There comes a day when the journey has taken you afar, when you pause for a moment, look back and see just how far you’ve traveled. That’s exactly how I feel looking back on this day ten years ago when myself and a talented web designer named Frank Dill pushed the button to launch CompetitionPlus.com.

Sometimes you look back and wonder how you have been so lucky and blessed.

By all business logic, CompetitionPlus.com should have failed.

Rich Christensen and ArmDrop Live officials today announced the
cancellation of the Sept. 18-19 ArmDrop Live event at Bristol Dragway
due to a last-minute obligation with Christensen’s SPEED contract.

Christensen made the decision late in hopes that the situation would resolve itself. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Eight lucky drag racing fans will take part in a history-making event
when they get the opportunity to stand behind the starter as Top Fuel
dragsters and Funny Cars race four wide at zMAX Dragway on Sunday,
Sept. 20, during the NHRA Carolinas Nationals.
   
Earlier this month zMAX Dragway and NHRA officials announced that for
the first time in NHRA history, modern Top Fuel dragsters and Funny
Cars will race four lanes, four wide and unleash 32,000 horsepower on
the Bellagio of drag strips. Eight fans will get to feel the force of
all that
horsepower and smell the nitro as they stand behind the starter on both
sets of lanes when the cars launch from the starting line.

For 18 events, from February through August, NHRA race teams have grinded and gutted it out to identify
the top 10 teams in each pro category that will have the opportunity to
compete for drag racing’s ultimate prize -- NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series world championships.

A few teams have dominated. Some have sacrificed. Some barely slipped
into the field in the closing seconds. There was passion.
Determination. Even controversy.

Nitro Funny Car racer Bob Gilbertson hasn't been on a drag strip in almost a year and he's really looking
forward to returning to racing at his home town track at this weekend's
NHRA Carolinas Nationals at the beautiful zMAX Dragway in near-by
Concord, N.C.
 
Gilbertson made the decision to park his team at the beginning of the
year so he could focus on his business, Truck Equipment Manufacturing
Company, to get it through the tough economic times but the urge to
race was still burning in Gilbertson's heart.
 

When photographer John Mason arrived at Rockingham (NC) Dragway for this past weekend’s National
Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Flowmaster Dragstock VI, he
knew he was coming for not just a race, but a happening.

“I know this is an annual event, but I feel like Dragstock is similar
to its namesake, Woodstock, where for many people the music, or in this
case the racing, is almost secondary to the experience of just being
there, of being part of something special,” explains Mason, an African
History professor who also teaches classes on the history of
photography at the University of Virginia.

Antron Brown has a target on his back and he wouldn't have it any other
way. The former track star at Mercer Community College in New Jersey
leads the Top Fuel field into the Countdown to 1 this weekend at zMax
Dragway at Concord (N.C.), Sept. 17-20. It is the first of six races in
the six-race playoff that will crown the 2009 NHRA champions in Top
Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle.

How
he got here is not important, Robert Hight is in the NHRA playoffs and
has every intention of making the most of the opportunity.

Put aside his struggles, and the fact he made his way into the Countdown to One with one round left in the regular season.

Hight has found his groove at the best possible time.

The apple seldom falls far from the tree. At least that’s how it appears in the Bingham household.

On Sunday afternoon, Lisa Bingham, the youngest daughter of former Top
Sportsman world champion Gary Bingham, captured her first IHRA Quick
Rod national event title at the IHRA North American Nationals in
Epping, NH.

Her victory came just moments after her father won in the Top Sportsman division.

“This is one of the proudest moments of my racing career, watching my second daughter win her first race,” Gary said.

Top Fuel racer Morgan Lucas established a set of goals for his team at the start of the 2009 season.
He's won races and garnered a spot in the Countdown to 1. Now it is
time to go after a new goal. One that was more a dream than a goal back
in January.

Lucas wants a Full Throttle Drag Racing world championship.