:::::: News ::::::

G-FORCE TEAMS WITH PMRA

G-Force Race Cars will once again be sponsoring the Pro Modified Racing
Association as the series enters its third season.

 
“There is a talented group of teams in the PMRA and
Western New York has always been a hot-bed of some of the most talented drag
racers in the sport,” said Jim Salemi of G-Force Race Cars Inc. “The PMRA has
been great for our sport, great for our business and most importantly great for
the teams that we will continue to support.”

KNOLL-GAS NITRO JAM™ ON SPEED

Get your fix of the Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam™ this Saturday, April 7, with three
different shows. The 2006 Season Recap shows will air 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
(eastern), followed later that same day with show 1 from the Amalie Oil Texas
Nationals presented by NAPA Auto Parts at 5 p.m

AUSSIE TF BRACKETEER?

It was a long journey, but a worthwhile one as Jim Read Racing headed to the
Perth Motorplex last weekend for a Top Fuel showdown with local ace Alan Dobson
and Victorian newcomer Phil Lamattina that lived up to the Top Fuel 'Challenge'
event title in more ways than one!

The event was scaled back to a
round-robin event, yet a still excellent crow d attended the world-class Perth
Motorplex venue over two nights of Nitro madness.

It was an event of
contrasts for team Read, as its chauffeur Phil Read on night one scorched down
the quarter mile in the sort of consistent numbers that has seen the Auto
One/Snap-on/Fuchs Lubricants missile streak to a dominant lead in the ANDRA
Australian Top Fuel Championship pointscore.

FOOSE RIDES WITH KALITTA

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World-renowned custom hot rod builder and TV personality Chip Foose, Mac Tools
and Kalitta Motorsports will once again bring their high-horsepower partnership
to the NHRA POWERade Drag racing Series. The partnership will come together
April 12-15, during the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, at one of the NHRA’s
premier quarter-mile facilities, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway.


For the third time in the past two
NHRA seasons, Foose and Foose Designs will team up with Mac Tools and Team
Kalitta to renovate the body design of the 8,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster.
Driven by Doug Kalitta, the exclusively-designed Foose paint scheme will cover
the 330-mph, nitro-fueled rocket on wheels that normally displays the Mac Tools
branded “Big Red” design. In the automotive industry, the name Chip Foose is well known for his legendary one off
automobiles like the Foose Coup and the Grandmaster. Chip is well on his way to
being a legend on and off the track. “Chip is a great friend and partner”
proclaims Tony Merritt, Sports Marketing Manager of Mac Tools, “and we are proud
to have him as a part of our team.”  

T-PED TO SPEAK AT COLLEGE

Ozarks Technical Community
College will welcome the National Hot Rod Association’s Tony Pedregon and Scott
Palmer to Springfield on Thursday, April 5, at 6:30 p.m. The event will be held
in room 100 of Information Commons West, on the Ozarks Technical Community
College main campus in Springfield. The public is invited to
attend.
 
Pedregon, the Q Power Funny Car
driver and speaker for the NHRA, and Palmer, an Ozarks native and current
Branson resident now involved with the drag racing circuit, will both speak to
guests at the event. Their cars will be on display, and guests will have the
opportunity to meet the speakers. The event, which is sponsored by O’Reilly Auto
Parts, Quaker State Oil, and Grand Crowne Travel in Branson, will also include
dinner, door prizes, and a hat for every ticket holder.

NHRA MARATHON CLASSIC

NHRA announced today that ESPN Classic will extend its daily airings of
NHRA Drag Racing through at least the end of May.   The show airs
weekdays, Monday through Friday, at 11 a.m. (ET).

The extended schedule includes a special NHRA Drag Racing Marathon on
Saturday, April 7 from noon to 8 p.m. (ET).  Airing that day will be
two-hour presentations of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in 2002, 2004,
2005 and 2006.  The 2003 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals aired last month,
Feb. 7.

EDDIE HILL TO THE HOF

NHRA veteran Top Fuel racer and pioneer Eddie Hill will be inducted into the
Texas Motor Sports Hall of Fame April 11 at The Speedway Club at Texas Motor
Speedway. In addition, Texas Motor Speedway and Happy Hill Farm Academy
announced that legendary car owner Roger Penske and NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart
and Jeff Burton will be honored during the awards ceremony.

The 1993 NHRA champion, Hill joins previous inductees A.J. Foyt, Johnny
Rutherford, Terry Labonte, Lee Shepherd, Kenny Bernstein, and Jim Hall. Hill,
inducted into the NHRA Division 4 Hall of Fame in 1978, is credited with
numerous milestones during his storied career. The record books show Hill to be
the first driver to cover a quarter-mile in less than five seconds as well as
the first to break the 200-mph barrier in a gas-powered car when he attained a
speed of 202.07 mph in Hobbs, N.M., in 1962.

FOLLOWING IN FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS

Although rain hampered his qualifying efforts at this weekend’s 20th
annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, Top Alcohol Funny
Car driver Daniel Wilkerson is still in good spirits following his first career
win in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Top Alcohol Funny Car
at last weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Memphis Motorsports Park. 
Daniel has one of the best mentors he could have, his father, NHRA Funny
Car veteran Tim Wilkerson, and combines a partial race schedule this season with
Team Wilkerson Racing with his pursuit of a college degree in
accounting.

The
18-year-old college freshman from Springfield, Ill., qualified his Chevy No. 2 at
5.677 seconds at 255.24 mph to Steve Harker’s No. 1
qualifying effort in his Chevy Monte Carlo at 5.642 seconds and 256.60 mph.  Wilkerson defeated Ron Morrison’s Chevy in
Round 1 and Kebin Kinsley in the semifinals to face
Harker in the final. 
Wilkerson defeated Harker from Gainesville, Ga., with an elapsed time of 5.894
at 251.91 mph to Harker’s 6.285 mph at 195.56 mph for
his first career Top Alcohol Funny Car win and an early birthday present – he
turns 19 tomorrow.

NEW ADDITION TO PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS

Professional Products, manufacturers of automotive performance parts including
intake manifolds, harmonic dampers, throttle bodies and fuel system components
and more, has recently appointed industry veteran Stephen M. Belanger as their
Director of Marketing & Promotions.

MEDLEN MEMORIAL PLANNED

A memorial service that will allow his hometown to grieve the loss of Eric
Medlen, one of professional drag racing’s most popular young drivers, will be
held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the River Oak Grace Community Church, 7712 Rodden
Road in Oakdale. 

 
 Medlen, 33, succumbed on March 23 to a severe closed head injury suffered
in the crash of his race car during a test session four days earlier at
Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway

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