MMPSA again partners with one of the industry’s leading manufacturers. TEK Headers and the MMPSA are proud to announce the creation of the “TEK Headers Very Quick 8” program designed to recognize and reward the first eight MMPSA drivers to lay down a quarter mile pass in the teens. The first driver to accomplish this feat will receive a free set of TEK Headers. If they do it with a set of TEK Headers on the car, they will receive an additional $2,000.00! The remaining seven drivers will receive a certificate for $1,000.00 off a set of TEK Headers.

Houston Raceway Park hosts its first major drag race of the year this weekend (Mar. 19-20), as the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) arrives for its 2010 season-opening ADRL Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen.

ADRL teams in five professional classes—Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme Pro Stock, Flowmaster Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous and Pro Extreme, the quickest and fastest eighth-mile “door cars” in the world—will converge on the Baytown, Texas, track from all across the country, bringing with them race vehicles equally at home in a car show as they are on the track. From a standing start they will cover the ADRL’s 660-foot race distance in as little as 3.6 seconds at speeds up to nearly 210 miles per hour.

Two of Drag racing most innovative men have teamed to present the Inaugural 6 Race Outlaw Doorslammer Series in 2010. George Howard, the owner of Holly Springs Motorsports Park and best known for his $1,000,000 race and Roy Hill, the Hall of Fame Racer and owner of Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School have created a powerful 6 event Heads-Up Series this season at 5 tracks throughout the Southeast.

The series begins with the Spring Fling April 29-30 and May 1 at Holly Springs Motorsports Park in MS and continues with the South Carolina Spectacular at Orangeburg Dragway in SC June 4-5, the Georgia Rumble at Silver Dollar Dragway, Reynolds, GA July 9-10, Summer Thunder at  Piedmont Dragway, Greensboro, NC August 13-14, Fall Bash at Palm Beach Int’l Raceway, West Palm Beach, FL September 17-18 and Holly Springs on October 15-16 and 17 with the Big Buck Outlaw Finals.

Northeast Division racer Karen Stalba has announced plans to return to NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster competition this season.

Stalba, a two-time national event finalist and winner of the 2005 Lebanon Valley Lucas Oil Series event, along with her husband, Tom, a six-time division
champion in Super Comp and Super Gas, recently purchased the nitro-burning A/Fuel dragster formerly driven by current Top Fuel star Morgan Lucas. The Stalbas expect to officially debut the car at the upcoming Northeast Division event at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

Rick Stivers, driver of the Brad Anderson-tuned Trane 2006 Stratus, was unable to attend the NHRA Gatornationals last weekend due to complications arising from routine medical screening he underwent a week before the first Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series event in Gainesville, Fla.  He said he wanted to thank concerned drivers and fans for their encouragement and support since his operation.
 
While undergoing a routine annual colonoscopy, the Kentucky native was found to have cancerous polyps that required an emergency surgery. What was then scheduled to be a laparoscopic procedure turned into an operation called a "right hemicolectomy," requiring a 12-inch incision from sternum to pelvis and ultimately led to the removal of more than a foot of both his intestine and colon. After five days of hospital treatment and care, he was released to go home to recuperate.

The NHRA’s technical department wasn’t prepared for the M4.

The M4, Pro Mod racer Harold Martin’s self-built and self-manufactured automobile, failed to pass tech at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville. Martin was one of 28 Pro Modified teams invited to participate in the first recognized series event for the Get Screen America Pro Modified division.

Martin refuses to pass the buck, accepting the blame for his inability to participate.

So what caused the M4 to get bounced from tech? A longtime rule of pre-submission of new car designs, initially imposed by the IHRA’s tech director Mike Baker in the formative years of the Pro Modified division within his sanctioning body, did Martin in.

NASCAR Sprint Cup headliner Kurt Busch has captured a series championship in America's most popular motorsports arena and earned close to $40 million in his still-young stock-car racing career.
 
But going through the National Hot Rod Association's tech inspection Tuesday and "getting that little decal that said participant of the Gatornationals -- that was a big moment for me," he said.
 
"I felt like an eight-year-old schoolboy," Busch said. "It's been an honor and a privilege to be part of the Gatornationals."

Melanie Troxel was among six Pro Modified drivers who met with the Gainesville media, and during the press conference she was asked if a blown doorslammer was essentially a Funny Car with doors.

Troxel was the most qualified driver at the NHRA Gatornationals to answer the question.

“I’ve never driven two different cars on the same weekend, so it has been a challenge,” Troxel explained. “Originally my concerns were with the different driving styles going down the track but after the Phoenix event I got to drive the Pro Modified for the following days in Florida.”

The largest concern for Troxel headed into the weekend was the different starting line demands.

On a weekend where the motorcycle combination provided no apparent significant advantage, past NHRA Pro Stock champion Eddie Krawiec felt fortunate he had the winning bike.

A Suzuki established a new world record [6.855] and qualified No. 1.

Buells accounted for two of the first four spots in the qualified field.

In the end of the day, a Harley-Davidson rolled into the winner’s circle and the NHRA Gatornationals trophy provided a nice addition to Krawiec's trophy bearing mantle which already holds six Wallys.

Past NHRA Pro Stock champion Jason Line is all about putting his best foot forward. At the NHRA Gatornationals, his best foot proved to be the left one.

Line became the first Pro Stock driver in 2010 to stop the Mike Edwards steamroller. The KB Racing driver dumped the clutch .052 of a second quicker than Edwards on the starting line with the advantage accounting for a half-of-a-car length at the finish line.

“I guess right now the only way to beat Mike (Edwards) is with your left foot,” Line said. “We can't do it with the right, that's for sure. He's definitely faster than everybody. He's got us covered. Fortunately for us he gave us a little bit of room and we managed to get it done somehow.”

Line used a 6.580 elapsed time to fend off Edwards’ much quicker 6.556.