In one of the closest races of the event, Funny Car driver Gary Scelzi narrowly
beat teammate Jack Beckman by .0013 seconds at the 20th annual O’Reilly NHRA
Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park.
 
Scelzi and teammate
"Fast Jack" Beckman's Funny Car capper was even closer than the Pro Stock finale
as the two title contenders were separated by a mere .0013 seconds at the other
end. The two left within five-thousandths of a second of one another before
virtually staying glued together all the way down the strip. In the end,
Scelzi's Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger had barely inched ahead of Beckman's Mail
Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T to take the closest race of eliminations,
4886 at 314.61 mph to Beckman's 4.892 at 310.55 mph.
 
"We came into
this race thinking we'd better go to the final or win if we want to stay alive
in the Countdown," Scelzi said. "The first step was to get into the top four.
Now we need to build on that. We're in fourth but it's very bunched up. This is
exactly what NHRA wanted and right now it's pretty damn exciting."

Final round-by-round results from the 20th annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals
presented by Pennzoil at Memphis Motorsports Park, the 19th of 23 events in the 
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Sunday's final results from the 20th annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals
presented by Pennzoil at Memphis Motorsports Park.  The  race is the 19th of 23
in the  NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Point standings for the eight drivers in each class who have qualified for the
NHRA playoffs, following the 20th annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals presented
by Pennzoil at Memphis Motorsports Park, the 19th of 23 events in the NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series (after 21 races, the top four drivers in each class
will advance to the two-race championship round at Las Vegas and Pomona):

Let the record reflect
that Jason Scruggs has forced all the statisticians to wear out their pencil
erasers.

Yes, it was that kind of event for him.

In one day of racing, the
Saltilla, Mississippi-based Scruggs drove his way to the No. 1 qualifying
position, broke the 200 mph barrier, dipped low into the 3.70s twice and
established both ends of the class record with a 3.703 elapsed time at 205.13
miles per hour.

Scruggs opened the day
with a 200.86 blast that also netted a $10,000 bounty from series sponsor
Flowmaster Mufflers for becoming the first to exceed 200.

Houston Dial grenaded an intake during the ADRL Dragstock semi-finals of the Extreme 10.5 division. (Roger Richards Photos)

On a day when five of eight Memphis Motor Park records fell by the wayside,
three year professional Funny Car driver Robert Hight denied rookie driver and
teammate Ashley Force her first low qualifier award running a track-record 4.762
seconds at 320.36 mph at the 20th annual O'Reilly Mid-South NHRA Nationals
presented by Pennzoil.

Almost as shocking was Pro Stock Motorcycle leader
Chip Ellis' jaw-dropping 6.892, the second quickest pass in class history. Max
Naylor earned more respect in the Pro Stock class with his second pole in as
many races, while Top Fuel points leader Tony Schumacher got a wake-up call from
several of his rivals, who all posted big numbers in Saturday's cooler
temperatures.

Twenty years ago Bill Kuhlman ran the first quarter-mile 200 mile per
hour lap. Today another Pro Modified driver did the same thing in half
the distance.

Jason Scruggs ran 200.86 during the first qualifying session at the ADRL Dragstock event in  Rockingham, NC.

For Scruggs, the assault on the 200-mph promised land was sometimes a hit and miss adventure. 

“We’re like most all of
these racers out here in that we can struggle at times,” Scruggs said. “Here
lately we’ve struggled onto making the car mile per hour a little better. We’ve
been doing a lot better since we got some of the tire shake out of it."

It was eight years ago today
that an aspiring group of drag racing journalists, photographers and web
designers launched the first ever issue of Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com.

Torco's CompetitionPlus.com began on September 15, 1999 at 8:30 PM, EST. 

Maybe the words of our first editorial were prophetic considering today's state of drag racing media.

"We are on the verge of the 21st Century and if you're not already
there, you're on the losing end of a holeshot. This is the future thus
signaling the beginning of the end for the standard print media
magazine. Those of us in the media should have read the writing on the
wall with the demise of such magazines as Petersen's Drag Racing and
the once unbreakable Super Stock & Drag Illustrated. There are some
out there but the industry is no-where as strong as it used to be."

Welcome to the Internet ezine age. 

Thanks for sticking with
us through those growing years and we’re not done yet.

Torco's CompetitionPlus.com has obtained a copy of the memo issued
today to all nitro racers regarding the 2008 rules in terms of nitro
percentage allowed in competition.