As was the case during Hurricane Florence in 2018, Rockingham Dragway was ground zero for Duke Energy’s effort to restore power to a Sandhills region hit hard by last week’s ice storm. 

More than 150 bucket trucks, dozens of support vehicles and more than 300 linemen and other workers were bivouacked at the racetrack at the company’s Winter Storm Restoration Center.

The opening round of the 2022 Burson Auto Parts Top Fuel championship at Sydney Dragway, January 21-22, will be a wide-open affair. Each of the six entrants will bring a different narrative to the event.

Current Australian titleholder Peter Xiberras has not set foot on a racetrack since winning the championship in June 2021. Xiberras lives in NSW, with his car and team based in Queensland. 

“We might be the current champions,” said Xiberras, “but I feel like we are heading into the opening round as underdogs. Everyone else has been out there testing. In contrast, we haven't been able to do any due to the weather and COVID-19 restrictions hampering our plans. We will be looking to make the most of the two scheduled test passes on Friday before the all-run format gets underway on Saturday.”

He's Pat Musi, and he has no filter. The New Jersey native who relocated from Carteret, NJ, to Mooresville, NC, almost a decade ago has experienced more than his share of culture shock since. The most recent was abandoning the conventional national event scene of the established race series for the outlaw confines of the No Prep Kings series. 

In this exclusive interview, CompetitionPlus.com's Bobby Bennett discusses the changes, misnomers, and challenges he encountered in making the switch. 

Musi addresses the issues associated with racing the traditional national event scene and the advantages of the pathway he's taken along with his daughter Lizzie Musi.

Musi is straightforward and shows his traditional gruff, and we expected no different. 

Justin Ashley has proven to be so much more than a successful, and youthful drag racer. He’s been proficient in bringing new faces into the major league drag racing marketing platform 

Justin Ashley Racing announced today its primary sponsorship agreement with Phillips Connect, a national leader in semi-trailer tracking and sensor technologies, to begin the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. The wide-ranging marketing program will initially include the NHRA Winternationals, NHRA Arizona Nationals, and NHRA Gatornationals with primary sponsorship on Ashley’s Davis Motorsports 11,000 horsepower Top Fuel dragster and comprehensive corporate hospitality and business-to-business initiatives.

The stars of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series will begin preparing for their pursuits of Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock world championships from Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park outside of Phoenix, Arizona, during the PRO Nitro Spring Training test session slated for February 10-12. The testing sessions hosted by the Professional Racing Organization will be closed to the public except for Saturday, February 12, when fans who have purchased tickets to the NHRA Arizona Nationals will have the opportunity to purchase tickets for the on-track testing action. Fans may add on test session tickets to their Arizona Nationals ticket order online or they may call the NHRA Ticket Sales Center at 800-884-6472 if Nationals tickets have been previously purchased.

Almost 30 drivers from more than a dozen of the top professional NHRA teams, including nine current or former world champions, will be testing many with brand new race cars and new sponsors.

The opening round of the 2022 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel championship at Sydney Dragway, January 21-22, has received a massive boost with NHRA legend Larry Dixon set to race for leading Australian team, Rapisarda Autosport International.

Dixon will partner with Australian champ Wayne Newby in the absence of West Australian team member Damien Harris. The latter is unavailable due to state government travel restrictions and border closures.

Jamie Jackson had no idea how crucial a 1961 match race between Sammy Hale and “Sneaky” Pete Robinson would be in preserving drag racing’s history. He was awestruck at the presentation of sounds and speed.

While photography was the preferred way of capturing the intensity of the straight-line sport, Jackson believed this was so inadequate in presenting the way it really was. Now joined by his older brother Sonny, the siblings borrowed their parents’ 8 mm Brownie Hawkeye movie camera, which used Kodak color film. 

Two decades behind the wheel of her iconic jet dragster has only made Elain Larsen better and faster. She will embark in 2022 on her “Two Decades of Thrills: Full Throttle Tour,” which will propel her into the next phase of her professional career.

At the end of the season, Larsen will change her focus as the primary driver for Larsen Motorsports (LMS). Instead, she will assume a more prominent leadership role within LMS, the company she founded with her husband, Chris, and Blazing Trails, the 501(C)3 non-profit she founded. She will work more on the R&D side of motorsports and connect students to exciting, non-traditional careers through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics)

When historic Thunder Valley opens its gates in 2022, it will once again be the one of the busiest drag strips in the country as it will continue to offer fans a wide variety of compelling events, headlined by the prestigious NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

In 2022, the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals will return to its traditional Father’s Day date, June 17-19. The marquee event anchors an impressive season calendar that also will showcase the NHRA Junior Drag Racing League Eastern Conference Finals, the return of both the Street Car Takeover and the American Motorcycle Association, two World Footbrake Challenge events, the Rad Torque Fall Fling, the DER Series and the Thunder Valley Street Fights.