In an effort to maintain a high level of communication between
race officials and  participants, the National Hot Rod Association has
announced the formation of a Sportsman Racer Advisory Council. The
purpose of the NHRA Sportsman Racer Advisory Council is to provide a
means for discussing and evaluating rules and regulations pertaining to
Sportsman racing at NHRA events.

The advisory council will consist of four subcommittees
representing groups of categories within the Lucas Oil Drag Racing
Series program. The categories are:Top Alcohol (Top Alcohol Dragster
and Top Alcohol Funny Car); Comp/Top Comp (Competition Eliminator, Top
Comp, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster); Super Stock/Stock (Super Stock
and Stock eliminators); and the Super classes (Super Comp, Super Gas
and Super Street). One representative per category group will be
appointed from within each NHRA Division. Committee members will be
chosen by NHRA Division Directors. Qualified candidates must be active
NHRA Sportsman drivers, team owners or crew chiefs.

Scotty Cannon will tell
you that his career has yielded some tough situations despite winning six world
championships. However, this week he was dealt a blow that remains
unprecedented in his career.

Both
Cannon and his world championship-winning son Scott Jr., learned days ago that
their major sponsor Torco Race Fuels had suspended all motorsports team sponsorships.

The 2008 season is the
first-ever title defense for Scott, Jr., the 2007 IHRA Pro Modified champion.

Rickie Smith can’t help
doing it. He still gets teary-eyed over drag racing and those who have made it
possible for him to win seven World Championships as well as being named the
No. 1 Mountain Motor Pro Stock Racer of All-Time.  

Today, Smith wanted to thank Evan Knoll for giving him the
opportunity over the last few years to let others know that he’s still got it.

Longtime Gotham City Racing crew chief Chuck Ford told Torco's
CompetitionPlus.com that he was looking to cultivate talent within the
team as well as bring in a few talented outsiders as part of the new
Roger Burgess and Mike Ashley Pro Modified alliance. Today, the GCR
team scored a coup.

Mike Ashley confirmed that veteran tuner Howard Moon has left the AMS Staff Leasing team to join their operation.

For the last month, sixteen of drag racing’s most colorful
personalities have battled it out within the electronic pages of
Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com in hopes of becoming the inaugural WAR
STORIES SHOWDOWN champion. Sixteen hard-fought battles have whittled
the challenge down to one final match.

Their battles are not of a physical nature or one of performance. This
championship is decided by who can tell the best war story. On Monday
morning, Scotty Cannon will face off with Roy Hill for the coveted BULL

POO trophy. The BULL POO is the WAR STORIES equivalent to an NHRA Wally or IHRA Iron Man.

How fitting is it that out of the sixteen combatants, who are all
accomplished in some form or fashion within drag racing, the
championship comes down to two “good ‘ole boys” from the Carolinas?

Canadian fuel regulations have always been considered forward thinking
by those deeply concerned about the environment. Since 1990, Canadian
officials have exempted several industries from the conversion from
leaded fuels to unleaded fuels – specifically airlines, farms, boat,
trucks and eventually competitive motorsports. Fuels for the exempted
industries is imported, mostly from the United States.

A fourth extension of the exemption for competitive motorsports has now
been proposed, however that exception is proposed to last only one
year, with all competitive motorsports vehicles required to use
unleaded fuels starting in 2009.

According to Ron Biekx, General Manager, Grand Bend Motorplex, a one
year exception is a death sentence to the top levels of professional
drag racing and the tracks hosting those classes.

Late last year Matt Hagan Racing announced it would run a Nitro Funny
Car team in the 2008 season. Matt Hagan Racing is now proud to announce
the addition of Jay Lewis as Crew Chief for the 2008 Nitro Funny Car
team.

Jay is from Dinwidde, Virginia and is an 11-year veteran tuner of top
fuel and funny cars. He has 3 career wins with Lagana & Lewis
Racing in IHRA Top Fuel competition, and his teams have finished 4th or
better in the points for the past 3 years running.

Jay was also awarded the 2006 IHRA Crew Chief of the Year.

Less than 48 hours after learning of his longtime sponsor's sudden and
unexpected hiatus from drag racing, Mike Ashley has acquired primary funding for
his NHRA Funny Car team for 2008 and beyond.

Ashley today announced a
racing partnership with ProCare Rx Chairman and Founder Roger Burgess with the
goal of fielding the ultimate championship drag racing team. Ashley and Burgess
will initially field one nitro Funny Car with racing standout Melanie Troxel
behind the wheel, and will aggressively seek additional long-term sponsorship to
field a second Funny Car in the NHRA.

"I wasn't sure what we were going
to do," Ashley recounted.  "I got the announcement and it was obviously
stunning. I was on the way to Indianapolis to talk with the team when Roger
called me and asked what I was going to do about the 2008 season.

"My
initial response was that it was such short notice that I wasn't sure what we
would be doing and I didn't know if we were going to be able to continue long
term. Roger immediately hopped on a plane and met me at the shop in Brownsburg
[Ind.].

In a press conference earlier today, Andrew Bornstein, Amalie Oil Business
Development Manager, announced that Amalie Motor Oil will renew and expand its
relationship with Terry McMillen and the Hoosier Thunder Motorsports drag racing
team based in Elkhart, Ind. Amalie will continue its primary sponsorship of the
Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car and become the major associate sponsor of the
Amalie Oil Top Fuel Dragster. The team is scheduled to compete in all 11 IHRA
races.

The news comes on the heels of yesterday's announcement that
Amalie renewed its relationship with the IHRA, retaining title sponsorship of
the Amalie Oil Texas Nationals (San Antonio April 4-6) and the Amalie Oil North
American Nationals (Epping, N.H. September 5-7)in a multi-year agreement that
will also keep Amalie as the Official Motor Oil of the IHRA.