In a display
of perfect poker etiquette, the Don Plemmons Quick-8 Association’s newest
member, Jim Halsey unloaded some final round thunder when he needed it.
His timing was perfect when he called veteran Rickie Smith in the final round
of the Farmington, NC event on Saturday evening. 

"As I
was coming down the return road someone told me that I was a pretty good poker
player,” said Halsey.

Mired in the
three second zone for much of special Friday test session preceding the event
and qualifying, Smith was considered the favorite headed into eliminations.

Fans of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno know of the comedian's love of classic
cars and motorcycles and his extensive personal collection of automobiles and
bikes. A lesser known fact is that, despite a staff of full-time caretakers,
Leno loves to work on his various machines. Consequently, the affable funnyman
is prone to the same dangers of any backyard mechanic -- busted knuckles, greasy
fingernails, and painful burns.

Although he can't offer much more than a
band-aid and a bar of soap for the first two problems, Paul "Torch" Le Sage, who
grew to prominence spending 25 years as the exclusive welder of the National Hot
Rod Association before he created Torch Wear safety equipment, was able to
immediately solve Leno's challenge of avoiding the various hot spots on his hot
rods. Leno was so appreciative of Le Sage's help, he's broaching the subject on
the March 24th episode of his immensely popular TV show.

"I had the great
pleasure of meeting Jay just before the Winternationals when Don Schumacher
Racing took Gary Scelzi's Oakley Funny Car over to Jay's Garage in Burbank," Le Sage said.
"He's as nice a guy as you could ever meet and he really had an interest in
every part of the racecar. We even put him in there and fired it up on nitro. He
was in heaven

NHRA Super Stock racer Grace Howell joins Marty Ladwig Racing to pilot
a Chevy Cobalt in the All Motor class for the 2008 NOPI/NHRA Xplôd
Sport Compact Series season.

“With GM Racing and Chevrolet stepping in to support our All Motor
Ecotec program, I’m really glad that we are working with Grace,” Ladwig
said. “She fits right in with our team. I think she’s one of the best
young drivers around and has already raced against some tough
competition.”

Howell, 21, has grown up around drag racing where both parents raced. A
former NHRA Jr. Dragster National Champion Grace started racing at 8
yrs old. The Aiken, S.C. racer, who finished in 7th place in Division 2
Super Stock in 2007, will make her professional debut on March 28 at
Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, GA in her K&N/Lucas Oil All Motor
Cobalt.

Rick Stivers has been racing in one form or fashion since he was a
child. If you ask him, he'll laugh and say, "I got 18 stitches in my
eye when I was six because I fell off my bike doing a burnout in the
gravel - so I guess racing is just in my blood." For the past 20 years,
the 50-year-old Lexington, Ky. resident has been mesmerized by the
thrills of drag racing, working his way through a variety of classes
owning several cars, settling on a 2,500-horse power Pro Modified
door-slammer that runs the quarter-mile at more than 240 mph in six
seconds.
 
Last year was a season of change for Stivers, joining forces halfway
through the NHRA Pro Mod Challenge season with then series-presenting
sponsor Tim Tindle. With the addition of a teammate and under direction
of world championship-tuner Chuck Ford, Stivers won his first NHRA
event ever in Richmond, Va. Calling that win "the hardest one to get,"
Stivers said it was something he would never forget.
 
"I remember being just flooded with emotions when we won that first
race in Richmond," he said. "It took us so long to get to that point,
and with my wife Jill and son Rick Jr. by my side, it was an amazing
moment."

Old Spice, the No. 1 anti-perspirant/deodorant stick and body wash choice for
guys in the United States, is joining forces with drag racing’s most successful
Funny Car Team – John Force Racing (JFR), with rookie Funny Car driver Mike Neff
behind the wheel of the new Old Spice Ford Mustang in the 2008 NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series.

The 320-mile-an-hour Old Spice Ford
Mustang – identified by the iconic buoy bottle that adorns its sides – made its
debut in Pomona during the
48th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway
this February.  In addition to Neff’s
car, Old Spice branding also will appear on the Ford Mustangs of John Force,
Ashley Force and Robert Hight. 

Led by John Force, the only drag
racing driver to have won more than 100 NHRA tour events (125), JFR has
dominated Funny Car racing since 1989.  Over the last 19 seasons, the team has
won 15 championships and five drivers have contributed to the team’s record 175
tour victories.  Neff, who joins JFR this season, has a long history of racing,
starting off in motorcross and off-road trucks, transitioning to drag racing in
the early 1990s as a mechanic.  In 2002, he was promoted to crew chief at Don
Schumacher Racing, where he won the 2005 NHRA POWERade championship with driver
Gary Scelzi.

Today's classic You Tube video moment features fast doorslammer racing
from Atlanta Speedshop Dragway in Georgia. A few race cars have crashed
along the storied eighth mile over the years. Those who were around in
the formative years will recognize the Mustang in the opposite lane as
the former Rickie Smith entry driven by Thomas Jackson.

Television producer and videographer Timothy Scott “Bubba” Barnes,
whose career in motorsports spanned thirty years, passed away on
Friday, March 21, 2008, after battling cancer since 2007. He was
forty-eight years old.

A longtime racing enthusiast, Barnes began his television career as a
news cameraman with WCYB-TV in his hometown of Bristol, TN, and became
a cameraman for ESPN’s drag racing coverage in 1985. He became one of
the original employees of Masters Entertainment Group in Bristol and
went on to produce and direct MEG television shows for a variety of
networks including ESPN, ESPN2 and SPEED Channel.

Dave
Wallace turned a lifetime of getting the numbers right into Hall of Fame status
…

Mike Bumbeck Photo

Dave
Wallace began his drag racing career as an 11-year old ET slip
distributor before developing into one of drag racing's more prominent
journalists.

As a starry-eyed 11 year old kid, Dave Wallace never envisioned he’d
one day end up on the stage as an inductee into the International Drag
Racing Hall of Fame. He never envisioned what would happen as he began
his acceptance speech, either.