For the fourth year in a row, Bristol Dragway will host the
National Hot Rod Association’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Junior Drag Racing League
Eastern Conference Finals.  The 2007 edition, which will take place July 11-14,
is expected to attract more than 700 racers from all states east of the
Mississippi River.  

The first Junior Dragster National Finals, held in 1994, was
a one-day event at Indianapolis Raceway Park.  The popularity of the Jr.
Dragster series led to the creation of two finals, the Eastern Conference Final
in Bristol and the Western Conference Final at Bandimere Speedway in Denver,
Colo.  The competitors in these two events will race for a combined $100,000
purse in savings bonds. 

Bristol Dragway officials have put together a number of 
special offers and activities for families visiting Thunder Valley for the
Eastern Conference Finals.

The always-popular movie night returns with “Night at the
Museum” on Thursday.  Dragway officials are working hard to create an all-new
kid’s area with a beach theme.  Participants will be able to cool off in the
swimming pool, play on the inflatables, test their video game skills at the
gaming trailer or play a game of basketball. 

You hear all the time about Aussie racers coming to the United
States to run professional categories, but one racer from Down Under
has his eyes on sportsman racing. 

Veteran Australian racer
Graeme Cooper will race at the World’s oldest and most prestigious drag
race, the 53rd Annual NHRA Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis in
September.

Cooper, 49, will contest Stock Eliminator, driving a 1968 Chevelle
Malibu Station Wagon owned by Canadian Norm Lapointe and powered by a
327ci V8 engine.

“Racing in America is every Australian drag racer’s dream, especially
at the U.S. Nationals – it is the ‘Big Go’. There’s nothing bigger or
more special,” Cooper said.

The streets of downtown Golden, Colo., will shine even brighter when the Mopar®
Big Block Party rolls into town this Thursday, July 12. Mopar Big Block party
attendees will witness the revealing of the striking gold “tribute” paint scheme
that Gary Scelzi will carry on his Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car at
the 28th Annual Mopar Mile-High Nationals, scheduled for July 13-15 at Bandimere
Speedway in Morrison, Colo.

Scelzi is a four-time NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing champion, and has two NHRA Funny Car wins this year. He is currently
fifth in the NHRA Funny Car points standings. The special gold Mopar Mile-High
Nationals “tribute” paint scheme is a thank-you from the brand to the man who
brought the 2005 NHRA Funny Car championship to Team Mopar.

Two-time tour champion Larry Dixon has admittedly struggled since master
tuner Dick LaHaie retired and his assistant, Donnie Bender, took over. 
But, taking the realistic view, Dixon (and team owner Don Prudhomme)
realized that there’s going to be a transition period while Bender got a handle on
things.  Not on the tune-up, but rather on how to not only make the tuning
calls on his own, but to handle team personnel management at the same
time.

For Dixon things are definitely good.  After a couple of hard-earned
victories he acknowledges that what’s new is “Winning again.  The
team’s really coming together now.  We have half a new 
crew
since the beginning of the season, and Donnie’s coming into his own as a
tuner.  It’s cool to be a part of this.

“I don’t think this
is as much a situation of Donnie getting things the way he wanted them,
it’s just going into a new position.  I try to compare it to an offensive
coordinator going into the head coaching position.  He’s going to still be
walking the sidelines, but now he’s making the final play calls.  It just
took a little bit of time for him to get comfortable in the
position.

Torco Race Fuels General manager Brian Pfiefer officially became the
latest Torco Race Fuels Grandpa Club member at 6:35 PM on Monday.

Pfiefer's oldest daughter Janelle and her fiance Jason had a 7 lb 1 oz
baby boy. He is named Robert Jason Pritchard. Mother and baby are doing
well and as for Brian, he is trying to get used to being called
"Grandpa."

As a charter member of the Torco Race Fuels Grandpa Club he receives:
 
(a) Immediate joy and blessings in being called PAW PAW.
(b) A feeling of"Am I really old enough to be a grandpa?"
(c) A tube of Beaudreax's Butt Paste for those times he has to change a
diaper and there will be those times he will be trapped into it.
(d) The satisfaction of being able to hand back a crying baby to the mother
(e) The ability to laugh when his kids have to live with you curse of
"I hope you have a kid that is just like you and watching them wrestle
with it once those grandkids become teenagers."

A few days ago we posted a message wondering why Larry Nance’s Pro Stock
Cobalt was sporting the two different oil company logos you see here.

In 1965 Jon Lundberg was event announcer for the Super Stock Nationals
at York US 30 Dragway. The event turned out to be the largest one day
drag race in drag racing history and became known as "The Woodstock of
Drag Racing".
 
Some 42 years later he returns for the 2007 Sixth Annual Musclecar
Madness at the York Reunion & Nostalgia Nationals to be held at the
York Expo Center, York Fairgrounds on Friday and Saturday July 13th and
14th. Jon will be signing autographs and will do some cameo  announcing
during the festivities.
 
Over 800 performance vehicles will converge on the Toyota Arena as
legendary race cars and legends of drag racing appear at this one of a
kind event.  The show is the only one of its kind in the country to
feature an all encompassing lovefest with musclecars, drag racing cars,
street rods and the legends of drag racing all in one show.  History is
made at each and every show.

Stop the presses. Hot Rod Fuller is recanting the
story of how he hurt his knee in Norwalk. He’s saying it was all for
the challenge of obtaining a phone number instead of the infamous “I
had to potty” line.

“I saw a girl and I wanted to get her phone number, that’s why I jumped the fence,” Fuller said.

If that’s true, Fuller is learning that love can hurt.

John Force once said he lied to Eric Medlen when he counseled him about the merits of a race car versus the female gender.

"A woman will hurt you, but this car -- she'll never hurt you," Force said.

Force
could never shake the guilt of those words following Medlen's death
during a test session. It affected everything about him. His
personality,driving performance and inevitably his team.

Sunday's Bristol triumph finally allowed Force to let go.

A TRANSITION IS IN EFFECT

The change in demeanor for Force was different that some actually believed the body snatchers returned their Force. And
he was just like the old guy the media grew to love and to quote –
quite often.

What happened? Force got ticked off and in usual fashion – apologized.
It must have been the spirit of Eric Medlen that got the old truck
driver straightened out. This marked the first Force victory since
Medlen’s death.

“It feels good because I really rode my guys hard this weekend,” Force
said. “Everyone from all of our teams jumped in and made this hot rod
good today. I was a jerk towards them yesterday and when we got
together today for the driver’s meeting, I asked them to forgive me for
being a jerk because that ain’t how a leader leads. It’s really easy to
lead when you’re on top. When you’re in the trash, it is sometimes
tough to find your way out.

“I think Eric reached down and slapped me upside the head and said go
out there and be who you used to be. It might not win me any races, but
it will make my guys love me again.”

One had to sense divine intervention when Force came to the line with a
smokeless burnout in the first round. It was so ugly that Coil had to
turn his back on him.

“We get a bone thrown our way every once in a while,” Force said. “It’s
mass confusion up there and the glue box is extremely slippery. They
need to take that tire machine up there. I heard they lost their driver
and won’t be able to take it to Denver. I’ll be the first to volunteer
to drive it.

Bristol Dragway’s storied his history has been captured in the pages of a new
book compiled by
one of the Tri-Cities area’s finest photojournalists.

David McGee has followed drag-racing on the hallowed grounds
of Thunder Valley since its inception in the mid-sixties. He worked for many
years with the Bristol Herald-Courier as a reporter and photographer before
moving on to serve for four years as editor of the IHRA’s Drag Review
publication.

In that time, McGee grew even closer to the aura Bristol
Dragway presented. Two decades later, he’s invoking memories for many, including
himself.