A brilliant, record-setting run by Pro Extreme star Jason Scruggs
highlighted the opening round of qualifying today for National Guard ADRL
Quarter-Max Memphis Drags II at Memphis Motorsports Park. Scruggs
covered the Memphis eighth mile in an incredible 3.66 seconds at 207.43
miles per hour with his supercharged ’68 Camaro, making it the quickest
and fastest pass in history by a full-bodied drag racing car.

“To
be honest, I feel very fortunate,” the cotton farmer and businessman
from Saltillo, Mississippi said. “I knew it was on a good pass, but it
surprised me just how good it was. Everything had to come together just
about perfect for that to happen.”

Boy, that 70.5 Camaro is a looker.

ADRL.us

If you’ve ever seen the Armor All commercial where NASCAR racer Tony
Stewart stands in a daze staring lovingly at his clean car, then you’ll
get a good idea of how Alex Hossler feels when he looks at his new toy
from Duncan Race Cars.

Hossler has the first of the Cynergy Composites lightweight 70.5 Camaro
bodies and has mated the impressive bodywork with an extremely
lightweight chassis chock full of ingenuity and, oh yeah, titanium.

A 3.90-second, 190 miles per hour test run gives Hossler the feeling
this classic muscle car will be a trophy girl when it’s all said and
done.

They used to call him Mojo because it sounded like a name fitting for a Pro Stock driver.

After nearly a two decades off from competition, while he served in
roles as a consultant and crew chief for championship teams, Morris
Johnson Jr. has returned to competition.

He’s not racing a 500-inch, NHRA legal Pro Stocker.

The driver who has won national event titles in three countries (United States, Canada and Finland) sought out a new challenge.

He wants to win with a mountain motor engine while racing on the eighth-mile within the ADRL’s Extreme Pro Stock division.

Moses had Mt. Sinai. Kenny Nowling, President of the ADRL Series, has the retaining wall at Memphis Motorsports Park.

After a weekend of racing attended by 112 spectators, Nowling, somewhat
depressed, rested on the wall as personal assistant Jessica Alcoke
walked up. Looking up at the Memphis sky, Nowling pondered the future
of the fledgling sanctioning body.

Alcoke approached Nowling and commented, “We might as well give the
tickets away. At least we can make some money on t-shirt sales.”

Nowling looked at the near two dozen spectators in the grandstands,
half of which were Elvis impersonators in town for a convention, and
once he got past the initial anger over what he initially considered a
ludicrous and untimely statement, he realized Alcoke's words made
sense. Certainly things couldn't get any worse.

Rocky Mountain Raceways will be hosting their annual Jet Car Spring Nationals on Saturday, May 23.

Chuck Haynes in his Volcano Jet Car will be racing at Rocky Mountain Raceways on Saturday, May 23.

According to Ron Craft, Drag Strip Manager for Rocky Mountain Raceways,
the Jet Car Spring Nationals is an amazing motorsports spectacle with
some of the fastest racing on the drag strip.

“I am expecting large car counts, fantastic weather and a great show for spectators,” said Craft.

With Jet Car racers from all over the United States and Canada coming
to Rocky Mountain Raceways, the jet-powered dragsters will run more
than 250 miles per hour on the drag strip.

To enhance the online experience of its fans and racers, the National
Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) is rolling out an

“Big Don” Ellison will be hosting the new National Guard ADRL Online
Radio show as part of enhanced Internet-based coverage of the National
Guard ADRL Quarter-Max Memphis Drags II this weekend at Memphis
Motorsports Park.

expanded
and improved Internet-based reporting package, beginning May 21-23,
from its Quarter-Max Memphis Drags II at Memphis Motorsports Park.

The weekend coverage kicks off Thursday night from Silky O’Sullivan’s
Pub (183 Beale St.) in downtown Memphis, where host “Big Don” Ellison
will debut National Guard ADRL Online Radio at 7 p.m., featuring
interviews with drivers and crew members from all five National Guard
ADRL professional classes as part of an open-to-the-public, pre-race
party. A prominent link on the official National Guard ADRL Web site
(www.ADRL.us) will connect listeners to the show.

Robert Patrick remembers Memphis Motorsports Park as a track that has teeth, complete with atmospheric conditions capable of delivering a nasty bite. Depending on the time of the year, the weather in Memphis can also provide an exhilarating experience.

The last time the Purvis Ford-sponsored Patrick, from Fredericksburg,
Va., competed on the famed Memphis quarter-mile was in September of
2001 in the Autozone NHRA Nationals.

Patrick was the only Ford driver to make the sixteen-car field.
Unfortunately, he lost in the first round to eventual winner George
Marnell.

An old and accepted adage in NHRA championship drag racing says that to
win a national event you must first qualify. But before Kurt Johnson
can make even one qualifying attempt down the track, the transporter
hauling his ACDelco Chevrolet must arrive there, safe, secure, and
ready to operate as a rolling race shop as soon as it enters the gates.
That's where Bobby Wunderlich, a crew member on Johnson's ACDelco team
comes into play.

For the past three years, Wunderlich and crew chief Justin Belfance
(and on occasion, crew member Mike Smith), have shared the
oft-overlooked, yet extremely important task of driving the ACDelco
Racing team hauler to each national event. The ACDelco transporter, in
addition to its primary function of carrying Kurt Johnson' Pro Stock
Chevy Cobalt to and from each venue, is an 18-wheel, high-performance
garage that functions as the team's on-site race shop. Getting this
million-dollar unit (and everything in it) to the track, and back home
again, is understandably a job Wunderlich takes very seriously.

While most of his rivals on the NHRA tour take a weekend off before the season's first stretch of three races in a row,
rookie-of-the-year candidate Shawn Langdon is spending Memorial Day at
the track, fighting for big money in the Huntsville Engine Great
American Bracket Race at No Problem Raceway Park in Belle Rose, La.

"I just love to drag race," said Langdon, the back-to-back and reigning
Super Comp world champion. "Even though the Tree is different, it can't
hurt to use it like a practice session for my Top Fuel car. You can
practice at home all you want but nothing compares to real competition
when your adrenaline is pumping."

This isn't the first off-weekend that Langdon has used to make some
extra money and sharpen his skills. Earlier this year in March, he
scored $10,000 at the Tenn-Tucks event in Bowling Green, Ky., in the
same Lucas Oil Super Comp dragster he'll pilot this weekend.