Funny Car ace Tommy Johnson Jr. and his Top Fuel-racing wife Melanie
Troxel will be on Jim Rome's show today on ESPN. Nitro racing’s first
couple filmed a piece for the show while in Pomona for the CARQUEST
Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals where they served as special
correspondents to give Rome and his viewers a look at drag racing. The
show airs daily at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

The Flowmaster American Drag
Racing League will make its 2007 television debut Friday when Inside Drag Racing
features the RacingJunk.com Dragpalooza III event from Houston Motorsports
Park on The Outdoor Channel.
The half-hour show will be devoted to qualifying highlights and eliminations
from all of the ADRL's professional classes.

The original program will air at 8 p.m. EDT, with replays at 11 p.m. Friday and
2:30 p.m. Saturday. Each of the eight ADRL events on the 2007 schedule will be
shown on Inside Drag Racing following the same
schedule format.

A fellow racer sent us a letter to inform us that Top Sportsman racer Chick Ross of New
Hampshire was badly injured in a crash and fire at Atco last Thursday during
qualifying.  He's in a burn unit and had his first skin graft surgery recently.  He
will be in the hospital at least a month.  and is going to need all the
help he can get during his recovery.

The Chick Ross Recovery Fund will provide donations to Chick and his family to help defray their expenses during this
period.  You can make donations payable to 'Chick
Ross Recovery Fund'.

Please send donations
to:

            Bank of America

            Chick Ross Recovery Fund c/o Barbara
Gibson

            400 East Main
St.

            Meriden CT
06450

Worsham Racing's first two Chevy Impala Funny Car bodies are now
in-house,
with Del Worsham's red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen version out
of the paint
shop and ready for vinyl.  Jeff Arend's first Impala, the
blue CSK rendition,
is at the paint shop now, and both teams are
planning on racing their new
Impalas at next week's SummitRacing.com
Nationals in Las Vegas.   Team CSK
has been racing General Motors
bodies since 1998, when they made the switch
to Pontiac Firebirds.
The Chevy Monte Carlo made its debut in 2004, and now
the Impala takes
over in 2007.   Del Worsham looks forward to making the
switch.

Gary Scelzi, a four-time NHRA champion, will be the keynote speaker for
the Mel Larson Night of Champions on Wednesday, April 11. Scelzi
replaces John Force, who asked to be excused from the engagement in the
wake of the death of teammate Eric Medlen.

The event, which will honor local NHRA team owner and businessman Ken
Black, is set for Bellagio’s grand ballroom. All proceeds from the
event will benefit the Las Vegas chapter of Speedway Children’s
Charities.

Torco's CompetitionPlus.com has learned that Richard Maskin and his
driver Tom Martino have parted ways in the days following their Houston
DNQ. Maskin will reportedly park his team and join forces with Justin
Humphrey. Humphrey will provide the car and Maskin will provide the
horspower.

Bristol Dragway officials announced today that the first 190 feet of the track –
or the concrete launching pad – will be replaced before the O’Reilly NHRA
Thunder Valley Nationals, May 18-20.

After extensive asphalt resurfacing and grinding in the off-season to ensure
the best possible track surface for 2007, issues arose with the concrete portion
of the track during Friday’s Test & Tune session for bracket racers. Due to
those concerns, all events scheduled for the month of April have been postponed.
Action is expected to continue in Thunder Valley on May 3 with a Street Fights
event.

It is with great sadness we announce the sudden passing of
the patriarch of the Spiering Family.
 
Gordon Spiering, father of Pro
Modified competitor Carl Spiering, succumbed after a courageous battle with
cancer Tuesday, April 3, 2007.
 
A mechanic by trade, Gordon was born
December 5, 1933 in Holland and immigrated to Canada in 1947. He operated Gord's
Auto Repair in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas has hired three-time champion tuner Rahn
Tobler as crew chief of his Lucas Oil dragster.  Tobler spent the last
three years heading Doug Kalitta's operation and tuned the standout pro
to 14 national event wins and two second-place finishes in the POWERade
points.  Previously, Tobler captained
teams that won three world titles and 18 NHRA victories.

Lucas has struggled finding consistency over the past six months and
has yet to win an elimination round this year.  He currently holds the
14th spot in the Countdown to the Championship rankings and recorded
the second DNQ of his career at the season opener in Pomona, Calif. 
Lucas' former crew chief, John Stewart, has been relived of his duties
with the team effective immediately, while recently hired car chief
Lance Larsen has been retained and will assist Tobler.
"I'm very excited to be working with a person of Rahn's abilities and
talents," Lucas said.  "He's such an easy-going guy and he's always
been super nice to me ever since I got started.  We knew someone as
talented as Rahn wouldn't stay available for long so we moved quickly
to get him when he became available.