Even back to the time when he lay in his hospital bed facing impossible odds, Dom Lagana dreamed of this day. On Friday, the first day of testing, Lagana, injured in a non-racing automobile accident back in August of 2020, rolled through the gates of Palm Beach International Raceway as a member of the Steve Torrence Racing team, ready to get to work at his passion of racing nitro cars.

Faced with a new normal of life with a wheelchair and prosthetic legs, Lagana was undeterred as he jumped right into his role without hesitation.

Krista Baldwin will make her first professional start in the NHRA Camping World series in a Top Fuel Dragster at the Gatornationals. Krista will be piloting her grandfather’s, NHRA legend Chris “the Greek” Karamesines, Don Schumacher Racing canopy dragster backed by McLeod Racing, Lucas Oil, Strange Engineering, Composite Specialties, and Eat Sleep Race. As the newest NHRA Top Fuel pilot, Baldwin is the only third-generation Top Fuel driver in the class.

Baldwin began racing at 18 years old in a front-engine dragster in the Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class. In 2015 she upgraded her license to a nitro injected A/Fuel dragster. For the last 5 years, Baldwin has campaigned her McLeod Racing dragster in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series with Anthony Dicero. This year she will drive for her grandfather, Karamesines, under the black and gold canopy dragster.

At the end of three days of extended testing at the Pro Winter Warm-up test session in Palm Beach, Fla., the leaders of the pack in the fuel categories weren't those teams who challenged for an NHRA series championship in 2020. Instead, those who took top billing were two drivers who hadn't been behind the wheel in 54 weeks.

The daughter and father team of Brittany Force and John Force fought their way to the top of the Top Fuel and Funny Car leaderboards, respectively.

Brittany went to the top on the final day of testing in her first run down the drag strip, carding a 3.679, 331.04.

In a moment the Cuadra family could have never imagined, brothers Cristian and Fernando Cuadra Jr. lined up against each other on the starting line Sunday in the Pro Stock final round of the CTECH World Doorslammer Nationals presented by JEGS.
 
The record will show Fernando Jr. winning the $75,000 prize after Cristian went red under the lights at Orlando Speed World Dragway, but the family will remember it as a massive victory for both. Both Ford Mustangs ended up sharing the spotlight in the winner’s circle as the Cuadra family celebrated the incredible moment.

Three-time champ Phil Read topped the charts with a pass of 3.83, 306 mph after two days of testing at Sydney Dragway before the resumption of COVID delayed 2019-2020-2021 season scheduled for Willowbank Raceway next month.

His time of 3.83, 306 mph was just shy of the 3.80, 315 mph track record he set in January 2020.

Read, along with Lamattina Top Fuel Racing were the only Fuel teams at the two-day test and tune meeting and were joined by a handful of Pro Slammers and Pro Stock teams.

Khalid Al-Balooshi had the top Pro Mod all weekend and that was emphasized in resounding fashion in a record-breaking final round on Sunday at the CTECH World Doorslammer Nationals presented by JEGS.
 
Al-Balooshi put on a thrilling show during eliminations at Orlando Speed World Dragway, saving his best for last under the lights against 2020 Pro Mod Alex Laughlin in the final round. The former NHRA Pro Mod world champ and tuner Brad Personett unleashed something special in his Bahrain 1 Racing ProCharger-powered Camaro, making the quickest run in the history of the class with a pass of 5.613-seconds at 254.76 mph to beat Laughlin’s 5.698 at 250.46. It came just hours after Al-Balooshi first set the E.T. record in the opening round of eliminations and it put a fitting stamp — along with a $50,000 prize — on his dominant winning weekend.

It's the third day of testing at the PRO Winter Warm-up, hosted by Palm Beach Internationals. We will bring you all the live action for the event.

Paul Lee will admit it. He's had those thoughts.

Lee, who during the week orchestrates the highly successful McLeod cutches product line and on the weekend races a fuel Funny Car, has asked himself a few times how he will improve on the most significant drag racing season of his career.

Lee finished the pandemic-affected season as ninth best in the Camping World champion points standings. He even finished in the top ten of the Virtual Reality Hot Rd Association, a fan-vote drag racing series hosted by CompetitionPlus.com.

Austin Prock was probably busier on Friday at the PRO Winter Warm-up than he'd ever been when he was racing a Top Fuel car for John Force Racing.

Prock, the son of championship tuner Jimmy Prock, is in a new role at JFR since his Montana Brand Top Fuel dragster was parked due to the economic impact of the global pandemic.

"I'm going to be helping out my old man's car this year," Prock explained. "Building a supercharger, so it's something I'm familiar with. I built superchargers on Allen Johnson's dragster. It's going to be fun working with my old man this year."

Three runs. That's all it took for 2019 NHRA Funny Car champion Robert Hight to find his groove after a 54-week break from driving a nitro groove.

Hight ran a 3.929, 325.61 during Friday's testing and ended up the quickest of the first day on a run that was less than optimum.

"It wasn't the perfect run for sure," Hight said. "I had to drive it a little bit. It goes to show you that we didn't forget how to do this. We are excited to be back, and that's for sure.