Tony
Schumacher, who became the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to win
five consecutive POWERade Series world championships with a
record-setting season, headlined the four world-championship winning
drivers crowned Monday evening during the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series awards ceremony at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City.

Auto Club Ford Mustang driver Robert Hight’s 2008 season did
not wind up being the dream season he had hoped for with an
early exit at the Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals. While Hight missed the chance to win his first
Funny Car championship, ultimately winding up in fourth place, in
arguably one of the toughest Funny Car fields in the past 20 years the
lifelong Dodgers fan experienced the ultimate baseball highlight as
Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda was on hand to give his team a post season
pep talk.

In the wake of the current world economic crisis, the Brett Stevens
Racing team elected not to travel to Western Australia to contest the
Goldenstate Championships in order to consolidate their resources for
the remainder of the 2008/2009 ANDRA Championship Drag Racing series.

Far from taking a break however, they have been in overdrive at their
Queensland based workshop concluding their most recent testing schedule
and also working on a number of exciting new projects which they are
hoping to launch in 2009.

The testing at Willowbank Raceway proved extremely promising for the
next round of the Top Doorslammer series with team driver Steve Packman
running his SP Racing Falcon to a personal best speed of 249.17
mph/401.00 kph, making him the third fastest legal trim Top Doorslammer
in history behind Brett Stevens (252.66 mph/406.76 kph) and Gary
Phillips (249.86 mph/402.27 kph).

If
it happened at an American Drag Racing League (ADRL) national event,
chances are Urban Hillbilly Action Videos (UHAV) caught it all on tape.
There was plenty of action at Rockingham Dragway in September during
the ADRL’s Hushpower Dragstock V and the Springfield, Missouri-based
video company will soon release its thrill-a-minute take on the race,
for sale via a new and improved Website (www.urbanhillbilly.us ).

You can call Pomona Greg Anderson’s home away from home. For the fourth time in his career, the three-time NHRA Pro Stock champion won both the opening and season-ending events at the Pomona Fairplex.

Some were just easier than others. He defeated Kurt Johnson in the final round.

“It was for second place in the points but first place for the day,”
said Anderson, who had mortally wounded an engine during qualifying.
“Second isn’t so bad and we’ll have to settle for that.

Cruz Pedregon made sure he didn’t back into his second career NHRA Funny Car world championship. Instead, he flung the door open and drove his way into the winner’s circle.

Pedregon, who assumed the NHRA POWERade points lead following his
victory at the NHRA ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals, scored his 25th career
national event victory which was very reminiscent of his 1992
championship season. That title was procured when he put together a
string of five straight victories.

Winning a championship can be a draining experience. At the end of the
day that began with a four way championship battle, Pedregon was
understandably worn out.

Chuck
DeMory has long been a friend of CompetitionPlus.com (when he's not
trying to prove to us he used to be a boxer) and wanted to share a
goodbye with his fellow competitors and friends. After a drag racing
career spanning decades, he's selling everything and walking away from
IHRA Pro Stock, and drag racing. We're honored to carry his goodbye.

The NHRA announced intentions on Friday of working towards slowing
their nitro cars down for a safe return to quarter-mile drag racing but
until then 1,000-foot drag racing will remain.

Input towards a solution seems to be an exclusive club, a few of the
lesser financed teams told CompetitionPlus.com on Saturday. They
contend the NHRA has turned to crew chiefs who are paid hundreds of
thousands of dollars to make cars go fast to slow the cars down.

Defending NHRA Funny Car world champion Tony Pedregon believes the
sanctioning body and PRO, by limiting their options, seriously opens
the door for agendas and slows the process of reaching a viable
solution.

“It’s a shame that we have to be forward and vocal,” Pedregon said; who
reportedly became engaged in a debate over the issue in a recent PRO
meeting. “That’s the only way to get anyone to listen. We’ve got a lot
of respect for Alan Johnson and John Force’s teams -- these are the
biggest teams out here.

Pedregon must interject a “but” into the scenario.

Chris Rivas did everything in his power to win a Pro Stock Motorcycle championship, it’s just the things he couldn’t control is what got him.

Essentially his championship hopes were toast in the semi-finals once
Eddie Krawiec defeated teammate Andrew Hines in a controversial race.

Rivas won his fourth event of 2008, third during the Countdown to the
Championship. The victory also marked his second consecutive defeat by
newly christened champion Krawiec who won the title without the luxury
of winning a national event.

Rivas finished second in the championship points, five points back of Krawiec.

Never mind the towering inferno blazing behind his cockpit, Larry Dixon won his second Top Fuel event in five final rounds. He couldn’t wait to get out of the car, not to avoid the danger, but to throw his hands in elation.

Yes, it’s been that kind of season.

“While everyone was getting excited about the final round and
everything I’m trying to put my fire suit out because my shit was on
fire,” Dixon said, cracking a smile when discussing his victory over
Hot Rod Fuller. “The guys on the rescue team we’re telling me to stop
running and I was like I will once I get to the hose. It burned the
chutes off of it and everything. We left it all out there on the track.
The car nosed over really bad on the other end and I was just like it’s
going to blow up and I’m not at the finish line yet so I saw the win
light come on and my car blew up. But that’s all I cared about.”