Don Schumacher described his first ADRL experience as “interesting” and an “interesting way to run a race”.

The veteran NHRA team owner and past nitro legend told
CompetitionPlus.com that he attended the first day of the ADRL Gateway
Drags at Gateway International Raceway located outside of St. Louis at
the urging of series officials who had invited him to take a look at
their operation.

Schumacher accepted their invitation, but had wanted to see what the ADRL was about anyway.

Pat Musi believed there would come a day after his NMCA Pro Street
driving days slowed to part-time, that he would come to a race just to spectate. He’s learning quickly learning that those days aren’t
here.

Musi’s not complaining, as work in this depressed economy is sometimes hard to come by in his profession.

He was at the NMCA NMRA All-Star Nationals in Concord, N.C., assisting
Pro Street racer Vinny Demieri with his Camaro. He’s also assisted Joe
Dunne with his entry as well.

Joe
Bucaro smiles when he says stupidity inspires a racer to build a
398-cubic inch engine when the competition comes to the starting line
with nearly 250 more cubic inches.

The great equalizer for the Carol Stream, Ill.-based Nostalgia Pro
Street racer is that he gets a nearly 600 pound weight break. The class
he races in was formerly the top of the line division in the complex
world of street legal drag racing.

In the midst of a late summer Carolina heat wave, Charles Carpenter
extended his own hot streak at Farmington Dragway and claimed the King of Carolina crown at this weekend’s O’Reilly Thunder Jam event.

After falling to Kenny Rucker in the final round of last year’s
shootout, Carpenter was able to make it one round further and score his
first race win in over two years.

“We decided it would be in our best interest to stay close to home and
continue to work on our combination,” said Carpenter. “This Thunder Jam
race was a huge event last year and I knew it would be a great race
again this year. It feels great to get back in the winner’s circle
after the tough season we’ve had.”

With heavy rains in the area over the weekend, the Stratford
Spectacular Hot August Nationals have been rescheduled for August 15-16
at the Grand Bend Motorplex.
 
For the thousands of loyal fans who ventured to Grand Bend for this
great weekend show of drag racing, event management will honor all
admission and parking passes for next weekend’s racing.

Troy Coughlin won his second NMCA Edelbrock Series national event in a
row Sunday afternoon at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C., to push
his lead in the Scorpion Performance Pro Street category to 240 points
over reigning world champion Vinny Budano, whom Coughlin beat for the
trophy.

This weekend's race validated Coughlin's impressive run three weeks ago
in Chicago where he qualified No. 1, set the national record for his
class, and won the race to assume the point lead in a national series
for the first time in his 22-year career.

Top Fuel racer Clay Millican had a scary moment recently and the experience had nothing to do with his dragster.

Millican’s son Dalton, an accomplished motocross racer, was involved in
crash that rendered him unconscious. The accident occurred last Friday
in Union City, Tenn., while training for an upcoming event.

At
this weekend’s Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA All Star Nationals, one of the
biggest stories of the weekend was Dave Guy and his NMRA BFGoodrich
Tires Drag Radial car.  With weather in the high 90’s and high
humidity, the track was difficult to figure out even for the most
seasoned of competitors.  This was made even more difficult for Guy by
the fact that his class is forced to run on a true DOT-legal radial
tire.  However, he seemed to figure out the track rather quickly,
qualifying second behind Sean Lyon with an 8.12 at over 181mph.  Guy
then proceeded to mow down the competition during eliminations,
culminating in a final-round victory over Enzo Pecchini.  This win
marks Guy’s first ever with the NMRA after three seasons of competition
spanning two classes.  It’s made even more impressive when one
considers that Guy has only run the car in this class for four races,
with a limited number of passes.

The third time might be the charm, but the fourth – that’s really special. Brian Gahm knows that for a fact.

The Extreme Pro Stock racer collected his fourth Extreme Pro Stock win
of the season by stopping Dean Goforth in the final round of the ADRL
Gateway Nationals in St. Louis, Mo.

“That was a good drag race right there,” Gahm of Lucasville, Ohio
proclaimed. “The guys have done a great job in keeping up with this
race track. The guys did all the hard work. I just jumped in there and
drove. I had the easy job today.”

Pro Extreme racer Mike Janis was overjoyed as he spent his time with the media following the ADRL Gateway Nationals
in St. Louis, Mo. The former IHRA Pro Modified world champion was
reflecting on his recent success in ADRL competition. He used to have
the same conversations following a run of success in quarter-mile IHRA
competition.