The final day of the JEGS Performance Summer Fling presented by Optima Batteries at National Trail Raceway had 312 entries staging up for $30,000 on American Race Cars Saturday.

A full week of beautiful weather continued throughout the day and into the afternoon. Increased round money and special awards would wrap up the third Fling event of the year.

The Fling Team selected Chris Bear as the 2022 Summer Fling MVP to receive the Todd’s Extreme custom-painted Impact Racing helmet and $1,000 bonus for his stellar performance over the course of the event, carrying double entries deep into eliminations during the Thursday 30K and Friday 100K races. Bear also had over five perfect reaction times, proving to be set up “on kill” each day and earning him a spot on the dragster side of the Brodix Best Package Runoff for the SR20 cylinder heads (qualifying with a .002 package).

It is a debate as old as the sport itself.

Who is more responsible for a great run? Is it the driver who has to be methodical in doing everything just right during the burnout, staging, reaction times, wrestling their machine down the track, and then getting it stopped, all in just a few breaths?

Or is the crew chief, who spends hours studying graphs, weather reports, track temperatures and makes sudden, last-second calls on the starting line based on ever-changing track conditions?

If you ask three-time world champion Matt Hagan, he says he knows the answer.

Travis Shumake hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps as a professional nitro racer. Today, he took another step forward in the process by adding  Sheetz, a family-owned convenience store chain based in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as the primary sponsor on the Randy Meyer Racing-owned Top Alcohol Dragster for the upcoming NHRA Pep Boys Nationals and NHRA Betway Nationals.

Shumake’s father, the late Trip Shumake, was a legend in Funny Car racing as an NHRA and IHRA national event winner and perennial front-runner. The second-generation driver is hoping to gain a little magic of his own. 

Shumake has a chance to stand out in the upcoming major league drag races. 
 
Partnering with Sheetz, a brand known for their customer service and creative marketing, the Sheetz dragster boldly asks the question “Why the Sheetz not?” and includes eighties comic book style graphics on Shumake’s car, fire suit, and helmet.

The week leading into the NHRA U.S. Nationals was not Tony Schumacher’s week. . 

First he was bitten, figuratively, by a $20,000 fine and 50-point penalty for an alleged violation of the rules during the quarterfinals of the most recent race, at Brainerd, Minn. His Maynard-Schumacher team has appealed the decision – which would drop him from eighth in the standings to 10th and has Countdown to the Championship ramifications – and is awaiting a final verdict. 

Then he was bitten, literally, by a black widow spider hiding in his motorcycle helmet, sending him to hospital at Austin, Texas. 

The NHRA announced last Friday it was punishing Schumacher for “driving a vehicle that had two disabled safety systems” and for “bypassing a performance restriction device” during eliminations at Brainerd. 

Ida Zetterström might not be well-known yet to American drag-racing fans. 

But the Scandinavian Top Fuel phenom, who is visiting the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park this weekend, said she “was hoping one day I can come over here and do some racing. That would be definitely the dream." 

"It's my first year at [the U.S.] Nationals,” Zetterström said. “We've been to some of the NHRA events, but never U.S. Nationals before." Getting the chance to race here in a dragster one day, she said, “would be something just extraordinary. I mean, Indy's the biggest one you can do.” 

ATI Performance Friday of the JEGS Performance Summer Fling presented by Optima Batteries at National Trail Raceway saw the highest purse of the weekend at $100,000. 312 entries created a mix of ‘traveling pro’ bracket racers and local grassroots drivers.

Prizes ramped up to match the richest payday of the week. Gift certificates and hardcore products were given out to racers for their performances in excess of hundreds of dollars in value.

The opening weekend of the 2nd annual Stampede of Speed will rev up with the series-ending Funny Car Chaos Finals followed by a high energy After Party in the Pits featuring country stars Niko Moon and Kolby Cooper on Saturday, October 8. Featuring ten days of racing events, concerts and special events the Stampede of Speed has quickly established itself as the must-attend for motorsports and music fans across the country. The Saturday program will feature some of the best Nostalgia Funny Car racing in the country followed by two rising stars in the country music scene.

“Hosting the Funny Car Chaos Finals is a great way to start the Stampede of Speed. We always say Texas Motorplex is where speed was born and these Funny Cars are a throwback to the history of drag racing,” said Christie Meyer Johnson. “The variety of race cars that will be on the track will be highly entertaining. Just walking the pits and seeing these cool looking Funny Cars is amazing. They are fast, wild and unpredictable so they put on a great show.”

The Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals series kicks off its 2023 season at Orlando the weekend of March 16-19, 2023. This will be the series' first visit to this central Florida-based facility.

From there the teams will rumble on through five more familiar facilities delivering drag racing action from Xtreme Pro Mods and Factory Super Cars to True Street and index classes.

Round three of the 2022- 23 Australian Top Fuel Championship, The Summernats Slam scheduled for October 1 and 2nd at Heathcote Park Raceway, Victoria his been postponed.

“There are a number of factors behind the decision,” according to series promotor Andy Lopez. “Including heavy wet weather in the last month, with even more forecast for the next couple of weeks leading to the event.”