Quarter-mile Mountain Motor Pro Stock racing is still very much alive and is ready to hit the track again this coming weekend at Rockingham Dragway with the MMPSA’s inaugural event. John Montecalvo, who clinched his first ever IHRA Championship last fall at Rockingham, will be wearing the #1 in the MMPSA and looking to defend his reign as the quarter-mile champ.

“Rockingham Dragway is the place where I’ve had the most success,” told Monte. “The highlight of my career was winning the Championship there last fall, so now I think it’s only fitting to come back to Rockingham for the start of this new organization. Quarter-mile Mountain Motor racing is a longstanding and well-loved tradition in drag racing and I really think we racers need to make sure this type of racing continues for generations to come.”

The MMPSA kickoff is entitled ‘Rumble at the Rock’ and is the feature of Rockingham Dragway’s Civil Wars event, which is also host to Quick 8 and bracket races, a car show and a gigantic swap meet.

Tony Schumacher is heading to a track where he’s had success before. The multi-time champion has two wins to his credit at Houston Raceway Park, the most recent of which came last season.

“The win last year was pretty special,” he said. “It was the first victory with what was at the time my new team and crew chief (Mike Green). Of course, we went on to score four more wins and the world championship. But, it was the race at HRP that kick started everything.”

The list of panelists that will conduct the second RRDC/FIA Young Drivers Symposium in Long Beach, Calif., has been released. It includes a lineup of the sport's and industry's most distinguished experts.
 
The workshop, supported by a grant from the FIA Motor Sport Safety Development Fund, will take place on Saturday, April 17, at the Hilton Hotel, 701 West Ocean Blvd., in Long Beach, Calif., from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. It is open to drivers from all motorsports disciplines and there is no cost to attend. However, registration is required and space is limited. Participants are asked to register early at www.rrdc.org. All workshop materials, including a comprehensive workbook, will be provided.

The American Drag Racing League (ADRL) is pleased to announce that Hardee’s, the leader in the quick-serve industry in both quality and taste, has been named Official Fan Fuel of the ADRL and is returning for the third consecutive year as title sponsor of the next event on the ADRL’s 2010 tour, the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags VI on April 23-24, at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Cecil, Georgia.

“Our sponsorship of the Hardee’s Georgia Drags for the past two years received such positive feedback from customers and employees alike that it was an easy decision to continue the relationship,” said Bobby Medlen, vice president of operations for Biscuits & Burgers, a Georgia Hardee’s franchisee. “We’re happy to be a part of bringing such action-packed entertainment to our fans.”

NHRA Funny Car driver Matt Hagan and ESPN stats guy Lewis Bloom will headline tonight's WFO Radio NHRA Tuesday with Joe Castello, live at 7 p.m. ET.  To listen live or on-demand, go to http://www.wforadio.com
 
Hagan, who drives the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing, is coming off a fourth place finish in the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at ZMax Dragway.  The second-year NHRA Full Throttle Series driver currently sits in fourth place in the NHRA Funny Car championship point standings.

Despite the hype, and no doubt in part because of rain, NHRA's Four-Wide Nationals didn't do much to move the ratings on ESPN2.
 
Saturday qualifying, in good weather, produced a 0.4 rating. That's the same as the average of last year's qualifying shows. The 0.4 translates to a household average of 409,000 and 556,000 viewers.

Canadian Kenny Lang, a veteran Pro Mod racer who has won his share of races and series titles in other drag racing organizations, made history in March as the first Pro Mod racer to ever raise a Wally – NHRA’s highly-coveted national event winner’s trophy – in an NHRA winner’s circle.

Lang flew under the radar by qualifying sixth in his green ’53 Corvette, but he ultimately raced to victory over Sweden’s Michael Gullqvist in the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals final round to win the inaugural race in NHRA’s newest touring series – the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.

Now Lang’s focus is on race No. 2 in the 10-race series, when the tour visits Houston Raceway Park, April 9-11 for the 23rd annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil. The race will be televised on ESPN2 HD.

Numerous makes of automobiles have come and gone over the years.

The musclecar, however, has held its ground over time. The car was a by-product of 1960s America. The country at that time was being fueled by rebellious youth and automakers capitalized on this prevalent attitude by introducing the muscle car.

In 1962, Dodge and Plymouth immediately found muscle car success by making revolutionary high-performance cars that were sleeker and lighter than other cars on the market, but also had big-car power. The ’62 Dodge Dart 413 was a poster child for Dodge’s early muscle car innovation.

Not surprisingly, these early 60s Dodge and Plymouths ruled the NHRA landscape in the new Super/Stock class.

It's going to be another double-duty weekend for Melanie Troxel as she'll wheel both the In-N-Out Burger Funny Car and the In-N-Out Burger Pro Mod racecar at the upcoming 23rd annual O'Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals, which run Friday through Sunday at Houston Raceway Park.

It's the second time Troxel has raced two cars in the same weekend with the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., her first double-up experience.

"I've certainly got a much better idea of what to expect out of this weekend," Troxel said. "Strangely enough the things I was worried about going into the season weren't the things that caused me problems.