Forget what
we reported from the NHRA ACDelco Nationals in Las Vegas last weekend: 
Tommy Johnson, Jr. is destined to stay at Snake Racing for the
foreseeable future.  The team will have major sponsorship support for
their Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car for next season.  Prudhomme is
working towards that goal as this is being written, and appears to have
some exceptional opportunities.  However, while the car is 99% likely
to compete next year it will undoubtedly be with a new crew chief, as
we’re hearing from numerous sources that Mike Green will not be
retained.  It’s quite possible that Chris Cunningham, who’s been
working with the CSK operation for some years, will join the team and
could take over as the lead tuner. 

After 10 seasons as one of the elite Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors
on the NHRA circuit, 16-time NHRA winner Antron Brown will move to
NHRA’s premier category, Top Fuel, to pilot the Matco Tools Iron Eagle
Top Fuel dragster in 2008, team owner David Powers announced today.

“I’m very excited to have this opportunity to be part of the David
Powers Motorsports team with Lee Beard and Rob Flynn,” Brown said.
“Also, to be teammates with Hot Rod Fuller is awesome. It makes me
speechless, which is a first for me, to have this opportunity to
represent Matco Tools, their distributors, and all of DPM. I’ve been
associated with Matco for the past few years while at DSR (Don
Schumacher Racing) and attending the annual Matco Tools Expo and I’m
looking forward to expanding that relationship. Everyone in their
organization has a passion for the business and winning, from President
Tom Willis to the 1500 franchisees selling the Matco product. I
couldn’t think of a better organization to make this transition with
and for them to believe in me and give me this shot as a rookie driver
is awesome.”

A two-time NHRA championship runner-up (2001, ’06), Brown raced to 16
wins in 145 career Pro Stock Motorcycle events. A native of
Chesterfield, N.J., Brown also earned 11 career pole awards in the
two-wheel category and has not missed the cut for an NHRA race since
his rookie season in 1998.

NHRA
made a contribution of $2,500 to Pasadena
City College
today at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona
in honor of legendary Los Angeles Times sportswriter Shav Glick, who died Oct.
20 at age 87.

The presentation took
place in the Shav
Glick Media
Center, named in honor of
Glick in the early 1990s. Pasadena
City College
alumni relations director Irene Aguilera accepted the donation on behalf of the
college. The college foundation annually presents two $500 scholarships - The
Shav Glick Journalism Scholarship - to outstanding journalism students who are
active members of the college newspaper.

Countdown to 1 Top Fuel points
leader "Hot Rod" Fuller may be in for a sleepless night as he remains
unqualified at the midway point of time trials at the 43rd annual Auto
Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.

Should Fuller fail to qualify, he could be caught by any of the other
three drivers – Larry Dixon, Brandon Bernstein and Tony Schumacher –
still alive in the title chase. But the Las Vegas-based racer shrugged
off the pressure while watching J.R. Todd stay No. 1 in Top Fuel to
join Jeff Arend, Richie Stevens, and Chip Ellis on the Day 2
provisional low qualifiers podium.

"Everyone's asking me if I'm panicking and I'm really not," Fuller
said. "We just had some little gremlins in there today but I know we'll
be fine. We have a great race team over here. I think everyone else is
way more worried about us than we are."

J.R. Todd told
the Pomona
media that he will replace Melanie Troxel as the driver of the second Top
Fueler on Morgan Lucas Racing.

“I’m really excited
because Jon Stewart and those guys have that car thundering,” Todd said. “They
have been one of the best teams since the Countdown began and I’m looking
forward to driving next year and battling it out for a championship.

“It will be the same team
and just a different paint scheme with one of Evan Knoll’s companies on the
side. It’s exciting to know I will have a top-flight car out there. With Evan
Knoll, Latrell Preston and Torco Race Fuels backing, I’m anxious to get over
there and get started.”

NHRA Top Fuel racers, Morgan Lucas and J.R. Todd will team up along
with John Spar and Ed Hullinger to compete in the SCORE Tecate Baja
1000 driving the Lucas Oil/Torco Race Fuels Class 1 Diablo off-road
vehicle in a grueling trophy dash over Mother Nature’s toughest
territory.
   
This will be the first venture in the classic road race for both
drivers and their anticipation is only exceeded by their desire to
perform well in the event.  Earlier this week, the tandem headed to
Barstow, California after the Las Vegas NHRA race to participate in
some practice runs getting acquainted with the car and feel of the
rough terrain.
   
This year marks the 40th annual running of the Tecate Score Baja 1000. 
This year’s race will cover nearly 1300 miles of the roughest most
unforgiving terrain the famous Mexican desert has to offer.  The race
will start in downtown Ensenada on the morning of November 13 and runs
non stop through the mountains, sand washes, coastlines and towns to
the finish line at the tip of the Baja peninsula in Cabo San Lucas.

This weekend Mail Terminal Services, sponsor of the
Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car driven by Jack Beckman in the NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing series, will recognize two of its employees from the Newark, N.J.,
Military Mail Terminal (MMT), a division of Mail Terminal Services which sorts
and distributes up to 500,000 pounds of mail to war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Kuwait. Monique Walters and Jorge Santos will enjoy a unique U.S. Army team
experience this weekend at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., and
Racers for Christ will receive nearly $9000 from a charity auction held on
ebay.

Ms. Walters and Mr. Santos will be flown to Pomona and treated to
Don Schumacher Racing VIP hospitality tickets, full event passes for the
weekend, and in one qualifying session four-time Top Fuel champion Schumacher
will wear a specially-designed helmet which he will sign at the end of the run
and present to them.

For the purpose of recognizing two of the top
performing MMT employees and to support Tony Schumacher, the U.S. Army team and
Racers for Christ, MTS, through President and CEO Rodger Comstock, last August
purchased the helmet at an ebay.com auction to benefit Racers for Christ.

Next year will bring a new group
of show cars to a drag strip near you. 
 The Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny
Car Circuit has now been organized. 
Cudas, Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds, Vegas and Monzas will be once again
terrorizing the tracks, as this group of cars from the late 60’s to late 70’s
will be laying out the big burnouts and dry hops as seen long ago. 

Rod
Oxford captured his first ever championship this year when he took the
West Coast Hot Rod
Association Outlaw 10.5 title. He's competing this weekend in the
Street Car Super Nationals hosted by the Strip in Las Vegas and
hoping to pad his resume with a SCSN Outlaw 10.5 title.