The IHRA World Nationals, scheduled for Sept. 21-23, will not be contested at
Mansfield Motorsports Park in 2007. Circumstances beyond the
control of facility owner Mike
Dzurilla have caused construction of the
drag strip to be temporarily suspended.

“We jumped the gun a little bit on
this,” IHRA president Aaron Polburn said. “Mike
Dzurilla and his team have worked hard to
put this facility together on a short timetable. There was some wiggle room on
the construction timetable and things were moving on schedule, then there were a
few rulings that threw the construction off schedule. It really is no one’s
fault, but this is a reality we have to deal with.

“We made incorrect assumptions that
the drag strip would be like the round track already in place there in terms of
local government permits and clearances. It wasn’t. I really think our best move
is to cancel the race this season and let our racers know about it now. This way
they have plenty of time to adjust their racing schedules and make alternative
plans.”

At the end of the first day of the 2007 Snap-on Nitro Championships, Phil Read, Aaron Lynch and Brett Stevens top-qualified in their respective championship brackets in a day of simply awesome racing.

In the lead up to the event, the nine-car Top Fuel had been the most talked about bracket. Of these, five ran in the four-second zone in qualifying.

Phil Read was ecstatic about his team's number one qualifying position for the event, saying, "To do so well in front of our hometown crowd means so much to me. We feel that we could have run better than what we did with the 4.66, but we couldn't g et a handle on the combination. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm sure things will pick up for us here."

Should the team be able to win the event tomorrow, they will have secured their second consecutive Australian Top Fuel Championship.

IHRA has announced Warren CAT Power Systems
will sponsor the Saturday “Night of Fire” during the Skull Shine Sooner
Nationals presented by Wolverine and Academy Sports + Outdoors held Memorial Day
weekend at Tulsa Raceway Park.

The Warren
CAT “Night of Fire,” which occurs Saturday,
May 26 at 6:30 p.m. during the event,
features the final round of professional qualifying – including two
flame-burning Nitro-fueled classes – and a ground-pounding jet-powered Super
Shockwave ’57 truck.

"Warren
CAT is excited to be a part of the inaugural
IHRA Sooner Nationals event in
Tulsa,” Warren
CAT Power Systems general manager Charley
Pollock said. “We look forward to being at the race and utilizing this event to
recruit new technical staff for our growing
Tulsa facilities and to display our
products and services."

Top Fuel racer Brady Kalivoda is sporting
one of the coolest helmets we've seen in a long time. The paint scheme, which
was designed by Mike at Razors Image out of Chicago, is a combination of old school and
new school helmets.

"My dad, Dick Kalivoda, used to race back in the 1960s
before I was born," said Kalivoda. "He raced a lot of classes up to
and including Top Fuel. He's most well known for driving 'The Joker' Top Fueler
in the late 60s. Even though he quit driving before I was born he has a trophy
room with all the old helmets and breather masks and things. I used to go
around wearing his helmet. I actually have photos of myself running around the
house wearing the thing. That's when men were men, wearing open face helmets
and breather masks. So I called my dad and said 'I need you to send me your
helmet.' And he's really protective of that,

This word comes to us from our friend Ian Rae of HeadsUpRacer.com:

NHRA has announced several rule changes in the Top Fuel and Funny Car
categories to enhance current safety measures as a result of initial evaluations
from the tragic incident involving Eric Medlen during a test session on March 19
in Gainesville, Fla.

The bond between J.R. Todd and the late Eric Medlen grew a little tighter
Wednesday with the announcement that Kevin Poynter is joining Todd’s SKULL Shine
Top Fuel team as car chief.
Poynter, who served as Medlen’s Funny Car car
chief at John Force Racing, was released so he could work with Todd and Tuttle
Motorsports. 

At the recent IHRA Spring Nationals at Rockingham Dragway,
two of the busiest individuals in the professional pits were South Carolina’s
John “Bodie” Smith and his wife, Rhonda Hartman-Smith. While Smith spent much
of his time running between Michael Gunderson’s Top Fuel area and Jon Capps’
Nitro Funny Car pit, Hartman-Smith expended nearly as much energy entertaining
eight-year-old daughter Megan and chasing toddler son Dylan.

In 1999, circle track standout Tony Stewart attempted to race 1,100 miles on Memorial Day weekend by competing in the Indianapolis 500 during the day and the Coca-Cola 600 at North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway at night. His attempt at the “double” was fairly successful as he finished in the top 10 at both races.