BracketNews.com will present the richest race in the history of Gulf
Coast bracket racing next weekend, as the Huntsville Engine Great
American Race rolls into No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose, LA. The
event, which features a $50,000 grand prize for Saturday’s winner will
be contested on the 1/8th mile at No Problem Raceway throughout the
holiday weekend.

Friday’s opening event will feature a $5,000 winners purse, with the
$50,000-to-win main event taking center stage on Saturday. The weekend
will close out with a $10,000-to-win event on Sunday. Weekend entry for
competitors is $700. The event will feature buybacks in the first or
second round of competition for the fee of $75 (Friday), $300
(Saturday), and $100 (Sunday). As a special bonus, Saturday’s main
event will feature a doubled $100,000-to-win purse if the event
attracts 250 entries! All purses are guaranteed, based on 110 entrants.

In the heart of Pro Mod country, it's anyone's game in the Get Screened
America Pro Mod Challenge, and the battle is heating up as competitors
enter the second of four races in a seven-week span this weekend at the
NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. The race will also
feature a special tribute to 2008 event winner Steve Engel.
 
Most-recent event winner Roger Burgess is definitely on a roll, never
qualifying below No. 2 so far this season and consistently delivering
5.90-second performances when he stages his ProCare Rx Camaro. His
Duluth, Ga.-based team, tuned by 2004 Bristol Pro Mod Challenge winner
Al Billes, is to a man ready to put another Get Screened America
Warrior on the mantle, but to do that, they will have to get past
points leader Mike Castellana and his Al-Anabi teammate Burton Auxier.
 
Auxier has twice runnered-up this season, and Castellana has driven his
nitrous-powered '68 Firebird to a quarterfinal and semifinal finish to
go along with his Gainesville win.

NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson was uninjured in a
crash Tuesday afternoon while testing at Motor Mile Dragway in Radford,
Va.

Johnson confirmed he crashed his Mopar-sponsored Dodge Stratus into an
earthen berm when both parachutes failed to deploy after an eighth-mile
testing run.

“I just couldn’t get it stopped and the shutdown was a little bumpy,”
Johnson explained in a Tuesday evening phone call. “I tried to turn the
car around and ended up hitting the berm and it tore the front-end off
of the car.”

Johnson said the car suffered extensive front end damage but is
repairable and he plans to run the car during Friday’s qualifications
for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

Hot Rod Fuller said he'd be back.

The 7-time national event winner returns to competition driving for Bob
Vandergriff, Jr., in the Patten Cat Top Fuel dragster at the NHRA
Nationals in Joliet, Ill.

Fuller will continue his longtime association with CAT, representing 
one of their marquee dealers in the country, Patten Industries in his
2009 debut.

“The fact that I was born in Chicago and now have the opportunity to
drive for Patten Cat, a dealer that has been in business in Northern
Illinois for more than 75 years, has made it worth the wait to get back
out on the circuit,” Fuller said.

Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car team will unveil a new one-off NAPA Adaptive One Brakes paint scheme on the car at this weekend's NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway.

Capps, who has led the Funny Car point standings in the 2009 NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series since the first event of the year, is
geared up to win a third national event at this facility and his fourth
of the season as he aims for his first NHRA Funny Car championship this
year. He has faith in his crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch and the NAPA
Adaptive One Brakes Dodge Funny Car.

"We talked earlier in the season about success breeding confidence,"
said Capps, Bristol champion in 2001 and 2006. "There's been a lot of
confidence built in me as a driver by the success the NAPA team has had
so far. We've even brought out new chassis at the start of a race
weekend in the past and where a lot of teams might make check-out runs
to make sure everything was OK with a brand-new car, we've run it
straight to the finish line.

Last season, Tim Wilkerson made winning look so effortless.

This season has been a greater challenge for Wilkerson, which comes as no surprise.

He knew after finishing runner-up for the championship last year, that the expectations would be lofty in 2009.

That’s why Wilkerson’s toughest challenge at present is to find the
right balance between a healthy effort and trying too hard. The driver
of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Cobra has finally clawed his way
back into the top ten in points.

"One of the real direct things between drag racing and other sports is
the tendency to try too hard, and you see that all the time," Wilkerson
said. "You can't score a 21-point touchdown, and you can't hit a
six-run home run, so trying to get it all back or take over the world
in one big shot just doesn't work. I get impatient too, just like
anyone, but once we left Pomona we knew we had to focus on doing
everything like we've always done it. You just go step by step with
everything under control. When you try to do too much, you over-step it
and just go backwards.

Motorcraft and Quick Lane Racing have enhanced their online presence
with the addition of three social media sites to keep race fans
informed of the very latest team news, sweepstakes and offers.

This week, Motorcraft and Quick Lane launched Facebook, Twitter, and
Flickr accounts as a supplement to their current online presence.

Summit Racing Equipment has further strengthened its commitment to the
hot rod enthusiast community by launching social networking pages on
Twitter, Facebook, and Hub Garage.
           
“High performance enthusiasts are part of a big online community,” Jeff
Winters, Summit Racing Equipment Chief Marketing Officer, said. “Our
presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Hub Garage gives us another outlet
to interact with this community and gives hot rodders, racers, and
off-roaders another place to connect with fellow enthusiasts.”

Summit Racing’s Twitter account allows the company to share news and
information with the website’s estimated four- to five-million users.
By using the site’s micro-blogs, or “tweets”, Summit Racing will
provide the most up-to-date information on special offers, new
products, motorsports news and results, and other interesting facts
related to the high performance industry.

The 2009 season for the Joe's Transmission TNT Super Series kicked off in fine form last Friday night at Dunn Tire Raceway Park (DTRP). 
A 30% chance of thunderstorms didn't stop twenty-three of the best
sportsman competitors from coming out to the NOCO Energy presented
event.  And when the dust settled, it was Gary Kerl from Williamsville,
New York in the DTRP Winner's Circle. 

Gary and his 1968 Chevrolet Camaro held off Jamie Stoneman's
(Cheektowaga, NY) hard-charging 1993 Chevrolet S10 in the final round. 
And even though the race was all over when Jamie red-lighted, Gary ran
it out out the back door to a 7.010 ET.  Couple that with his near
perfect .501 reaction and this would have been a tough package to
beat.  Jamie was no slouch either running an almost perfect 7.005 ET
but would have needed a .505 or better reaction time to win that
round.  On his way to the bye run in the semi-finals, Gary met up with
Steve McCarrick (Phelps NY), Kirk Parry (North Tonawanda NY) and Jason
Vitez (Elma NY).  The rounds didn't come easy for Gary though as he had
to overcome starting line disadvantages in both the first and third
rounds.

Last year Mike Neff made a statement early in his rookie season when he raced his then Old Spice sponsored Ford Mustang to the No.
1 qualifying position and on race day he defeated veterans Tony
Bartone, Ron Capps, and Robert Hight en route to his second consecutive
final round appearance of the season.

He had the baddest hot rod on the property but a surprise mechanical
problem in the final round at Bristol Dragway led to an upset loss
against Melanie Troxel.

As Neff’s Ford Mustang pulled up to stage his team was unable to lift
his Mustang body. As a result crew chief John Medlen was unable to make
critical engine adjustments to his BOSS 500 Ford motor. At the top end
Neff’s Mustang erupted in flames as Troxel pedaled and drove past him.