John Shoemaker, 65, a veteran drag racer from
Sacramento, Calif., died Saturday from injuries suffered when his Nostalgia Top
Fuel dragster crashed at the end of a pass during the first qualifying
session during the Bakersfield March Meet in Bakersfield, California. 

Shoemaker, who had just run a 6.11 elapsed time at 249 mile per hour
pass, failed to slow following the finish line and went off the end of
the track. 

Marvin Smith Photos

Andrew Hines burns out prior to a 6.84 elapsed time.

Track
records, Class records fall by the wayside as testing resumes in Valdosta

A quick glance at dictionary.com reveals the definition of mineshaft
conditions – ESTN – Day 4. At least two professional classes produced
unofficial record times and as for the track records, they took a
beating as well during the 9th annual CSR Eastern Spring Test Nationals
presented by Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com in Valdosta, Georgia’s South
Georgia Motorsports Park.

Top Fuel driver Antron Brown and wife, Billie Jo, welcomed their third child on
Saturday, March 8. Adler Carson Brown was born at 11:31 a.m. at Clarion West
Hospital in Avon, Ind.

Late in the 2007 season, Kevin and Wendy Sims of Kalbones Racing, Inc.
found themselves with a desire to return to the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car
ranks, if for no other reason than to have a little fun. Now mind you,
to the Sims having fun is a very serious business and something they
don’t take lightly.

After assembling what would turn into one top notch team on very short
notice, they set out to test the waters during the final two races of
the IHRA season. The hopes were to get a head start on a possible full
run at the championship in 2008. Driver Laurie Cannister, along with
her husband Dale Cannister as tuner, joined crew chief Mike Couch and
other members already in place on the Kalbones Grill’n Sauce AFC team. 

The proof was in the “sauce” that this newly merged group meant
business. During their first outing, the team won the event at Budds
Creek and qualified #1 at their second event during the World Finals at
Rockingham Dragway.

Now that’s exactly the kind of fun Kevin and Wendy were looking for and
immediately began to make plans for a full season charge in 2008.

Sometimes a drag racer can find a race car in a peculiar place. Bobby Lagana, Jr. found the car he’s

Phil Hubbard Photo

driving this weekend suspended 50 feet in the air.

“Clay, Lance, Johnny and my brother made this happen,” Lagana said.
“Four weeks ago, we brought all of our equipment to Clay’s shop and had
no idea what was going on. We had parts of our own and they had some
parts there – and had a car with us that we didn’t really want to use.”

So what’s a man to do? Take a look at the shop ceiling if you’re Lagana.

One of the most hyped stats by
the Bakersfield March Meet historians are the five Top Fuel wins by Don Garlits, the
most by any Top Fuel driver.  However, legendary Super Stock and Funny
Car driver Jess Tyree stands tall with six wins in Super Stock, dating
back to the inaugural event.  Tyree then added five consecutive wins
from 1961-1965.

A record-setting crowd of more than 40,000 witnessed the stars of the
Flowmaster American Drag Racing League (ADRL) presented by the National
Guard go after a $100,000 purse Mar. 8, in the ADRL’s season-opening
Drag Illustrated Dragpalooza IV at Houston Raceway Park. Joshua
Hernandez of nearby Conroe, TX, won the ADRL’s marquee Pro Extreme
class, while Jim Halsey prevailed in Pro Nitrous, reigning class champ
Steve Gorman won in Extreme 10.5, and Ron Procopio won his career-first
Pro Extreme Motorcycle event.

“I knew he left first, but then I caught him pretty fast,” Hernandez
said after going 3.96 seconds at 191.57 miles per hour over the
eighth-mile course to defeat fellow Texan Steve Wiley. “I think he had
some trouble about half-track and that’s when I passed him.”

Forty lucky race fans not only got to mingle with top stars from the
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series on Saturday, but they also supported a
great cause at the sold-out 6th annual NHRA Tour de Charity at the
Infineon Raceway Karting Center.

The event, which coupled race fans with top NHRA drivers for a day of
karting on the raceway’s challenging course, raised $14,000 for
Speedway Children’s Charities, bringing the six-year total for the
event to more than $64,000. More than 200 people overall attended the
event.

Speedway Children’s Charities is the charitable arm of Infineon
Raceway, with all proceeds raised during the year benefiting qualified
youth organizations in Sonoma County.  The charity has distributed more
than $2.6 million since 2002.

The third day at the 9th annual Eastern Spring
Test Nationals presented by Torco's CompetitionPlus.com brings another
good news -bad news situation.

Good news, the rain stopped and the track is dry. Several
more rigs rolled in yesterday and the Schumacher and Gotham City Racing trailers are among the recent arrivals. 

The bad news - it is chilly and there are strong, gusty
winds blowing across the track today. Just driving up I-75 was sporty and there's no way to safely race at 200 mph-plus with these
crosswinds and a cold race track.

All Saturday activities have been cancelled. However, the
weather forecast for Sunday is great - sunny and mid-sixties.

Today's classic You Tube video moment features Sportsman final rounds from the 1979 NHRA World Finals at the now defunct Ontario Motor Speedway. Check out some of the winning names like Amy Faulk, Bob Newberry and Billy Williams.