Andrew Hines is going to attempt to obtain a license in a Pro Stock car, but finding the right time and place to make it happen has been difficult.

Hines, who won Pro Stock Motorcycle world championships from 2004-2006, was going to make some runs in the John Gaydosh Jr. Performance Pontiac GTO at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan., May 25, but that didn’t take place because Gaydosh hurt the motor in the car in his last qualifying run at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., May 15.

“We were trying to do something around Englishtown (last weekend), but we couldn’t get anything going,” said the 27-year-old Hines. “Then, we were thinking maybe Monday (June 28) after Norwalk (Ohio), but Norwalk is not going to hold a test session now. We’re still trying to figure it out, everything is up in the air, but we will get something figured out sooner or later.”

Pro Stock racer Robert Patrick was hard at work in the pits at Bristol Dragway.

The longtime Ford racer wasn’t speaking a word to anyone. His focus was on the small metal pieces he was pulling out of a wooden box and then inserting into the carburetor of his new Mustang Pro Stocker.

After some time, Patrick finally acknowledged the presence of those around him.

John Zappia was crowned 2009/2010 ANDRA Top Doorslammer Champion last weekend, after he successfully defended his back to back title by winning the final of the Castrol EDGE Winternationals against point’s leader Robin Judd, with a 5.817 at 246.93 mph and reset the National Record with a blistering 5.805, 246.08 in his semi-final win against Ben Bray.

“I love it when a plan comes together” said a jubilant Zappia, “We set some pretty high goals going into the last event, and to almost achieve them all is a testimony to the maturity and standard of our team. We aim high, and work hard at a lot of one percent details on the car and thankfully most of them actually work”.

NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge racer Tim Tindle will sit out the remaining 2010 season. The decision was a tough one for the Santa Rosas Beach, FL., team owner who had never missed an NHRA Pro Mod event since his career began in 2007. Based on the team’s recent performance, Tindle felt it was necessary to take a step back and regroup.

Mike Edwards will lead the K&N Horsepower Challenge field as the No. 1 seed for the first time in his career as the lucrative special event takes center stage June 26 during the fourth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

A purse of $76,000 is available for the eight drivers competing in the K&N Horsepower Challenge. The winner of the 26th annual K&N Horsepower Challenge will earn $50,000. The runner-up will earn $10,000, the two semifinalists $3,000 each, and the four first-round finishers $2,500 apiece.

Intensely focused, his eyes like laser beams locked in on his computer screen, Mike Kloeber is one of the most meticulous and uncompromising crew chiefs in drag racing.
 
He has spoken about how he'll "lie awake at night . . . thinking about how to do this right . . . and when you're not the person driving the car, you have to make absolute certain you can send it down the racetrack without hurting [the driver]."  When they earned six consecutive IHRA Top Fuel championships together, racer Clay Millican said that whatever Kloeber chose to do to his dragster, "that's what we do, because I know he has thought it out."

In the final results from Thunder on the Mountain Presented by Grease Monkey at Bandimere Speedway Bandimere Speedway and the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Jim Whiteley, Grand Junction, Colo., and Terry Ruckman, Grand Junction, Colo. took home the wins in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car respectively.

Whiteley, worked his way through the field and ran 5.514 seconds at 257.83 mph in his final round victory over Cody Perkins, Bluffdale, Utah, who clocked in at 5.692 seconds, 246.30 mph.

Ruckman faced off against Roger Bateman, Calgary, Alb. and posted a winning run of 5.866 seconds, 242.63 mph in his '08 Monte Carlo. Bateman drove to a 5.939 second, 240.77mph lap for his runner up finish.

Strongly believing the old adage regarding strength in numbers, the JEGS Mail Order team is prepared to descend on this weekend’s NHRA national event in Norwalk, Ohio with six entries bearing the familiar yellow and black colors of the Delaware, Ohio based mail order giant.
 
In addition to the Pro Stock entry of five-time world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., and the 240-mph Pro Mod Camaro driven by Troy Coughlin Sr., the event will also include four additional JEGS entries wheeled by John Coughlin, Troy (T.J.) Coughlin Jr., and Samantha Kenny.
 
The JEGS Mail Order effort will be spearheaded by multi-time North Central Division champ John Coughlin, who will be pulling double duty behind the wheel of his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt Comp Eliminator entry and his JEGS.com Top Dragster. For John, the Norwalk event will mark his first appearance at an NHRA national event in several years.

Pro Mod racers and brothers Zach and Cody Barklage will be racing this Independence Day holiday for a greater cause then just winning a race.  The team will be racing for a cure for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society during the ADRL Hardee’s Independence Drags IV at Heartland Park Topeka.

“We have decided to race for more than just points and purse money,” said Zach Barklage.  “There are a lot of greater causes in this world and this happens to be one of them.  Our team has been touched by leukemia, so we wanted to do our part to help raise money and awareness.  A friend of our team, Michelle Royal, has suffered three times with leukemia.  She’s now in a coma and not doing very well.  She is a very nice person, and has had it pretty rough.  This was the only thing we knew we could do to help.  Once we got involved we were amazed to know over 1,500 people in just Missouri and Kansas died from blood cancer just last year.  Only $1000 will give 10 children a whole month of their cancer medication, and we’re out here spending a lot more than that to race.  That blows me away to know if we all come together; we can save people’s lives.”

Since Courtney Glover was the inaugural SCEDA – Southern California Drag Racing Champion in the Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels class in 2005, the class has always paid to the winner each day a minimum guarantee of $500, with progressives payouts thereafter.   However for the July 3rd and 4th event this year, any racer who pays the normal weekend entry fees to SCEDA on or before Saturdays’ SCEDA’s first time trial session, and enters for both days, will qualify for a special bonus purse of $500 per day, making the total payout to the winner $1,000 each day if they pay for both days and enter before the first time trial session on Saturday.