You didn’t think Vincent Nobile was just going to leave drag racing behind when his Pro Stock gig went away, did you?

After two years on the sidelines, he’s ready for a comeback, though in a capacity that comes with a lower profile.

Nobile will return to action at some point in 2021 with a Kasey Lane Race Cars dragster and a 598-inch, naturally aspirated powerplant between the frame rails. As for a schedule, well, he’ll see you when he sees you.

“There’s really no timeline,” the 13-time NHRA Pro Stock winner said. “I’m not under the gun to get to a certain race. I don’t have a set schedule. I’m going to pick and choose when, where and how I want to go at all times. Who knows, I might end up racing three races next year, I might end up racing 20 races next year.

As the most recent NHRA Rookie of the Year, Justin Ashley is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Drag Illustrated. The driver of the Strutmasters.com Auto Shocker Top Fuel dragster was singled out from a group of accomplished young drag racing professionals by the editors of the magazine. Usually this issue of Drag Illustrated features the annual 30 Under Thirty list; a collection of the brightest stars or future stars in drag racing. This year the magazine chose to update their readers on previous 30 Under Thirty members with a “Best of Issue.”

Harts Diesel and Machine, known for their line of high-performance diesel parts, is expanding to serve the gasoline market with the formation of Harts Turbo, a division focused on street/strip applications. Roger Conley will lead the new division as Director of Business Development.

In the wake of the shooting of Nick Martin at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday, December 12, the Australian drag racing community has widely condemned the actions of those involved and called for calm.

The 51-year-old was surrounded by hundreds of families and children when he was shot and killed during the Motorplex’s Outlaw Nitro Challenge event at the weekend.

Two others were also injured in the shooting – a 31-year-old who received a gunshot to the arm; and a child who was in the vicinity of the incident and thankfully received only a minor superficial wound which did not require hospitalisation.  

WA Police’s Gang Crime Squad is working diligently to apprehend the perpetrator and is calling for event attendees to supply any information or vision they may have of the incident to investigators. The WA Government has also announced a one million dollar reward for information related to the murder.

SFG Promotions, Inc. is honored to announce a multi-year extension of its partnership with JEGS High Performance. SFG and JEGS.com will continue to offer life-changing money through bracket races across the country. The couple will provide five opportunities to win big in 2021, including the JEGS-SFG $500,000 and $1,000,000-to-win races which provide racers with industry leading payouts and the most affordable entry fees. Customers of both SFG and JEGS are grassroots racers who need great service and even better prices. As SFG continues striving towards the mission to make life-changing money events available to all bracket racers, a continued partnership with JEGS helps ensure that mission continues for grassroots bracket racers all over the world.
 

The details are a little fuzzy at times, but it’s been 16 years. Cut ‘em a little slack.

But the 2004 IHRA Pro Stock points chase is one that should be revisited; not just for its ultra-competitive nature, with nine winners in 12 events. There’s the fact that the chase for the title almost came down to best buddies named John from Long Island, N.Y.

John Nobile and John Montecalvo met sometime in the late 1970s, when drag racing was a mainstay of sports on “The Island.” That’s when they first squared off in grudge matches at Westhampton Dragway, and they’ve been close ever since.

Four days ago, in an attempt to inspire participation within its Top Alcohol Dragster division, the NHRA’s Tech department reached out to its participants about the feasibility of including the injected-nitro combination into its exclusive supercharged alcohol category.

The request for input, which was posted on December 9, 2020, on the sanctioning body’s www.nhraracer.com website, established early in the message it was looking for ways to enhance competition and participation in the class.

It was not a proclamation of the future.

But to understand what the future might be, here’s a look at the past.

Driving his 11,000-horsepower, Rustoleum-sponsored Top Fuel dragster wasn't on T.J. Zizzo's mind on Saturday afternoon. Stirring the gallons of spaghetti sauce cooking on his stove was. This was when Zizzo learned he'd won his first Virtual Hot Rod Rod Association (VRHRA) event as a first-time participant, beating Doug Kalitta in the McLeod Top Fuel final round of the fan-vote determined national event.

Tim Wilkerson (TruHarvest Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Quartermax Pro Stock), Steve Johnson (Denso Pro Stock Motorcycle), and Stevie "Fast" Jackson (Jerry Bickel Race Cars Pro Modified) joined Zizzo as winners of the inaugural Winter Throwdown at Orange County International Raceway.

The VRHRA series is a nine-race fan vote series staged by CompetitionPlus.com at defunct or fictional drag strips in North America. The inaugural season was staged back in March, in the midst of the Pandemic, with five events.

It's race day at Orange County International Raceway. Qualifying is complete, now it's time to begin the process of eliminating down for a winner at the ARP Winter Throwdown, Race 1 of 9 in the Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association. 

It's all fun in fantasy land to get away from the troubles of what is happening in the real world. 

For those new to this fantasy world, this is how it works. The race with the most votes advances to the next round. We had two days of voting to seed the eight-car fields. 

First-round ends tonight at 6 PM EST.