Marking her official foray into the realm of Super Comp drag racing, Puyallup,
Washington resident, Jeannine Johnson, recently announced her intent to run the
NHRA Lucas Oil Series backed by Windows Vista, Microsoft Corporation’s newest
operating software.
 
Johnson was recently hosted by Bill Gates and
several other company executives at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash.,
where they revealed newly-built Brad Hadman dragster.
 
“The people on the
Windows Vista team are amazing, and they have worked so hard on putting this all
together,” Johnson said. “They have made a dream of mine come
true."
 

Amidst rumors that he was looking
to unload his Pro Stock operation and the contract of driver Dave Connolly,
team owner Evan Knoll confirmed the team will return in 2007 to contend for the
NHRA Pro Stock World Championship.

“I did a lot of soul
searching and quite a bit of thinking since Pomona,” Knoll said. “I came to the
conclusion that with the new points structure that a top three team can have as
good of a chance to win this thing as one that has led all season long. I won’t
apologize for the comments I made earlier in the year suggesting that Ken Black’s
team was on another level because they were and still are.

NHRA announced that it has launched the first phase of its mobile storefront for NHRA fans to access a growing library of NHRA wallpapers, ringtones and interactive applications.More than 20 NHRA specific wallpapers, including the traditional NHRA oval as well as other vintage NHRA logos, along with ringtones for a fuel car launch and idle, among others, are now available for download at www.nhra.com.

Both wallpapers and ringtones are being offered to consumers for a flat rate of $1.99 each. 

Once the NHRA season concludes, the 12 off weeks in the months of November,
December and January are referred to as the off season. For most NHRA teams,
there is no off season. Other than some time off around the holidays, NHRA teams
spend the winter months gearing up for upcoming 23-race cross-country grind and
preseason testing at Las Vegas and Phoenix.

For an expanding
race team, as is the case for David Powers Motorsports, timing in those 12 short
weeks becomes even more crucial. A few months back, it was announced that Matco
Tools would be joining David Powers Motorsports with a second Top Fuel dragster
to be piloted by 20-time NHRA Funny Car winner Whit
Bazemore. Having watched “Hot” Rod Fuller drive his
Valvoline-backed rail to a fifth-place ranking in the Top Fuel division in 2006,
Powers is even more energized about the ’07 season with his Lee Beard-led
two-car effort.

“Things are finally
coming into fruition,” Powers said. “Before that, it’s just a vision or a dream.
Once things start arriving at the Indy shop, it becomes a reality. It’s like
seeing your dreams come true.”

On Monday, November
27, the Powers camp will take delivery of three Brad Hadman chassis and
one-piece carbon fiber Top Fuel dragster bodies. Two chassis will be for
Bazemore’s Matco Tools team, while the third chassis will serve as a spare for
the “Hot” Rod Fuller-driven dragster. Shortly thereafter, two bodies will be
transported to Olson Paint & Body in Peru, Ind., to be painted by veteran race painter
Brian Olson before receiving vinyl graphics from Indianapolis-based Freelance
Lettering, Inc. to complete the look of the new Matco Tools Iron Eagle
dragster.

“Right now, we’re
full speed ahead getting everything prepared for next season,” Bazemore said.
“It’s different starting a team from scratch as opposed to just rebuilding.
We’ve hired some very talented people and all the parts are rolling in the door
everyday. It’s an exciting time for the new Matco team. It’s like Christmas
every day at the shop leading up to testing in January. I can’t
wait!”

Last week, the team
received a new 56-foot transporter from Henderson, Texas-based Competition
Trailers that will house the Matco Tools Top Fuel team. The Matco Tools pit
crew, which includes championship members from both Larry Dixon’s Miller Lite
team and Gary Scelzi’s Oakley Funny Car crew, will begin at Powers’ Pittsboro, Ind. race shop on Nov. 27. The plan is for the
Matco Tools Top Fuel team to debut at the fifth annual Nitro Blast Off, Jan.
19-21, 2007, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where Bazemore will see
his first seat time in a Top Fuel car.

The DPM team also
will add a tech trailer to its growing pit compound, along with a modern
hospitality area that will serve up to 200 Matco Tools employees and guests. The
hospitality setup will offer a unique outlook to its valued guests. With the two
Top Fuel dragsters situated on each side, guests will have an unobstructed view
of both race teams as the pit crew members work and prepare the 8,000 horsepower
nitro-burning machines

In October, the Sun Bowl Association
announced that Brut Revolution Dodge
Funny Car Driver Ron Capps would be the
Grand Marshal for the 70th Annual
FirstLight Federal Credit Union Sun Bowl
Parade, slated for this Thanksgiving
Day, Thursday, Nov. 23.

The parade is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on
Montana Avenue between Ochoa
and Copia Streets in El Paso, Texas. Last year,
over 350,000 people attended
this special event preceding the Sun Bowl in El
Paso, scheduled this year to
be played on Dec. 29.

Fuel Funny Cars, which return to Moroso Motorsports Park as the feature
attraction at this week's 25th Anniversary Murray's Speed & Custom Mountain
Dew Citrus Nationals, are funny only in the most perverse way; strange funny,
not comical funny.

 After
all, what's funny about zero-to-320 mile-an-hour acceleration in less than five
seconds; about G forces to which only fighter pilots and astronauts can relate?
That's five G's on acceleration, which pins the driver against the seat like
liftoff at Cape Canaveral, and five negative G's seconds later when the braking
parachutes deploy.

Photos courtesy of http://www.zapsrat.com.au

Aussie Top Doorslammer legend John Zappia dipped
into the five-second zone again last weekend at the Perth Motorplex. Zappia’s
Monaro produced a 5.993, 238.73 to become the only driver with two five-second
runs to his credit in legal Top Doorslammer trim.

Veteran nitrous Pro Modified racer Dan Parker will campaign a
turbocharged 1962 Chevrolet Impala in 2007. He will compete with a 522-inch,
twin-turbo combination under the hood. His goal is to join the fight for
legalization of the turbo combination in Pro Modified.

Parker is the 2005 ADRL Pro Nitrous champion and has long worked
with turbocharged Ford standout John Gullett.

The NHRA has released additional changes to Pro Stock Motorcycle for
2007 that affect four-valve applications. Following is a summary of new rules
for a 101-cid, 4-valve, 4-cylinder engine combination in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
With these changes, all existing 4-valve engine combinations (i.e., 1994 and
newer at 87.2 cid, and older 4 valve engines at 79 cid) in the NHRA Rulebook are
deleted, and all engines must be 2000 model year or newer, and NHRA accepted.
These changes are effective Jan. 1,
2007.

Thomasville’s Andy Beal and West Virginia invader Taz Holliday II won
the battles but Winston-Salem’s Tommy Plott won the war Sunday, sewing
up his second Torco Race Fuels Carolina Coalition points
championship during the 2006 season finale at Steve Earwood’s
Rockingham Dragway.

Beal used an almost perfect package – a .002 of a second reaction time
and a 4.836 eighth-mile time on a 4.830 dial-in – to turn back W.G.
Lankas of Sneads Ferry in the Saturday final before Holliday coasted to
the Sunday title when Kip Maddox of Piedmont, S.C., was guilty of a
final round breakout foul.