Super Stock racer Alex Denysenko has a problem with the IHRA’s logic of completing the 2009 season on April 30, 2010.

That’s when Denysenko and 177 of his fellow sportsman racers are scheduled to finish off the 2009 season through the IHRA’s Tournament of Champions competition. The competition to determine the world champion in each sportsman division was postponed last month due to weather.

The event will be completed during the IHRA’s 2010 Nitro Jam event in Rockingham, NC.

“I think the idea of crowning a 2009 champion in 2010, three months into the season, just stinks,” Denysenko, the IHRA’s Div. 5 Super Stock champion said. “I know a lot of my fellow competitors feel the same way.”

Whit Bazemore doesn’t even try to mask his feelings. The former nitro racer, sidelined since mid-2007, seeks a ride for 2010 and on Sunday in Pomona, he was job-hunting.

“I’m a little itchy and ready to come back to driving again,” Bazemore said.

Bazemore is so itchy to return that whether he races a Funny Car or Top Fuel dragster is an afterthought. Besides, as Bazemore puts it, “I have unfinished business in both.”

Unfinished for Funny Car would be an NHRA world championship. In Top Fuel, he’d like to get a national event win to go alongside the 20 he earned in the flopper.

Bob Glidden says he’s feeling fine.

The ten-time NHRA Pro Stock champion recently underwent a heart procedure to upgrade his pacemaker and thus far, he’s doing well.

“The surgery was just a piece of cake,” said Glidden, on Tuesday evening from his home in Whiteland, Ind. “I had to go from a two magneto to three mag combination.”

NHRA Full Throttle Series world champion Tony Schumacher, will headline tonight’s worldwide debut of NHRA Tuesdays, 7 -8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT) on WFO Radio with Joe Castello.  To listen live, on demand, or to download as podcast, go to http://www.wforadio.com
 
Joe Castello, the creator of hit satellite radio shows Wide Open on NASCAR Radio and Power Shift, breaks new ground in motorsports radio with the debut of WFO Radio.  Through a user friendly, high quality experience free of charge to the listeners, WFO Radio is setting a new standard for internet based radio with opinionated coverage of NASCAR, NHRA, Indy Car, Formula One, ALMS and Grand Am racing.

Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards was named the third recipient of CompetitionPlus.com's Mike Aiello Spirit of Drag Racing Award Saturday at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
 
The award honors Aiello, a longtime drag-racing fan and former Pro Stock crew member for Jerry Yeoman, who spent his final years confined to a wheelchair after a workplace injury. Despite physical hardship and severe mobility limitations, he not only attended drag races but made dozens of friends among racers, crew members, and media with his positive outlook and unselfish behavior.
 
Aiello passed away December 29, 2006, at age 39, in Santa Monica, California.

He had never driven anything wilder than an F-150 truck.
 
But Robert Hight had that . . . something.
 
John Force saw it -- although he said Hight confused him a few years ago, asking to stay closer to home to be with wife Adria (Force's eldest daughter and company CFO), then asking to drive the organization's third Ford Mustang Funny Car. Still, Force saw the desire in Hight's bright blue eyes. A multi-time champion can recognize that in another hungry soul.

Tony Schumacher, Robert Hight and Mike Edwards locked up their NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series championships in a dramatic weekend at Auto Club Speedway at Pomona. It was the final race of the 2009 season.

Hight clinched his title Saturday, as did Edwards. But Schumacher had work to do on Sunday.

Drivers racing on Goodyear tires won four categories at Pomona and drivers racing on Goodyear tires won an industry-leading seven NHRA national championships in 2009. Champions Schumacher, Hight and Edwards were joined by NHRA Lucas Oil Sportsman champs Bill Reichert (Top Alcohol Dragster), Bruno Massel (Competition Eliminator), Edmond Richardson (Stock) and Jim Perry Jr. (Super Comp).

The 30th anniversary season of the Super Chevy Series will feature some of the nation's top racing venues in 2010. The new series owners approved the schedule over the weekend, allowing racers, participants, sponsors and the host facilities as much time as possible to prepare for the celebratory season.

Tony Schumacher, the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to win six consecutive Full Throttle Drag Racing Series world championships and seven overall, headlined the four world-championship-winning drivers crowned Monday evening during the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series awards ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in West Los Angeles.

Three other NHRA Full Throttle Series world champions – Robert Hight, Mike Edwards and Hector Arana – all first-time winners in their respective categories, also were presented checks and trophies for their achievements during the 2009 Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship.

Among the evening’s highlights was a tribute to National DRAGSTER, NHRA’s publication of record, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009. John Force, 14-time NHRA Funny Car world champion, introduced a video that showcased the weekly publication’s contributions to the sport over the years.

This video was originally aired on Speedvision, now commonly referred to as SPEED. Before both Milan Dragway and U.S. 131 Dragway staged their Nothern Nationals events, this race was conducted in Muncie, Ind. This classic video features on the 1973 Northern Nationals and features some of the finest racers of the era on the IHRA tour. Watching this video will make one appreciate the level of safety in today's drag racing as well as the basic drag strip "creature" comforts.