Michael Ogburn of Mission Viejo, Calif., won the $5,000 first place prize in the
Mopar Hemi Challenge held during yesterday’s JEGS Pacific SPORTSnationals at
Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, Calif. Ogburn drove his vintage ’68 Barracuda to
an 8.75 to earn the final round victory over John Rains of Santa Paula, Calif.,
who slowed the final. Rains also competed in last week’s JEGS Northern
SPORTSnationals in Columbus, Ohio, which was won by Charlie Westcott Sr.
   

“This was a great win for out whole team,” said Ogburn, especially our
engine builder, Harry Holton. Nobody knows more about making these [Super Stock
Hemi] cars run that Harry does. I’m just the lucky guy who gets to
drive.”
   
The Hemi Challenge was the highlight of an action-packed day
of qualifying and eliminations at the second annual Pacific SPORTSnationals, an
event that features more than 500 of the best NHRA amateur drag racers.
   

The SPORTSnationals also featured special eight-car Shootout-type events in
Top Dragster, Top Sportsman, Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street. Del Cox
Jr., of Downey, Calif., defeated Chip Rumis of Ramona, Calif., to win the Top
Dragster Shootout and in the Top Sportsman Shootout, Joe Roubicek of West Lake
Village, Calif., stopped Gary Ross of Trabuco Canyon, Calif. in the final round.

An NHRA official confirmed with Torco's CompetitionPlus.com today
that the civil case of Julie Russell versus the NHRA and the Goodyear
Tire & Rubber was settled yesterday. This comes just days before
the case was scheduled to go to court.

The NHRA official would only comment the case had been settled and declined to reveal any details.

FRIDAY QUALIFYING - ONE ROUND OF
QUALIFYING COMPLETED AT RAIN-SLOWED TORCO RACING FUELS NHRA
NATIONALS

Brandon Bernstein, Tommy
Johnson Jr. and Dave Connolly hold provisional No. 1 qualifying
positions

Fourth-place Brandon Bernstein's fight to hold onto one of the four spots in the
inaugural Countdown to 1 got off to a great start Friday night as the
second-generation Top Fuel pro earned the provisional low qualifier position at
the second annual Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals.

The son of legend Kenny Bernstein blistered Virginia
Motorsports Park with a 4.549 at 321.58 mph to outrun the four drivers looking
to replace him in the final leg of the first
round of the NHRA Playoffs.
Tommy Johnson Jr. leads Funny Car with a solid 4.790 at 312.06, while scorching-hot Pro Stock points leader
Dave Connolly showed the way in the factory hot rod class with a steady 6.649 at
207.24 mph.

"That was big," Bernstein said. "To qualify in the
top half and get those extra points gives us a little bit of a cushion. But it's
still going to come down to a round-by-round deal on Sunday. We just have to go
rounds on Sunday and hope we go more than [Bob Vandergriff] goes and even Whit
[Bazemore] and the others. They're all right back there."

Earlier this week, the city of Concord, NC., voted to rezone the
property owned by Bruton Smith and Lowe's Motor Speedway. This
effectively killed the plans to build a drag strip on the property.

An online petition has been created to show support of a drag strip.

You can sign the petition by logging onto CHARLOTTE DRAG STRIP PETITION .

The year was 1957 and Chevrolet was
introducing to the world what would become the most sought-after car ever to be
built, the ‘57 Chevy. In a small town in South Carolina another legend was being
born as well.  L.B. “Junior” Steed had a dream to open a drag racing track for
the world to see. He started clearing land and laid out his facility…little did
he know some of the biggest names in motor sports history would soon be visiting
him every month. Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins and Ronnie
Sox would frequent the track, lining up next to the local racers and each other.
The years went by and Jackson came to be a household name in the racing
industry. Many tracks in the area came and went but Jackson withstood them all.

Being one of only two 1/4 mile tracks in South Carolina, Carolina
Dragway (originally named Jackson Dragstrip) was certainly destined for
greatness. At 25 acres Jackson was a large track in the 50's and 60's, but as
time passed the size of the facility grew out of necessity. Steed bought up as
much surrounding land as possible and kept expanding on his dream. Then, in
1985, it was time for a change.

Mike Perry, who has been with IHRA
and Live Nation-Motorsports for three years, has been named IHRA’s new Media
Relations Director.

Perry, a Kent State
University graduate, will be
responsible for facilitating all IHRA’s local and national media coverage as
well as the development and execution of new marketing plans for IHRA’s Knoll
Gas Nitro Jam.

Perry came to IHRA with a background
in print media, having spent 18 years in the daily newspaper business as a
sportswriter. IHRA brought him on board to take on duties as Editorial Director
for Drag Review Magazine. He will now be asked to draw on his experience working
with print and broadcast media to increase the status and perception of IHRA
Drag Racing and the Knoll Gas Nitro Jam.

Here are a few photos of the Murf McKinney chassis fix. These photos are of Tony Pedregon's chassis.

Clay Millican hasn’t
won as many races this year as he’d like, in fact he hasn’t won a national event
on the NHRA POWERade Championship Drag Racing tour during the 2007
season.

None of that mattered
last Sunday. He came home and his room was just the way he left it – full of
trophies – plus one.

Millican left Maryland
International Raceway with one more trophy, scoring his 51st
career IHRA national event victory behind the wheel of Evan Knoll's
RATT Back for More dragster, winning the Torco Race Fuels President’s
Cup Nationals.

Millican just wanted to
make his Papa – eh … team owner proud.

“It was
just such a great weekend,” Millican said. “Evan wanted us to come here and
support Torco Race Fuels and all the great people.  He does so much for drag racing. I don’t know
if people even realize what he means to this
sport.”

Millican
understands what Knoll means to the sport. Likewise Knoll knows what Millican
means to the sport. The ever-reaching sponsor has said on several occasions that
he purchased the Top Fuel team Millican drove for “because it didn’t matter how
many teams I put out there to beat him, he beat them
all.”