When Chad Head left the NHRA’s employ years ago to join the Indy Racing League he wondered if he’d worked his last job in

Chad
Head (right) poses for a picture with his dad Jim Head, a noted nitro
racer. The second-generation Head returns to drag racing as the team
manager for Alan Johnson's Al-Anabi operation.

drag
racing. Shortly before Alan Johnson’s announcement that he’d signed an
agreement to field a two-car nitro team in conjunction with Al Anabi
Motorsports, his questions were answered.

Head is the team manager for Johnson’s Alan Johnson/Al Anabi
Motorsports team scheduled to debut in January 2009 when testing opens.
He can say with a high amount of certainty that he’s happy to be back
in drag racing.

“Alan called me when he was putting the team together and asked me if I
would be interested,” Head said. “Considering the long-standing
relationship between my dad, myself and the Johnson family the decision
was really a no-brainer. The toughest part of the decision was leaving
the Indy Car series and the person I worked for -- Brian Barnhart.”

Alan Johnson/Al Anabi Motorsports team manager Chad Head would love to
earn a dollar for every time someone has inquired or tried to get the
inside scoop regarding who will drive the team’s Top Fuel dragster in
2009. He’d be a rich man.

“We’re still working on that and Alan’s got it narrowed down to a
couple of people,” Head admitted. “I think he’s just trying to put the
finishing touches on a few things. We could have an announcement within
a week or so.”

Racers for Christ is currently conducting an eBay auction for an
autographed John Force helmet along with an NHRA Fan Experience for an
upcoming 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series national event of the
winning bidder choosing. The helmet was recently autographed by the
14-time Funny Car champion at the conclusion of the 2008 NHRA POWERade
season.

The International Hot Rod Association, a division of Feld
Entertainment, Inc., will keep its current  1/4 mile format for all
Nitro Jam national event races. This traditional drag racing format is
what works best for IHRA as a sanctioning body, its racers and fans
according to IHRA vice president of racing operations, Skooter Peaco.

“With our cars, our speeds, our drivers and our safety precautions in
place we feel we can safely maintain our current format,” Peaco said of
quarter-mile Nitro racing. “We are an organization that is known for
making big changes when we need to. We tend to make conservative
decisions in this area and have completely stopped racing at events
when conditions existed that were outside our comfort zone regardless
of the class we were running at the time. By no means is our decision
to continue quarter mile an attempt to stick our heads in the sand and
pretend our sport doesn't need to address these issues. This decision
is simply no different than ones we have made in the past.  We will
continue to monitor the speeds our cars produce, continue to have open
conversations with our drivers and adjust as necessary. We have to make
decisions based on IHRA nitro teams and our unique situation.  Nothing
is more important than our driver's safety.”

The 2008 IHRA season saw consistent, strong fields in both Nitro
classes at Nitro Jam national events. While there were the occasional
on-track incidents associated with 8,000 horsepower vehicles in
straight-line acceleration contests, the ’08 season was one of the
safest and most incident-free in IHRA history. That, Peaco contends, is
a tribute to many people.

Richard Maskin understands the traditionalism of Pro Stock and the
rules surrounding the class. However, in light of recent developments,
and the gradual pullback in factory support during the last
half-decade, the Pro engine builder and noted cylinder head specialist
wonders if the time has come for those in charge to consider changing
some of those rules which were created based on factory participation.

Maskin has no problem in admitting an agenda, but his is shared by many of today’s aftermarket parts manufacturers.

Per the NHRA rulebook, in certain divisions, select parts such as
cylinder heads and blocks require factory part numbers although these
components are often cast in a place other than in the manufacturer's
foundry.

“Now that the car companies have all but pulled out and the aftermarket
industry has been supporting it and will continue to support it, the
NHRA should open their eyes,” Maskin said. “There’s been a stigma for
fifty years now whether it’s NHRA or NASCAR that racing is the car
companies’ territory.

The polls have closed for voters choosing 2008 All-America Auto Racing
Team and  five drivers with landslides of more than 70 percent of the
vote are contenders for the Jerry Titus Award -- the team’s Driver of
the Year.
   
Who those five are is not revealed until the All-America ceremonies in
Ontario, Calif., on Jan. 10 but they will come from among the 17
drivers named to the First Team by the voting members of the American
Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association.
   
Three former Titus winners are on the team this year -- Indy Car
champions Tony Kanaan (2004) and Dan Wheldon (2005), and NHRA Top Fuel
driver Tony Schumacher (2006) but only Schumacher bids to repeat this
year.
   

NHRA Top Fuel star Antron Brown will join a distinguished group from
the motor sports community as a panel speaker at Sports Business
Journal’s 2008 Motorsports Marketing Forum in New York on December 2.
Brown and the panel will discuss a variety of racing topics including
the economy, TV ratings and the future of motor sports.

The 18-time NHRA winner will be joined by Joie Chitwood of Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, Julie Sobieskie of ESPN, Jay Frye of Red Bull Racing,
Al Johnson of Aflac and David Zucker of Petty Enterprises at the Westin
Times Square in New York City. The two-day event features some of
leaders from the motor sports industry. Representing NHRA at the event
will be president, Tom Compton, senior vice president of sales and
marketing, Gary Darcy and senior director of sales and business
development, John Siragusa.

Announces Expanded 2009 Season Schedule

Turbine-engine tunes with an emphasis on afterburner base notes will make beautiful music as Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University unleashes a symphony of speed on North America in 2009 when
the student-designed Embry-Riddle Jet Dragster hits the highways for
the next racing season.

The Embry-Riddle Jet Racing Team is perfectly positioned for its
biggest season ever with more than 25 major drag-racing venues already
scheduled for 2009, including major events in Bradenton, Fla., Norwalk,
Ohio, Atlanta, Chicago, and the EAA airshow in Oshkosh, Wis.

The Florida-based team is spending the off-season preparing its
equipment and spares for the fifth full season of exhibition racing of
the Embry-Riddle jet car. The Embry-Riddle Jet Dragster, driven by
veteran drag-racing driver Elaine Larsen, is powered by a Pratt &
Whitney J-60 engine and accelerates from zero to 60 mph in less than a
second and reaches top speeds approaching 300 mph in a quarter of a
mile. Larsen is one of only three women currently driving jet-powered
race vehicles in the United States.