Doug Kalitta, Sr., the father of NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel
driver Doug Kalitta and brother of drag racing legend Conrad “Connie” Kalitta,
lost his battle with cancer yesterday. He was 67. He passed away at his home in
Mt. Clemens, Mich.

Make no bones about it. The Snake loves Englishtown. You could tell
because Don “The Snake” Prudhomme fired up a cigar for the press
conference following his double win as a team owner during the NHRA Pro
Care Rx SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

“I don’t smoke these often,” Prudhomme said to the members of the media
as he fielded questions surrounding victories by Larry Dixon (Top Fuel)
and Tommy Johnson, Jr. (Funny Car).

Prudhomme had two homes as a driver -- Gainesville and Englishtown. He won five times in Gainesville and six at Englishtown.

As a team owner, he’s won five times in Englishtown and thrice in
Gainesville. Englishtown now has favored status as the site of his
second career “double-up.”

The first lawsuit was
filed in conjunction with the Selmer, Tennessee Cars for Kids tragedy, according to a CNN.com report.

Bruce Replogle, whose
15-year old daughter Scarlett Replogle was among six deaths attributed to the
accident, filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages.

The lawsuit names promoter
Larry Price, driver Troy Critchley and AMS Staff Leasing Inc. as defendants.

Authorities have reported
that Troy Critchley was performing a burnout during an annual parade and lost
control of the car, striking a utility pole and then bouncing into the crowd of
onlookers.

The NHRA has unified the weight minimum for all brands of PSM.

Effective immediately, the minimum weight for Suzuki, Buell, and
Harley-Davidson V-Rod Pro Stock Motorcycles will be 620 pounds. This adjustment
is based on race performance and on maintaining parity among the brands.
The next race for the PSM class is this weekend's POWERade Drag Racing
Series event in Norwalk,
Ohio.

It wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but a new look adorned the back for Whit Bazemore on the back of the David Powers Motorsports trailer Monday morning in Englishtown. The vandal might have given Bazemore a black eye on the rig, but in all reality, he gave Englishtown one. 

Television coverage of final eliminations of the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder
Valley Nationals presented by Q at Bristol Dragway has been expanded an
extra 60 minutes to create a three-hour block from the highly
anticipated NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event July 6-8. Sunday's
broadcast on ESPN2 will air from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

NHRA Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher, four-time NHRA POWERade Series
Top Fuel world champion, has been nominated for the ESPY Best Driver
award, it was announced today.

The ESPY Awards, for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly, was
created by ESPN in 1993. Sports fans can vote for Schumacher and other
sports heroes in each of the different categories via an online poll at
http://espn.go.com/espy2007/#

Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army dragster, finished the 2006 season
in dramatic fashion by winning his third consecutive and fourth overall
Top Fuel championship on the final run of the season. On that final
pass at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Schumacher set a national elapsed
time record of 4.428 seconds and defeated final round opponent Melanie
Troxel for the victory to claim the championship title by 14 points
over rival Doug Kalitta. Media quickly labeled his effort “The Run,”
and called it the most meaningful and memorable single performance in
NHRA history.

Schumacher’s historic championship-winning run put the finishing
touches on an unbelievable mid-season comeback, where he was more than
330 points behind the championship leader and basically written-off of
the championship list with less 12 races to go. From there he reeled
off five victories in eight final round appearances to clinch the
championship.

Although he may not be as well known as his counterparts in the nitro fuel
classes, Rob Downing, crew chief on the two KB Racing LLC, Summit Racing
Equipment Pontiacs, driven by Greg Anderson and Jason Line, is arguably
considered one of the top crew chiefs to come down the pike in recent Pro Stock
history.

The unassuming Downing took the longer road through college to
reach the pinnacle of his profession.   From college to Detroit designing
engines to Pro Stock crew chief, this crew chief has learned a lot about success
and winning combinations.  In 2007, he has his team on a strong pace adding (7)
wins to his résumé and leading the points chase for the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock
championship.  Prior to this season, Downing partnered with co-crew chief Jeff
Perley to propel the KB Racing LLC, Summit Racing Equipment Pontiacs, to 51 wins
and 4 championships.  These numbers have only been surpassed by a limited few in
the Pro Stock category and KB Racing with Downing is still counting.  He is
respected by his peers, crew, and most importantly his drivers and team owner
Ken Black.

Three-time NHRA POWERade Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson,
who hired Downing, had the following to say of his crew chief: “Rob is
everything.  He’s the heart of this team.  He’s the guy that makes all of the
decisions.  He is the guy who keeps us as egotistical drivers calm and
grounded.  He’s the captain of the ship and we couldn’t race without him.  We
couldn’t get to the race track without him.  He does it all, from the bottom to
the top.  He has a lot of job descriptions and wears a lot of hats.  We depend
on him an awful lot.