The eight-car field for the lucrative Budweiser Shootout was set on
Thursday evening during a draw party at The Joint in the Hard Rock
Hotel and Casino. David Baca, who drives the Mach 1 dragster, was the
lucky No. 8 wild card spot winner among the eight Top Fuel drivers
eligible for the position.

The Budweiser Shootout, a special race-within-a-race bonus event that
pays the winner $100,000 is contested annually during the ACDelco Las
Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The
first-round begins at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, with rounds to follow at
3:15 p.m. and 5 p.m.

NHRA POWERade Funny Car driver Mike Ashley will provide the opportunity for a
drag racing fan to be a part of the Knoll Gas – Torco Funny Car team during the
upcoming Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Ca,
during the weekend of November 9 – 12. One lucky winner of a special auction to
benefit Racer’s for Christ will receive a plethora of prizes that includes two
pit pass credentials for the race, lunch and dinner in the hospitality area and
photo ops with Ashley just to name a few.

The legal fight and angry words continue over the future of Spokane Raceway Park.

But the court-ordered direction of the troubled and storied motorsports
facility is clear – there will be new ownership, new management and new
plans.

The facility’s plight now is in state court hands as it goes through
the legal steps toward building financial and organizational
credibility in wake of Orville Moe’s dismissal as general manager.

Moe, the legendary force behind SRP for three decades, was fired June 1
as GM of the racing complex by a judge who concluded the 69-year-old
millionaire had disobeyed a court-appointed receiver overseeing
financial operations.

Jim Pancake qualified in the No. 3 position and then worked his way through the
24-car field for the NHRA Mopar Hemi Challenge win at Maple Grove Raceway and
the Pennsylvania Dutch Classic.

The Delaware, Ohio, racer drove his '68 Dodge Dart to a 8.609 second lap at
152.14 mph in his final round match up against Joey Wilkes of Zanesville, Ohio
who clocked in at 8.713 seconds, 151.87 mph. The win puts Pancake on top in the
point's battle for the 2007 Mopar Hemi Challenge Series with 95 points jumping
past Rick Houser who won the Pacific Sportsnationals Hemi Challenge at the end
of September at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, Calif. The series includes events
in the second half of the 2006 season along with several events in 2007 leading
up to the final event contested at the Mac Tools US Nationals at O'Reilly
Raceway Park over Labor Day weekend.

One would think Tony Gillig would be opposed to the inverted ladder after the
day he experienced in defense of his point lead. He opened the day against the
low-qualifier Robert Patrick and with a victory would have raced another
heavy-hitter in Robert Mansfield.

Patrick defeated Gillig in
the first round to put a crimp in his championship plans.

Bob
Gilbertson might not have had the baddest hot rod on the Rockingham Dragway
quarter-mile Friday night, for he is unqualified so far for the Nitro Funny Car
field. But he was riding in arguably the coolest set of wheels on the property
on the way back to his pit.
 

Sporting the same
blue-with-orange-flames paint scheme that earned his Jungle Jim tribute car lots
of attention in September at Indianapolis, Gilbertson's overhauled 1987 Cadillac
Brougham limousine made its grand splash at the IHRA season finale as the
Terminator Motorsports tow vehicle.

After a successful drag racing weekend earlier this season in the 2006 POWERade
Drag Racing Series in Denver flying the primary colors of Las Vegas-based
Technicoat Companies, Scott Kalitta
and his Toyota Solara Funny Car team will again assume major sponsorship from
Technicoat for this weekend’s, Oct. 26-29, ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Top Fuel driver Bruce Litton
miraculously is on the mend following his accident during a semifinal run
against Bobby Lagana Sept. 10 at Epping, New Hampshire. He even has a new Lucas
Oil Dragster safely in the field for this weekend's race.

He's looking ahead but stopped to
talk about his recent past.

The Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, the largest rod & custom
association in the world with over 70,000 members, will stage 21 events
in 2007, including a brand new event in Chicago as well as a venue
change for the annual Great Lakes Nationals. The event lineup features
18 “National” events, and 3 “Get-Together's” at the Pleasanton
Fairgrounds.

A brand new event, the 1st Peak Chicagoland Nationals, will be staged
September 21-23 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois marking the
first time Goodguys have ever produced an event in the “Land of
Lincoln.”

NHRA XPLOD
SPORT COMPACT RACING SERIES WORLD CHAMPIONS CROWNED

The 2006 NHRA Xplod Sport Compact
Racing Series World Champions were crowned at the year-end banquet held in
Pomona, Calif. 
There were four repeat winners and one first-time
winner.

World Champions for 2006
were Brad Personett (Pro RWD), Ed Bergenholtz (Pro FWD), Paul Efantis
(Modified), Ron Lummus (Hot Rod), and Jeremy Lookofsky (Honda Tuning All
Motor).

Personett, driver of the
Titan Motorsports Scion tC, was consistent throughout the year in winning his
second consecutive world championship in only his third year racing the Xplod
Series.  His accomplishments on the year
were winning seven events (West Palm Beach –
spring, Englishtown - spring, Atco, Topeka,
Denver, Indianapolis, West Palm
Beach – fall), being runner-up at one event (Pomona), and having 10 No.
1 qualifiers.  Personett also set both
ends of the Pro RWD national records with a time of 6.41 seconds (Indianapolis) and a speed
of 220.15 mph (Atco, N.J)