Being
away from home, even for a short weekend with relatives, can sometimes become a
real source of frustration. Think about
it: sleeping in a different bed without
a favorite pillow while enduring Aunt Sally’s snoring from the next room can
make for a really long night of counting sheep.
Add to that ol’ Uncle Fred’s desire to watch “The Deer Hunting Network”
24 hours a day and you’ve got the recipe for tons of weekend fun. Home never looked so good.
Now, consider being on the road for months, even years at a time. Think about living thousands of miles away
from friends and family while enduring a culture that is totally and completely
foreign. Finally, keep in mind that given
the opportunity, many folks from this new neighborhood would like nothing more
than to kill you. Such is the life of
countless American soldiers currently on duty in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Suddenly, a weekend spent with Aunt Sally and
Uncle Fred sounds downright enjoyable.
Driver
of the Vietnam Veterans POW/MIA Top Fuel dragster, Melanie Troxel will be a
special guest along with Angelle Sampey and Ashley Force, Thursday, June 21
around the 8:50 a.m. time period (Eastern time) for a special drag racing
segment on ABC’s
“GOOD MORNING AMERICA” with hosts, Diane Sawyer, Chris Cuomo, Robin Roberts and
weather anchor, Sam Champion.
The Buffalo Chip campground near Sturgis, S.D., will be
rockin' and rollin' on Aug. 8 when the boys from Budweiser Racing – Brandon
Bernstein, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jeff Clark – take the stage during the “Bud
Racing One Night Stand.”
Bernstein, Earnhardt, and Clark will be hangin' with the Buffalo
Chip'ers, riffing about everything from riding bikes to rubbin' fenders to
pullin' 5G's down the quarter-mile. Sandwiched between the lovely ladies of
Hawaiian Tropic and the rockin' sounds of Velvet Revolver, the "Bud Racing One
Night Stand" will be Rally Week's can't miss show.
Hosted by ESPN's Marty Smith, Bernstein, Earnhardt, and Clark will swap
stories and take questions submitted by the crowd. The night revs up at
with the Hawaiian Tropic Pageant, followed by the Bud Racing boys at , and
Velvet Revolver on stage at
Another highlight of the evening will be the presentation of a
Budweiser custom motorcycle to Bernstein. The bike, commissioned by Budweiser
and built by Clark, owner of The Cycle Xchange in Matthews, N.C., will have
special drag racing-type features incorporated into it, one of which is
emotionally significant to Bernstein.
After a four week delay from racing when unsafe track conditions forced the
postponement of the drag race at Bristol, Tenn., competitors in the AMS Staff
Leasing Pro Modified Challenge presented by Tindle Enterprises, Inc. are anxious
to get back to the track and chase their passion.
This weekend’s
event, the ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in
Englishtown, New Jersey adds a new twist for drivers and tuners as drivers will
begin earn points for the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash -- a
“race-within-a-race” which pits the best-qualifying and most-consistent Pro Mods
against each other with the chance to fight for a $25,000 top prize. Added to
the $50,000 BAE Championship, teams are now competing for their piece of more
than $400,000 in available prizes and contingency awards.
The top eight
qualifiers in the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash after five races will be
paired during qualifying at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, October 25-28.
The winner will receive $25,000, runner-up $12,500, and each of the
semifinalists $5,000. A $2,500 bonus will be awarded to the team with the most
consistent car beginning at the Englishtown event and running through the Las
Vegas qualifying sessions.
Veteran road racing driver Ron Fellows will pilot the No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet
in the upcoming NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series road course events at Infineon Raceway
(Sonoma, Calif.) and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Bill Saunders, general
and managing partner of Hall of Fame Racing announced June 19.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol conducted a press conference
today discussing more details of Saturday’s Cars for Kids tragedy in Selmer, Tenn., which killed
spectators watching an exhibition of drag racing machinery. Six bystanders,
including two teenagers, were killed when a Pro Modified car driven by Troy
Critchley crashed into a utility pole and bounced into a crowd of spectators. An
official count listed 20 injuries.
Police Chief Neil Burkes said the event has been a safe one
for the eighteen years it’s been conducted in his town.
“I have been the chief here in Selmar for ten years and it has
gone on for as long as I have been here,” Burkes said. “It has been a safe event
up until this year. We had a tragic accident and that’s just it. It had been a
safe event up until this year.”
The Summer Nationals had a huge
overall entry of Sportsman racers but this weekend the headliners were the
ultimate in doorslammers - the Pro Modified cars running in their third round
of the MSA (Motor Sports Association) British Drag Racing Championship. The
220mph machines had seven British entries and one Dutch competitor but had to
contend with copious amounts of rain that was deluging the country during the
past week. It more or less wiped out the Saturday qualifying day allowing all
competitors just a one shot qualifier on Sunday morning.
In the Pro Modified class Danny Cockerill driving his 526 cubic inch
motored Chevy Bel Air sat in pole position with a fine 6.385/226.26mph clocking
with the remainder of the pack stretching all the way down to the wild but
slowed up 12.131/73 from Gordon Appleton’s Chevy Camaro then the DNQ (did not
qualify) from Holland’s usual strong contender Marc Meihuizen in his Chevy
Coupe.
An aching back will keep first-year Pro Stock driver Bill Windham on the
sidelines this weekend instead at Englishtown, N.J., for the 37th annual Pro
Care Rx SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
Demolition is underway on the old
Gainesville Raceway control tower which has stood as the center of operations
for the historic Florida drag racing facility since the early
1980s. The interior removal process has been completed and the exterior
demolition, which began today, is expected to take less than 10 days to
complete.
With 15 of 36-races completed, 38 drivers competing in the NASCAR
Nextel Cup Series have already earned in excess of $1,000,000. Kevin
Harvick leads the way with $4,462,037 in earnings, with current points
leader Jeff Gordon second at $3,496,991. Dale Jarrett, who has DNQ’d
three times in his new Toyota, is at the bottom of the millionaire’s
list with “only” $1,114,852 to his credit. Poor guy! Johnny Benson,
who has but one start this season, is at the very bottom of the money
list with $64,875. That’s $24,875 more than the Top Fuel or Funny Car
winner at a POWERade Series event takes home.
After 16-races in the Busch Series, which is the support series and not
the main event, 17 drivers have earned in excess of $400,000 – the
equivalent of a T/F or F/C driver having won 10 POWERade races –
something only Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson has even come close to,
and he’s won five times in 2007.
Being
The Summer Nationals had a huge