Longtime NHRA tuner Eric "Hop" Lane was killed on Monday evening after being struck and killed by a car while walking back from a restaurant last night near Mineral Wells, Texas.

Lane, 47, was from Avon, Ind. He worked the recently completed NHRA FallNationals with Cruz Pedregon Racing, where he joined the team for the last three races of 2019.

According to a statement issued by Cruz Pedregon Racing, the team was taking time off between the Dallas and Houston NHRA races to enjoy fishing and being together away from the track.

As far as race promoter Donald "Duck" Long is concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with his premier Radials vs. the World class.

Created by Long in 2010 as an official class to prove his beloved radial racers were every bit as good, as fast, and as worthy of respect as any of their slick-tired brethren, RVW initially pitted mostly front-halved, radials-clad rides in direct competition against similarly constructed cars with true 10.5-inch slicks out back.

Over the years, though, radial tires have grown in size to accommodate ever-escalating speeds and 33-inch tall, 10.5-inch wide slicks were allowed to meet similar needs. Additionally, the front-halved cars from both camps gradually began dropping out, giving way to full-tube-chassis machines.    Lately, though, Long is feeling tempted to push RVW to even farther reaches.

A 2020 season shortened and shifted by the COVID-19 public health crisis will conclude this weekend as the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) will crown its world champions at the Proline Racing Brian Olson Memorial World Finals, Oct. 22-25 at Virginia Motorsports Park. It’s the series’ sixth race in a season that was originally set to include eight events.
 
“There’s nothing like closing out the season with our biggest race of the year,” said Tyler Crossnoe, race director, PDRA. “In terms of car count and excitement, this race is always huge. We’re going to crown our 2020 world champions, hopefully set some new records and see some incredible racing.”

It started with a third-place qualifying position and finished with a trip to the winner's circle at South Georgia Motorsports Park. That was the basic path to X275 victory at No Mercy 11 for Blake Copson of Bridgewater, MA, who also won the Duck X Productions Magic 8 event earlier this year at Orlando, FL.  

Driving a turbocharged '03 Mustang Cobra for team owner Manny Buginga, Copson ran 4.23 in qualifying to follow only Dom DiDonato's 4.22 and Ron Rhodes at 4.21 seconds in the top spot over 41 entries for the 32-car field.

"Manny put together a hell of a team and I just want to thank him for trusting me," Copson said shortly after

Chassis builder Murf McKinney considers himself to be just one of many drag racing fans who was horrified when he watched as Larry Dixon's Top Fuel dragster broke apart back in March 2015. The chassis buckled, breaking the car in half, sending the driver's compartment into the air high above Gainesville Raceway, and the other half also into the air before landing on the track, sliding to a stop down track.

McKinney said to himself as he watched on in horror, "Never again."

If only someone could have heeded to McKinney's words quicker.

Billy Torrence owns Capco Contractors.

But Steve Torrence owns the advantage on his Capco Dragster teammate father (9-4 in overall matches, 3-1 in finals) – and on every other Top Fuel racer as the 2020 season begins to wind down.

This has been a bittersweet season in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series for veteran nitro Funny Car driver Jack Beckman.

Beckman has been a world championship contender from race one in this COVID-19 marred season.

After running a best of 3.92 at 189.97 mph in qualifying, James "Jimbo" Miron climbed his way through the No Mercy 11 Pro 275 field from the 21st-place starting slot. 

He outlasted 12th-place starter Don Burton in round one, with Miron eventually advancing after a 5.84 performance beat Burton's 6.40 effort.
Round two saw Miron catch a huge break as Mo Hall turned on the red light by just one-thousandth of a second, negating a 3.79 at 194.41 in his nitrous-boosted 2012 Corvette, while Miron made another troubled pass at 8.37 and just 78 mph. Conversely, a late leave by Chris Daniels in the third round with a .281 reaction time wasted his 3.79 at 198.35-mph effort against Miron's 3.94 at 189.87 combination.

Marcus Birt seemed as relieved as he was pleased after winning Duck X Productions' No Mercy 11 Radials vs. the World final in the wee hours of Oct. 18, at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

"We didn't start out running .50s consistently, but we ran them when we needed to," Birt said after making a 3.56-seconds pass at 204.48 mph over the SGMP eighth mile to defeat California's Jason Lee in the final round. 
"We just wanted to race smart, man, so we didn't have to go to the other motor. That was the main thing; I really didn't want to go to the spare unless we absolutely had to."

Pro Stock driver Matt Hartford refuses to be overlooked in NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series.

It seems like everyone seems to forget about the Phoenix, Ariz., driver.