Summit Motorsports Park’s ‘Night Under Fire’ has been aptly called the Greatest Show on Earth.  With eight Nitro Funny Cars, jet dragsters, a jet semi, a wheel stander and a brilliant fireworks show, it just may top the big top. Certainly for drag racing fans there’s no contest. This year two Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars will be added to the mix. Pete Berner will bring his Summit Racing Equipment GXP to take on Bob Bertsch in a best two out of three match race exhibition.

The two Pro Stock teams will be on hand not only to give doorslammer fans something to cheer for at the Night Under Fire but also to advertise for the upcoming Summit Racing Equipment ADRL Ohio Drags IV to be held at Summit Motorsports Park on Sept 24-25.

Since the first Ohio Drags in 2007, fans have flocked to Summit Motorsports Park to watch the insane eighth mile action. Now the thousands of Night Under Fire fans will get a little taste of the action.

Warren Johnson is the last of the old breed.  He may not be the oldest Pro Stock competitor chronologically, but in this instance “old breed” refers to that select few who have been fortunate enough to have dominated at one point or another during their careers.  Bob Glidden hung up his helmet a long time ago.  Darrell Alderman parked his Dodge when his eyesight failed (the Mopar PR people claimed it was due to a back bad, but he could no longer see the finish line, and they wanted to cover that up.).  Jeg Coughlin, Jr. is obviously still very active, but by and large, the days of total domination in the class seem to be over if for no other reason than the quality of the competition.

The term “politically correct” and Warren Johnson remain mutually exclusive.  The man speaks his mind in 2010 just as he did in 1970.  Totally unafraid of the ramifications of his words, “The Professor” has never been one to mince words with NHRA, the media or his fellow racers.  Back in the days of the long-gone Pro Stock Owners Association Johnson and Glidden both offered to fly to California and open their books for NHRA management to show them exactly how much it was costing to compete.  NHRA declined the opportunity, and by and large remains in the dark as to the rapidly escalating costs of racing in Pro Stock.  It’s a scenario they appear to relish, for without the facts and figures in front of them they can speculate as to the costs forever without having to face the harsh reality of what the racers face week to week.

On a brutally hot day in July 2010, Cliff Shipp got runner-up in a tough, big-money ($10,000-to-win) bracket race at Montgomery Motorsports Park in Alabama. Okay, so, cool, Cliff, and congrats. No big deal, right? People win and get runner-up in similar circumstances all the time.

Well, let’s see if you can do the same in the same condition and out of a similar dragster as Shipp’s. The heat most of us can stand. But when you have a bum leg, things aren’t so easy. Shipp has had this condition for several years. His left leg feels numb all the time. Hurts too. Refuses to raise right. So what did Shipp do to runner-up at Montgomery? He didn’t leave the confines of his car all day. Stayed right there in the seat the whole time. He had friends fuel him up, check tire air pressures and keep the car cool. All Cliff had to do was drive.

As summer weather sets in all across the nation the Nitro Jam series is preparing to heat up as well as the tour gears up for a pivotal summer stretch beginning at the Northern Nationals at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in mid-August and running through the North American Nationals in New Hampshire in September.

Beginning the weekend of August 13-14 at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park the Nitro Jam tour will hit three tracks in six weeks during a stretch that will ultimately make or break the season for professional drivers chasing the first ever Nitro Jam championship crowned under the new format. In addition to a stop in Michigan the Nitro Jam tour will also bring its new format and show to Maryland International Raceway the weekend of August 28-29 and New England Dragway the weekend of September 11-12.

Jim Whiteley and Mark Woznichak took home the trophies this weekend at Infineon Raceway and the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.  Whiteley, Grand Junction, Colo., qualified No. 1 in the Top Alcohol Dragster class then ran his best pass of the weekend in his final round match up with Shawn Cowie, Delta, B.C., CAN.  Whiteley won with on a holeshot needing every bit of his 5.288 second pass at 262.90 mph to Cowie’s 5.275 second lap at 268.87 mph.

Woznichak faced off against John Lombardo Jr., Brea, Calif., in the final of Top Alcohol Funny Car and posted a winning run of 5.656 seconds, 2.557 mph in his '02 Camaro.  The Ontario, Calif., racer took out Doug Gordon, Paso Robles, Calif., and Sean O’Bannon, also of Ontario, in rounds 1 and 2 respectively.  Lombardo Jr. drove to a 5.638 second, 258.81 mph lap for his runner up finish.

When Tony Schumacher, John Force and Mike Edwards rolled in to the Winner’s Circle after the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, each driver proudly hoisted up NHRA’s prized trophy, the “Wally,” as part of their victory celebrations.

During this week’s NHRA Junior Drag Racing League Eastern Conference Finals presented by Viperizer Racing, many young drivers from across the eastern half of the United States will come to Bristol for their opportunity to do the same.

More than 600 racers from NHRA Divisions 1, 2 and 3, and select tracks in Division 4, will compete in the event, each hoping to use the Jr. Dragsters as a springboard to  a professional career.

In the final results from National Trail Raceway’s Buckeye Fuel Wars and the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Bill Reichert, Owosso, Mich., and Paul Gill, Brockton, Mass., took home the wins in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car respectively.

Reichert, the current NHRA Lucas Oil National Champion, worked his way through the field and ran 5.448 seconds at 259.29 mph for the easy victory over Richard Putz, Earlville, Iowa.  The win is Reichert’s fifth of the season that includes both divisional and national event wins.

Gill faced off against Brent Henry, Breckenridge, Colo., and posted a winning run of 5.739 seconds, 248.34 mph in his '08 Mustang for his first win of the year.

The next time you see Jason Scruggs at an ADRL event he’ll have a new car.

Yesterday at Houston Raceway Park, the former two-time Pro Extreme world champ crashed his ’68 Camaro in third-round qualifying for today’s inaugural ADRL Texas Drags. Scruggs was uninjured in the accident, but the car now needs some front chassis and suspension work, a new right, front wheel and a new carbon-fiber body.

“Other than that, it’s really not that bad,” he says of the car that for a full year held sway as the ADRL’s quickest and fastest entry and was a race winner as recently as three months ago in Georgia. The damage is severe enough, however, that Scruggs plans to debut a brand-new, Garret Race Cars-built ’63 Corvette, draped in that familiar Scruggs red, at the ADRL’s next outing in just two weeks (Aug. 6-7), at Gateway International Raceway, near St. Louis.

Something somewhat unexpected happened at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals today – cooler temperatures resulted in a surprisingly good racing surface.

This is what drag racing’s all about – the fans. Cory McClenathan hangs with the Stainbrook kids from Gillette, Wyoming.

Had it been as warm as it was Friday and Saturday it’s likely that the mostly full grandstands would have been showered with smoke and rubber particles, but most of the fuel cars made good, straight, smoke-free runs.  That had the fans cheering for more, and with good reason.  The professional racers on the Full Throttle Series tour are all about the fans, believe it or not, and while they want to win, putting on a good show remains paramount in their minds.  And they absolutely put on a good show here.

On July 14, the NHRA mandated that rear carbon fiber brake rotors and pads will be mandatory for Top Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, Top Alcohol Dragsters and Top Alcohol Funny Cars effective July 21, 2010 and front carbon fiber brakes will be mandatory for Funny Cars and Top Alcohol Funny Cars by Aug. 11.

The amendments to the NHRA rulebook come on the heels of the death of Mark Niver, a Top Alcohol Dragster driver, July 11 during eliminations at the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Wash. Light confirmed Niver was using steel brakes in his dragster during his fatal run.