Chris Rini, the current NMCA Pro Street point leader, went to the number one qualifying spot in the opening session at the NMCA/NMRA All-Star Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, NC. The show of performance cost him.
    
Rini, of Carmel, NY, known more for his exploits in surviving a plane crash than his driving talents, paid the price. He didn’t have much spare time before towing his ATI-sponsored Dodge Stratus back to the pits than a race official arrived seeking a closer look at his racing secrets.

“I’m not cheating but I probably should be for all the checking they are doing,” Rini said shortly after the first visit. “We run an honest program and they’ve already tore our s*** apart once already this weekend. I was torn down in Chicago and looked over in Maple Grove.”

For Jim Oberhofer, crew chief of the Doug Kalitta-driven Top Fuel dragster for Kalitta Motorsports, the thought of watching, much less participating in, ballroom dancing used to be as appealing as racing cars in a circle. “Not in a million years did I ever think that I would be dancing,” Oberhofer recalled. “It looked as about as fun as watching them roundy-round boys go fast and turn left, and I’d rather watch paint dry in the rain than do that.”
 
Oberhofer’s still not a NASCAR fan these days, but his attitude toward ballroom dancing has taken a 180-degree heel turn. On July 31, during a break in the 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule, Oberhofer and his wife Tammy were among dancers that dazzled a crowd of over 150 onlookers by dancing in a showcase at The Dance Pavilion near their home and the Kalitta Motorsports race shop in Ypsilanti, Mich. The Oberhofers performed for two minutes each with Jim displaying his Foxtrot prowess and Tammy wowing with her Waltz.

The ADRL is substantially loosening its rules governing the previously all-carbureted Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) class.

ADRL Director of Technical Services Tom Grooms called it a “no brainer” to lift practically all restrictions on induction and nitrous systems beginning Sep. 1, save for limiting nitrous delivery to one nitrous nozzle per cylinder.

“It’s time we bring current available technologies into the Pro Extreme Motorcycle class,” Grooms stated in an official ADRL release. “Having the ability to mechanically progress the nitrous oxide will really help control the power that these machines create. Being able to better control the fuel and nitrous will make these machines much smoother with more repeatable performances.”

The first day of qualifying for the NHRA Unleashed presented by Lucas Oil event at O’Reilly Raceway Park has been completed and Mike Janis raced his WidowMaker Ford Mustang to the top of the field in the Pro Mod Class.  All racers got their first shot at the world famous racing surface during the day during one qualifying session on Friday.  They will get two more passes on Saturday prior to eliminations taking place on Saturday night.

Leading the way in their respective classes was: Pro Mod Mike Janis; Outlaw 10. 5 Tony Jonson; EZ Street Matt Bell; Limited Street Kevin Scott; Aerospace Components 8.50 Index David Donaldson; Aerospace Components 9.0 Index Gary Varney, Reynoldsburg, OH; Aerospace Components 9.5 Index Larry Zahnd, Champaign, IL; Aerospace Components 10.0 Index Dennis Woody, Thorntown, IN; Aerospace Components 11.0 Index Jeff Thomas, Columbia, KY; Aerospace Components 12.0 Index Ed Parker Jr., Shelbyville, IN; Aerospace Components 13.0 Index Len Mahurin, Indianapolis, IN;

The NHRA made their debut at zMax Dragway in 2008 before a packed house. The NMCA/NMRA made their debut a year later with a different result.

In the two years that the joint NMCA/NMRA All-Star event has been hosted by the drag strip located on the hallowed grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway the largest demographic of attendee has been empty seats disguised as spectators.

There’s a very real chance this could be the final event for the NMCA/NMRA event at the Bellagio of Drag Strips.

Late Friday night, John Montecalvo led the winners’ parade for the rain-postponed Hardee’s Independence Drags IV from Topeka with his fourth-in-a-row ADRL Extreme Pro Stock event title. Also adding to winning streaks were Rickie Smith with his third-straight Pro Nitrous win and Ashley Owens with his second Pro Extreme Motorcycle win in as many events. Also scoring Topeka titles were Gary White with his third Extreme 10.5 win of the year and Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani, who turned in a dominating performance to take his second Pro Extreme trophy this season.

Eliminations for the delayed Topeka race were held within qualifying sessions for Saturday’s ADRL Hardee’s Independence Drags III at Gateway International Raceway, lying practically in sight of downtown St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River in Madison, Illinois.

This was an unfamiliar position for Tony Pedregon.

Pedregon, who has won two Funny Car world championships, in 2003 and 2007, found himself having to make some tough business and racing decisions because of his tight budget this season.

“It has been a tough year,” Pedregron admitted. “Any time you have a limited budget it restricts you in other areas. I’ve made some business decisions to cut costs so I get through the year with what I have to work with. It doesn’t allow me to run the car as hard as it needs to be sometimes.”

Despite financial constraints, Pedregon is 10th in the point chase with 733. Jeff Arend, who races out of the Kalitta Motorsports stable, has 700 points, followed by Cruz Pedregon, Tony’s brother, at 652 points.

Kenny Nowling, President of the American Drag Racing League, heads across town to the seventh of ten events on the schedule, the ADRL Hardees Gateway Drags III, with a dark cloud hovering above. And for Nowling, according to weather.com, there’s a zero chance of rain forecast this weekend.

The dark cloud has nothing to do with Mother Nature or the successful organization and everything to do with the future of Gateway International Raceway, the host of this weekend’s event.

The ADRL is based in O’Fallon, Mo., and with Gateway International announcing their departure from NASCAR, there’s a strong likelihood this year’s ADRL event will be the last.

Even Cash for Clunkers, a congressional bill aimed at taking gas guzzling classic automobiles off of the highway, couldn't deter Charlie Harmon. Neither could the major sanctioning bodies in drag racing.

Harmon loves muscle cars, and to him, the more of them gathered in one place, the better.

Harmon presides over both the National Muscle Car Association and the National Mustang Racing Association, smaller drag racing associations when compared to the gigantic NHRA, but in the world of niche filling they are giants.

Amid all the flashy show elements and high-stakes nitro racing that will be featured at this year’s Northern Nitro Jam at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, August 13 - 15, 2010, lies the real reason that Martin, Michigan’s annual summer tradition holds a special place in the hearts of fans and drivers – the Moser Engineering Axle-Mania Sportsman Showdown.

Easily the richest sportsman race of the year, the Moser Axle-Mania competition pits 32 of the best sportsman racers in the country against one another in an inter-class battle for a share of the $51,000 purse generously offered by the people at Moser Engineering. Of that purse the winner will walk away with the single largest payday of the year, a hefty $22,500 for just five rounds of work.