Four National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) rookie drivers,
representative of two pro categories, have been selected as nominees
for the 2006 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future
Award, it was announced today by officials from the NHRA and Automobile
Club of Southern California.           

Alan Bradshaw (Top
Fuel), Max Naylor (Pro Stock), J.R. Todd (Top Fuel) and Hillary Will
(Top Fuel) are nominated for the prestigious award, which annually
recognizes the top rookie competitor in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series and offers a $20,000 prize and traditional trophy to the
winner. 

The Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future
Award will be presented during the NHRA's annual championship awards
ceremony on Monday, Nov. 13 at the Westin Mission Hills Resort in
Rancho Mirage, Calif.

If Bakersfield
is too long a trip, or if you were rained out at Bowling
Green or Indy, come on down to South
GeorgiaMotorsports Park, Cecil, Georgia!  Entries continue to pour in from as far away
as Colorado
for the Southern Nostalgia Shootout to be held the weekend of October
27-29.  The event is billed as the
largest gathering of nostalgia cars in the Deep South.  Don’t miss these exciting cars on the only
full concrete quarter mile east of Texas.
  Famed announcer Marvin Noel will be
calling the action.

When the Budano/Shafiroff
trailer rolled into Memphis Motorsports Park

for the NMCA World Street
Finals the championship was all but locked up.

Driver Vinny Budano
readjusted his sights on winning his third consecutive race,
no small feat given the
level of competition in the NMCAPro Street ranks.

A
member of our drag racing family is ailing at this time. IHRA Hot Rod (10.90)
racer Steve Corker is in a Raleigh,
North Carolina hospital suffering
from what doctors call as a bacteria infection in his lungs. The preliminary
diagnosis was pneumonia.

The NHRA’s decision to implement a NASCAR style “Chase for
the Championship” was based on the fact that in the past some titles have been
decided by the completition of the US Nationals on Labor Day. What we are doing
here is analyzing the current point breakdown and comparing it with the new
scenario. It is ironic that last year’s Funny Car points chase was the tightest
of the modern era with three drivers vying for the title going in to the finals
at Pomona. As you will see from our calculations applying the new breakdown to
this year’s points would have one team running away with the lead at the
moment. We have counted the points scored by Jack Beckman to keep things
straight in the case of Whit Bazemore’s tally. In the case of the Pro Stock
Bikes we have added the points from Memphis to the tally so the the number of
races matches that of next year’s schedule.

One lucky racer will walk away with $100,000 if he or she
wins the big race at Montgomery Motorsports Park’s first annual Halloween
Classic, to be held over the October 27 through 29 weekend at the central
Alabama drag strip. The winning purse, to be paid out on Saturday, is said to
be the largest to be given to a single drag race winner in the Classic’s
special racing category, reserved for street- and modified, full-bodied-type
cars.

The NHRA has announced that two dragstrips have joined its member track
network.  Cordova (Ill.) Dragway Park
and Eddyville (Iowa) Raceway Park will run under the NHRA flag
beginning in the 2007 racing season.

Cordova Dragway Park
is approximately 20 miles northeast of Davenport, Iowa, and is a quarter-mile facility. 
Eighth-mile Eddyville Raceway Park
is approximately 55 miles southeast of Des Moines, Iowa.  Scott Gardner and his wife, Laura, own
and operate Cordova Dragway Park,
and Gardner is
partners with Gerald Kramer and Jerry Anglese in Eddyville Raceway Park.

Torco's CompetitionPlus.com obtained these photos of Dave Connolly's new Bevis Built Chevrolet Cobalt.