Ron Capps needs some high-speed wings and a prayer to win his first
Funny Car championship at the final event of the 2007 NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series this weekend, the Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway, the last phase of the new
Countdown to One playoffs.

After he (No. 4 in points) and two of the other drivers in the top four
made first-round exits at last weekend's Las Vegas event, No. 1 Tony
Pedregon advanced to victory. That provided Pedregon with a nearly
insurmountable 91-point lead over second-place Gary Scelzi, and a
113-point margin over fourth-place Ron Capps.

If Capps, who will finish the 2007 season driving the Brut Revolution
Dodge Charger R/T for Don Schumacher Racing, has any chance of earning
his first Funny Car championship, the 8000-horsepower Brut Dodge he
drives will have to sprout a pair of wings to fly him down the
quarter-mile and set a national record this weekend for 20 bonus
points, as well as win the event. A prayer to keep Pedregon from even
qualifying will help.

You know him as the hard-hitting columnist for the Las Vegas
Review-Journal, but this evening Jeff Wolf returns to his hard-hitting
monthly column on Torco's CompetitionPlus.com. A staunch opponent of
the Clowndown ... er, Countdown, could he have a change of heart. He
also doles out a few Academy Awards from Las Vegas and offers insight
on a few other subjects. This one is worth checking out.

STRAIGHT AHEAD WITH JEFF WOLF 

Racing enthusiasts know that the true heart of a race car is its engine
– and Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology, wants to make sure
that the “heart” that powers NHRA Funny Car Mustangs of John Force
Racing is pumping “blue” blood in the future.

Davis and John Medlen of John Force Racing challenged themselves to
develop the new Ford BOSS 500, the first modern nitro engine for drag
racing.  The BOSS 500 was tested on-track for the first time on Oct. 18
and was unveiled for media today.

“We wanted to be in NHRA Funny Car with an engine that we really could
call all our own,” David said.  “I wanted people to see a Ford Mustang
race car and know that it’s winning races with true Ford power.”

Davis and Medlen looked at the current nitro engine, discussed where
they felt it had weaknesses, and decided to design and build a new
engine to address them.

The BOSS 500 is the first nitro drag racing motor designed with
analytical tools.  It has a strengthened block for better durability
and new cylinder heads developed by Ford and Force engineers.  The
basic design will favor areas such as the main caps register and the
main webs in the block.  Its engine block also is anodized blue after
machining, helping ensure fans and competitors alike know when they’re
seeing a Ford nitro engine under the hood.

Don Prudhomme Racing announced today its plans for the 2008 NHRA
Powerade drag racing series season which will include two-time top fuel
champion driver Larry Dixon behind the wheel of the U.S. Smokeless
Tobacco Co. Top Fuel dragster.

Having first partnered with Don Prudhomme Racing in 1987, U.S.
Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC) returns for its 21st season with
Snake Racing in 2008. Next season will see U.S. Smokeless Tobacco
Company's participation in the top fuel dragster category for the first
time since Don Prudhomme's 1994 'Final Strike' retirement season
driving the Skoal Bandit Dragster.

For Dixon, his relationship with USSTC has now come full circle.
Dixon began working for Snake Racing in 1988 as a crew member for
Prudhomme's Skoal Bandit funny car operation. Now, 20 years later, it
is Dixon who will be piloting the U.S. Smokeless car.

Greer Dragway, in Greer, S.C., is the
closest drag strip to the main offices of Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com. In fact,
director of photography Roger Richards is within walking distance of the track.

Last weekend, Greer
Dragway made us all proud during the IHRA Summit Team Finals Championship at
Rockingham Dragway. They took home the team championship by winning more rounds
of competition over ten other Atlantic
Coast dragstrips. 

Over 500 racers
representing eleven IHRA Division Nine tracks competed in the annual four-day event.
Sunday’s main event awarded one point for each individual win with Greer
accumulating a total of 74 points.  The
team comprising of forty eight competitors from Mooresville Dragway took second
place racking up 58 points.  Richmond
Dragway out of Virginia
finished third with 54 points, Maryland International Dragway, the defending
champions, finished in fourth place
with 53 points.

Billy Holt, driver of the
legendary Alabamian Funny Cars, died Oct. 25 in Athens, Ala.
He was 76.

It's been nine months since GM Racing's contingent of NHRA racers began their
quest for the 2007 POWERade championship at the CarQuest Auto Parts
Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway. After 22 events and an exciting season in
which new national performance standards were established, the season has come
full circle and will come to a close this weekend at the 43rd annual Auto Club
of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway. Still to be determined
in the Pro Stock category is who will leave the racetrack Sunday night as the
new champion, and three GM drivers, Team Chevy's Dave Connolly and Jeg Coughlin,
and Pontiac's Greg Anderson, will be pulling out all the stops in their quest to
win the 2007 title.

Greg Anderson is looking to join Bob Glidden (10),
Warren Johnson (6) and Lee Shepherd (4) as the only Pro Stock drivers to win
four or more NHRA Pro Stock titles. The 46-year-old driver of the Summit Racing
Pontiac has had another outstanding year behind the wheel of his DRCE3-powered
GTO capturing eight wins (Pomona, Gainesville, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Topeka,
Englishtown, Sonoma and Las Vegas 2), advancing to 12 final rounds, earning 11
No. 1 qualifying awards, setting low e.t. of the meet 10 times and top speed 15
times. At Sonoma (Calif.) he became the second quickest driver in the history of
the NHRA (behind Bob Glidden) to reach 50 career national-event victories. At
Gainesville (Fla.), Anderson's 6.536 second run set a national record for the
Pro Stock category, and ran his streak to five consecutive seasons in which the
Pontiac driver has established a new national e.t. mark.

Anderson's most
recent win at Las Vegas on Oct. 28, was the 180th all time in NHRA Pro Stock for
Pontiac, and the Summit Racing GTO driver has the most victories behind the
wheel of a Pontiac with 49. Anderson has six career victories at Auto Club
Raceway including three at the NHRA Winternationals (2004, 2006-07) and three at
the NHRA Finals (2003-04, 2006). Anderson has won the last three times the
series has competed at Pomona. He'll head to California in first place in the
standings with a 34 point lead over second-place Coughlin, and a 48 point lead
over third-place Connolly.

Tony Pontieri recorded his first win of the season in a wild weekend of
excitement and upsets as the AMS Pro Mod Challenge presented by Tindle
Enterprises, Inc. ran the last race in its ten race season at the ACDelco Las
Vegas NHRA Nationals.
 
The final between two stalwarts in the series,
Pontieri and Steve Engel,  was decided by less than seven inches -- .0017
seconds - with Pontieri's '57 Chevy Bel Air edging Engle's '63 Corvette for the
win and the AMS Eagle.
 
"I've gotten close so many times, just to be
denied, most of the time it seemed by Josh Hernandez," Pontieri said. "When he
went out first round, I said to myself 'I've got a chance!' - and sure enough,
we did it!

The signs are already plentiful that next season there may be more
drivers than ever before sidelined without rides.  With more quality
drivers available and fewer cars in which they can compete it’s a
buyer’s market for team owners seeking to save salaries on high-priced
handlers.

WILEY X EYEWEAR® has
announced that they will be the primary sponsor on Jim Yates' Pro Stock Pontiac
for the 2008 NHRA POWERade season. The full 24-event sponsorship package
continues a successful race-marketing partnership between Wiley X Eyewear and
Jim Yates Racing.  

"This is an exciting time for Wiley X Eyewear as
we're not only celebrating 20 years as a family-owned business, but we are also
coming off our biggest growth year in the commercial market," said Myles
Freeman, vice president of sales and co-owner of   Wiley X Eyewear. "In
addition, Jim Yates has the Wiley X Sunglass Machine Team moving in a positive
direction, so this commitment should only further help develop Wiley X branding
for the thousands of Wiley X customers around the country."

Wiley X has
more than 20 years of innovation in providing advanced eyewear solutions to the
military - Army Rangers, Navy SEALS and US Special Forces - as well as many
other commercial markets.