CRAWFORD AND
JOLLIE EARN AUTUMN CLASSIC TITLES

Kevin Crawford
and Larry Jollie took home the champion titles in their respective divisions for
the first annual Darlington Autumn Classic at the historic Darlington Dragway in South Carolina during Thanksgiving weekend.

Crawford of Pageland, SC earned the Top Eliminator title over Doug
McNeese of Hartsville, SC.

Jollie, the 2006 track champion who hails from Loris, SC, emerged
as the champion in the Foot Brake division when he defeated Aaron Brock of Pageland, SC

Charles Carpenter made quite an impression on the drag racing world with a
resurgent 2007 season, taking home two wins in the American Drag Racing League’s
ultra-competitive Pro Nitrous category. But it’s the impression he made long
before there was even a Pro Modified class that has earned him one of the most
prestigious honors of his racing career.

Funny Car driver “Fast Jack” Beckman hit the jackpot on the third day
of racing and claimed the $5,000 Super Pro finale at the Las Vegas
Bracket Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Beckman, of
North Hills, Calif., drove his Land Shark dragster past Russell Prater
of Universal City, Texas, for the win.

Bob Moudree of Las Vegas
defeated Jeff Farrar for Pro honors. Jon Irving defeated his father,
John, for the Sportsman win. Both hail from Boulder City. Kyle Seipel
of San Leandro, Calif., defeated Pete Biondo of Maspeth, N.Y., to claim
the winner-take-all $45,000 Ultimate Gambler. Both drivers posted
reaction times of .008.

Former Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com Senior Editor and current IHRA announcer Brian Lohnes has
met a lot of great personalities in drag racing throughout his involvement.

Lohnes had befriended Jet
Funny Car racer Chris Gould, the Maine-based driver who lost his life last
weekend at Moroso
Motorsports Park.

This is Lohnes’ tribute to
Gould.

“Chris was a 100% first
class guy with a thirst and passion to entertain fans and run hard. I was not a
close friend of Chris or his family. My experiences with him were always based
around the race track. He often appeared at New England Dragway, in Epping, NH
as part of a match race or testing his car when he made changes or
improvements.

Clay Millican cannot
grind, slide or go vertical on a skateboard, but his sons can. That’s why he
went to bat for a skateboard park in his hometown of Drummonds, Tenn.

Last weekend, the Munford Skate
Park opened to the joy of 50 children
including Millican’s sons Cale and Dalton.
The grand opening was the result of a campaign that began when a child sent
Munford Mayor Dwayne Cole an e-mail asking why the town didn’t have one.

A jet car racer was killed in a wreck during last weekend's Citrus
Nationals at Moroso Motorsports Park in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office identified the driver as Christopher Gould, of Bowdoin, Maine.

If
you're a member of Mike Ashley's Torco Race Fuels team, you're headed
to the shop on Monday a little more tanned than usual. That's because
Ashley, in recognition of his team reaching the NHRA POWERade Countdown
to Four, treated his team and their families to a Thanksgiving Week
cruise through the Carribean.

The Gotham City Racing team visited such countries as Aruba, Caracco, St. Maartin and St. Thomas.

Do you put the same priority on using the belts in your street car as you do in your race car?
 

Using the 2006 fatal crash data released by the United States Department of
Transportation just weeks ago, Farmers Insurance has completed a study to
determine the most influential factors in drivers’ mortality rate in
multi-vehicle accidents.

“Once again, we find strong statistical
evidence that seat belts remain the most important protection for the driver,”
notes Kevin Mabe, Economist at Farmers, who completed the study.  “We found that when a driver used a seat
belt, the odds of a fatality dropped nearly 70% compared to a driver who did
not.”  Earlier this year, Mabe released a
study on 2005 accident data and concluded similar
results.

A group of goodwill ambassadors from the NHRA have just completed a three-day
USO-sponsored tour of U.S. Military installations in Germany, including the
Kaiserslautern Military Community, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center,
Spangdahlem Air Base and the U.S. Army Garrison at Baumholder. It was the third
consecutive post-season visit for the drivers, and the brief but memorable time
spent with the troops and their families provided an opportunity to make some
new friends and see some familiar faces.