Lee Beard, team manager at Don Schumacher Racing, announced today that DSR and the Motorsports Engineering program at Indiana Univ. Purdue Univ. at Indianapolis (IUPUI) have united to develop a comprehensive program to help advance the performance of DSR Top Fuel teams in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Following the trend set by IndyCar and Formula 1 teams in recent years, DSR will work with IUPUI engineering students on exclusive research-and-development projects to improve engine, clutch and chassis components, using technologies such as 3D Modeling, Finite Stress Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics.

An office has been set up at DSR's Brownsburg, Ind., facility where a number of IUPUI students and faculty will work closely with Beard and the other DSR Top Fuel crew chiefs.

NHRA announced today the creation of NHRA Worldwide Network, a program that will enable drag racing facilities around the world to conduct events under the NHRA banner.   By becoming a part of the NHRA Worldwide Network, a facility will be able to use the specially-designed “Worldwide Drag Racing” NHRA oval for broad promotional purposes and will be able to draw on NHRA’s decades of experience and history.

Sitting amongst those gathered to honor Robert Tasca, Sr. was a 60-year-old, 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion with tears in his eyes and the feeling of loss in his heart.

For John Force, losing Robert Tasca, Sr. is like losing his father all over again, even though no one could ever truly replace his dad.

“Tasca was the man I turned to for advice after my father died,” recalled Force. “He is the reason I am with Ford. He bled Ford Blue.”

For your Saturday afternoon pleasure, we present eight minutes of drag racing from York U.S. 20 back in the day. There's good footage, lots of gear shifting and oh yeah, sound. There's even a cameo from Jungle Pam in this Bee-On Video presentation.

Two-time IHRA Fuel Funny Car World Champion, Dale Creasy Jr. and several other drag racers will be amongst the 40 sport celebrities who are involved with the “Softball in the Snow ‘2010” fundraising event benefiting the Wish Upon a Star Foundation in Joliet, Ill. For Creasy Jr., the fan favorite flopper pilot from Beecher, Ill., the event is one which has numerous benefits.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with this group for more than six years,” noted Creasy. “A few years ago, we announced our team would donate $100.00 for every round win in IHRA competition. We won 23 rounds that season and it was awesome to write that check to the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. Every time I’ve come to this event, it just gets better and better. There are Major League Baseball players, NFL Football players, even NASA astronauts who gather together for an autograph session for the kids.”

After a relatively disappointing outing a week prior, the Barwa Racing Pro Extreme team led by Howard Moon and Von Smith reminded everyone on the planet where they rank when it comes to outlaw eighth-mile racing in a dominating performance during Round 4 of the ADRL series at the Qatar Race Club.

After qualifying third with a 3.760-second effort, Von Smith and the Barwa-backed ’68 Camaro would have to face the Todd Tutterow-tuned entry of Bader Alhi in the opening stanza. When the green light flashed, Smith’s Pro Extreme Camaro marched down the eighth-mile to the tune of a 3.744 at a mind-numbing 208.55mph – the fastest speed ever recorded by a doorslammer.

“Howard [Moon, crew chief] has just been working hard on the tune up for this Barwa Racing ’68 Camaro,” said Smith after the record setting run. “When he walked out of his lounge in the trailer, where he reviews the run data between rounds, he had a big smile on his face and I knew we must be onto something. He’s been working to get this thing faster in the first part of the racetrack, down low, and obviously it’s working. This thing is trucking down through there. Howard told me he thought it’d run a high 207, but we go out there and lay down a 208.55 speed – it’s just incredible.”

This Saturday January 16 could see Australia make a clean sweep of the USA vs AUS Nitro Funny Car Challenge at Willowbank Raceway, or it could see the Americans claim one back with a resurgent performance.

Either way, the action is set to be intense, after West Australia’s Damien Harris bested American Jack Wyatt – who struggled with the unfamiliar locale - at round one.

For round two, Harris will be joined by 2009 series Aussie standout Mark Sheehan along with Ricky Steffens and Chris Stipanovic, upping the ante even further. The American team however will be better prepared this time around, with two weeks and some local experience for their driver up their sleeves, so who will take out this final is anyone’s guess.

NAPA AUTO PARTS has extended its multi-year sponsorship agreement with Don Schumacher Racing and driver Ron Capps, beginning with the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
 
NAPA enters its third straight season as a primary sponsor of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car which Capps drove to a class-best five national-event victories in 2009, ending the season third in the point standings. Ed "Ace" McCulloch will continue as crew chief.
 
"We at DSR are thrilled to have NAPA AUTO PARTS back on board," said team owner Don Schumacher. "NAPA is a world-class national company and it's our privilege to continue this partnership through a multi-year agreement.

Driving the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing, Jack Beckman completed 11 test runs from Monday through Thursday down the Palm Beach International Raceway 1000-foot dragstrip, posting his quickest pass of 4.095 seconds on Thursday. He also unofficially recorded the fastest Funny Car speed of 308.78 mph.

"It was a very, very productive test," said Beckman, who ended the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season with two victories and fifth in points. "We just made a total of 11 runs and three were planned shutoff runs just to test the tune-up for (new crew chief) Rahn Tobler and four new people on the crew. We have five crew guys from last year, four from other teams.

"Of our nine full 1000-foot runs, five of them were really stout. We ran a 4.14, 4.12, 4.11, 4.10 and 4.095. We've run 307 mph and 308.78 mph, almost 309, and those are my two best speeds by quite a bit to 1000 feet."