All eyes were on Palm Beach International Raceway Friday and Saturday night as the Nitro Jam series opened its season with the first major motorsports event of 2010.

With Friday in the books as the largest opening night crowd in decades, Saturday produced even bigger results with a sold out event resulting in the largest crowd in Palm Beach International Raceway history and one of the biggest debut weekends for the IHRA at Palm Beach Nitro Jam.

“We are obviously pleased with the results this weekend. We came in here with a plan to put on an incredible show for the fans and we feel we did just that,” said IHRA President Aaron Polburn. “This being a first time event we expected to have a big weekend, but this event exceeded our expectations in every way.”

Two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon and 10-time NHRA Division 6 champion Bucky Austin have teamed to campaign Pedregon's Pisano Nostalgia Funny Car during the 2010 Hot Rod Heritage Series season.
 
Beginning with the 52nd Bakersfield March Meet at Auto Club Raceway Famoso, Pedregon will drive this replica of the Joe Pisano 1978 Plymouth Arrow Funny Car that debuted last October at the California Hot Rod Reunion.
 
"Bucky's going to run it and tune it, and I'm going to drive it," Pedregon said, anticipating the March 5-7 kickoff of the Hot Rod Heritage Series season.

Last weekend, we brought you a score of videos from Dawn Mazi-Hovsepian's YouTube.com Channel focusing on the 1968 NHRA U.S. Nationals. This time we proudly present the 1969 NHRA U.S. Nationals from Indianapolis Raceway Park in a video titled "Tournament of Champions" presented Hurst Performance. This video is narrated by the late Steve Evans.

Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels is proud to announce the renewal of the partnership with Bill Glidden Racing for 2010. Through this partnership, Glidden will continue to work closely with Mickey Thompson product development staff to provide information regarding the performance of Mickey Thompson products in real world racing applications. In return, Mickey Thompson will provide support to the Bill Glidden team as they compete in the ADRL Extreme 10.5 Class throughout the year.

Patio Passport providing primary sponsorship to Quick 32 Sportsman Series entry
 
With new major sponsorship involvement, the Top Sportsman team of Mike Wagg and Dave Bell should be a contender in this year’s Quick 32 Sportsman Series.
 
Thanks to funding from Patio Passport, the 1994 Dodge Daytona will be receiving big mechanical and cosmetic changes, according to Waterdown, Ontario’s Mike Wagg, who shares the driving chores with teammate Dave Bell of Grand Bend, Ontario.
 
“We’re getting rid of the red color on the car that everyone has seen for years,” said Wagg. “I don’t want to divulge the paint scheme yet, but we plan to debut the car at the Performance World Custom Car Show in Toronto in March.”
 

The IHRA scored its largest Friday evening crowd in the history of its current management during the first of two days at the IHRA Palm Beach Nitro Jam in Jupiter, Fla.

“I think we made one heck of a statement here tonight. What we proved tonight is that if you believe in what you are doing and put the fans and drivers first you will succeed in a big way,” said IHRA President Aaron Polburn in a press release distributed on Friday evening. “We knew what we are doing was going to work, we just didn’t know how quickly it would take off.

“I think we can officially say mission accomplished.”

What a difference a year makes.  365 days ago, Tim Wilkerson was readying his troops and his equipment for the season opener in Pomona with more question marks than exclamation points in his head.  He'd not only made the switch to a new chassis during the off-season, he'd moved from the familiar two-rail style to the newer and safer three-rail configuration, and in addition he was putting a sleek new Shelby Mustang on the car for the first time.  If making changes can create challenges, Wilkerson had gone for the gusto.

This year, after a slow start in '09 finally evolved into a successful campaign that featured two race victories, one runner-up result, and a fourth-place finish in the points, Wilkerson and his Levi, Ray & Shoup team are approaching the 2010 season with a different and more calculated approach.  This year, it's all about continuity and confidence, as the team aims to take the momentum they had built during the second half of the '09 season and translate that into a solid start to a long and successful 2010 Full Throttle run.

Tune in to the SPEED Channel this Saturday (Jan. 30), at 10:30 a.m. Eastern for Lucas Oil On the Edge, featuring the American Drag Racing League’s (ADRL’s) 2009 Pro Extreme Speedtech Battle for the Belts.

Watch the top eight Pro Extreme points leaders from last season go head to head in a winner-take-all battle for ADRL supremacy filmed during the LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals V at Ennis, Texas, last October by NeWave Video Productions, the same company that produces ADRL event broadcasts.

It was late 2007 when John Force, in a race against Kenny Bernstein, barely survived a horrific crash at the Texas Motorplex.

Force's body was in shambles. His mind wasn't much better. Yet, 28 months later, John Force is as confident as he's ever been, at least in the public eye. He walks, he talks and he drives like he's still gunning for his first Funny Car title. He has the eye of the tiger and the hunger of an orca whale hunting seals.

Rehabilitation has not come easy for the 14-time champ. In the beginning, it was all about being able to walk again. Once he could walk, it was about being able to climb in and out of a race car. Once in the car, his exercise routine needed to be specialized to his routine inside the race car.

Trips to the gym were not without pain, both physically and mentally.

Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com, through the assistance of a key group of Pro Modified historians and enthusiasts, have 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 08, 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. 15 on the list.