ive finalists have been chosen from more than 300 designs submitted
this summer by JDRF children with type 1 diabetes, as part of a charity contest to design the paint scheme for the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car driven by Bob Tasca III.

Voting
ended on Friday, August 14, and the top five donation-earning designs
are in front of a panel of Ford judges for final selection. The winning
design will be featured on Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Shelby during
the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, NC, on September 18-20.

“Any
of the top five designs will look great on the Motorcraft/Quick Lane
Mustang, and that will make selecting one very difficult,” said Brett
Wheatley, Director of Marketing, Ford Customer Service Division. “The
goal of the Funny Car Design Contest was to help raise awareness for
JDRF.  I think we accomplished our goal because our generous race fans
donated more than $39,000.”

Late
season drama is nothing new for NHRA Funny Car drivers Robert Hight and
Cruz Pedregon – both of whom have had their share of tussles for world
championship superiority over the years.  Pedregon has won two world
championships, including last season, finished second in 1994 and third
four other times, while Hight finished second in 2006 and ’07. However
the two veteran drivers, along with bright-eyed rookie Matt Hagan, and
last year’s top rookie, Mike Neff, are facing some late season drama
this year just to keep their championship hopes alive.

The four drivers are battling for the final two spots in the top 10
point standings in Funny Car, and are separated by 70 points. Mike Neff
and Cruz Pedregon are holding on to the ninth and 10th spots,
respectively, entering the final two races of the regular season, while
Hagan and Hight are on the outside looking in.

Lots of racing on tap this Saturday, August 22 at Dunn-Benson Drag Strip. The action will be headlined by the Top Dawg series. Catch heavy hitters like Travis Harvey, Brian Williams, David Campbell, Rocky Raynor and many more this Saturday.

In 2003 NASCAR decided to make its chase for a championship a little
more exciting with a change to the format that took regular points racing and turned it into a massive year-end tournament hoping to make the on-track action even that much more exciting.

A few years later the NHRA followed suit.

Now, in 2009, the IHRA has taken the concept one step further with the
creation of the first playoff-style sportsman tournament. The
difference is that instead of modifying the points structure, the
Tournament of Champions features true head-to-head competition to
determine the world championship.

Marc Meadors and the Goodguys Racing team scored their second win of
the season Saturday night, taking the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod
class at Sacramento Raceway’s famed “Fox Hunt”. When the final score
was settled late Saturday night, Meadors had defeated all comers in
what turned out to be the quickest and fastest qualified field in the
history of West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod competition.

It was an old school victory for the team similar to those of the match
race days when teams barnstormed drag strips across the country,
blowing in during the morning, qualifying and taking the event win at
night. Meadors made his one and only qualifying run Saturday around
lunch time, unloading a career best 6.275 @ 231.97 to qualify 4th.
Post-run inspection yielded a burned up transmission requiring a
lengthy pit thrash prior to opening round eliminations which Meadors
survived by pedaling his way to a 6.718 victory over a red-lighting Bob
Bunker Jr.

A simple repeat of last year is on Pro Stock driver Jeg Coughlin Jr.'s
wish list as he arrives at Maple Grove Raceway for this weekend's 25th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals.

One year ago, the five-time world champion came into Pennsylvania's
Dutch Country and won the race, spring-boarding his way into the NHRA
playoffs where he won his second Pro Stock title in a row and fourth
overall. He's also the '92 Super Gas world champion.

Last year's Reading final was the first of four down the stretch that
put Coughlin out of reach in the championship chase, making the
intimate facility in the rolling hills an hour outside of Philadelphia
one of his favorite tracks.

Mike Janis might have won the ADRL Gateway Drags in St. Louis, but the
Pro Extreme racer admits the triumph could have been better. His son and crew chief Mike Janis Jr., agrees with that assessment.

“Don’t get me wrong; getting our second win was fantastic. It’s just
that we struggled that weekend with the same troubles that we have had
all year. It’s no secret we’ve been putting band-aids on our issues all
season trying to compete. Thanks to some hard work from the guys at Ram
Clutches this coming race is looking better for us,” said crew chief
Mike Janis Jr.

Asked to recall some of his most memorable moments at Maple Grove Raceway, Clay Millican responded immediately.

“I know I usually don’t remember what we’ve done at tracks over the
years,” he said, “but the last time I raced there, I went to the
semifinals and lost to Tony Schumacher by seven-thousandths of a
second.”

When was that?   In 2008, after Millican was forced to sit out most of
the year before his solid, late-season Top Fuel debut with new team
owners Mark and Lauren Pickens and MPE Motorsports.

There’s no question he and the Hope4Sudan/Motorvation Top Fuel crew would be thrilled with a repeat performance on Sunday.

Fans of NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in the state of Indiana
will have the opportunity to participate in a special discount offer
for admission to the 55th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by
Lucas Oil, Sept. 2-7 at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.

Beginning Aug. 18, up to 155 participating Indiana McDonald’s
restaurants will feature commemorative cups with the image of NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series driver Ashley Force Hood.  Besides becoming
“must-have” collector items, the cups will provide a $7 discount for
any adult general admission ticket on any day of the world’s most
prestigious drag race, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas
Oil. Fans must present the cup to the O’Reilly Raceway Park at
Indianapolis box office to obtain their ticket discount.

Tommy D’Aprile expected to have a 1970 ½ Camaro during the 2009 season.
What he didn’t expect was to race the new ride this weekend during the
ADRL Ohio Drags in Columbus, Ohio.

The new Camaro has been pressed into service after the Mel Bush
Motorsports 1962 Bel-Air suffered structural damage during the recently
completed ADRL Gateway Drags in St. Louis. A broken rear suspension
bracket tore from the rear housing causing the major damage.