NHRA Pro Stock Car driver Tom Hammonds will make his rounds as a guest on ESPN
First Take and ESPNNews The Hotlist, Tuesday, June
19.  Check local listing for airing
times.

Retired from the NBA after 12 years in the
league, Hammonds has moved on to compete as a National
Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stock Car driver.  Racing since the age of
16, Hammonds has won 15 Muscle Car
Association events and reached the final round of three NHRA events.     

There’s a new challenge awaiting Cory McClenathan when he joins fellow NHRA
drivers Ron Capps, J.R. Todd, Morgan Lucas and Del Worsham in the Gary Scelzi
& Friends All-Star Challenge Saturday night, June 16, at Plaza Park Raceway
in Visalia, Calif.
 
It’s a fund-raiser for the one-fifth-mile clay oval
where Scelzi’s 10-year-old son Dominic regularly competes in a Restricted 600cc
Mini-Sprint.  Scelzi and his cohorts will be driving 600cc
Mini-Sprints.

The entire Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson Racing team spent two days in Milwaukee visiting area children,
promoting a free meals program and hanging out with Harley-Davidson employees.

All of the racers first went to Bethune Academy on Monday to help
launch the start of another summer of the Fueling Young Minds program.

Spurred by a $125,000 grant from the Harley-Davidson Foundation, the
award-winning Fueling Young Minds summer meals program will feed meals
to low-income children at more than 200 Milwaukee locations this
summer, as well as provide dinner at 25 area schools. Harley-Davidson
partners with the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public
Schools and other non-profits in the public-private collaborative.

 VIEW THE FULL SEQUENCE BY ROGER RICHARDS

While there are no races on the IHRA or NHRA schedule this weekend, Torco's Competitionplus.com will bring you all the action from the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion at National Trail as well as the NMRA event at Milan dragway.  

Visit our photo galleries:

The National Hot Rod Reunion - Columbus, OH

Toyo Tires NMRA Ford Nationals

Making progress and moving ahead would be an appropriate pair of phrases to
describe how Team Chevy's Tom Hammonds has fared so far this season. After
making the decision last year to jump headfirst into the brutally competitive
NHRA Pro Stock category, the 40-year-old former NBA power forward has cleared
numerous hurdles in his Chevy Cobalt in an effort to create a winning program.
After qualifying for six of the seven events he's entered in 2007, Hammonds is
confident that the best is yet to come.

"In this class, if you can
qualify you can win, and right now we're doing that," said Hammonds. "Jimmy
Oliver is making good power for us, but I also think the whole package is coming
around, and that's reflected in the quality of runs we're starting to make -
it's all getting better. We've learned an extremely large amount since the
beginning of the season. I hadn't raced in nearly two-and-a-half years but we've
been successful at putting together a good group of people. Jerry Eckman has
been doing a good job and it's just taken us a little time to gel together as a
team. Our power level has definitely gotten better since the beginning of the
year and it will only get better once we get into the shop and get everything
running as far as the dyno is concerned. I'm extremely excited about what we've
accomplished so far. It's indicative of our potential when we go out in Chicago
and run 207 mph when a lot of guys couldn't do that."

“Waterbed” Fred Miller has
watched his drag racing career come full circle in a matter of three decades.
The former wrench for Raymond Beadle’s Blue Max Funny Car has experienced
almost everything from serving as the bottom-end man on one of the sport’s most
famous Funny Cars to peddling John Force diecast cars to his latest foray into
marketing energy pills with Zantrex3.

It’s all good for Miller.
He’s got more “been there, done that” tales than the average three decade tour
veteran and that suits him well. Memories fuel the fires for a future.

The director of motorsports
for Zantrex3, the major sponsor for Dave Grubnic, prefers to live in the
present. But with a little prodding he’ll gladly spin those elusive yarns about
the legendary Blue Max, a nickname that is only equaled by the Chi-town
Hustler.

In an effort to keep up with the always-evolving
online world, David Powers Motorsports has re-launched its website, www.davidpowersmotorsports.com. The new fan-friendly
site features a modern look and includes many elements that racing fans and web
users will enjoy.

Morgan Lucas will take the control of a different kind of
steering wheel when he suits up for the inaugural Gary Scelzi and Friends
All-Star Challenge at the Giant Chevrolet Raceway at Plaza
Park in Visalia, Calif.
on Saturday, June 16. 

Along with Lucas, the other NHRA combatants for the special
event will consist of current Funny Car points leader, Ron Capps, Del Worsham,
J.R. Todd, and Cory McClenathan in the cockpits of the 600 cc sprint cars,
while 14-time POWERade Funny Car champion, John Force will join the fray
serving as honorary starter with his daughter Ashley Force serving in an official
capacity. 

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Lucas.  “Getting some laps in one of these things has
always been a dream for me.  I want to
find the cushion and get that loose feeling of just barely being on the edge.  It’s going to be a lot of fun to drive. 

Four-time NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series champion Gary Scelzi and driver of
the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing is all
heart when it comes to helping out a local race track in Visalia, Calif., near
his Fresno, Calif., home.

He has put together the Gary Scelzi &
Friends All-Star Challenge this Saturday, June 16, at Plaza Park Raceway in
Visalia, Calif., to raise money for the raceway and has invited NHRA drivers
J.R. Todd, Del Worsham, Morgan Lucas, teammate Ron Capps, and Cory McClenathan
to join him in 600cc Mini-Sprints on the one-fifth-mile clay oval where his
10-year-old son Dominic competes regularly in a Restricted 600cc
Mini-Sprint.

Fourteen-time Funny Car champion John Force will be honorary
flagman and Brandon Bernstein will also be on hand.