The 51st annual March Meet is the lead-off event in the NHRA’s 8-race
nostalgia drag race series. The 2009 Hot Rod Heritage Series, now in
its second season, gets the green light at historic Auto Club Famoso
Raceway in Bakersfield, Mar. 6-8.

“We’re honored to once again kick-off the Hot Rod Heritage drag racing
series,” said Blake Bowser, vice president and general manager of the
Kern County Racing Association, operators of Auto Club Famoso and
producers of the March Meet. “Nostalgia drag racing fans are in for a
great weekend of racing, fun and affordable entertainment.”

Veteran racer Thomas Myers has announced that he has secured a
multi-year agreement with Safety-Kleen, Inc. to be the primary sponsor
on his 1963 Pro Nitrous Corvette in the National Guard ADRL.

For the long-time Ft. Worth-Dallas area automotive shop owner, getting
sponsorship from what is essentially a local sponsor (Safety-Kleen is
located in nearby Plano) is an ideal situation.

“Thomas has been a long time customer of Safety-Kleen at his automotive
shop,” said Drew Patey, Director of Motorsports for Safety-Kleen.
“Having the opportunity to put our Safety-Kleen colors on the side of
his race car will encourage everyone to dispose of their used motor oil
properly and bring a greater awareness to the environmental initiative
we’ve started with the National Guard ADRL.”

For the past few months NFCA Officers and their marketing team have been feverishly preparing to unveil
the new and improved Nitro Funny Car Association! Vice President Chris
Bennett, “A crucial element that has been missing from the NFCA is a
genuine connection to motorsports enthusiasts and fans of the sport.
The Nitro Nation mobile fan experience has been designed to provide a
central location for interaction, communication, education and
merchandise sales.”

 
Steady wins the race.
 
At least that’s how veteran independent Top Fuel racer Mike Strasburg sees it.
 
Strasburg, 50, of Lehi, Utah, drives the B&J Transmissions dragster, a car sponsored by his company, on the NHRA circuit.
 
Strasburg is currently tied for twelfth in the points, a tally that
could be higher if work demands didn’t force him to exit Pomona
eliminations prior to Tuesday’s NHRA Winternationals completion. As it
turned out his scheduled opponent Antron Brown smoked the tires and
popped the blower coasting to a pedestrian elapsed time.

NHRA Expected to Hand Down Missive Today Regarding ASO Controversy …
 
ADRL President Kenny Nowling wants to be crystal clear regarding his comments made last week and today on CompetitionPlus.com.
 
He doesn’t believe the NHRA is directly responsible for causing the
death of any racer he mentioned in the article. Nowling apologizes if
his comments were taken out of context.
 
However, he doesn’t apologize for challenging the NHRA through refusing
to adhere to the [Alternative Sanctioning Organization] agreement; an
agreement used to allow non-NHRA events to be contested on their
sanctioned tracks. He believes that by signing this agreement it opens
up his series to be controlled by what he deems to be a “rival” series.

The eleventh season of the NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals is set to kick off this coming
Friday, March 6th, 2009, and run through Sunday March 9th at Bradenton
Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida.  With twelve competition
classes taking the track in addition to the Spring Break Shootout class
presented by Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords Magazineand Tremec True
Street, plus three separate bracket-racing categories, a car show, swap
meet, and more, the stage is set for one hell of an exciting weekend of
racing.

Former NHRA Sport Compact and Pro Stock racer Shaun Carlson is
recuperating nicely at home after suffering a series of three heart
attacks over the last month. The attacks have been diagnosed as Brugada
Syndrome, a genetic disease characterized by an abnormality in the
heart’s electrical system that can cause potentially fatal arrhythmias.

Carlson had just returned home after working at his shop on Feb. 1 when
he suffered a ventricular tachycardia episode. He was shocked back to
life two times during his ordeal. Following a battery of tests, Carlson
received an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) to monitor his
heart rhythms and deliver shocks if dangerous rhythms occur.

Lex Joon, owner and driver of the Lex Joon Racing Top Fuel Dragster has
announced that he has re-established his relationship with long time
backer, MPM International Oil Company of Delft, the Netherlands for
2009 and beyond.  In a time when the word recession is used every day
and most race teams are struggling to manage their budgets, the most
successful and well-known Dutch racer will again be able to compete in
the FIA European Drag Racing Series with the help of MPM.

In October of 2008, Joon, the 2005 FIA European Top Fuel Champion and
2007 and 2008 runner-up announced that he was halting his racing
operation, citing time constraints and money issues.  But the long time
racer couldn’t sit on the sidelines for long, so after reassessing his
program and meeting with MPM, Joon decided to continue the long and
successful relationship with a renewed determination.

“Our race activities were asking more of my time each year,” explained
Joon, “and at the same time my presence was needed more in my other
business due to staff issues. A secondary issue was the amount of money
that was needed to be invested in the race team in order to stay
competitive.  So, I made the very difficult decision to put racing
aside.

When the IHRA and ADRL posted their opening events on the same date,
many doorslammers were left with a tough choice of where to make their
season start. For New York racer John Montecalvo, there was only one
obvious choice to make:  run them both!

The IHRA Mardi Gras Nationals held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is a scant
270 miles (roughly five hours in a race rig), from the ADRL
Safety-Kleen Dragpalooza V in Houston, Texas. With eliminations being
contested on different days, Montecalvo sees the feasibility of
competing in both events. His plan is to qualify deep into the IHRA Pro
Stock field on Friday, pack up and head to Houston where he hopes to
qualify, race, and win ADRL Pro Stock Extreme on Saturday, then pack up
and head back to Baton Rouge to capture the Iron Man on Sunday.

Grammy Award winning singer Whitney Houston sang a chorus of prophetic words in her hit song “The Greatest Love of All”.

Top Fuel racer Antron Brown can recite those same words on demand.

Brown truly believes the children are our future, teach them well and they’ll lead the way.

That’s why it’s not an uncommon sight to see the driver of the Matco
Tools-sponsored dragster at the ropes of his pit area not only signing
autographs for the kids and young adults in attendance, but also
interacting and learning about their dreams and wishes.