COUGHLIN CLINCHES NHRA POWERADE SERIES PRO STOCK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Five drivers will battle for Funny Car crown, while three race for title in Pro Stock Motorcycle

Jeg
Coughlin raced to his second consecutive and fourth NHRA Pro Stock
world championship title Saturday by qualifying for the Auto Club NHRA
Finals.

He joins Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) as a 2008 POWERade Series champ as
Countdown to 1 battles in Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle will be
settled during Sunday’s final eliminations at Auto Club Raceway at
Pomona.

A pair of new facilities will grace the 2009 IHRA Nitro Jam schedule
as, for the first time, national events will be held at State Capitol
Raceway in Baton Rouge, La. and at Dallas Raceway in Crandall, TX. In
fact, two of the first three 2009 events will be at new tracks.

The season will kick off March 6-8 at State Capitol Raceway, where IHRA
will host it’s inaugural national event in Baton Rouge, La. The capitol
city of Louisiana has long been a market IHRA president Aaron Polburn
has been targeting for a national event.

“It’s a great city and a great region for race fans,” he said. “We’ve
held Thunder Jam events as well as Summit Pro-Am events there in the
past and the response has been tremendous. The fans in Baton Rouge seem
to love their straight-line racing and we look forward to putting on a
tremendous show for them.”

Unless his irons in the fire get red hot, Top Fuel driver Bob Vandergriff Jr., plans to compete on a limited basis in 2009 and work towards full sponsorship for 2010.

“We are still talking to a few companies and have a few things in the
works,” Vandergriff said. “It’s pretty late in the year and I’m still
waiting for a few answers.”

Vandergriff confirmed he should know something before the weekend is complete.

“We’ll believe it when it happens,” Vandergriff added. “We’re just
going to survive for a year and wait for the economy to get better.
We’ll spend a little bit of money in 2009 and come back out and hit it
hard in 2010. We are doing everything we can to stay out here.”

Melanie Troxel knew it was just a matter of time before the gremlins that had plagued her from time
to time exorcised themselves. Friday qualifying in Pomona proved her
right as she jumped to the top of the field with a 4.105 second run at
304.25 miles per hour.

“We’re a little disappointed the season is coming to an end,” Troxel
admitted. “We kind of feel we are finally getting into a stride. I
think the plan is to carry that momentum over into the next season.”

Troxel credits the relentless dedication of tuners Brian Corradi and
Mark Oswald as key factors in keeping the team focused despite the
hardships they’ve endured along the way.

J.R. Todd would love nothing more than to keep his No. 1 spot in the Top Fuel field at the NHRA AAA Finals in Pomona, but he’s a realist considering Saturday’s qualifying schedule.

“The dragsters run second on Saturday,” Todd explained. “There’s a very
good likelihood they will have the cooler session to run in the evening.

“You always have to watch out for that Army car and Alan Johnson. As
soon as you count them out they will come back and bite you.”

This comment comes from the only driver to defeat Schumacher dating back to July.

Jerry Toliver confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com on Friday that he will be driving in 2009 for veteran team owner Jim Dunn.

Toliver,
of Tumecula, Ca., drove this season for Don Schumacher Racing with
limited results, reaching the quarter-finals only twice. He opened the
season with a promising No. 2 qualifying position but struggled in the
middle portion before qualifying No. 2 in Memphis and No. 3 recently in
Las Vegas, Nev.

Toliver has five career national event victories
in ten national event finals during his NHRA career. Two of those
victories came at Pomona. 

TROXEL ASSUMES POLE IN HOT CONDITIONS THAT CONFOUND CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS

Todd, Line and Krawiec round out provisional pole-sitters

With
air temperatures in the mid-80s and track temperatures exceeding 100 at
the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals on Friday, first year Funny Car
driver Melanie Troxel delivered a stunning 4.105-second pass to assume
the provisional pole in Funny Car.

The run was particularly impressive given the soaring heat that kept
every one of the five championship contenders in Funny Car from getting
his car down the Auto Club Raceway under power. The most notable of the
five was points leader Cruz Pedregon, who remained unqualified and will
have just two more attempts on Saturday to get in the field and keep
his championship hopes alive.

Tony Bartone is in his final weekend as the driver of Jim Dunn’s nitro flopper. This weekend could be his last as a nitro Funny Car racer, and possibly nitro altogether.

Bartone plans to race next season, but on a smaller scale and in his old Top Alcohol Funny Car stomping grounds.

“I’m gonna get back some time and spend it with my family,” said
Bartone, a 28-time winner in the Top Alcohol ranks. “You can run about
eight or ten races less than on the professional series. That’s the
game plan for right now.”

Yes, Bob Glidden was walking around in Larry Morgan’s pit area in Pomona.

Yes, Morgan was very happy about it.

“I love him like a dad,” Morgan admitted, about their peculiar
relationship which has had more break-ups and reunites than rocker
Tommy Lee and wife Pamela Anderson.

“He’s more than welcome to be here. I’ve even told him I’d get him a car if he wanted it,” Morgan added.

Call it reorganization should the speculation comes to pass.

Sources indicate the departing crew on the U.S. Army Top Fuel team will
be replaced with members of the FRAM Top Fuel team thus putting in
place a vicious circle of raiding where members of at least one DSR
Funny Car team will replace the repositioned dragster crew members.

Confused?

Cory McClenathan isn’t. He’s been around drag racing long enough to know that nothing lasts forever.