The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down NHRA races since March 12.

In the latest revised schedule, racing is supposed to begin July 11-12 with NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, including the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

With all the changes and postponements and cancellations of races, it has made competitors like Chip Ellis adjust his schedule.

Willowbank Raceway, one of Australia's premier facilities, revealed overnight its plans to reopen under a Queensland Government approved COVID Safe Plan enabling larger testing events starting Saturday. June 27.

"Our first event back will be a permanent IHRA licence holders Racer Test Day, which will see competitor entries capped to provide the venue with some necessary data for events moving forward," a Willowbank Raceway statement said. "Due to the large amount of pit space at our venue, each event after this date will allow for even higher competitor entry numbers, and these will be posted accordingly on the website for each event.

Fatheadz Eyewear has been named an official associate sponsor of Cruz Pedregon Racing for the remainder of the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) season.

Cruz Pedregon is the 1992 and 2008 NHRA Funny Car Champion and driver of the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger Nitro Funny Car. He owns a $1.5 million shop in Brownsburg, Indiana. Pedregon wears Fatheadz Eyewear, but the partnership between Cruz Pedregon Racing and Fatheadz spans 15+ years.

During the time away from racing, Oehler has been improving his team’s equipment.

“We have been taking the time off to complete the construction of our engine dyno cell,” he said. “We are really close. We are probably just a couple of weeks off from having it done. We’ve also had time to stockpile some parts. I have four ‘A’ motors that I can use, and I have six engines total. We’ve definitely been taking advantage of the downtime. We also been protecting our main business.”

Oehler serves as the president of AirTec, his family’s business. AirTec is a heating and cooling business, in Bloomington, Ill.

The Red Line Shirt Club Funny Car Chaos Championship tour presented by Entech Oil and Mears Mazda Volvo was able to resume its 2020 season at Iowa’s Eddyville Raceway Park on May 29-30th. After sneaking in the season opener in mid-March, the series was forced to re-schedule several events due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With Funny Car teams across the country itching to race, a stout twenty-five car field with teams from twelve states converged on Eddyville for two days of ground-pounding heads up flip-top action.

Per the Iowa governor’s orders, no ‘spectators’ were allowed on the property, a mandate that was set to expire June 1st, just two days after the event’s completion. But, an unlimited number of ‘crew’ were permitted in the pits, which allowed a respectable amount of hardcore ‘crew’ to become part of the Funny Car Chaos ‘survey team’ working to observe the event and report back to the series in an effort to improve upon future events.

The Jim Dunn Racing NHRA Funny Car team based out of Southern California is gearing up to hit the road for nearly five months of back-to-back drag racing weekends starting in July.  One thing they will be bringing with them for the brutal summer schedule starting at Indianapolis is another new team sponsor.  Sqwincher® electrolyte replenishment will be joining the team to help people rehydrate in the summer heat.   Sqwincher® will be featured on the Jim Dunn Racing Funny Car this summer showcasing Sqwincher® Zero, their sugar free, low calorie electrolyte formula. Sqwincher® Qwik Stik®, the single serve electrolyte powder mix version of Sqwincher ZERO, is currently in Menards stores through a promotion with the racing team.   

For years, it's been a dream for Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS) founder and owner Keith Haney to provide season-ending championship purses. Today, that dream became reality for Haney as he announced with the assistance of several prominent performance companies that top finishers in each of the five official classes within the Tulsa-based organization will receive season-ending cash awards.

"Up until now the champions and runners-up for the Mid-West Series have received some really nice trophies and admiration from their peers and fans. And although that's great and definitely will continue, it doesn't pay the bills," Haney said. "So I'm very happy to announce that Summit Racing Equipment, Jerry Bickel Race Cars, Champion Auto Lift, Pat Musi Racing Engines, and American Logo and Sign have all stepped up to help fund the series title chases this year."

Summit, Bickel, Champion and Musi are combining to provide a $10,000 purse for the top five MWPMS Pro Mod points finishers when the 2020 season concludes in October at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park. Haney explains $5,000 will go to the champion and $2,500 to the runner-up, with the remaining $2,500 to be distributed between the third- through fifth-place finishers.

A long, winding drive through a thick, lush tunnel of trees leads to picturesque London Dragway in central Kentucky, where after a couple of canceled outings at prior venues due to lingering pandemic lockdown measures, the Southeast Gassers Association (SEGA) finally got its 2020 season underway this past Saturday (June 6). 

At the end of the day, familiar faces visited victory lane, including reigning A/Gas champion Kenneth Phillips, T.J. York with his second career B/Gas win, 2017 C/Gas champ Todd Oden, and Mark Hackett, a six-time winner in Super Stock last year.

Elapsed times and speeds are not reported by SEGA, as founder and promoter Quain Stott prefers instead to focus attention on close, heads-up racing without creating pre-determined favorites based solely on stats. Regardless, Phillips led a field of 14 A/G entries into eliminations, with the top five all running within eight-hundredths of a second over the London eighth mile and the entire top half of the field improving their times in the latter of two scheduled qualifying passes. 

The Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle event, which annual pits eight of the class’ best riders in head to head competition for a $25,000 winner payout, will take place this season at the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals. The special event, originally scheduled to take place at its traditional site at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals, was moved after that event had to be canceled for this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other considerations.
 
“It’s great to get back to racing and moving the Pro Bike Battle to Indy is a terrific way to showcase our tires in the home of motorsports,” said Ken Warner, Vice President of Marketing for Mickey Thompson. “The excitement of the Pro Bike Battle is Pro Stock Motorcycle racing at its best, which is why Mickey Thompson has been proud to sponsor the event for four years now.”

Gifted writer, talented photographer, innovative editor – Steve Collison was all of that and so much more.

He passed away at age 54 nearly a decade ago, on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000, fittingly while hard at work at his desk, pounding out the latest issue of Drag Racing USA.

Collison, who was inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2003, left behind a legacy as one of the premier photojournalists in drag racing history. More important were the relationships he forged with others in the industry – photographers, writers, manufacturers, and, especially, racers. With him, it was always about the racers. Collison – "Stevie" to his friends – may have been on a first-name basis with every pro driver in the sport, but he valued his relationships with no-name little guys at least as much.