Four of five professional classes still up for grabs as racers prepare for Amalie Oil North American Nationals

Spencer Massey is knocking on the door of a world championship in his rookie season.

With two races remaining on the 2008 IHRA schedule at least 20
professional drivers have legitimate chances to walk away with world
championships. In what is shaping up to be the most competitive,
exciting season in history four of five class leaders are clinging to
razor-thin advantages in their respective points chases. The Amalie Oil
North American Nationals presented by the New England Dodge Dealers,
the ninth of 10 national events on the 2008 season schedule, will
provide what could be a turning point as these 20 drivers pursue their
dreams.

Prior to the 2008 season Spencer Massey (Fort Worth, Tex.) was a
virtual unknown on the IHRA circuit. The 25-year-old Texan came up
through the junior dragster ranks and spent the fledgling years of his
racing career driving an injected nitrous dragster in NHRA sportsman
competition. He now is one of the most recognizable drivers in drag
racing.

Two-time defending NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster Champion Bill Reichert and
his Rislone Engine Treatment backed team took a big step towards
winning a third championship by winning this past weekend’s prestigious
Mac Tool U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.  The
win was Reichert’s second at the event, making him only the second
driver in the history of the class to collect two U.S. Nationals wins.
 
Reichert, from Owosso, Mich., had his son Andy in attendance, who
normally assists his father over the phone, to help tune his A/Fuel
Dragster the No. 2 spot in the field with a 5.287 second elapsed time
at 273.29 mph.  In round one, he stayed in the .20’s with a 5.248 at
272.94 mph to defeat Robin Samsel, and then took out rookie driver
Kimmelyn Buff-Pesz in round two with a 5.228 at 276.24, which would
stand as low e.t. and top speed of the event.
 
Reichert’s next two rounds would have huge implications towards this
year’s national championship.  In the semifinals, Reichert squared off
with last year’s Indy winner Marty Thacker, who entered the event
second in points.  Reichert stayed consistent and advanced to the final
round with a 5.266 at 273.33 mph.

Melanie Troxel and the R2B2 Racing Dodge Charger R/T she drives in NHRA
Funny Car competition will highlight this Saturday’s grand opening of R2B2
Motors, located at 3265 Commerce Avenue, Duluth, Ga.

Festivities are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Troxel will sign
autographs, answer questions and be available for photo opportunities
with the car from noon to 2 p.m.

Kyle Busch and Tony Schumacher, the top drivers this season from NASCAR and the NHRA, dueled Tuesday at zMAX
Dragway
@ Concord to promote the upcoming playoff events at Lowe's Motor
Speedway. In the coming weeks, the legendary motorsports complex will
become the world's first to host both the NHRA Countdown to One with
the Sept. 11-14 NHRA Nationals and the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup
with the Bank of America 500 on Oct. 11.
   

Both drivers have respectively clinched the number one
position heading into the playoffs and both are enjoying dream seasons.
Busch has won a whopping 18 times in NASCAR's three national divisions,
including a series best eight wins in Sprint Cup. Schumacher has also
been spectacular, winning six consecutive NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series Top Fuel events and winning 11 of the 18 races in the regular
season. With his win at the NHRA U.S. Nationals on Monday in
Indianapolis, Schumacher tied the great Joe Amato for most Top Fuel
wins in a career with 52.

TJ Zizzo considers himself awful lucky to have a friend like Bruce Litton.

TJ Zizzo battled tooth and nail with Bruce Litton in 2007 for the
IHRA championship. He had to call on him for help just to race Indy.

As Zizzo conveys, a special person will step away from their 31st
wedding anniversary to come help a stranded friend on the Wednesday
leading into the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

That’s what happened when Tony Zizzo, TJ’s father and team truck
driver, ran into issues with the Indiana State Police over speeding
through Center Point, Ind., and other infractions such as a log book
violation.

He’s been retired for quite some time now, but Bob Glidden can still draw the race fans.

Bob
Glidden with wife Etta by his side, was honored during Monday's Indy
pre-race activities. The nine-time Indy champion remains the winningest
professional racer at the prestigious event. (Roger Richards)

The ten-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion and 85-time national event
winner feels a debt to them. He credits them with enabling him to live
out his dream. 

“Fans never forget,” Glidden said. “We've always been good to our fans
and our fans have been great to us.  It never fails, the fans come by
and they like to say hi, like an autograph, it's great.”

NHRA will kick off the
inaugural NHRA Carolinas Nationals with the Countdown to the
Championship Fan Fest in the heart of downtown Charlotte Sept. 10.
Fans will have the opportunity to meet several racers who clinched a
spot in the Countdown to 1, including Funny Car drivers John and Ashley
Force and defending POWERade Funny Car world champion Tony Pedregon,
Top Fuel pilots Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown, Pro Stock drivers
Greg Anderson and Jason Line, Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Andrew Hines
and Eddie Krawiec, and many more.

Last season the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship format made a mockery of Dave Connolly.

In Indianapolis he returned the favor.

Connolly, 25, of Elyria, Ohio, clinched a sixth place finish in the
first phase of the NHRA’s championship series by winning his 20th
career national event title at the expense of past Indy winner Larry
Morgan.

The largest collection of outlaw doorslammers and motorcycles ever assembled is expected this weekend (Sep. 12-13),

The
2007 Scion of New Market, FL’s Gary White carries a turbocharged,
183-cubic-inch engine, while Steve Kirk Jr.’s 1963 Corvette from
Monroe, GA, is motivated by a multi-stage, nitrous-injected, 800-plus
cubic incher—yet both remain Hushpower Dragstock V title contenders in
the ADRL’s hyper-competitive Extreme 10.5 class.

when
the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League (ADRL) presented by the
National Guard stages its oldest and most prestigious event of the
year, Hushpower Dragstock V, at Rockingham Dragway.

Professional race teams from as far away as Oregon, California,
Massachusetts, Florida and all points in between will vie for supremacy
on the venerable Rockingham strip, along with a couple of Canadians and
at least one crew from Puerto Rico. Cars will range from turbocharged,
six-cylinder imports to front-wheel-drive domestics to 900-cubic-inch
classics—with all capable of covering the eighth-mile distance in 3.7
to 4.5 seconds at speeds reaching over 200 miles per hour. There will
also be wild, nitrous-fed motorcycles laying down 4.2-second passes at
more than 170 mph—over just 660 feet from a standing start.