Some legends are just too good to forget.

That’s why the Good Ol’ Charlie Brown is held in reverence among drag racing fans throughout the Carolinas.

Mike Boyles, a multi-time Super Stock world champion from King, N.C.,
keeps on keeping on with his stick-shifted, 1957 Chevy Wagon bearing
the likeness of the Charles Schultz iconic cartoon character.

The lumbering and high-winding wagon still screams through the gearbox
as it has done for the last 41 years. The old standard family wagon is
powered by a 283-cubic inch Chevy engine equipped with a single
four-barrel carburetor, attached to a manual, four-speed transmission.

Please note the scheduling change for this weekend's NHRA Toyo Tires
Nationals show on ESPN2HD. The one-hour show will air at 1 p.m. ET.
Please share this with your friends who may be interested in watching
the Lucas Oil Series highlights from Maple Grove.

Super Stock racer and U.S. Class Nationals organizer Alex Denysenko recently clinched his second career NHRA Div. 5 Super Stock championship.

“We had high expectations after a very dismal 2008,” Denysenko said.
“Fresh equipment, finally a motorhome, and a good attitude had us all
very upbeat hoping to repeat our 2004 division title.”

That’s how it looked on paper for Denysenko. Reality was another story.

“The first Pro Am at Martin about caused us to quit before we got
started due to motorhome, trailer break downs, a poor working car, and
only a single round win by Tony in two races out of three cars,”
Denysenko said.

John Force Racing’s Brownsburg, Indiana based shop and museum will be
the site of the Bill Estes Brownsburg Ford All Ford Car Show, Thursday,
September 3rd. The event will be hosted by the Mustang Club of
Indianapolis and will feature incredible vehicles on display and fun
for the whole family. The scheduled time for the event is 3pm – 7pm.
and it is free to the public. We are asking everyone to bring a can of
food as a donation for the Hendricks County Food Bank. For every can
you bring, you will receive a ticket for a chance to win a Sanyo 52”
big screen TV. Bring 5 cans, get 5 tickets, bring 20 can get 20
tickets. And the drawing for the TV will be drawn that night!

Fans who attend will get the chance to meet NHRA superstar funny car
drivers’ 14-time champion John Force, Ashley Force Hood, Robert Hight
and Mike Neff. Fans will also be able to tour the massive race shop and
brand new museum. There will be a variety of Ford and Mercury vehicles
on display from across the spectrum of Blue Oval history. All sorts of
Ford displays will keep the young and old entertained and educated on
an amazing variety of Ford vehicles.

Make no doubt about it, placing your name among the esteemed roll of drivers who have won the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is an accomplishment
that contributes to a distinguished racing career, and if you are one
of the few NHRA competitors with multiple Indy victories, then you have
gained admittance to a prestigious club that becomes even more
exclusive. Since the inception of the Pro Stock class in 1970, only
seven drivers in that division have won more than once at Indianapolis,
and only six have won in successive seasons – ACDelco's Kurt Johnson's
name can be found in both categories.

Johnson scored his first victory at the "Big Go" in 1996 with round
wins over Chuck Harris, Tom Martino and Jim Yates before defeating
Rickie Smith in the final round. The following year, Johnson ran the
table at Indianapolis, earning No. 1 qualifying honors, setting low
e.t. and top speed of the meet and completing the weekend sweep with a
final-round victory over V. Gaines. Those wins at Indianapolis are two
races the Buford, Ga., resident remembers well.

Nearly 600 racers in 10 categories took to the strip at Beech Bend
Raceway Park during qualifying and time trials for the NHRA North
Central division’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event.  Defending event
champion Bill Reichert, Owosso, Mich., blasted the field in Top Alcohol
Dragster to move into the No. 1 spot while Gainesville, Ga., racer
Steve Harker moved into the top spot in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Reichert peeled off a 5.262-second, 265.64 mph blast to move knock
Robin Samsel of Marion, Ind., out of the No. 1 position.  Samsel did
not improve on Friday’s 5.370-second, 262.39 mph effort.

Harker moved up from the No. 3 spot with a 5.621-second, 255.48 mph run
while Andy Bohl, Racine, Wis., also improved, moving from the No. 6
slot to No. 2 with a 5.680-second, 255.10 mph run.  Friday’s best
qualifier, Chris Foster of Davenport, Iowa, failed to surpass his
initial 5.684-second, 251.53 mph lap.

It was another battle with the rain at Cecil County Dragway, but NHRA
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series qualifying was able to get underway.  Top
Alcohol Funny Car ace Frank Manzo of Morganville, N.J., once again
picked up the No.1 qualifying position. Due to water seeping up through
the track, Top Alcohol Dragster will not finish qualifying until
tomorrow morning.

Manzo has grabbed all four Northeast division No.1 qualifiers to go
along with his two victories.  His lap of 5.763 seconds at 250.97 mph
was just enough to keep him ahead of No.2 qualifier, Frank Schuster out
of Chesterfield N.J.

After one round of qualifying in Top Alcohol Dragster, Darren
Nicholson, Mission Viejo, Calif., sits at the top of the class. He
currently holds the No.3 spot in the overall standings, coming off a
huge win in the last divisional held at Lebanon Valley Dragway.

Joe Spinelli loves old cars, especially the ones he admired within the
hallowed pages of the now defunct Super Stock & Drag Illustrated. That’s
why when the opportunity to purchase one of the magazine’s more popular
project cars, Spinelli didn’t think twice about buying.

Spinelli, who lives in southeast Pennsylvania, purchased the former
Project Super Mod car driven to an Indy victory by Arlen Fadely, and
restored the classic Ford to original specs. The classic Ford is also
the same vehicle Mike Edwards drove to the final NHRA Modified world
championship in 1981.

“I’d like to think these cars deserve restoration,” said Spinelli, who
consulted extensively with the car’s original builder Arlen Fadely on
the project. “I don’t do this as a business. It’s purely a hobby.”

Could drag racing's use of nitrous oxide become a target of  environmentalists?

A report published yesterday in Science concludes that N20 – a vital
drag racing power adder used in Pro Modified and Pro Nitrous classes  
and also used in other industrial processes, is according to the study
one of the biggest ozone-depleting gases. The report states that
nitrous oxide could present a real threat to the ozone layer in coming
decades.

Nitrous oxide, according to the report, isn’t regulated by the Montreal
Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer
by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be
responsible for ozone depletion.

CompetitionPlus.com's Roger Richards is at this weekend's inaugural ProModifieds.us Nationals presented by Russell Auto Sales doorslammer event in Huntsville, Ala. Check out the action through the camera of a talented drag racing photographer. We'll have an event summary later.

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