Multiple championship-winning Rapisarda Racing drag racing team is set to race a Nitro Funny Car in Australia after purchasing an ex-Don Prudhomme Racing, 2008 Monte Carlo NHRA car.

Rapisarda Racing US-based crew chief, Glenn Mikres, said the Funny Car was purchased earlier in the year and arrived in Australia mid-May.

“The car is a former Don Prudhomme car. It is a McKinney chassis with a Monte Carlo body. One of the Skoal blue cars. It is lightly raced as it was used as a Prudhomme Racing backup car,” Mikes said. 

Perth Chartered Accountant, Robin Judd, does not have to do the sums to know how the numbers stack-up in the quest to win his first Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) Pro Series Top Doorslammer championship.     

Judd, who has won two events so far this season – Australian Nationals, Sydney and Goldenstates, Perth Motorplex – will go into the championship series-ending Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway, Ipswich, June 10-13, with a nine-point lead over arch-rival John Zappia.

While in the $20,000 three-event – Westernationals, Perth, Nitro Champs, Sydney and Winternationals – Karcher Shootout, Judd is 20 points behind Zappia.

Five times this season she’s gone to the starting line in the first round, and five times she’s gone home early.  

It wasn’t the way Angie Smith pictured the way her first full season of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racing would begin.  Neither did Matt Smith, her husband and tuner of Karl and Kim Klement’s Coffman Tank Truck entry.

An assortment of parts woes – even a highly unusual motorcycle fuel fire – has frustrated both Smiths, but they believe better days are ahead, beginning Friday when they begin qualifying for the Route 66 Nationals at Joliet, Ill.

Jack Beckman and the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car team arrive for this weekend's 13th annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill., to race the latest version of the initial 2008 DSR-1 chassis design.

Top Sportsman driver Ricky Adkins, the North Central Division representative for the upcoming JEGS Allstars event at Route 66 Raceway, will be flying yellow and black colors of JEGS Mail Order this weekend as he has agreed to drive Mike Coughlin’s JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt during the special event. Adkins recently encountered mechanical problems with his own ’57 Chevy Top Sportsman entry and once he realized that he would not have the car ready in time for the JEGS Allstars race, Coughlin was quick to offer his assistance.

The big question in the NHRA right now is what the sanctioning body might do to reduce the power of the nitro cars with the focus on returning quarter-mile runs.

Long-time crew chief and former standout driver Ed “Ace” McCulloch believes there is no reason to return to quarter-mile racing, leaving behind the 1,000-foot racing the NHRA has had in place since July of 2008.

Veteran Funny Car racer Jim Head thinks speaking to race fans directly is the key to winning support for 1,000-foot racing.

The NHRA seeks to conclude data gathering no later than July of this. Depending on what the NHRA does, there is the possibility the sanctioning body would return the nitro cars to traditional quarter-mile racing.

Dan Wilkerson has had 242 days to prepare for his next ride on the horse.

Wilkerson, the son of iconic Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson, will climb behind the wheel of a Funny Car for the first time since a devastating crash last fall in Memphis, Tenn., when the wheels came off of his car in a second round race against Ron Capps.

Thanks to major associate sponsorship from Dump-Lok, a dump truck safety brace device manufactured by Worksafe USA, based in Springfield, Ill., Wilkerson will get another shot at driving a Funny Car during the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. Levi, Ray and Shoup will provide major sponsorship as well.

Top Fuel Champion Tony Schumacher can leave a lasting impression; just ask Corbin Mehrbrodt.

This weekend Mehrbrodt will race in the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in a Super Comp eliminator. The inspiration for the outing came from Schumacher, many years ago.

Mehrbrodt, then an impressionable 10-year-old Bolling Brook (Ill.) boy, was inspired both to drag race and join the Army by a meeting with Schumacher back in 2002. Mehrbrodt will report for basic training in two weeks.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson has signed an associate marketing/sponsorship agreement with C&L Companies. of Urbandale, Iowa, and its consortium of motorcycle aftermarket parts companies.

Said C&L CEO Curt Leaverton, “Steve brings the kind of experience and enthusiasm to C&L Cos. that will ultimately provide our products and services with the national exposure we’ve been seeking. For all of Steve’s successes on the track, which includes things like winning the NHRA U.S. Nationals and all of those top 10 points finishes, it’s the professionalism that he brings to his marketing work that really got our attention."