The Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) kicked off its 10th season with two of the quickest and tightest Pro Nitrous and Pro Boost fields in series history Friday night at the Summit Racing Equipment PDRA East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech at GALOT Motorsports Park. 
 

Reigning Top Fuel world champion Brittany Force powered to the provisional No. 1 spot on Friday, making the quickest run of the day to kick off the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car) and Camrie Caruso (Pro Stock) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the third of 21 races during the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Force went 3.712-seconds at 328.86 mph in her 11,00-horsepower Flav-R-Pac dragster to vault to the top at her home track, putting the two-time champion in line for her second No. 1 qualifier this season and 44th in her career. Force, who made the fastest run in Top Fuel history at Pomona last year (338.94), is also after her first win of the season.

GETTRX, powered by Global Electronic Technology, Inc., a leading FinTech institution, and Matt Hartford Racing have announced a partnership for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals and beyond. GETTRX, the Fastest Name in Credit Card Processing, will adorn the side of Hartford’s Pro Stock Camaro at GETTRX’s home track, the newly named In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip for this weekend’s event, the third of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

“We are excited to be partnering with Matt and the entire Total Seal team,” Steve Bryson, founder and CEO of GETTRX, powered by Global Electronic Technology, Inc., said. “Matt and his company, Total Seal Piston Rings, have been loyal clients of GETTRX for several years. He represents his sponsors and partners with class, and we feel like his team is poised for a championship run in 2023.” 

Billy Morris's drag racing roots may have begun with him racing dragsters on the sand with his dad. But the Southern-California based driver has always paid attention to what was going on, on the asphalt, looking up to hometown heroes John Force and Don "The Snake'' Prudhomme.

Now in his sixth season behind the wheel of the "Problem Child" Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car, competing mainly in the NHRA Heritage Series, Morris is thrilled to have the opportunity to race down the same track the drivers he idolized did, like Prudhomme and Force, as he is set to compete in the Legends Nitro Funny Car series this weekend which makes its 2023 debut at the 63rd annual NHRA Winternationals from the newly rebranded In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip.

"I've always wanted to run down the track in Pomona, the Winternationals," Morris admitted. "We've been going for years and years and seeing the big show guys perform out there, always wanted to run the track. It's obviously one of our home tracks being so close to us. I'm really excited that we actually get to pull the trigger and make some passes down there."

Uber might have taken the market share of the hired transportation market on the street, but the taxi is the king on the strip. Or at least in first day qualifying at the NHRA Winternationals, it is.

McNeal Freeman drove his 262-inch, V-6 powered 1987 Caprice to a 14.246 elapsed time, -1.254 under the V/Stock Automatic standard. The taxi was in a league of its own, outdistancing No. 2 Joe Sorensen, whose Oregon-based 1969 Camaro was 11.626, -1.074. Evan Kowalski was third with his late-model Camaro, putting down a 9.950, -1.000 under the Factory Stock/E index.

What Jim Halsey has done in nitrous racing is the stuff legends are made of. This newest ride from jerry Bickel Race Cars is indicative of another potent championship run.

Last season, the pioneering Pro Modified racer did what no other drag racer in the PDRA has done, he won a fourth consecutive title on the strength of two wins and runner-up honors at another two races to hold off Chris Rini’s late-season charge. 
 
Halsey is now the only driver in PDRA history to win four world championships in the same class. 

Five-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Erica Enders can hear her critics barking and howling like never before. For the first time since 2016, when the Elite Motorsports team ran a Mopar, the defending world champion has started the season with at least two first-round losses.

Let them bark and howl; Enders says speed bumps are a part of life, and she's ready to find her groove.

"When you are winners, and you are champions, you have to keep fighting," Enders said. "You have to keep pushing forward to find ways to be better. And sometimes that makes you take a step in the other direction."

From the time Jasmine Salinas climbed behind the wheel of an injected nitro-burning dragster in the Top Alcohol Dragster division back in 2019, it was understood that driving a Top Fuel dragster was inevitable. On the day after the NHRA Arizona Nationals, the inevitable happened.

Salinas made a total of three launches and made it successfully to the 330-foot mark behind the wheel of one of the race team’s Top Fuel dragsters. Salinas will continue her testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in April, where she intends to make her first full passes. 

“My initial reaction was, ‘I know I didn’t even make a full pull, and the power of these cars is absolutely incredible,” Salinas explained. “And at that moment, right there is where I realized I want to spend this entire year taking my time because it gave me even more respect for these cars and the power that they have. I want to respect it so much and take my time with it because of the horsepower and how fast it was. I’ve 100 percent fallen in love with it, and I’m ruined, and I’ll be even more ruined when I make my first full pass.

The Southeast Gassers Association (SEGA) held its season opener Mar. 25, at Silver Dollar Motorsports Park in Reynolds, GA, where Rick Varner made series history by becoming the first driver to win two SEGA classes at one event.

The reigning Super Stock champion successfully opened his campaign to repeat with a final-round win over Jerry Dean, then rushed back to his pit to swap cars and win again in the A/Gas final against Gabriel Burrell.

Varner said he’s been campaigning two cars at most SEGA events for more than seven years, but the difference maker at Silver Dollar was, “I did my job on the tree and I was lucky.”

Doorslammer legend Victor Bray, the popular face of drag racing in Australia for more than 30 years, will join fellow racers Jim Read, Ash Marshall, Larry Ormsby, Eddie Thomas and Graeme Cowin as a member of the Motorsport Australia Hall of Fame.

Motorsport Australia is the peak body for auto racing in Australia and is affiliated with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body for world motorsport.

Bray was inducted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony held during the 2023 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix.