Defending War Stories runner-up Pat Musi and first year participant Gary Densham maintained their leads to clinch the final two spots in the quarter-finals of the competitive story-telling event.

Musi defeated Jim Rockstad by securing 61.68 percent of the vote total in their first round match.

Densham got around fellow first-time participant Billy Meyer with 61.13 percent of the votes cast.

For the next four weeks, CompetitionPlus.com will conduct its third annual War Stories Showdown. The veterans of yarn spinning are paired for what promises to be a series destined to produce the finest behind-the-scenes stories.

Here are the rules –

I can feel it, can you?

One does not need to have all their senses intact to enjoy an afternoon at the drags.

Former NHRA Funny Car racer “240” Gordie Bonin scored the second largest vote total during the first round of War Stories eliminations to defeat former Blue Max crewman “Waterbed” Fred Miller.

Bonin earned 81.53 percent of the votes in the “race” on the strength of his story chronicling the experience of working with former car owner Roland Leong.

Bonin, who qualified No. 10 in the 16-participant field, faces Louis Force in the second.

Numerous companies have come and gone in the world of drag racing for various reasons.

Through years of research and development and perseverance, Liberty’s High Performance Products, Inc., has found a niche in drag racing.

Presently, Liberty’s ultimate clutchless transmission is used by nearly every NHRA Pro Stock driver.

“The stuff we have now that they are using is the equalizer transmission,” said the 44-year-old Craig Liberty, who is president of Liberty’s High Performance Products, Inc. “All the transmissions we make for those guys are off from what we call our equalizer platform. It’s basically a gear-to-gear transmission. There’s no planetaries, no clutch packs. We have had every Pro Stock qualifier in the NHRA, I believe for the past five or six years, running a Liberty Transmission. There might be one, maybe two cars a year show up that have a Lenco still in, but they’re cars that have absolutely no chance of qualifying.”

Lou Sattelmaier, a veteran racer who used his racecars as a weapon on the war on drugs, died Dec. 28. He was 74.

A part time race driver back in the 1950s and 60s Sattelmaier teamed up with his brother, George, to race in and around Ohio, with a '32 Ford altered coupe. In the fall of 1971, Sattelmaier began a one-man crusade to curb drug abuse among our youth. The idea came about when his own children asked him to come to their school for a "show and tell." That led to a coveted sponsorship with Marathon Oil and in 1975 he teamed-up with the U. S. Navy, then in 1977 with Quaker State Oil and then Pennzoil.

His days used to be consumed, thrashing and coaxing additional horsepower out of his various race cars.
Butch Leal is now a proud grandfather; and a darn good one if he might say so.

Those daily thrashes now pertain to spending time with them, heeding to their activities, and he’ll tell you that a seven and eight year old will keep a grandfather on his toes.

“I never had much time to raise my own kids because I was off racing all the time,” admits the 65-year old Leal, who resides in Tulare, Ca.

Defending War Stories runner-up Pat Musi has a fight on his hands after one day of voting for the Round One, Day Four voting in his “race” against former Seattle International Raceway promoter Jim Rockstad.

Gary Densham is in the same boat as he leads Billy Meyer.

The final brackets of the first round have been the closest for any of the six other races in the opening round.

Special note from the family: "We are going to load some digital photos on a few digital photo frames for everyone to view during the wake.Anyone would like a photo or two included, to please email a jpeg or two over to me no later than 9:00 a.m EST Thursday to nhra1209@aol.com."

Mopar released their top ten list of most significant achievements for the past decade and drag racing held five of the ten. The list was selected by a large number of Mopar employees and their public relations firm.

The overwhelming choice for the most significant Mopar accomplishment was Gary Scelzi’s clinching of the 2005 NHRA Funny Car championship. His championship marked the first time a Mopar-powered Dodge had claimed the title since Frank Hawley’s 1983 crown.