by Bobby Bennett Jr.; Photos courtesy of NHRA Sat, 2024-07-13 11:13
Competition Eliminator Pied Piper Rodger Brogdon last won an NHRA national event in 2015, when he raced Pro Stock. On Friday, that stat became a thing of the past.
Brogdon driving a B/Altered Planetary Camaro, a former NHRA Pro Stocker, returned to the winner's circle on Friday at the Jegs SportsNationals outside of Columbus, Ohio. He made a clean sweep of the event, qualifying No. 1 and beating bellhousing specialist Brian Browell in the final round. In his third final of the season, Brogdon was able to seal the deal with a .001 reaction time and only -.391 under in the final. He had taken some permanent index hits over the course of eliminations.
Brogdon said the key to success has been to leave the past in the past. This season has been an extreme lesson of Murphy's Law.
by Bobby Bennett Jr. Sat, 2024-07-13 10:59
Steven Edward Hutcheson, 81, the last surviving Gordie Bonin's 1979 U.S. Nationals championship team member, has died. He passed at 8:15 AM, July 11, 2024, at the home of his son, Ted Chavarria, and Rita Chavarria, his daughter-in-law, following a brave battle with cancer.
by Bobby Bennett Jr. Thu, 2024-07-11 15:55
Pacific Raceways President Jason Fiorito would like to take credit for doing something no other promoter has yet to do at the drag strip outside Seattle, WA, but he won't.
For the first time in history, drag racing will run under the lights at the strip, and the experience is likened to August 9, 1988, when iconic baseball venue Wrigley Field played its first game at night hours.
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature two rounds at 3:30 PM and 8:15 PT on Friday, July 19.
by Bobby Bennett Jr. Wed, 2024-07-10 22:16
The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule will feature multiple milestone anniversaries within a 20-race schedule. Drag racing’s longest-running professional series revealed its 2025 schedule this morning.
Three races will celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2025 and culminate with the 60th annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona. The NHRA revealed weeks ago that the 2025 season will begin in Gainesville, Fla., for the third straight season.
The three silver anniversary events will be both events at The Strip in Las Vegas and the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago. Older milestones include the 65th anniversary of the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals in Pomona and the 40th anniversary at Firebird Motorsports Park in Phoenix, Texas Motorplex in Dallas, and Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.
by Bobby Bennett Jr. Wed, 2024-07-10 21:59
Once again, the conspiracy theorists are wrong. The pins were not left in the parachutes. The parachute cables were, but not because of any negligence.
Though not an official NHRA statement, NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart provided insight during Joe Castello's WFO Radio Show as to why the parachutes on John Force's Funny Car failed to deploy during a horrendous accident on June 23, 2024, in Dinwiddie, Va.
Reinhart revealed in a conversation with NHRA's Lonnie Grim that the Leahy Device, that safety system that automatically triggers the parachute under specific scenarios worked as it was supposed to. However, in this instance, extreme damage to the area surrounding the parachute mechanism caused it not to work as designed.
by Bobby Bennett Jr. Tue, 2024-07-09 15:20
The last 15 days have been challenging for 17-time Funny Car champion John Force. But in the last week, the results have been encouraging for Force, who suffered a horrendous crash on June 23, 2024, in Dinwiddie, Virginia.
by Bobby Bennett Jr.; Photos by Auto Imagery, NHRA Mon, 2024-07-08 12:27
Two cars roll to the starting line. One is a stick-shifted '64 Corvette with a Doug Nash 4+1 transmission with a heavy flywheel winding, just like a rotary telephone of the 1970s. A 1968 AMX with a big block and automatic transmission is in the other lane.
The light flashes green, and the wheels are up off the line. They are side-by-side down the dragstrip until the AMX pulls ahead at the stripe, recording a 9.90-second elapsed time at 130 miles per hour. No, this was not Modified Eliminator class eliminations. It was, instead, just one of the early racing in Super Gas racing.
There was little to no electronics in these earlier days, and using nothing more than a mechanical throttle stop was the name of the game when this trend started to make its way to the national event scene of drag racing.
by Bobby Bennett Jr.; Photo by Diane Kubicke Sun, 2024-07-07 21:20
A drag racer has died as the result of his injuries sustained while competing at the NHRA Division 1 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Lebanon Valley Dragstrip in Upstate, New York.
A social media post by his family identified the driver as Newburgh, NY-based Top Sportsman drag racer Bill Janke. He crashed while competing in Sunday's eliminations, which have been postponed until Monday.
by Bobby Bennett Jr. Sun, 2024-07-07 17:20
John Force is traveling at a steady pace on the long road to recovery.
In a statement issued by John Force Racing on July 5, 2024, the 17-time Funny Car champion continues his recovery from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as a fractured sternum and a right wrist injury. These injuries were sustained when the engine in his PEAK Chevrolet Camaro exploded and sent Force into the concrete guard wall at over 300 miles per hour on June 23, 2024, while racing at the NHRA Virginia Nationals outside of Richmond, Va.
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