This Season Presents An Obvious Challenge for New Crew and Tuner …

Prior to this year, Tony Schumacher’s previous five off-seasons have
been easy; there were no major changes in personal. This year has been
different for the reigning Top Fuel driver.

Schumacher has gone through an adjustment period during the two major
off-season test sessions working with new crew chief Mike Green and
finished one-two on the charts.

Throughout it all, Schumacher, the five-time champion with 56 national
event wins to his credit, has heard all the talk of how his “new” team
is making the adjustment for 2009.

“You can’t imagine how many times it’s happened,” said the six-time
world champion. “People want to know how I feel about my new challenge,
my new crew chief and my new team. Frankly, I’m ready for the 2009
season to begin so we can move forward.”

Championship Contender from 2008 Enters 2009 as Underdog …

Cory McClenathan entered the 2008 season with a bite as lethal as his
bark was menacing. In one fell swoop of personnel changes, the 34-time
NHRA Top Fuel winner enters the 2009 season as an underdog standing in
the shadow of teammate Tony Schumacher, who now utilizes the services
of McClenathan’s 2008 crew chief, Mike Green.

McClenathan is now paired with seasoned Funny Car tuners Todd Okuhara
and Phil Shuler  as he prepares for the season-operning NHRA
Winternationals.

For McClenathan, the season is shaping up to be a dog-eat-dog affair.

The challenge is nothing new for McClenathan who has resurrected his
career from overwhelming adversity time after time, reaching the
pinnacle of success on multiple occasions.

John Force will have a little extra Edge this week when he begins his
quest for an unprecedented 15th NHRA Funny Car Championship.
 
During the season-opening 49th annual Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals
at Auto Club Raceway at pomona, Force will drive a distinctive
gold-and-black Ford Mustang that touts his long-time sponsor's newest
synthetic lubricant, Castrol Edge™.

Two names synonymous with horsepower will join forces in 2009, as top
performance air and oil filter producer K&N Engineering today
announced they would be sponsoring six-time Pro Stock Champion Warren
Johnson during the upcoming NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season, with
the K&N Filters Pontiac GXP making its competitive debut at this
weekend’s Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals in Pomona, CA.  Today’s
announcement further enhances an NHRA presence for the California-based
company that includes sponsorship of the K&N Horsepower Challenge,
a special event for Pro Stock drivers held each year at the Summit
Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. 
 
“Warren Johnson is one of the most accomplished and respected figures
in the sport of drag racing, and we are excited to welcome him to the
K&N family,” said Steve Williams, vice president of Product
Engineering and Research and Development at K&N Engineering. “We
have had a technical relationship with Warren Johnson Racing for many
years and have developed some cutting edge products for air intake
systems, including new hood scoop technology.  K&N decided to take
our relationship to the next level primarily because of WJ’s tireless
competitive spirit and unparalleled mechanical expertise. We look
forward to working with him throughout the season.”

Chris Rivas always felt he'd have the opportunity to avenge his
five-point championship loss to Eddie Krawiec in 2008 in the NHRA Pro
Stock Motorcycle division.

Barring an eleventh hour miracle, Rivas will be on the sidelines for
the 2009 season, the unfortunate victim of a sluggish economy and to a
lesser degree, a recent rule change that he and others feel shackle the
Buell (S&S Engine) combination with a marginal chance of winning
races, or a championship.

Team owners George Smith and George Bryce have elected to sit out the 2009 s eason with the G-Squared/S&S Buell team.

“We knew at the end of the 2008 season that it was going to be tough to
squeeze out a team because of the upcoming economic situation,” Rivas
said.

An overwhelming majority of CompetitionPlus.com readers have a message for the NHRA, “Award the points; recognize the records.”

The question was posed to the readership on Monday, and by Wednesday,
67.1% had voted in favor of recognizing the driver/team achievements
considering 1,000-foot racing will be enforced throughout the 2009
season.

Spencer Massey (Top Fuel) and Del Worsham (Funny Car), along with fellow NHRA Full Throttle racers Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are the CompetitionPlus.com picks to win their respective championships in 2009.

To say both Massey and Worsham were surprised would be an understatement.

Massey, who was given advance notice on Tuesday evening, was already in
Pomona preparing for his national event debut as driver for Don “Snake”
Prudhomme.

Rocky Mountain Raceways has announced that they will become the next International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) member track.

The raceway moves into this relationship with IHRA after a long-standing relationship with NHRA (National Hot Rod Association).

“While the NHRA was disappointed with the move they wished us continued
success in our efforts to strengthen the RMR brand,” said Doug
Binstock, General Manager at Rocky Mountain Raceways.

Rocky Mountain Raceways sees this as the next step in the progression
and growth of auto racing. It also sees this as the next step to
bringing larger racing events to Utah with top name drivers from across
the country.

Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC has hired legendary European Pro Stock
racer Tomi Laine as crew chief for the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Series
season.

"I have known Tomi Laine for some time now and have always wanted him
to be a part of our team. Unfortunately, the time was not right because
he was with another team, and he became available after the 2008
season.  We are fortunate to have him onboard," said an elated Tom
Hammonds, president of Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC and driver of the
No.20 Race for Achievement Chevy Cobalt.

Laine, originally from Finland, started his career racing speed boats
the age of 16 and moved to racing street cars on drag strips.  In 1988,
he moved he began Competition Eliminator, before graduating to Pro
Stock in 1991, where he won two Pro Stock European Championships and
one runner-up title.

It has been thirty years this year that York US 30 Dragway ceased
operation at the York Airport, Thomasville, PA but the tradition runs
deep for the 8th Annual Musclecar Madness at the York Reunion that
takes place on July 10-11, 2009 at the
York Expo Center, York Fairgrounds.

The founder and publisher of Super Stock and Drag Illustrated magazine
and co-owner of York US 30 Dragway, Monk Reynolds, will make his first
appearance at the annual reunion.

The York drag strip was one of the most prominent drag racing facilities in the United States and was the host of the largest
one day drag race in the history of the sport, the Super Stock
Nationals in 1965.  The race to this day is known as the “Woodstock of
Drag Racing”. No drag race ever presented can lay claim to the title.