Due to the recent outbreak of wildfires
throughout Southern California, many fans have contacted NHRA regarding
the status of the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, scheduled for Oct.
25-28 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the Automobile Club
of Southern California NHRA Finals, scheduled for Nov. 1-4 at Auto Club
Raceway at Pomona.

NHRA POWERade Series drivers representing all four professional
categories will be the featured guests at the annual NHRA Breakfast at
the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The SEMA Show, the premier automotive
specialty products trade event in the world, draws the industry's
brightest minds and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas
Convention Center, Oct. 30-Nov. 2.

The NHRA Breakfast will be held Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 a.m. in Las
Vegas Hilton ballrooms A&B. The NHRA Breakfast is open to all
registered SEMA Show attendees. A continental breakfast will be
served.

Torco's CompetitionPlus.com would like to wish longtime 9.90 racer
Mary Ann Jackson a speedy recovery for breast cancer. According to her
son, longtime statistician Nitro Joe Jackson, she had two lumps removed
and the doctors are confident that got most of it. She is recovering
well.

Well wishes and get well cards can be sent to:

Mary
Ann Jackson
1265
Maxwalton Dr
Mansfield,
OH 44903

Andy McCoy Race Cars is pleased to announce the addition of Scott Wymore to
the company. Scott joins AMRC as an experienced fabricator. Before joining
Andy McCoy Race Cars, Scott worked with Jerry Bickel Race Cars building
chassis. Prior to that, Scott spent 9 years doing fabrication and hanging
bodies for Jerry Haas Race Cars.  Scott brings 14 years of extensive
knowledge to Andy McCoy Race Cars and will play a significant part in
helping to further build and promote the
capabilities of Andy McCoy Race
Cars. 

Andy said, "I'm extremely excited to have someone as talented and
experienced as Scott  joining our team. For a long time we looked to
find just the right person for this position, and Scott is a perfect
fit."

NHRA's inaugural Countdown to the Championship starts its first leg of the
two-race championship round, the Countdown to 1, at this weekend's ACDelco Las
Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, three of the four drivers
eligible for Pro Stock's Countdown to 1 in Pro Stock will be in GM-branded cars as
Pontiac driver Greg Anderson and Chevrolet drivers Dave Connolly's and Jeg Coughlin begin their championship hunt.

"We're going to continue to test
all the way until we get up to Vegas," Connolly said. "We're going to try to
have the best race car possible when it comes down to that Countdown to 1. If we
have the success we did with the Countdown to 4, we're looking pretty good.
We're going to take it one round at a time just like we have all season. With
the pressure of Las Vegas, there's going to be a little added pressure, but
we're going to deal with it the best we can, and whatever happens, happens. It's
definitely not going to be lack of effort by no means."

The 24-year-old
Connolly enters Las Vegas on a historic winning streak, winning all four races
of the Countdown to 4 first-round playoff races behind the wheel of his Torco
Racing Fuels/Seelye Wright Chevy Cobalt and five straight races overall. The
Ohio native has a class-leading eight race wins on the season and has put his
name on a pretty elite list of drivers to have won five consecutive Pro Stock
races, joining the legendary Bob Glidden (9 consecutive wins), Ronnie Sox (5)
and Greg Anderson (5). Connolly enters the Countdown to 1 as the class leader
with 3,030 points and is looking for the first POWERade championship of his
young career.

Two brand new events and a venue change are just some of the highlights of the
2008 Goodguys Rod & Custom Association event schedule.

The two new events include
the Goodguys Blue Suede Cruise September 5, 6 & 7 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk,
Ohio and the Goodguys Nostalgia Nationals,
October 17, 18 & 19 at Beech
Bend Raceway Park
in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Also new for 2008 is a trip
to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

Goodguys will aim to take
the famed Blue Suede Cruise to new heights in Norwalk, Ohio.
The event, celebrating its 7th year in 2008, will be held the weekend
following Labor Day (September 5-7, 2008) and combines a rod & custom car
show with a full scale vintage drag race on the famed Norwalk quarter mile drag
strip. The award-winning facility is renowned for its pristine grounds and world
class drag strip.

Ah, the California wild fires. You've seen them on TV and in the paper,
unfortunately, Brut Funny Car driver Ron Capps is a getting a
first-hand look.
  
Let Capps tell it as reported through sponsor Brut.com:
    
"As most of you have heard about the fires in our area, we cut a photo
shoot a little short because they had ordered a mandatory evacuation of
our area near Carlsbad, Calif.  Shelley (wife) and the kids, my Mom who
was visiting, and Shelley's Mom and Dad who live in Fallbrook -- which
is also burning out of control -- got lucky and scored a room at a
hotel just up the coast along the ocean.
   
"I want to thank everyone that has called and sent messages. I know
when my teammate Richie Stevens had the devastation in New Orleans, we
all really had no idea just how bad things were until we heard from
Richie himself.
    
"I was lucky enough to catch one of the last flights home last night
into San Diego and I cannot express how surreal it was seeing all the
fires as we flew into San Diego. It was something straight out of a
movie.

Winning sixteen national events
didn’t do it. Reaching 21 final rounds didn’t either. Neither did finishing in
the top ten amongst points earners seven times or being third in all-time wins
in the IHRA Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock division.

“It” was validation. Validation was
something Robert Patrick felt his storied driving career was missing until the
final event of the 2007 IHRA season.

As odd as the connotation may seem
what validated Patrick’s career was a second round win last Sunday in Rockingham, NC, during the IHRA World Finals. It wasn’t
necessarily that round victory that did it, but rather what it stood for. By
stopping Frank Gugliotta, Patrick clinched his first world
championship.

A world championship, Patrick felt,
was the missing accomplishment needed to make his career legit, at least in his
estimation.

Hillary Will and her associate marketing partner Jolt Energy Gum, a product of
GumRunners LLC, have teamed up for a promotion that has Will and her KB Racing
LLC-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel dragster featured prominently on
packs of Jolt Energy Gum. (See attached Jolt Energy Gum Pack
Photo.)

Inside every pack is a chance to win one of thousands of racing
prizes and up to 20 lucky people will win a Racing School weekend! What better
way to promote racing!

Jolt Energy Gum contains a blend of caffeine, plus
Guarana and Ginseng for maximum energy.  Two (2) pieces of tasty Icy Mint or
Spearmint Jolt Energy Gum equal one (1) energy drink – the equivalent of 6
energy drinks in every twelve-piece pack!  Jolt, the same Jolt brand as the
famous Jolt Cola, is the number one energy gum in the world.

GumRunners
LLC, makers of Jolt Energy Gum, is headquartered in Jersey City, N.J.  Jolt Gum
is the innovation of former Procter& Gamble & Colgate-Palmolive
executives Kevin Gass and T. Molloy, who left their respective positions to
found what would become “the world’s most useful gum company”