Pat Musi is accustomed to covering a lot of ground at a rapid rate.

The multi-time Pro Street champion usually does this behind the wheel of race car, but lately it’s as if the ground-covering has been in knocking out one assignment after another on his to-do list.

Musi, in his 40th year of the high-performance engine industry, doesn’t appear to be at the end of the list either.

“It’s been non-stop around here servicing customer engines for the new season,” said Musi, who runs Pat Musi Race Engines in Carteret, NJ. “I am headed to Curacao to do some racing and I also have this match race to run. Not much time for sleep around here.”

For several years, driving a 260 mile per hour race car was a dream for Magnolia, Texas resident Kristen Wootton. This past weekend at the DragRaceHose.com Spring Warm-Up event held at Houston Raceway Park, her dream became a reality as Wootton completed her licensing requirements for the NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster division.

Over the period of two days, Wootton, the mother of two children ages 11 and 2 and wife of ADRL Pro Extreme Driver Don Wootton, made seven runs down the HRP quarter-mile driving the family’s recently purchased A/Fuel Dragster tuned by veteran chassis builder and crew chief, Joe Monden. Those seven runs were Wootton’s first down a drag strip in any dragster. And she handled the car like a seasoned veteran of the sport of drag racing.

“The original plan was for me to get some seat time in a Super Comp Dragster,” noted Wootton. “The plans fell through and our crew chief Joe Monden talked it over with us and we decided to give it a shot with the A/fuel car. I received some very detailed instructions from Joe via email about the procedures on how to operate the car. After spending hours on my recliner at home, visualizing driving the car, I felt pretty secure and safe strapped into this very powerful and fast race car.”

Winning the NHRA Heritage Series March Meet is an accomplishment for any racing family. However, when a father and son can accomplish this task in a 22-year span it becomes special.

Second generation Funny Car driver Will Martin drove his Multistack Pro-long Alcohol Funny Car to the 7.0 Pro class championship during the 52nd running of the NHRA Heritage Series March Meet contested at Auto Club Famoso Raceway. Martin’s victory occurred 22-years after his father, former NHRA Nitro Funny Car racer John A. Martin took home the 1988 March Meet title in his Nitro Funny Car. For the 29-year old driver and defending NHRA Heritage 7.0 Pro series Champion, winning the same race his father won more than two decades ago holds a special place in his heart.

“Winning any race is always the result of solid team work, and today’s victory at the March Meet is no exception,” noted the second-generation driver from San Dimas, Calif. “But, not too many people can say they’ve won the same race as their father. When dad won in 1988 it was the last time NHRA Nitro Funny Cars raced at the March Meet, so the victory was a very special one for all of us. I am simply honored to hold the trophy today and say I’ve done something as cool as my dad.”

ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will air its coverage of Full Throttle Series qualifying from the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals Saturday evening at midnight Eastern (9 p.m. Pacific) but will rebroadcast the show the following morning, Sunday, at 10 a.m. Eastern for the convenience of race fans.

"Smokey Joe" Lee, a popular Funny Car racer in Southern California in the 1970s, died March 8 after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Lee, who lived in Lemon Grove, Calif., near San Diego, raced in Top Fuel in the late 1960s, driving the Shifter dragster for Leonard Abbott of Lenco Transmissions, where he worked for many years. Lee transitioned into his own Funny car in 1970 and campaigned a series of mostly Dodge- and Plymouth-bodied cars until the middle of the decade.

Angelle Sampey, who is the winningest female in professional motorsports history, is hanging up her helmet and leathers as she announces her retirement as a professional drag racer.

Sampey, who totaled 41 victories during a 13-year NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle career, said she’s planning to pursue other career opportunities while looking to start a family with her fiancé, Seth Drago.

“I’m ready for a new challenge, including opening Coral Fever, a store specializing in fish, coral and aquariums,” said the 39-year-old. “I made the ultimate sacrifice to postpone starting a family when I began racing. Now, I’m going to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop racing to get married (in June) and then try and start a family.”

Persistent rain showers and a forecast for more showers and thunderstorms throughout the day forced NHRA officials to postpone Thursday’s scheduled racing at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals at historic Gainesville Raceway.

Without major financial backing, it’s nearly impossible to compete on NHRA’s Top Fuel or Funny Car circuit.

Gary Densham knows that as well as anybody, yet the veteran Funny Car driver isn’t ready to give up his passion yet.

Densham last competed on the NHRA Funny Car schedule full time in 2008 when he finished 10th in the points. He’s now in his second year running a limited schedule.

“It’s just too much fun, so I keep racing,” said the 63-year-old Densham, who drove his first Nitro Funny Car in 1971. “The bottomline is there has been a lot of people out there, obviously who have won more races and championships and all the other crap. There’s even a few who have made money, instead of spending every penny we’ve got like I do, but there’s nobody who has had as much fun as I have had.”

Two days shy of Pro Modified's 20th anniversary, the Get Screen America Pro Modified division will take to Gainesville Raceway on Friday during the NHRA Gatornationals as a recognized professional division. For nine seasons, Pro Modified has been fielded an exhibition category at select events. Up until this season, Pro Modified was a full-time professional class on the IHRA Series.

The NHRA Gatornationals, the first of 10 events in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series, will be be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD. 

West Virginian Burton Auxier enters the season with the coveted No. 1 on his car as the status of NHRA Pro Mod racing makes its shift from exhibition to official. He finished on top in the 2009 Pro Mod Challenge standings by getting off to a great start in the early season with a win and a runner-up finish and not suffering any DNQs during the 10-event schedule.