Scott Palmer and team can’t wait to start their season off and get back to St. Louis.

“We couldn’t make it to Gateway last year because of the chassis
update, and it was hard to miss.  We’re only 4 hours from the track, so
it’s a local race for me,” Palmer explains.  “So it’s a brand new year,
and now we’ve got a brand new car and brand new paint job.  We’ve been
cleaning and organizing all winter to make sure everything’s in order
and looks good.  We want to start the season off right.”

“Everyone on our team is a big hockey fan, and since St. Louis is home
of the Blues, we wanted to wish them a congratulations on their playoff
finish this season.  Hopefully we keep some of that momentum going for
us!”

Long regarded as the pioneer of the modern day ezine, Cole Coonce has released his latest book titled Top Fuel Wormhole, Volume 1 of the Cole Coonce Drag Strip Reader.

A number of changes and one major addition have been made to the John
Force Racing Fan Cruise III scheduled for December 31, 2009 – January
4, 2010. The biggest addition is the announcement that 14-time Funny
Car champion John Force will be joining the cruise. Now all four John
Force Racing Funny Car drivers (Force, Ashley Force Hood, Robert Hight
and Mike Neff) will be aboard the Carnival Elation cruise ship for five
days and four nights. The cruise departs from San Diego, California and
will now be setting sail New Year’s Eve for Cabo San Lucas in Baja,
Mexico.

“I’m excited because if you know me you know I don’t take vacations,
I’m a little bit of a workaholic. God knows I need a vacation.  But
when the opportunity came along thanks to the Auto Club that not only
allowed me to be on a beautiful cruise ship heading to Mexico but be
with my family, that made it all the more exciting. I also get to be
with my fans, and that’s fun for me, because that’s what I do every day
at the races.  I’m with my family and with my fans, the only difference
is I won’t have my race car.  But for five days we will be sharing the
wide open sea together and a taste of Mexico,” said Force.

Bob Tasca III fulfilled his goal set in November 2007, win a Wally and bring it home to Dearborn, MI.  Tasca completed the first part of the promise in Gainesville and last week he delivered on the second part by visiting the sponsors’ headquarters.  Tasca recognized the loyal sponsorship of Motorcraft and Quick Lane since the program launched nearly two years ago and presented Ford Customer Service Division with a

John "Bodie" Smith will be back behind the wheel this coming weekend at
the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals held in Madison, Ill. John makes his
return to NHRA Top Fuel competition with help from SaferBrakeLight.com,
Red Line Oil, Wheel Vintiques, Competition Products, Howards Cams, and
Ole Country Smokehouse.

Independent racer Terry Haddock has given John Smith the opportunity to
get back behind the wheel of his Top Fuel dragster after he made the
decision to run his Funny Car during this weekend’s event due to the
lack of points he would earn at the event in Top Fuel since NHRA
implemented their new testing policy.

“I helped Terry this past weekend with his Top Fuel car in Rockingham,
NC for the IHRA event and the subject came up for me to drive his
dragster this weekend” said Smith.  “I have been racing at IHRA events,
match races, and tuning for several teams over the years and this was
an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up. I already had plans on
attending the race so that I could help the Simpson’s with their Top
Fuel dragster and now I’ll be pulling double duty.”

He’s always wanted to drive a NHRA race-winning Top Fuel dragster, and
now Clay Millican has.   There were no headlines, however, because he was making test laps in the Matco Tools car usually driven by Antron Brown.

Brown couldn’t stay for Monday’s test session last week in Commerce,
Ga., so Millican did double duty driving his regular ride, the MPE
Motorsports Hope4Sudan/Motorvation dragster. The team was searching for
a combination that can put Millican in NHRA’s winner’s circle while
preparing for the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals, Friday through Sunday, at
Gateway International Raceway, near St. Louis.

“We want to make our car run more competitively off the starting line
and Lance (Larsen, team crew chief) wanted to make that happen during
testing,” explained Millican.  “Lance’s quarter-mile tune-ups always
ran strong at the finish line.  The 1,000-foot distance has really hurt
our car’s performance, but it definitely ran better during testing. 
The new tune-up changed how the car reacts.  It’s like a baby wanting a
pacifier and is happy when he finds the one he wants.

Morgan Lucas believed it was easier to teach Shawn Langdon how to drive
a Top Fuel car than trying to explain to his high school classmate what
the experience felt like. The two attended Jurupa Valley High School in
Mira Loma, Ca., and were friends in their senior year.

“That’s the hardest question there is to answer,” Lucas said. “Someone
asks you how to drive one then I can explain it. But if you ask me what
it feels like – then I am at a loss for words. You can’t give an
analogy because there’s nothing to compare it to. You could always say
it feels like being strapped to a rocket, but who’s ever experienced
that?

“You just guide it, you’re never in control. You’d have a better chance
of controlling a mentally unstable female going through the changes of
life than being in total control of a Top Fuel car. There is so much
unpredictability in these cars. There is so much that can happen.”

Larry Dixon offers a word of caution to the competition.

The Alan Johnson/Al Anabi team may have stumbled but they haven’t
fallen. This weekend’s NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway
International Raceway could tell the story.

“It’s no secret our team isn’t getting the performance we all want, but
I think we may have started down a path that could give us some
information,” Dixon explained. “Our current car is a Brad Hadman
chassis. For almost my entire career before this year, I’ve driven a
Murf McKinney chassis.  We are doing some research to determine if the
different chassis react differently with regard to steering input. If
that ends up being the case, I may not have been communicating
effectively with Jason. (crew chief Jason McCulloch).”

Dixon opened the season with a DNQ in Pomona but thundered back to win
the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville two races later. Since that
victory the team has steadily backtracked to a semi-final,
quarter-final and then two weeks ago a first round loss.

One of the top parts manufacturers in the sport of drag racing will be
participating as a special award sponsor in the new Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts for 2009.
 
Bear's Performance Products will be the posting the Dash 4 Cash award
at each Quick 32 Sportsman Series event, starting with the season
opener at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario May 16 and 17.
 
“This new series is just what was needed,” stated Kevin Zimmer,
Marketing Manager of Bear's Performance Products. “It will provide the
serious Sportsman racer with some great venues and competition, and we
look forward to being a part of it. And this new series will be a great
tie-in with the Pro Modified Racing Association which will compete with
the Quick 32 Sportsman Series at several of the events.”

A new team that has signed on to compete in the 2009 Pro Modified
Racing Association Tour will be applying years of experience in the Pro
Modified field. Headed up by Billy Leverentz, the Oddy Automotive/Kulik
Automotive Pro Modified team is well-versed in the class, as Leverentz
worked with Pro Modified legend Jim Oddy.
 
”I worked with Jim
for many, many moons,” said Leverentz, who purchased Oddy’s Automotive
Inc. “I have built a lot of engines over the years. I got involved with
cylinder head work along with camshafts, but I did it all. Jim and I
worked well together. We’d try different things and then take it to the
track. There were some bizarre combinations, but they usually worked.”
 
There
was a short stint in drag racing with a 13-second 1966 Dodge Charger,
but Leverentz said he got involved with truck-pulling, both as a
competitor and building engines for the sport.