GSA Pro Mod racer Mike Janis plans to unveil this new Mustang during Friday qualifying at the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, NJ. Dan Page built the sleek new Mustang which is running with partial Ford Racing backing and major sponsorship from Eaton/Aeroquip. Justin Spencer designed the new Widowmaker theme.

Robert Patrick figured he wasn’t going to get his NHRA Ford Pro Stock program where it needed to be by sitting at home. The former IHRA mountain motor Pro Stock champion from Fredericksburg, Va. plans his much-anticipated return to competition during this weekend’s NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, NJ.

Patrick announced late last season a plan to return as early as the NHRA Gatornationals back in March. The game plan was altered when development of his new 500-inch engine program spearheaded by Bob Ingles hit a few bumps along the way.

“The engine program has thrown us a curve,” admitted Patrick, who has tested multiple times headed into this weekend’s event. “There have been some development problems with the engine. We didn’t feel we were ready and didn’t want to go to the races and end up hurting engines. We decided we weren’t going to race until our engines were 100-percent mechanically sound.”

Terry Murphy was all fired up at the ADRL event last month at Virginia Motorsports Park, but it certainly wasn’t his temper getting the best of him.

In fact, Murphy is a pretty cool operator in the ADRL’s Pro Nitrous ranks, but in each of his first three qualifying attempts his Dennis Price-owned ’63 Corvette barely moved off the starting line before belching bright orange flames from its hood scoop and exhaust pipes.

With some help from Pro Nitrous pioneer Charles Carpenter and other competitors, Murphy finally diagnosed the problem: a faulty coil wire and a couple of bad spark plugs that revealed themselves only under full load.

Renowned engine builder and standout NHRA Sportsman driver Todd Patterson’s career path has led him to a great opportunity this weekend.

Patterson, a former NHRA Pro Stock and Pro Stock Truck competitor, is competing in Pro Stock at the ANDRA Castrol EDGE Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland, Australia Thursday through Sunday. Queensland is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

“We’ve been trying to put this deal together for the last year with Peter Ridgeway, who is a past four-time Australian Pro Stock champion,” Patterson said in a cell phone interview from Queensland. “Ridgeway has been in retirement for about the last four or five years and he had a car built at Don Ness’s shop about two and a half years ago, he has been waiting to debut. I’ve been working with him on his engine stuff and helped supply him a lot of components for him to build his engine. Then, about three months ago, this opportunity came up to sell an engine to Chris Solditos who had bought a Don Ness car and had it shipped over to Australia. Chris bought the engine, but he didn’t know if he was going to be able to drive the car and Peter (Ridgeway) said why don’t you let Todd come out and drive the car? That’s how the deal got started once Chris ordered the engine.”

Dale Pulde and the International Hot Rod Association.

It is a combination that helped launch the career of the legendary Funny Car driver and helped elevate the IHRA’s Funny Car class to near rockstar status during the late 70s and early 80s.

Photographer Buddy Trivette worked alongside Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com writer Ian Tocher to deliver the top notch coverage from the ODSS Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com South Carolina Spectacular in Orangeburg, SC. Here's his photo gallery.

ODSS - ORANGEBURG through the lens of Buddy Trivette

NHRA, John Force Racing and Don Schumacher Racing conducted testing on Monday, June 7 following the conclusion of the rain-plagued United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals outside Chicago.

Three concepts were tested: a 75-gallon-per-minute (gpm) fuel pump, a 413 cubic-inch engine combination, and a restrictor plate located on the inlet side of the supercharger. Of the three concepts, the restrictor plate was being tested for the first time by Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald of Don Schumacher Racing, using the Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster driven by Antron Brown.

John Force piloted his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang with a 75gpm fuel pump, making three passes, the best being a 4.22-second time registered to the 1,000 foot marker. After the St. Louis event, the JFR team tested a 60gpm fuel pump. The smaller fuel pump is progressing nicely and continues to show promise, according to Glen Gray, vice president of technical operations at NHRA. Besides Gray from NHRA, Dan Olson, director of top fuel and funny car racing was at the test session Monday.

The John Force Racing team also tested a 413 cubic-inch engine with a 3.50:1 rear end gear ratio, tuned by Jimmy Prock.  Driving the Ford Mustang Funny Car was Mike Neff. Neff made two short passes, the second pass clocking a 60-foot time of .909 seconds. The smaller engine combination has been tested extensively by Tim Wilkerson Racing and, though showing promise, still requires more development than the other two concepts tested.

“We tested the NHRA new gear and engine combination,” said Jimmy Prock. “We only made two attempts and it will take some time to evaluate what we saw. It is in the early stages of evaluation and we are glad to help. This is something that the NHRA is looking into and they have invested in so they asked us to run it so they could look at the results.”

Antron Brown and the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster team tested a restrictor plate concept. The restrictor plate was placed on top of the blower assembly. Brown made two very productive passes with his best run a 3.89-second elapsed time at 304 mph (at 1,000 feet), slightly slower than the team’s race day performance. It was determined that a smaller restrictor plate will be tested in the future. It marked the first time a Top Fuel team has participated in the testing sessions.

“We ran a 21.56 square inch plate on top of the blower (supercharger) that reduced the inlet size,” said Brian Corradi. “We also ran a smaller fuel pump, backing it down 5 gpm at one point in the run and around 7 gpm at another point to compensate for less air going into the motor.  I’m not sure if it will run that well all the time, given we don’t have enough test runs or data after just two runs and only one at full pass. With that said, we were happy with the car’s performance as this combination didn’t hurt any parts. Our goal at DSR is to work with the NHRA and do what we can to make the sport as safe as possible.”

NHRA plans on conducting the next test after the 10^th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. on Monday, June 21.

Neither Rickie Jones or Johnny Gray claim to have any type of political background.

Yet, both Pro Stock drivers are actively on the campaign trail trying to drum up fan support as a result of the new format for the K&N Horsepower Challenge, which is a bonus event for the Pro Stock class. The eighth and final competitor for the race will be chosen by an online fan vote.

“I have a couple of my friends who have been teasing me a little bit and it kind of feels like you’re out there rallying for votes,” Jones said. “I’m just trying to put the word out. If people want to vote for me, that’s great, but if they vote for Warren Johnson or somebody else it doesn’t matter. I just think it’s important to get everyone involved.”

Gray concurred with Jones.

Just days before arriving to defend his Pro Stock motorcycle crown at Englishtown, N.J., Craig Treble has been put in scramble mode.

On Monday, Don Schumacher Racing parked its Pro Stock Motorcycle team leaving Treble without a ride. The decision by DSR was due to the inability to secure major sponsorship. Treble captured the No. 1 qualifying position at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Chicago last weekend.

“This is an unfortunate situation,” Treble said. “Don (Schumacher) didn’t have funding to keep the bike going. Steve (Tartaglia) (Treble’s crew chief) was finally getting a good handle on this thing and it was a fast machine and it still is a fast machine. But, unfortunately, now it is for sale. Personally, I believe he (Schumacher) pulled the plug a little too soon, but business-wise I guess he did what he had to do. It’s disappointing that this happened, but I have no hard feelings toward Don and I’m grateful for the opportunity he gave me.”