One year ago Top Fuel pilot Antron Brown left the town of Commerce,
Ga., one Wally heavier—his second since the start of the 2008
season—and just 26 points behind leader Tony Schumacher.

That's pretty impressive considering that Brown was in his first season behind
the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster. Now, one year later, Brown returns to
Commerce to defend his event title at the 29th annual Summit Racing
NHRA Southern Nationals, April 16-19 at Atlanta Dragway.

Though Brown has 24 events and more than 100 passes down the track
under his belt since his Atlanta win one year ago, many similar
circumstances exist that led to his win just one year previous. In
2008, Brown entered the event third in the point standings with one win
in two final round appearances and 10 round wins for the season. This
year Brown heads back to Georgia second in the points, just 18 points
behind leader Schumacher, with one win in two final round appearances
and  11 round wins for the season.

News and Notes from the Auto Trader Easter Thunderball event hosted by Santa Pod Raceway in England. 

This
weekend (April 17-19) nearly 500 of the nation’s best sportsman drag
racers will roll into Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, Calif., for the
fourth annual JEGS NHRA Pacific SPORTSnationals. The second of three
JEGS SPORTSnationals events contested each season, the Pacific
SPORTSnationals attracts NHRA Lucas Oil Series competitors from all
over the western United States in nine separate eliminator categories;
Comp, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, and the
very popular Top Sportsman, Top Dragster eliminators. For the first
time ever, the popular Sportsman Motorcycle class will also be included
at this year’s event.
          
The large fields are expected to include past SPORTSnationals winners
including 2008 champs Doug Lambeck (Comp), Mark Faul (Super Stock),
Dave Moreno (Stock), Mike Ferderer (Super Comp), Ed DeStaute (Super
Gas), Mike Blodgett (Super Street), Larry Scarth (Top Sportsman), and
JR Leerkamp (Top Dragster).
   

The
longest-running event on the IHRA schedule is the Spring Nationals,
hosted by North Carolina’s Rockingham Dragway and presented this year
by Advance Auto Parts and Castrol.

“The Rock” has long been the place where records tumble and performance
barriers are smashed. If weather conditions are right, there’s every
reason to believe that it will be more of the same when the Nitro Jam
circus rolls into town the weekend of April 24-26, 2009.

Hot on the heels of the successful season opener at Baton Rouge,
championship points battles will heat up in earnest as race No. 2 of
the 10-race Nitro Jam schedule gets under way on the full 1320-foot
racing surface at Rockingham.

Current professional points leaders are: Bruce Litton (Top Fuel),
Raymond Commisso (Pro Modified) and Jason Collins (Pro Stock). IHRA
records set at Rockingham include Clay Millican’s 4.484-second Top Fuel
elapsed time from 2005 and Frank Gugliotta’s awesome 6.251 Pro Stock
E.T. set during last season’s fall race.

CompetitionPlus.com's European correspondent Roger Gorringe has submitted his coverage of the annual Easter Thunderball event at Santa Pod and we couldn't help by notice a few "oh crap" moments for some of the racers during the event. Gorringe's report will apear later today.

A Super Stock racer featured by CompetitionPlus.com has been sentenced
to nine years following a road rage incident in Columbia, Md.

John Palmer Higgins, who was known as Jay Higgins in the drag racing
community, was sentenced on one count of first-degree assault.

Cecil County Dragway officials announced a 3-year agreement naming VP
Racing Fuels as Cecil’s Official Fuel, as well as its Official Traction
Compound. With the agreement, VP will be the track’s exclusive supplier
of race fuels via its trackside vendor, Palmer Racing Fuels, including
C12, VP110 and Motorsports 103 unleaded in bulk along with VP’s most
popular specialty fuels, such as C16, Q16 and others, in drums and
pails. In addition, VP’s Lane Choice 6 (LC6) traction compound will be
used exclusively for track prep throughout the term of the agreement.

“We’re excited to bring VP on board as our Official Fuel and Traction
Compound. VP’s well-deserved reputation for quality products and
unsurpassed service made this an easy decision,” said Jimmy Halsey.
“We’re confident our racers will appreciate the extra power and torque
for which VP’s fuels are famous. And we’ve been extremely pleased with
LC6—it’s given us better performance and a better value, which is a
nice combination.”

Bob
Vandergriff last saw action on the NHRA trail last November, at the
2008 Auto Club Finals in Pomona, and the time off in the interim has
been a tough pill to swallow for the popular Top Fuel owner/driver. 
Accustomed to going fast, the Georgia resident is never comfortable
going nowhere, but a lack of sponsor backing had left him parked
throughout the first five races in 2009, and with the annual trip to
Atlanta Dragway looming he put the "pedal to the metal" to find a
marketing partner for this weekend's Summit Racing Southern
Nationals.   Speedco, the only national network to specialize in
quick-lube and tire service for heavy-duty trucks, was quick to see the
value in such an association, and Vandergriff will proudly fly the
Speedco colors this weekend in Commerce, Ga.

The marketing agreement will include the Summit Southern Nationals
(April 17-19), as well as the Mac Tools US Nationals in the fall
(September September 4-7), and Vandergriff is not only thankful for the
support, but also believes it will provide a much-needed boost for a
number of other potential sponsor programs he is currently discussing.

"Mark Clark and the team at Speedco have been longtime supporters of
our racing efforts, and we're thrilled to be able to run the Speedco
colors at our home track in Georgia, as well as at the US Nationals in
Indianapolis," Vandergriff said.  "It's been really difficult to sit on
the sidelines for the first part of the season, so I'm even more
appreciative that Speedco stepped up in time for us to make our '09
debut at our home track.  We're looking forward to jumping right back
into the mix, and maybe we can turn some heads and have some success
this weekend.

PGA
superstar Tiger Woods had better count his lucky stars that Pro Stock
legend Bob Glidden didn’t put all of his efforts into being a
professional golfer. That’s because now he’d have to deal with Billy
Glidden, who is more of a chip off of the old block than the
competition can handle.

The second generation Glidden, the defending Extreme 10.5 world
champion extended his streak of consecutive ADRL round wins to 19
(including the championship-determining Battle of the Belts last year)
with a victory at the recently completed Hardees Georgia Drags in
Valdosta, Ga.

He now holds a 26 – 2 round win record in ADRL competition. Of those
two losses, Glidden only concedes one and that was at the ADRL Ohio
Drags when he lost in the finals. The other was when he failed to
participate in the arm-drop drags conclusion of the event in Martin,
Mich.

Jason Hamstra isn’t one to boast about himself or his team. The DeMotte, Ind.-based driver and his crew just do it.

Saturday night in Valdosta, Ga., Hamstra became a first-time Pro
Extreme ADRL national event winner, driving his supercharged,
Lencodrive-equipped entry to the Hardees Georgia Nationals title by
stopping the dominating Jason Scruggs.

Hamstra raced like he’s raced for much of his career to this point,
under the radar and with very little fanfare, posting just enough to
win.