In an NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel season that is not seeing the dominance of one team or driver as in years past,
Cory McClenathan sits comfortably in a perch from which his view on the
horizon includes a strong chance of claiming his first Top Fuel crown.

Driving the FRAM Tough Guard Top Fuel dragster for Don Schumacher
Racing, McClenathan has shown quiet determination and skill this year,
and his team, led by first-time Top Fuel tuners Todd Okuhara and Phil
Shuler, have demonstrated their strength on the drag strip.

In just seven national events, McClenathan has advanced to the final
round twice, to the semifinals once and to the quarterfinals three
times. He's qualified in the top half of the field in four events,
including his best of the season, a No. 2 at the last race in St.
Louis. He's fourth in the standings, just 108 points out of first
place. A victory to add to his career tally of 30 is all that's
missing. "Cory Mac" has never won the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. He
would like to do that this weekend.

The performance of Kurt Johnson's ACDelco Chevrolet at the recently completed NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis may have laid the
foundation for a strong push into the next phase of the spring Full
Throttle Series schedule, and now the veteran Pro Stock driver hopes to
nudge the envelope up another notch when the series converges this
weekend on Bristol Dragway. 

"We're pretty pumped," Johnson said. "We learned some things on the
dyno Tuesday morning, and then went out to Commerce (Ga.) to do some
testing and worked on a few issues that needed to be addressed that we
feel will pick us up over the long haul. We were able to fine-tune the
ACDelco Chevrolet with a few runs down the track, and now it's just a
matter of heading to Thunder Valley and getting that first win of the
year."

Free car entry with the purchase of an admission ticket in one class,
winners’ purses up to $10,000 in another and the opportunity to race
for an official IHRA Ironman trophy are the incentives expected to
drive racers to Rockingham Dragway for the track’s annual (May 22-25)
Ironman Memorial Day Bracket Nationals.

In addition, since it is an official IHRA Summit Series event, racers
can earn points that could qualify them to participate in the IHRA
Bracket Finals to be contested at The Rock, Oct. 15-18.

Here’s the Top 10 must- see and -do things at the Holley NHRA
National Hot Rod Reunion, June 19-21 at Beech Bend Raceway Park in
Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Doug Herbert will make his 2009 NHRA Top Fuel season debut this
weekend, May 15-17, at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol,
Tenn.  Herbert, who has been sidelined this season due to a lack of
full time sponsorship funding, has kept himself busy with his
performance parts business and other projects, but the drag racing
veteran is thrilled to be heading back to the drag strip.

“Drag racing is what I love doing,” said Herbert, who has nine career
top-10 points finishes.  “I have really been working hard to put
something together to get back out there and race.  When the zMAX and
Food City people heard that I wasn’t going to be able to run the NHRA
race, they decided they wanted to help me make it to the event.  I
can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to run at Bristol again; I
love that track.”

For
the second consecutive year, Ford Customer Service Division (FCSD) will
join forces with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) to
help raise funds and awareness for the disease through multiple
initiatives within its NHRA Funny Car sponsorship program.

To kick off this partnership, JDRF children have one month to submit a
design for the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang Funny Car, driven
by Bob Tasca III, to be featured on the car during the NHRA Nationals
later this season.

“We’re very excited to partner with the Juvenile Diabetes Research
Foundation again this season,” said Darryl Hazel, Ford Customer Service
Division President. “This is a great program to raise awareness for a
disease that affects so many children.  We are delighted to support
such a worthy cause and to have the JDRF children participate in our
program.”

B.R.A.K.E.S., the 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to promoting safe teen
driving, will hold it’s Teen Pro-Active Driving School at two different
South Carolina locations in July and August.  On July 25 the
organization will use the BMW Performance Center near Spartanburg, and
on August 8 it will utilize the National Guard Armory in Columbia.

“We’ve already had numerous successful schools here in Charlotte, but
going down to Spartanburg and Columbia will help us reach even more
teens,” said B.R.A.K.E.S. Founder, Doug Herbert.  “I really want to
thank everyone at the BMW Performance Center and the National Guard
Armory, especially General Schuler.  I’m also very appreciative for the
effort put forth by South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.  He is a
friend to our organization and he worked to secure these sites for us,
and we’re very thankful.”

“I have a lot of respect for Doug, and I saw how one wrong move
affected his life forever and ended two young, promising lives,” said
Bauer, who will attend the school on July 25 to speak with
participating teens and show his support for the cause.  “Despite the
consequence of a terrible decision having a devastating impact upon
Doug and his family, he is determined to turn personal tragedy into
saving grace for other parents and children, and I will gladly do all I
can to support him.”

After qualifying for his first NHRA Pro Stock race in more than a year,
Dave Northrop is going for two-in-a-row Friday when Thunder Valley
Nationals qualifying begins at Bristol Dragway.

The experience is something he’d like to see develop into a habit worth keeping.

“I’m really looking forward to racing at Bristol,” said Northrop, a
part-time racer from Perkasie, Pa.  “We should be in much better shape
this weekend because Eddie (Guarnaccia, crew chief on Kenny Koretsky’s
Nitro Fish/ ISC Racers Tape/ISC Salesmaster Corp. Dodge) had an
opportunity to test the car the day after our last race at St. Louis
(May 4).  “He said he learned quite a bit about the car and David
Nickens’ motors that should help us.”

This time around, the team hopes to have all four qualifying attempts to develop a solid tune-up for the Bristol track.

At first glance, Top Fuel driver Bobby Lagana Jr. may look like your average drag racing enthusiast.

A passionate wheelman who walks, talks, eats and breaths drag racing,
Lagana seems to fit the mold of just about every young driver who feels
he can wheel a race car better than anyone in the world.

But try walking up to Lagana at the racetrack, or even on the street,
and it doesn’t take long to realize that this isn’t your average,
run-of-the-mill race car driver.

No, Lagana was molded from a different breed of racer, a breed that doesn’t just race to live – they live to race.

R2B2 Racing crew chief, Al Billes, has guided the powerful duo of Roger
Burgess and Raymond Commisso to a spectacular start of the season, and
this weekend, Billes returns to the scene of his second Pro Mod
Challenge win, back in May of 2004, hoping his success as a driver will
equate to fortune as a tuner. The team is set to compete in the Get
Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx at the NHRA
Thunder Valley Nationals.
 
With Billes calling the shots, Roger Burgess, the most recent Get
Screened America Pro Mod Challenge winner, has qualified no lower than
second in the three races this season. He has improved on his
personal-best marks nearly every race, setting his bar at 5.900 seconds
and 246.44 m.p.h. Burgess is currently third in championship points,
less than two round-wins out of first.