Season-long points leader Jim Halsey maintained his consistently high performance level throughout the 2021 Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) season to secure his third consecutive Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous world championship. Halsey is now the first driver in PDRA history to win three Pro Nitrous titles. 
 
“This is like a dream come true for me,” Halsey said. “We've been racing for 20-some years, probably close to 30 years, and to do three in a row and to run the numbers we're running, it’s incredible. My driving is pretty decent at times, not so decent at other times, but we’re very happy. I have a great team. They're just as happy as I am about it and they deserve way more credit than I do.”

The proposal to sell the New England Dragway racing facility has been defeated. On the evening of December 2, 2021, a meeting was held, with the shareholders of New England Dragway, located in Epping, New Hampshire.

The primary topic of the meeting was a proposal to sell New England Dragway and its property. Sources indicate the shareholders voted the proposal down by a 428-78 margin. Seven stockholders reportedly abstained from the vote.

Two-time NHRA Pro Mod event winner Lyle Barnett is one of the 50 Pro Modified drivers locked in to race for the celebratory $50,000 payday at this weekend’s 50th annual Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Along with Pro Mod, the event will feature Outlaw 632, radial racing, jet cars and more. 

The second phase of the NHRA's Factory Experimental presentation is apparently in full swing. On November 8, 2021, the first came when NHRA officially revealed the Factory X presented by Holley exhibitions.

The second has been on the down-low with multiple chassis builders already at work building new cars for the exhibition division that some say will eventually be a test run for an NHRA Pro Stock transformation.

Pro Stock racing has always been a fan-favorite at NHRA’s Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., outside of Denver.

The Pro Stock class began competing at the Mile-High Nationals in 1978. The Pro Stock drivers competed at the Mile-High Nationals every year it was held through 2019 when Greg Anderson claimed the title.

The 2020 Mile-High Nationals were canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions in Colorado. The event returned in 2021, but Pro Stock didn’t because of decisions made by NHRA braintrust.

Well, the Pro Stock contingent will be back for the 2022 Mile-High Nationals, July 15-17.

The Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association (NEOPMA) will celebrate its 30th season of competition in 2022 with a full schedule made up of eight points races and an invitational, non-points race. The season will conclude with a special $30,000-to-win race at Maryland International Raceway. 
 
“I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that we’re celebrating 30 years of fast doorslammer racing in 2022,” said John Mazzorana, founder and president of NEOPMA. “This club and its members have seen the highs and lows of the sport over the last 30 years and we’ve stood the test of time. We’ve adapted to keep up with the changing trends in the sport, but we’ve always acted in the interest of providing a safe, fun place for racers to compete and put on a show for the fans at the tracks that bring us in.”

PerTronix Performance Brands, a leader in aftermarket automotive products including Ignition, Exhaust and Fuel Systems, announced today the completion of a growth investment transaction with Charger Investment Partners (“Charger”), a private equity firm based in El Segundo, CA.

“PerTronix Performance Brands is committed to driving growth and has proven success with the acquisition of two industry-leading brands, Aeromotive Fuel Systems, and Taylor Cable Products, in the past 13 months. Charger’s operational knowledge and investment background brings value to our organization and will support the growth of our brands and the ability to leverage future opportunities,” said, Robyn Hetland, CEO.

The 2021 season was quite memorable for Aaron Stanfield for more ways than one.

The Bossier City, La., native won his second world championship in a row in Factory Stock Showdown and driving for Elite Motorsports he finished fifth in the Pro Stock world standings, highlighted by three wins in Epping, N.H., Sonoma, Calif., and Pomona, Calif., 1.

“Any year you can win some races and come out on top with a championship is always a really good year,” Stanfield said. “It was really cool to be able to share a championship with my dad. He won a world championship in Super Stock. Both of us winning world titles in the same year is going to be a really good memory. It had been awhile since my dad had won a world championship.”

 
An increasingly competitive $hameless Racing Pro Outlaw 632 class made sure Wes Distefano didn’t have an easy road to his second consecutive Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) world championship. Still, Distefano made it look easy with four wins and three runner-up finishes in the eight-race 2021 PDRA season. 
 
“It's not that we expected to come out and win the championship again,” Distefano said. “We fought and we enjoyed the challenge and the adversity and we just worked through it right up until it was clinched. We never took it for granted. We just worked and did our job. As soon as it was done, it was on to the next thing. We wanted to win the next race.”

An especially busy off-season continues this week for four-time reigning world drag racing champion Steve Torrence, who briefly will downsize his horsepower requirements in support of his many rodeoing friends at the 63rd annual National Finals Rodeo beginning today at Thomas & Mack Center.

While he is accustomed to the 11,000 horses that propel his Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster to speeds exceeding 330 miles per hour, the 38-year-old is just as comfortable with one horsepower, which is what he uses to work cattle.