OPTIMA® Batteries will join Kalitta Motorsports as an associate sponsor for the remainder of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series as well as for the 2011 season.

OPTIMA Batteries will be prominently displayed on all three of Kalitta Motorsports’ nitro-fueled, 8,000-horsepower, 300+mph race cars, the Technicoat Top Fuel dragster driven by Doug Kalitta, the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster driven by Dave Grubnic, and the DHL Funny Car driven by Jeff Arend, beginning at this weekend’s NHRA national event, the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., July 16-18.

"Hot Rod" Fuller, a seven-time NHRA Top Fuel winner, returns to NHRA competition this weekend at Infineon Raceway and it's a reunion of sorts for the versatile straight-line racer. It was five years ago at the Sonoma race that Fuller teamed with veteran crew chief Lee Beard to form a championship-contending duo in the Top Fuel ranks.
 
Fuller, 39, makes his 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series debut at the 23rd annual FRAM-Autolite Nationals after competing in a handful of events last season. Behind the wheel of the Abu Dhabi-based Yas Marina Circuit Top Fuel dragster, Fuller looks to again put his name in the mix as one of the elite racers in NHRA Top Fuel competition.

John Force is the first Funny Car driver to clinch a berth in the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs, but don’t expect the 14-time champion to ease into “test mode” this week when he sends his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang into the 23rd annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
 
“No way,” said the 130-time tour winner and current points leader.  “ In 1992, we thought we had (the championship) locked up after Seattle.  We went into test mode and Cruz (Pedregon) chased us down (and won the title).  He was a rookie then and he had to win all the races and we had to lose them all – and that’s just what happened.”
 
Actually, Pedregon won five of the last six races the ‘92 season, all of them in succession, and passed Force to win the championship.  For Force, it was a lesson learned: ‘never take anything for granted.’  He responded the following year by winning the first of a record 10 straight NHRA titles.

Because they sometimes are separated by ten-thousandths of a second on the racetrack and as few as one or two points in the standings, Pro Stock drivers guard their proprietary information carefully. They frown on anyone trying to photograph their engines. They often cover up their handiwork with a blanket. They're always on guard for technology spies.
 
But they break out in smiles when they see their on-track rivals' children and grandchildren dash among their pits. They aren't the least bit wary of elementary-school espionage.
 
"They're just a bunch of kids out there having a good time," Grandpa Johnny Gray said before improving Saturday morning from fifth to second in the Pro Stock order during qualifying for the NHRA's Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Competitors can be forgiven for feeling like they may need divine intervention to beat ADRL Pro Extreme Motorcycle racer Ashley Owens this year.

Riding for veteran team owner and fellow competitor Paul Gast, Owens has qualified number one at four of five ADRL events in 2010 (missing the chance for a perfect record when rain shortened qualifying at Martin, Michigan), holds both ends of the class performance records, and is yet to lose an elimination round, prevailing as the winner of all three completed events so far.

But the soft-spoken rider from Decatur, Alabama, remains humble and focused on the next round, the next race, and hopefully, his first ADRL world championship.

Matt Hagan will do more than just race the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car in the Bay Area this week.  

Hagan, 27, will throw out the first pitch on Thursday night at AT&T Park prior to the game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. This will mark the first time Hagan has thrown out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game.  

“I’m actually really excited because I’ve never done anything like this before,” Hagan said. “But I’m a little nervous. I don’t want to bounce the ball on the ground. I’ve been practicing just playing catch with my dad (David) and my wife (Rachel).

One by one, the Pro Stock cars exited the staging lanes at Pacific Raceways, destined for a return 

After a successful event on a new date last season, the Fourth Annual World Footbrake Challenge roars in to Thunder Valley July 16-18 with some of the best racers around ready to take the big money.

The World Footbrake Challenge is an 1/8-mile event that will see racers depend on their driving skills to take home the top prizes. In footbrake competition, drivers are not allowed to use electronic equipment to help them achieve a better start.

Racers can enter three different $10,000-to-win races during the weekend.

Aeromotive has announced that effective July 1, 2010, All-Midwest Sales has been retained as the official representative for the Aeromotive Fuel Systems line of products within the Southwest and the Southeast territories to include the following states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, S. Carolina, N. Carolina and Virginia. All-Midwest Sales representatives for these territories include Jim Miller, Steve Dorries, Dale Langford, CJ Clayton and Dave Bortle.