J.R. Todd told
the Pomona
media that he will replace Melanie Troxel as the driver of the second Top
Fueler on Morgan Lucas Racing.

“I’m really excited
because Jon Stewart and those guys have that car thundering,” Todd said. “They
have been one of the best teams since the Countdown began and I’m looking
forward to driving next year and battling it out for a championship.

“It will be the same team
and just a different paint scheme with one of Evan Knoll’s companies on the
side. It’s exciting to know I will have a top-flight car out there. With Evan
Knoll, Latrell Preston and Torco Race Fuels backing, I’m anxious to get over
there and get started.”

NHRA Top Fuel racers, Morgan Lucas and J.R. Todd will team up along
with John Spar and Ed Hullinger to compete in the SCORE Tecate Baja
1000 driving the Lucas Oil/Torco Race Fuels Class 1 Diablo off-road
vehicle in a grueling trophy dash over Mother Nature’s toughest
territory.
   
This will be the first venture in the classic road race for both
drivers and their anticipation is only exceeded by their desire to
perform well in the event.  Earlier this week, the tandem headed to
Barstow, California after the Las Vegas NHRA race to participate in
some practice runs getting acquainted with the car and feel of the
rough terrain.
   
This year marks the 40th annual running of the Tecate Score Baja 1000. 
This year’s race will cover nearly 1300 miles of the roughest most
unforgiving terrain the famous Mexican desert has to offer.  The race
will start in downtown Ensenada on the morning of November 13 and runs
non stop through the mountains, sand washes, coastlines and towns to
the finish line at the tip of the Baja peninsula in Cabo San Lucas.

This weekend Mail Terminal Services, sponsor of the
Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car driven by Jack Beckman in the NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing series, will recognize two of its employees from the Newark, N.J.,
Military Mail Terminal (MMT), a division of Mail Terminal Services which sorts
and distributes up to 500,000 pounds of mail to war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Kuwait. Monique Walters and Jorge Santos will enjoy a unique U.S. Army team
experience this weekend at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., and
Racers for Christ will receive nearly $9000 from a charity auction held on
ebay.

Ms. Walters and Mr. Santos will be flown to Pomona and treated to
Don Schumacher Racing VIP hospitality tickets, full event passes for the
weekend, and in one qualifying session four-time Top Fuel champion Schumacher
will wear a specially-designed helmet which he will sign at the end of the run
and present to them.

For the purpose of recognizing two of the top
performing MMT employees and to support Tony Schumacher, the U.S. Army team and
Racers for Christ, MTS, through President and CEO Rodger Comstock, last August
purchased the helmet at an ebay.com auction to benefit Racers for Christ.

Next year will bring a new group
of show cars to a drag strip near you. 
 The Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny
Car Circuit has now been organized. 
Cudas, Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds, Vegas and Monzas will be once again
terrorizing the tracks, as this group of cars from the late 60’s to late 70’s
will be laying out the big burnouts and dry hops as seen long ago. 

Rod
Oxford captured his first ever championship this year when he took the
West Coast Hot Rod
Association Outlaw 10.5 title. He's competing this weekend in the
Street Car Super Nationals hosted by the Strip in Las Vegas and
hoping to pad his resume with a SCSN Outlaw 10.5 title.

J.W. Performance Transmissions will attend the Drag Race Results
Bracket Race, November 7th to 11th in Bradenton, Florida.  The
following week the staff will be present during the MOROSO 5-Day
Bracket Championships in West Palm Beach, Florida, November 12th to
15th.

Second-place Countdown contender Jeg Coughlin continued to fight for his fourth
NHRA POWERade Series world championship title Thursday by posting the quickest
Pro Stock run of opening day at the 43rd annual Auto Club of Southern California
NHRA Finals.

Coughlin, who earned Pro Stock crowns in 2000 and 2002,
joined J.R. Todd (Top Fuel), Jeff Arend (Funny Car), and Angelle Sampey (Pro
Stock Motorcycle) as the provisional qualifying leaders at historic Auto Club
Raceway at Pomona.

The Auto Club NHRA Finals is the second and final race
in the Countdown to 1, the two-race championship round of the NHRA
Playoffs.

For his efforts in advancing Funny Car safety, John Medlen was awarded
the first annual Mike Aiello Award by Jack Beckman courtesy of
1320tv.com. Mike Aiello was a tremendous friend to the drag racing
community as well as a key member to the Torco's CompetitionPlus.com
team.

One year ago, Mike Ashley announced he would field a championship-contending
Nitro Funny car team in 2007. As he rolls into Pomona this weekend with his
Torco Race Fuels, Inc.-sponsored Dodge Charger R/T for the Automobile Club of
Southern California NHRA Finals, he has fulfilled his goal and expanded his
vision for the future.
 
Ashley's sponsor and longtime friend Evan Knoll
was so pleased with the progress of the team after only one year, he decided to
move his driver, Melanie Troxel, from the Lucas Oil-operated Top Fuel dragster
she raced this season and put her in a Knoll Gas Motorsports /Torco Race
Fuels-backed nitro Funny Car under Ashley's Gotham City Racing team. As of this
point, it has been confirmed by Torco that Gotham City Racing will definitely be
running two Funny Cars and Ashley said he will be driving alongside Troxel,
subject to his commitments in the ongoing business requirements of Lend America.