Five-time world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. and his JEGS.com teammates
are encouraging drag racing fans attending this weekend's 13th annual
O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway to
stop by the Victor Cagnazzi Racing pit area to take part in a special
live radio program.

If you're an NHRA Pro Stock driver faced with a mini slump predicated
on nothing more than the result of a combination of highly improbable
circumstances (i.e., bad luck), it's nice to know the next stop on the
race schedule is a venue that's treated you well over the years.
ACDelco's Kurt Johnson's is the defending champion at the 13th annual
O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals and this week's contest at Gateway
International Raceway is one that's been on his calendar for a long
time.

"Besides the runner-up at Phoenix we've had five races where we've had
odd stuff go wrong," Johnson said. "We haven't been consistent and
that's what it's going to take to win races. Mix in some bad luck and
you know that things are ready to turn around."

Rather than depending on the mystic qualities of four-leaf clovers,
rubbing a rabbit's foot, or scouring the race shop parking lot for a
heads-up penny to get them over this dry spell, Johnson and the ACDelco
crew are depending on tried-and-true methods that have worked so well
for them in the past – hard work and testing.

Friday evening qualifying at the 38th annual IHRA Spring Nationals marked the
first time since 1971 that a Funny Car hasn’t competed at the
traditional spring race hosted by Rockingham Dragway.

Terry McMillen, a front-running Top Fuel racer on the IHRA tour who has
raced an alcohol Funny Car at Rockingham Dragway since the 1990s, entered the event with a regretful sense permeating his mindset.
This is the first time in over a decade his alligator-themed, Amalie
Oil-sponsored Mopar Funny Car was left behind in Elkart, Ind., while he
traveled to the race track.

McMillen admits it was as if he left an old friend at home.

“We’re walking around kind of lost, actually,” McMillen admitted. “The
most frustrating part is that we’ve had fan after fan walk up and ask
us where the Funny Cars are. I nervously try to explain to them and I
don’t think they really understand. They believe they are paying for a
full show that’s supposed to include Funny Cars.”

Shawn Gann, a four-time NHRA Nationals winner, is scheduled to appear at the O’Reilly Auto Parts located at 1321 W. 5th St. in Eureka, Mo., Wednesday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. local time. Gann, who drives the RumBum, XTreme Rebellion, and XXX Racing Fuels Buell in the NHRA Full Throttle Series’ Pro Stock Motorcycle class, will be there to sign autographs, pose for photos, and talk to race fans about the upcoming O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals May 1-3 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.
 

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Eliminations are complete and the NHRA Wally trophies have been
distributed at Memphis Motorsports Park.  This event wraps up the
second of six in South Central division competition, where racers are
striving to add valuable Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series points in hopes
of division and national championships.

David Rampy of Piedmont, Ala., drove his '32 Bantam to the Comp
Eliminator winners circle by defeating No.1 qualifier Joey Tanksley,
Greenwell Springs, La. In the Super Stock final, Mike Stokes,
Hopkinsville, Ky., overpowered Mike Braswell from Weatherford, Texas,
to grab the trophy. Jerry Bennett out of Hickory, Ky., went rounds in
his '62 Savoy and clinched the win by ousting Wade Owens, Cape
Girardeau, Mo., in the Stock Eliminator money round.

In the final rounds from O’Reilly Raceway Park defending NHRA Lucas Oil
Top Alcohol Dragster National Champion Bill Reichert scored the win at
this the opening event in the North Central Division.

Reichert, of Owosso Mich., posted a run of 5.476 seconds at 267.91 mph
over Jacksonville, Fla., resident Artie Allen for his first win of the
season.  Reichert coming out of the No. 2 qualifying position took out
Paul Fishburn, Rensselaer, Ind., and Ken Perry, Richmond Hill, Ont., in
rounds 1 and 2 respectively.

Current rain and incoming severe weather forced the postponement of the SRCA event. Thirty Super Street racers made it down the track before rain started falling, and several attempts at drying the track during breaks in the rain proved to be an exercise in futility. Eliminations for this event will be contested on Thursday, August 27th at Heartland Park Topeka, one day prior to the LODRS 5-5 event at Heartland Park.     

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On his off weekend from his usual gig as driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS
Dodge Funny Car in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, Ron Capps
finished sixth driving the No. 51 Race for Autism Late Model at Madera
(Calif.) Speedway on Saturday.

Capps matched his result the last time he drove in a Late Model car for
Bill McAnally in Roseville, Calif, last season, finishing sixth for car
owner Carlos Vieira of Merced, Calif., after qualifying ninth, in the
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Western Late Model 50-lap feature.
The event was held during the NASCAR Camping World Series West
NAPA/TOYOTA 150.

Finally.

After years of trying, Goforth finally got the monkey off his back and
picked up his first career victory Sunday afternoon at the 38th annual
Spring Nationals at Rockingham Dragway.

“Three years of hard work, that is what is going through my head right
now. We are living proof that you can buy the best stuff in the world,
but if you don’t have the people to help you run it it doesn’t do you
any good,” Goforth said. “You have to have the total package. Beating
somebody like Pete in the finals, the class that group has, it is
incredible. We are trying to get on their level and we aren’t quite
their yet, but we are getting there.”

And Goforth couldn’t have picked a better time to pick up his first
win, doing so at the oldest and most prestigious event on the IHRA
circuit.

Talk about making a good first impression.

Tim Tindle of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. had never raced in IHRA
competition before this weekend, but that mattered very little on
Sunday as Tindle put down four unbelievably consistent laps to pick up
his first victory in IHRA Pro Modified competition Sunday at Rockingham
Dragway.

And making his win even more impressive was that Tindle had to knock
off defending IHRA Pro Mod champ and No. 1 qualifier Kenny Lang (Grande
Pointe, Manitoba) to do so.

“It is just awesome. I red lighted against Kenny the last time we raced
in a round where we had the fastest car,” Tindle said. “It was nice to
get one back.”