The 2022 NHRA season was definitely a roller-coaster ride for veteran Top Fuel driver Clay Millican.

Millican began the year driving for owner Doug Stringer and then in late August Millican and the Parts Plus Top Fuel team were bought by NASCAR and IndyCar team owner Rick Ware.

“Pretty major change,” Millican said about the switch in owners. “The weekend of the U.S. Nationals, no less. But this group of folks is pretty amazing. They really didn't miss a beat. All we did was actually improve the performance of the car picked up. We went on a streak of five first-round losses, but if you added them all up, they equaled a tenth of a second. So, it wasn't like we were running bad at all. The car, it was really, really good. The whole team just really took everything right in stride.”

Duane Nichols understood the value of the Pro Modifieds before they bore the name or professional status. His understanding, along with the power of promotion will forever seal his place in the history of the volatile doorslammer division.

In 1989, the fast Top Sportsman cars were splashed over every magazine devoted to hardcore drag racing and even a few that weren’t. However, unless you lived in the southeastern portion of the United States or followed the IHRA tour religiously, you’re chances of seeing these cars up close in person were slim to none.

“There was demand from both track operators and fans for that kind of thing at that time period of our history in drag racing,” said Nichols. “The Pro Mod thing was so hot for a time period there that everybody was screaming for it.”

SEMA and PRI must share that despite strong Congressional backing and extraordinary support from the racing community, the 2021-2022 Congressional session is ending without passage of the RPM Act.

Key negotiators in Congress could not reach an agreement on bill language that balanced the need for federal law to protect racers and motorsports parts businesses from EPA enforcement with reasonable measures to ensure that race parts are not used on vehicles driven on roads and public highways.

The RPM Act made incredible progress in the 2021-2022 session of Congress. In addition to more than 1.5 million letters advocating for the RPM Act from the grassroots motorsports community to Congress, SEMA and PRI worked with Richard Petty to meet personally with key lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and with NHRA Top Fuel driver Antron Brown to testify before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

One of the most familiar faces in motorsports is Wayne Jesel, whose roots reach back to the 1960s era Stock Eliminator battles of the Northeast in the YooHoo sedan delivery. With the recent announcement that older brother Danny had recently retired from active involvement to become Executive Chairman, Wayne was open to discussing changes in the well-known brand.

“For the last ten years, Danny’s been working on that Equal 8 engine. So while he is also was on hand to do whatever he needed to, he was already handing the baton off.” The Jesel Equal 8 engine is all-new, fully machined of billet, and was Danny’s imaginative effort to take the optimal features of many 90-degree V-8 engines and meld them into a single platform using an innovative equal-column valvetrain across all cylinders. Jason Line has been involved, and Wayne hopes to have a chance to run one of two finished prototypes in his Bonneville vehicle next year. He expects the engine to possibly end up in Comp Eliminator, too. 

Round four of the 2022/2023 Aeroflow 400 Thunder season, scheduled for Heathcote Park Raceway in rural Victoria on February 11-12, has been canceled.
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According to 400 Thunder General Manager Jason Hedges, "We have completed our assessment of the overall venue, and the improvements in racer and spectator amenities that had been planned have been de-railed by the massive amounts of rainfall in the local area over the past several months". 

In a prepared statement, KB Racing officially announced its merger with Titan Racing Engines in a move anticipated as early as September. The team will be known going forward as KB Titan Racing. 

Ken Black’s retirement at the end of the 2022 season led to the move.

The retirement of Black opened the opportunity for Titan Racing Engines partners Eric Latino and Jim Whiteley to move toward merging the Pro Stock horsepower brands. 

Monday afternoon, KB Titan Racing announced the merger of their race engine properties. By Tuesday, they began filling the roster of drivers. 

NHRA Rookie of the Year driver Camrie Caruso becomes the first driver announcement since the merger. 

“This is an exciting move for me, but it would not be possible without an amazing rookie season learning from Jim Yates and working with Jamie and Toni Yates,” said Caruso who finished the regular season in the Top Ten and qualified for every NHRA national event. “The opportunity to become a team driver for KB Titan Racing was too good to pass up. I want to thank Jim, Toni, and Jamie for everything, and they will always hold a special place in my heart. I am looking forward to making an immediate impact with KB Titan Racing and developing even more as a driver.”

NHRA officials announced that Flexjet, a global leader in subscription-based private aviation, has been named the title sponsor of the exciting NHRA Factory Stock Showdown class for the upcoming 2023 season. The fan-favorite Flexjet NHRA Factory Stock Showdown category will feature 10 races at NHRA national events next year, adding a pair of races to the schedule.

Flexjet will also become the Official Private Aviation Partner of the NHRA.

It’s different, and that’s precisely what they want.

The promoters of the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Modified World Series confirmed that not only will the most volatile doorslammers on the planet be in the show, but also the Xtreme Front Wheel Drive Challenge. The Xtreme Front Wheel Drive Challenge will be held in conjunction with the 2023 World Series of Pro Mod, March 3-5, at Bradenton Motorsports Park, officials announced.
 
“We couldn’t be more excited to add the inaugural Xtreme Front Wheel Drive Challenge to the 2023 running of the World Series of Pro Mod,” said Drag Illustrated Founder and Editorial Director Wes Buck. “This is a community of racers, teams and fans that we feel strongly deserve to be a part of this massive event and will bring a unique energy and enthusiasm to WSOPM. We’ve extended invites to many of the best Sport Compact racers in the world and can’t wait to see them battle it out for $20,000.”