Former Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith has signed a major sponsorship deal with Al-Anabi Racing for the 2010 season and beyond. This deal, Smith says, will return his team to the competitive level he enjoyed in 2007 when he captured the championship.

“We’re back on our program that won the title in 2007 and nearly did in 2008,” said Smith, son of drag racing legend Rickie Smith. “I’m really excited. I want to thank Sheikh Khalid Al Thani and Al Anabi Racing for this opportunity.”

Smith confirmed that he will return to his Buell this season and resume his engine research and development program which he suspended with the implosion of the Torco sponsorships.

Susan Roush-McClenaghan isn't just the daughter of auto racing kingpin Jack Roush. Like her father, she's a racer.

She is also heavily involved in the effort to  restore one of her dad's most famous race cars: A four-door 1974 Ford Maverick nicknamed “The Tijuana Taxi”.

Before Roush became one of the most successful team owners in NASCAR, he worked as an engineer with partner Wayne Gapp in the early 1970s in the NHRA, IHRA and AHRA. The duo competed under the name Gapp and Roush and one of their cars that Gapp drove was “The Tijuana Taxi”.

Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com, through the assistance of a key group of Pro Modified historians and enthusiasts, has compiled a list of the Top 20 all-time drivers based on their contribution to the class, historic achievements, statistics and fan appeal.

Starting on Friday, January 8, 2010, the electronic magazine began revealing those names on the list, and will announce two drivers per week, until the No. 1 driver is unveiled on Saturday, Mar. 20, during the ADRL Dragpalooza in Houston, Texas.

Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com narrowed the list from hundreds of drivers down to 20. Today, we reveal No. 12 on the list.

Justin Humphreys reached the quarters and the finals with a first round win at the Las Vegas Pro Stock Showdown.

On a day where team after team withdrew from competition either in the first round or after it, Humphreys beat Johnny Gray in the final round because they were the only two participants to return for the second round.

A win is a win for Humphreys.

Mike Edwards is a humble man, a humble champion and a dedicated racer.

The 2009 NHRA Pro Stock Champion refused to count his chickens before they hatched last year, but now, with the 2010 season just around the corner, Edwards' face beams with joy when someone says, 'hey champ'.

“That sounds good doesn't it?” he says in response to the accolade.

Good enough to sustain him over the winter as the team faced the daily possibility of not being able to defend their title.

To say that Shane Gray was caught unaware when he slid behind the wheel of his 2010 Pontiac GXP would be unfair. To say he might have underestimated the challenge, might be more accurate.

“I ran Comp (Eliminator) for 2 years in a B/Altered and thought it would be somewhat of an easy step but it is not,” admitted Gray after two days of testing, licensing and qualifying for the Pro Stock Showdown at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “It’s very tough, but I have a lot of support. My mother and my father have supplied me with the best that we can get our hands on and we’re working on it. My wife has supported me 100% and we’re just going to make the best of it and try to improve as the season goes on and just go from there and see how we do.”

It's been sixteen months since Melanie Troxel strapped into a Funny Car and it's not like riding a bicycle – you don't just jump on and ride.

“Oh it’s a little a nerve wracking going out there after that long kind of like starting over,” Troxel said, adding, “especially after spending you know the last six months driving a different type of car.”

Troxel drove a Pro Mod in 2009 while awaiting for the right opportunity to get back into a Funny Car. She will continue to drive the Pro Mod in 2010 while running eight events in the Funny Car, both for R2B2 and both backed by IN-N-OUT Burger.

What struck some as odd with the NHRA and Don Schumacher Racing alignment with Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates was not the Middle East connection. It was the notion that Top Fuel rivals Tony Schumacher and Hot Rod Fuller would become teammates.
 
Neither driver, though, seems to be too exercised about it.
 
"The way my dad hires people, I thought I'd be teammates with everybody right now," Tony Schumacher said with the snappy delivery of a Conan O'Brien.