I stole that line from the trailer door of Dan Ritchen’s Iron Horse dragster.  Ritchens hailed from the Beehive State and opined that making progress in Utah was nigh unto impossible considering the state’s hidebound ways.  The same could be said about NHRA Drag Racing, but in this instance it’s the racers who appear to be working as hard as they can to keep the wheels of prog

Tommy D’Aprile and Quain Stott are on the same team again.

Both parties confirmed that one day after the completion of the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags, Pro Extreme team owner Mel Bush hired Stott to serve as the tuner for his 1970 Camaro.

Bush, who had initially planned to sit out the season, admits a weekend in Valdosta convinced him to bring the team back out with Stott making the tuning calls. Stott will continue to race his LeeBoy-sponsored 1963 Corvette.

Initial plans are to get in a couple of test sessions before making their re-emergence at the next ADRL event, hosted by Virginia Motorsports Park, May 21 – 22.

J.R. Todd knows his role at the drag strip. The past NHRA Top Fuel standout for the last few seasons has either handled his duties as a driver, or for the last season since losing his full-time ride – working the angles of sponsorship acquisition.

This weekend Todd jokingly admitted he was filling a new role this weekend – entourage.

Todd, along with fellow Top Fuel racer Larry Dixon, were both in Valdosta, Ga., for the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags as guests of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, who was making his ADRL driving debut.

Thomas “Slick” Myers knew he was given up a good measure of cutting through air in switching race cars but the coolness factor made it a willing sacrifice.

Myers of Granbury, Texas, traded in his wedge-shaped 1963 Corvette Stingray for a much-bigger Plymouth Duster.

“We teamed up with Andy McCoy Race Cars and got one these new Dusters,” said Myers, who has yet to qualify the Mopar this season. “It’s a bad machine; we’ve just got to get it down the race track now. We’ve been out once with it, had a couple of wiring issues with it, got those straightened out.”

NHRA National Event champion Tony Bartone and the Rick Jackson Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team is flying high tonight after the Centre Pointe Collision Center TAFC took home the title at the first Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event of 2010 at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas.

The weekend did not start off great for the Santa Clarita, Calif. based team as the first two qualifying efforts produced less than fantastic results, however the experienced bunch lead by crew chief Steve Boggs reached down and produced a 5.608 second 256.70 mile per hour blast in the final qualifying session yesterday to capture the pole position. The number one spot lead Tony Bartone to a round one pairing against Channelview, Texas driver Lee Callaway; a rematch of the first round in Houston earlier this year.

Cinderella has nothing on Kristen Wootton. And the clock has just begun on a promising drag racing career.

Racing in her second drag racing start, the rookie driver of the Wootton Racing/Mettle Armor Racing Oil A/Fuel Dragster has captured her first NHRA Wally in a very competitive field of Top Alcohol Dragsters at the Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event contested this weekend in Ennis, Texas at the Texas Motorplex.

Wootton, from Magnolia, Texas entered eliminations having qualified in the 7th qualified position after her 5.62 second elapsed time recorded in the first session on Friday. This set up a first round match up against Michael Manners from Willis, Texas in his Shane Conway tuned Spitzer chassis A/Fuel Dragster. At the flash of the green, Manners captured a slight hole shot advantage but went up in smoke, while Wootton sped to a career best elapsed time of 5.348 at a career best speed of over 267 mph earning her first round win.

Phil Shuler understands you can always come home.

On an off weekend from his usual duties as co-crew chief on Cory McClenathan’s Top Fuel dragster, Shuler was at the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags located outside of Valdosta, Ga.

Shuler was a guest of current ADRL Pro Extreme champion Todd Tutterow, whom he confirmed is helping him with a fast doorslammer he’s piddling around with in his free time.

Tommy D’Aprile has had a few fender scrapers, caught on fire before and bumped a wall or two in his doorslammer days but on Friday evening at the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags, he experienced his first official, full-fledged crash.

D’Aprile, driving temporarily for Mel Eaves, slid the nitro-burning Camaro into the wall when oil apparently got under the tires. A day after the fiery wall impact, D’Aprile was making the rounds at the track.

“I’m a little sore on my left side,” said D’Aprile, who is the full-time driver for Mel Bush Motorsports. “The car left, it was on a good run. As evident by the computer and the pictures we’ve seen, it either broke or lost an oil line or what have you, but it sprayed completely under the left side of the car which got the left tire spinning and right hooking and it just drove it left hard. That was it; I was along for the ride after that.”

Saturday was an emotional day for two-time ADRL Pro Extreme champion Jason Scruggs. He fought tooth and nail for the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags trophy only to give it away.

Scruggs knew Melanie Walker needed the trophy more than he did.

Walker’s husband Mike Walker was critically injured in a pit accident earlier in the day at South Georgia Motorsports Park. Walker was pronounced dead shortly afterward at Memorial Hospital of Adel in nearby Adel, Georgia.

An hour after the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags were complete, 41-year old Steven Boone was walking around the staging lanes of South Georgia Motorsports Park like a kid opening presents on Christmas morning.

Boone had pulled off a Christmas-like performance as he knocked off one heavily-favored driver after another culminating with a hole shot victory over No. 1 qualifier Pete Berner. He looked like a champion by beating past world champions in three of the four elimination rounds.

Those race fans who knew better know Boone had pulled off a bona fide Miracle on 34th Street.

Boone, from Weaverville, NC, a small town located in western North Carolina, didn’t second-guess the good fortunes which befell him in the second event on the 2010 ADRL tour.