After one month, hundreds of thousands of votes and 56,549 words, a champion has emerged.

Bill Doner, drag racing promoter extraordinaire from the 1970s, will go down in War Stories history as the first contestant since the inaugural event to win in his first participation.

Doner and finalist Pat Musi battled down to the wire with less than 15 votes deciding the winner. The three day voting was deadlocked last evening, but Doner pulled ahead on Thursday afternoon and never relinquished his lead.

Musi, a doorslammer drag racing legend, scored a bit of history as well, by becoming the first two-time finalist in the history of the event.

Somebody got it wrong.

ESPN.com reporter Terry Blount, covering the NHRA announcement concerning four wide racing coming to Zmax Dragway in Concord, NC noted in his article posted Thursday morning, and we quote, “The decision to use all four lanes came within the last week after NHRA officials discussed the plan with the Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO), the NHRA's drivers and team owners group.”

Those words came as a complete surprise to several of the PRO board members, including Bill Miller and Ron Capps.

“They did not talk to PRO,” said Capps, after doing his own research.

Western Motorsports and driver V. Gaines will continue the teams marketing partnership with 10-4 Magazine for the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle season.
"This will be the 3rd year we have carried the 10-4 Magazine logo on our race car" commented Gaines. "Big rig drivers from all across the country enjoy 10-4 Magazine and this agreement allows us to help  reach its market."

This year, Mickey Thompson will support NHRA Sportsman class racers at the Divisional Level as an Associate Sponsor of the Contingency Program. Mickey Thompson has supported NHRA racers for more than 26 years and will be on site at numerous divisional events with the Mickey Thompson team and trailer to provide trackside service to the Sportsman class racers throughout the year.

NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher was awarded the Mario Andretti Trophy here today after being named the 2009 SPEED Performer of the Year.

Andretti, a racing legend, personally delivered the trophy to Schumacher during a surprise meeting near the latter’s home.  

Schumacher, who last November earned his sixth straight world championship, edged out NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson and Superbike rookie Ben Spies to become the first NHRA recipient of the prestigious trophy.

“I’m honored to be chosen for this award,” said Schumacher. “Of course, having the man himself (Andretti) take part in the presentation was an incredible experience on its own.

At the controls of the Al-Anabi Racing Pro Extreme ’68 Chevy Camaro, Sheikh Khalid Al Thani snagged the No. 2 spot after three rounds of qualifying for Round 5 of the Arabian Drag Racing League’s 2009/2010 season.

Led by legendary Top Alcohol Funny Car driver, Frank “Ace” Manzo, Sheikh Khalid made his run for the top of the qualifying sheets in the second round of unlimited doorslammer action, posting a stout 3.754-second pass at 205.07mph. Always looking for top honors, Al Thani and the Al-Anabi Racing team will have one more chance tomorrow to earn the No. 1 position in the second quickest and fastest Pro Extreme field in the history of the Qatar Race Club.

“I’m happy with our performance,” said Sheikh Khalid, checking in from his lounge in the paddock area. “There’s nothing better than being 1 and 2 with my teammate, Von Smith, and I hope this sets us up for another Al-Anabi and Barwa Racing final round. We’ve got one more shot at it tomorrow and we know there is a little left, so we will see if we can get that number-one spot going into eliminations.”

For the last month Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com has staged its War Stories Showdown. Three rounds ofierce combination has narrowed down to the two best story-tellers in the competition. Voting will be open until Thursday, January 21 at 8:00 PM, EST.

Here are the rules –

NHRA President Tom Compton understands the concerns of the competitors and said the sanctioning body will be “putting out information soon.”
 
The NHRA is still working on how to handle the extra two lanes for competition, though some details have been ironed out.
 
“First of all, we’re rewriting the code for the timing system – (it had to be) revamped to be able to handle that,” Compton said. “We had to look at how they all got off the track, how we stage them all so they don’t take too long and run out of fuel. These cars burn a lot of fuel very quickly.

Off-season testing, no matter where it takes place, is essential to NHRA teams winning world championships, especially for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars.

Several of the top crew chiefs from these two classes believe the balance of prominence in testing has switched from the West Coast to the East Coast in recent years.

The Al-Anabi Racing team sent its two cars – the Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon and Top Fuel Funny Car driven by Del Worsham – to Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway Jan. 11-15 for testing. The Al-Anabi Racing team rented the track exclusively and also invited 12 other teams to join them at the test session.

In a press conference today, the NHRA and zMax Dragway announced plans for the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at the facility in Concord, NC, March 24 - 28, 2010. The event will be conducted four-wide instead of the traditional two-lane racing.

The four-wide action will start with qualifying on Friday and Saturday, March 26-27. Eliminations are scheduled for Sunday.

We'll have the full story shortly.