Towards the end of her successful quest for a fifth Pro Stock championship this fall, Erica Enders said to her challengers, “I am not scared. Bring on whatever you got.”

The driver of the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage / SCAG Chevy Camaro can say that with confidence because of the tight-knit group that has surrounded her, one that not only prepares a quick and fast car for her but would go to war for her off the racetrack.

“I know it sounds clichéd, but they're the most important part of the puzzle, to have a group that operates as one and that you can trust, not just on making the race car safe for you, but trusting them with everything . . . whether it be something that you tell them, executing a job perfectly, having your back when somebody's doing something as stupid as running their mouth, or they're not trying to sneak your ride from underneath you,” Enders said. “There's no ulterior motives. There's just a good group of men. I didn't always have that, but I have it now. I feel like that was the most challenging part was to weed through all of the crap to get to the cream.

Veteran NHRA tuner Jim Oberhofer will join legendary Australian Top Fuel team Jim Read Racing for rounds three and four of the Australian Top Fuel Championship at Willowbank Raceway, January 6-7 and Sydney Dragway, January 27-28.

Oberhofer has close links with the Read family and last visited Australia in January 2020 where he worked alongside tuner Bruce Read on the car driven by three-time champion Phil Read.

“I am very excited about coming over,” said Oberhofer. “I have always enjoyed heading to Australia and being around the Read family – I always say they are my Australian family and Bruce Read is one of my dearest friends and a brother to me.” 

American Powertrain, the world’s largest TREMEC® Elite dealer, announces the return of their popular #BaconShift promotion. Beginning December 12th through January 6th, American Powertrain will reward customers with two pounds of Benton’s Bacon from Madisonville, Tennessee with the sale of any ProFit™ 5 or 6-speed manual overdrive transmission kit. With the moniker “The Best Bacon on Earth,” the company’s annual BaconShift promotion has been a huge hit and one that American Powertrain has received the most positive feedback from customers, according to American Powertrain’s Marketing and Sales Manager, Matt Graves.

There is something to be said for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Of course, this location is known worldwide for all manner of racing, but the yearly arrival of the Performance Racing Industry show here still makes big news locally. Following its return in 2013 to the Hoosier State after a number of years in Orlando, Fla., the city rolls out the red carpet for this event and local news programs pointed out that visitors now fill the myriad group of downtown hotels and quality eateries to the “breaking point.” The truth is, this is truly a trade show that belongs to this city of motorsports importance. Indeed, PRI now has its main headquarter in nearly Speedway, Ind., as well.

Heading into 2023 Texas Motorplex, the only quarter-mile multi-use racing facility in North Texas and home of the Stampede of Speed and NHRA Texas Fall Nationals will once again host a wide variety of drag racing events drawing fans from across the country. The Stampede of Speed, the largest continuous motorsports event second only to the Indy 500, will anchor an exciting season of racing action in 2023.

“We saw tremendous growth in 2022 and we are expecting even bigger events in 2023,” said Christie Meyer Johnson, Texas Motorplex co-owner. “The Stampede of Speed will be back and bigger than ever. The whole team is looking forward to promoting and hosting the best drag racing events in the country. We will have some more exciting announcements about additional events in the coming weeks.”

John Force Racing announced today a multi-year extension with Chevrolet that will see the iconic Bowtie prominently displayed on the National Hot Rod Association’s championship-winning team’s Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars.

“We’re excited to be extending our partnership with Chevrolet and General Motors,” team owner and CEO John Force said. “We have a long history with Chevy, a long successful history and we look forward to continuing that tradition into the future. The support we receive from Chevrolet goes beyond the racetrack. They are part of the John Force Racing family; they help keep us doing what we love and we want to keep winning for them.”

The World Series of Pro Mod $100,000 Winner-Take-All Race To Be Broadcast on CBS Sports 

Perhaps one of the biggest announcements of the 2022 PRI show was made at 1:00PM on Thursday when Wes Buck gave the formal introduction to the World Series of Pro Mod invitational-only $100,000 race, which will occur at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida on March 3-5. Also on stage for this was track owner Victor Alvarez and racers Melanie Selami, Lyle Barrett and Tommy Franklin. Buck, founder of Drag Illustrated magazine, has been laying plans to create what he will eventually hopes to be a global promotion of the category, which he notes is the most popular in all of professional drag racing.

When you already have the largest professional drag racing team in the civilized professional drag racing world, what’s one more team going to hurt?

On Thursday, the Elite Performance juggernaut expanded to include Jerry Tucker, a drag racer proficient in many drag racing arenas.

Tucker, a lifelong resident of Lindsay, Okla., has raced everything from Sprint cars to midgets and has been a constant in the world of competitive drag racing. Now he can add Pro Stock to his extensive resume.

 
Factory Motor Parts (FMP) and its FVP brand of automotive products, which has been the “Preferred Battery of NHRA” since 2019, is excited to join AB Motorsports and three-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown, it was announced today during the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show. 

FMP will feature its FVP brand prominently on the sides of the AB Motorsports Matco Tools dragster and anticipates strong participation in the team’s pitside hospitality experience, with more than 1,300 guests invited to join FMP trackside during the 21-race NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series.