The
opening round of NHRA POWERade Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon’s
defense of his title didn’t go as planned, with his Quaker State
Chevrolet erupting in one of the most spectacular explosions seen in
some years.  Although he escaped relatively unharmed, his race car
appeared much the worse for wear when it was returned to the pits. 
Pedregon himself escaped with minor burns and more than a few bumps and
bruises, but there’s a long way to go before this year’s champions are
determined.  He’ll have more than enough time to fully recover

We spoke with Pedregon early Sunday morning, before his on-track
incident.  Just as he was last year at the Finals here in California,
Pedregon appeared calm and certain of his future.  Like many others
we’ve spoken with, he’s most pleased about the new Countdown program,
and is looking forward to the year ahead.

Stop the presses, three-time champion Greg Anderson confirmed
that he’s a fan of raising the 26-year old cubic inch ceiling of
500-inches for the Pro Stock division.

”I always want to go faster,” Anderson said. “I'm a fan of faster is
better.  I think Pro Stock is neat, it's interesting, it's great
competition but I love the fact that they get faster every year.  We
work awful hard to find 15 horsepower, that's a good year.  A gain of
15 horsepower -- boy you could pull in 600 cubic and pull 200 more
horsepower -- so I'd be all about that.

Investing
in an exorcist might not be a bad idea of ADRL Pro Extreme Champion
Jason Scruggs but not for him - for the Dodge Stratus he's driving. For
the third time, the first man to 200 miles per hour in the eighth-mile
had his Mopar come out on the losing end of a calamity. As you'll
recall last year he debuted the car and crashed on the maiden voyage.

The
newly repaired ride returned and tested the day after the ADRL final
event and exploded the supercharger, taking out the windshield and
causing a fair amount of cosmetic damage.

Facility improvements are under way at
two of NHRA's most historic East Coast facilities, Old Bridge Township
Raceway Park in Englishtown and Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, both of
which host NHRA POWERade Series events.

Maple Grove Raceway, home of the annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals,
set for Aug. 14-17 this year, is undergoing a facelift for the 2008
racing season. Prior to the season-opening test-and-tune event March
22, several improvements will be in place. New LED Daktronics
scoreboards are first on the list of new items. The 20-foot-long boards
will feature red LED digits that will be much easier to see in daylight
and can be viewed from a wider range of angles so that spectators close
to the finish line will no longer find themselves straining to decipher
them. No longer having to frequently replace burnt-out incandescent
bulbs is another plus with the new LED scoreboards.

Fiber-optic wiring is second on the to-be-accomplished list. Bob
Brockmeyer from Compulink will soon install this latest technology in
track wiring. Maple Grove
will be the seventh national event facility to feature fiber-optic
cables the entire length of track. Utilizing fiber optics rather than
traditional copper wiring safeguards the entire track and all connected
components, such as the timing computer and Tree, against the
devastating damage that lightning strikes can cause. The electronic
damage that used to plague Maple Grove's computer after lightning storms will be one less thing to stand in the way of getting the show back on the road.

If
you’re one of the few that managed to gain a glimpse of Len Imbrogno
then chances are you did a double take. The reason for that is Imbrogno
is usually besieged by sportsman racers seeking to bend his ear with
complaints because of his NHRA Director of Sportsman Racing status.

Imbrogno resigned his position and accepted the role as General Manager
for Kenny Bernstein Racing. He said an ongoing discussion with
Bernstein eventual led to his leaving NHRA.