It was hot and humid for the opening day of qualifying at the

O’Reilly Summer Nationals Heartland Park Topeka.  Funny Car
points leader, Tim Wilkerson had a little trouble with his Levi, Ray & Shoup
Chevrolet and looks for Saturday to bring better runs.

BARTONE SITS NO. 1 IN TOPEKA; DIXON, CONNOLLY ALSO IN PROVISIONAL SPOTS AT HEARTLAND PARK

After
nearly two years since his last No. 1 qualifier, Funny Car driver Tony
Bartone raced to the provisional top spot Friday at the O’Reilly NHRA
Summer Nationals.

Larry Dixon and Dave Connolly were also No. 1 qualifiers in their
respective categories at the ninth of 24 events on the NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series.

Bartone drove his Canidae Pet Food Chevy Monte Carlo to a 4.881-second
pass at 301.81 mph to become the provisional top qualifier. It would be
Bartone’s second career No. 1 qualifier, with his first coming in 2006.

As a newcomer this year to contending for NHRA’s POWERade Drag Racing
Series Pro Stock Motorcycle championship, Chris Rivas has adopted the
Alfred E. Newman approach of “what, me worry?”
 
That mindset most recently paid dividends at Las Vegas (Nov. 2), when
the talented rider of the G2 Motorsports Drag Specialties S&S Cycle
V-Twin motorcycle earned his second victory in four Countdown to the
Championship races to move within 39 points of the lead.  And now, with
the Southern California Automobile Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., on
deck Nov. 13-16, Rivas is once again adopting the same attitude.
 
“I was busy at my (motorcycle) shop, trying to get customer bikes
worked on, doing lots of performance motor work, head porting and dyno
tuning,” said Rivas, of Fresno, Calif.  “I got all the bikes done so
they could have a good weekend and I haven’t had a chance to really
think about racing. I think that’s probably a really good thing for me.”
 
Rivas is in third place with 2,354 points, 19 behind second place (one
round) and two rounds behind the leader with four rounds of racing on
Sunday’s docket.

Today, VP Race Fuels offered the following statement/clarification through their
public relations director Steve Scheidker in response to an article
published on CompetitionPlus.com titled NHRA FUEL SUPPLIER - "THERE'S A SHORTAGE OUT THERE"

NHRA nitro racers were
notified by the sanctioning body management their testing will be limited to
non-national event facilities and all day-after event testing is postponed
indefinitely until the impending nitro shortage for the official distributor is
resolved.

Sources within the NHRA
are also considering abbreviating qualifying down to three sessions depending
on how serious the situation gets.

CompetitionPlus.com was
told the current nitro supply belonging to VP Race Fuels could last through the
Norwalk national event and another shipment en route could extend the
availability through Indy. A planned shipment after that could overcome the China
shutdown and enable the official supplier to fulfill their obligation through
the season.

The nitrous-injected Pro Modifieds are knocking on the door of the
five-second zone and the IHRA has adjusted their rules to get them
there quicker. In a statement issued today, the IHRA's technical
department has reduced the minimum weight for the nitrous cars by 25
pounds.

If it’s 8 p.m. on Friday night at an ADRL race; it must be time for
qualifying to begin. At least that’s the way it’s been for the
Flowmaster American Drag Racing League presented by the National Guard
almost since its inception four years ago.

That’s going to change July 25-26, however, at Maryland International
Raceway (MIR) for the inaugural ADRL 1-800-GO-GUARD.com U.S. Drags. The
addition to ADRL’s all-pro show of the Sonny’s Extreme Pro Stock
Challenge presented by Purvis Ford has required a slight revision of
the qualifying and elimination rounds schedule.

The biggest change comes in conducting two qualifying sessions on
Friday evening with a third and final qualifying opportunity on
Saturday before eliminations begin, instead of the other way around.
That first qualifying session also has been moved forward to 6 p.m.
with the second scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. Saturday’s action will
begin with qualifying at noon, as it always has, but the opening round
of eliminations moves ahead one hour to 3 p.m.

Twenty of the top Pro Mod racers in the world will battle for points and
prestige at the JEGS ProMod Challenge presented by Lend America, to be held June
19-22 at the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals in New
Jersey.

Points leader Tony Pontieri will look to extend his championship
lead and hold off the likes of Steve Engel, Josh Hernandez, Eddie Ware, and Joe
Baker -- all winners on this year's JEGS tour.

That front-running group
is sure to get a challenge from two-time series champion Mike Ashley, who hails
from New York, and Jay Payne, another former champ. Canadian racer Raymond
Commisso also considers Old Bridge Township Raceway Park to be home turf, while
Danny Rowe and Kirk Kuhns look to solidify their top-10 rankings.

With 42 consecutive round wins in a bank and an undefeated season on
the line, Frank Manzo will have a lot at stake as he heads to route 66
Raceway in Joliet, Ill., for this weekend’s highly anticipated JEGS
Sportsman Allstars competition. Manzo, of Morganville, N.J., has not
lost a round of Top Alcohol Funny Car competition since July 1, 2007,
and he’s well on his way to a 12th national championship with five wins
in five events thus far in 2008. However, Manzo’s toughest test will
likely come in the JEGS Allstars, a special event that features the
best drivers from each of NHRA’s seven geographic divisions.
          
In addition to his current win streak, Manzo has also won nine-straight
rounds of competition in the JEGS Allstars, claiming wins in each of
the last three events. All told, Manzo has appeared in seven Allstars
final rounds since 1995, winning six times and earning one runner-up
finish. Last season, Manzo defeated arch rival Jay Payne in the final
round to claim the $7,000 first place prize. He also went on to capture
the title at the Torco Race Fuels Route 66 Nationals the following day,
claiming an additional $7,000 as part of the JEGS double-up bonus,
which is available to any Allstars champion who also wins on Sunday.
Manzo’s 2007 victory helped the Northeast Division squad claim the
overall team title, and the $20,000 bonus that accompanies it.