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FEEDBACK FRIDAY - DECEMBER 05, 2008

Ride or no ride, Tommy Johnson, Jr. insists he'll be in Pomona come February of 2009 driving, even if its the motorcoach he
shares with wife Melanie Troxel and their dogs.
 
“I'll definitely have my helmet and fire suit with me just in case,”
Johnson insisted just after admitting, even if all he is doing is
driving the motorcoach, he will be in Pomona. “I've even considered a
Super Comp car purchase to keep my skills sharp, if that is what I need
to do.”
 
As of this moment in time, Johnson feels he has two prospects. One
prospect is good enough for him to confirm he slipped over to the
Hadman shop to get fitted for a seat in a Top Fuel dragster.

Second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories Showdown Returns This Month …

At first, the concept was simple. Gather a group of former and current racers, sprinkle in a few industry notables and media

types and allow them to tell their greatest “war” stories from back in the day.

Then it became the incessant desire to compete which inspired the
bearers of these outlandish tales to ratchet up the competition to a
rather intense level.

Thus the annual War Stories Showdown was born.

Sixteen competitors will square off in a month-long competition
beginning on Monday, December 15 and ending on January 15th when a
champion will be crowned.

The racing industry will be welcomed back with open arms to
Indianapolis in 2009 with the creation of the International Motorsports
Industry Show (IMIS).
           
The show, to be held December 2-3, 2009 at the Indianapolis Convention
Center, will again showcase Indianapolis as a major hub of all things
racing and build upon the success of similar shows held in the Circle
City in the past. The focus of the show is to bring together the global
motorsports market and create a successful business networking
environment. The International Motorsports Industry Show is owned and
promoted by Performance Events Promotions (PEP) and assisted in
presentation by the Indiana Motorsports Association. 
           
Chris Paulsen, owner of C Racing Inc., co-partner in PEP and president
of the Indiana Motorsports Association states, "Indy is the Racing
Capital of the World, and the IMIS show will thrive in this town which
is deep in auto racing history and heritage. Our mission is to create a
'hard-core' racing trade show that exemplifies this rich heritage. I
challenge anyone to show me a more advantageous location for a true
motorsports trade show."

After several months of being on the market, Piedmont Dragway was
officially sold yesterday. The new owners, Jim Turner and Bob Harris,
are both former owners of the central North Carolina facility. Turner,
a retired educator and coach, grew up near the drag strip that was
built in 1957, and visited the facility often during his teenage years.
Turner later bought the facility in 1982, owning it until 2001. Most of
the modernization of Piedmont Dragway happened under Turner's first
tenure as owner.
 
Joining Turner for a second term of joint-ownership is racer and
business man, Bob Harris, who first partnered with Turner in 1995,
later buying the track outright in 2001. Harris brings years of drag
racing passion to the table, and with it, the steadfast desire to
improve an already quality facility. Near term improvement plans
include resurfacing the track and adding a more modern fuel station.

Former NHRA Nationals and March Meet winner Ted Cyr, who with original
partner Bill Hopper had one of the most successful teams in the country
during the late 1950s and early 1960s and who later fielded a modern
Top Fuel car with Flip Schofield, died Dec. 2 of pharmaceutical
complications following heart surgery in July. He was 79.

Sheikh Khalid's Al-Anabi Awesome Motorsports 1957 Chevy driven by Von
Smith and tuned by Howard Moon set a new track record in testing for
the next event in the Bahrain Drag Race Championship series.

Jeff Perley, a successful Pro Stock crew chief, will return to the NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock community in 2009 as co-crew
chief for Allen Johnson’s Mopar team.

Perley will team up with the existing powerhouse combination of Mark
Ingersoll and Johnson’s engine builder and father Roy Johnson.

Perley’s resume includes a stint with Kurt Johnson (1997 – 2001) and four championship runs with KB Racing.

“I probably over-killed things a little bit.”

This is what Kenny Barnes, the owner of the new Dallas Raceway, said
when asked about the construction of his new all-concrete facility 24
miles east of Dallas, Texas. Barnes, who undertook the construction of
Dallas Raceway with his eye on building a successful place to spend his
retirement, has been meticulous in every detail of his facility. He
hired engineers to test the concrete that will make up his racing
surface, he plotted and planned, taking the steady approach towards the
construction as opposed to throwing something together and worrying
about fixing it later. And the result, when all is said and done, will
be one of the nicest drag racing facilities in the country.

Antron Brown and Lee Beard will continue to lead championship-contending NHRA race team

3B Racing (owned by Tim Buckley) and David Powers Motorsports (owned by
David Powers) announced today an agreement that will see 3B Racing as
the sole owner of the Matco Tools Top Fuel Team driven by Antron Brown.
The transition was completed in an effort to align the financial
estates of Buckley and Powers. Powers remains the owner of Hot Rod
Fuller’s Caterpillar team.

The Matco Tools and Caterpillar teams will continue to operate from the
team’s Brownsburg, Ind. race shop in the heart of NHRA drag racing near
Indianapolis. The structure of the team remains intact with Lee Beard
as the crew chief and Brown, an 18-time NHRA winner, as the driver of
the Matco-backed rail. The Matco Tools and Caterpillar teams will
continue to operate on a shared technology basis. The configuration of
the 3B Racing/DPM pit setup also stays with the popular Iron Eagle Club
hospitality area located between both the Matco Tools and Caterpillar
Top Fuel teams.