Successful Year Highlighted by Charity Dinner and Driving Schools

B.R.A.K.E.S.,
the non-profit organization founded by professional NHRA drag racer
Doug Herbert that promotes safe and responsible driving, will soon
celebrate its one-year anniversary.  Over the past year, the
organization has generated funds to support its mission of saving
lives, has held B.R.A.K.E.S. Pro-Active Driving Schools™ and has
significantly raised awareness about the importance of safe driving in
teens and young adults.

Herbert, 10-time NHRA Top Fuel National Event Champion, was testing in
Phoenix on Jan. 26, 2008, when he received the devastating news that
his two sons, Jon and James, had been killed in a car accident.  After
learning that excessive speed and reckless driving were contributing
factors in the accident and that over 6,000 teens are killed every year
in auto accidents, Herbert set out to form a non-profit foundation to
help prevent other parents from experiencing the loss he had endured. 
As the one-year anniversary of the accident approaches, Herbert is
reflecting on the past, as well as looking towards the future.

Veteran NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock racer
Jeg Coughlin Jr. is ready to defend his title at the 2009 edition of
the Las Vegas Pro Stock Showdown at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway on Jan. 31.

Coughlin, of Mooresville, N.C., won last year’s Pro Stock Showdown at
The Strip at LVMS and went on to capture the 2008 Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series Pro Stock championship.

“I am more then ready to get behind the wheel and start the 2009 NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season,” said Jeg Jr. “Being in Las
Vegas for the  Pro Stock Showdown gives everyone a chance to
reacquainted and see which teams’ hard work  in the off season paid off
on the track. It's kind of like our spring training – you want to show
everyone you’re ready to play. Last year we were fortunate to win the
shootout and go into Pomona with a little boost of energy as a team.”

Eric "Rick" Rickman, a member of the original NHRA Drag Safari that
toured the nation from 1954 through 1956 setting up events and
spreading the word about our sport, died Jan. 24. He was 90.

Rickman was a Hot Rod magazine photographer assigned to the team by
NHRA founder and Hot Rod Editor Wally Parks to chronicle the team's
adventures. Rickman, who has photographed everything from drag racing
to salt lakes and midget racing, came by his life's calling card quite
by accident.

Having to choose where to race has never been an issue for Mountain Motor Pro Stockers before. However, that's just what many
racers face with the addition of Extreme Pro Stock in the National
Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL). Long time Mountain Motor
contender John Montecalvo has been a consistent presence at IHRA events
for years, but he is now faced with the decision to choose between
following the IHRA or ADRL schedule.  Four of the ten events in each
series conflict, making it difficult - if not impossible - to run for
Championship points in both organizations. Making decisions even
tougher, one of the conflicting weekends happens to be the first race
in both series. Montecalvo admits this isn't an easy decision to make:

Sophomore Driver Thunders to Quickest Pre-season Lap …

What
do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an
enthusiastic nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered
weeks of employment uncertainty?

If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you
get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781
seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty
of the previous month.

The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new
team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much
anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a
three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all.

John Force has won fourteen NHRA Funny Car world championships and pending a reversal of current fortunes, he could emerge as one of drag racing’s best story tellers. Force carries a 7% voting lead over fellow finalist Pat Musi headed into the final hours of the second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories Showdown.

Voting for the competition ends at 5 p.m., EST.

The No. 1 seeded Force spins a yarn about his antics with older brother Louie Force and proudly proclaims his sibling as an unheralded hero. The story spans from incidents in their childhood through his rise into one of drag racing’s premiere drag racers.

With the recent American Drag Racing League (ADRL) announcement
concerning the addition of Extreme Pro Stock at all 10 National Events,
much buzz is going through the Mountain Motor world. Pete Berner, a
two-time IHRA Pro Stock World Champion and long-time supporter of the
class, is excited for this new racing venue and the opportunities that
Extreme Pro Stock brings.

"The ADRL is a great organization and has already done much for our
sport," says the '08 IHRA Pro Stock World Champ. "Their innovative
approach to competition and fans has set new standards. As the ADRL
continues to grow with the addition of Extreme Pro Stock, I'm excited
for the future of the organization and to be able to be a part of it.
Kenny Nowling has put a lot of work into getting this Extreme Pro Stock
program going and I hope that it gets the support it deserves. Many
thanks go out to him for putting this deal together."

NHRA’s Youth & Education Services Program presented by the U.S.
Army, the first and only program of its kind in the world of
motorsports, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2009 and continues
to inspire and provide career guidance to thousands of high school
students all across the U.S.

Created in 1989 as way to connect education and drag racing, the Y.E.S
Program is a one day event held at 16 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series events each season. It is motorsports’ first and only full-time
program devoted exclusively to educational programming.  The Y.E.S.
Program demonstrates to young men and women the variety of career
opportunities within motorsports, the U.S. Army and the automotive
industry.

The central themes of the Y.E.S. Program are: the need for continued
education; the value of job-specific training; the relevance of
establishing clear, attainable goals; and awareness of the variety of
career options surrounding motorsports.

Mike Edwards Racing has added Central Trailer Sales as an associate
sponsor to the Young Life Pontiac Pro Stock for the 2009 NHRA Full
Throttle season. The newest marketing partner with Edwards will
actively support and help promote the race team as part of the
strategic partnership in their mutual journey for success during the
24-race campaign.

“We are very fortunate to have a company like Central Trailer Sales to
come on board and we will do everything we can to make this partnership
stronger and more valuable for them as we do with all of our marketing
partners,” Edwards said. “We are intensifying our business plan at all
levels, in terms of promoting the team message, working closely with
programs in all the markets, and sponsor support, and this active
approach has helped us build a strong relationship with Tom Wood and
Central Trailer Sales, and we welcome them to our family.

Driving the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge at the NAPA AUTO PARTS National Time Trials in preparation for the opening
of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in Pomona, Calif.,
Feb. 5-8, Jack Beckman posted six test laps, with his best a
4.156-second pass at 280.43 mph, set on Saturday. He is No. 8 for the
weekend.

"We're not done. We're going to stay tomorrow," said Beckman. "The
reason we test is that's when you find little things that would bite
you otherwise at a national event where the points are important and
the runs are limited. And we found a couple of things and now we are
sneaking back up on the combo that we had for last year.