The first rounds of qualifying at The Olympics of Drag Racing, a round
of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, at Pacific Raceways were
delayed by rain.  Racing finally got under way late in the day
prompting NHRA and track officials to cut qualifying runs to one per
class. In Top Alcohol Dragster, Shawn Cowie, Delta, B.C., grabbed the
No. 1 spot and Steve Gasparrelli, West Covina, Calif., set the pace in
Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Cowie outran the field with a 5.389-second, 268.12 pass that was just
enough to put him ahead of No. 2 qualifier Joey Severance.  Severance
ran 5.401 seconds at 264.70 mph.  Currently there are 10 Top Alcohol
Dragsters vying for a spot in the eight-car elimination field.

The NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series takes over Atco Raceway this
weekend for the third of seven events in Northeast division
competition. Friday’s qualifying and time trials are in the books with
the No.1 spots going to Top Alcohol Dragster pilot John Finke of
Selkirk NY, and Morganville NJ, resident Frank Manzo in Top Alcohol
Funny Car.

Finke, who picked up a national event win last weekend at Englishtown,
blistered a 5.317 second, 275.79 mph pass to take the pole.  He
currently sits atop the Northeast division leader board with one
out-of-division win at Bradenton to start off the year.
 

A Q&A with the Drivers in the 2009 K&N Horsepower Challenge

At next weekend’s Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio,
eight of the NHRA’s best Pro Stock racers will take part in the 25th
annual K&N Horsepower Challenge, a special event pairing the
drivers who accumulated the most qualifying points over the last year
in a three-round, high dollar shootout with the winner taking home
$50,000.  This year’s field is truly worthy of the event’s silver
anniversary status as it includes five former winners accounting for
half of the wins in the Challenge’s 24-year history as well as four
former Full Throttle Pro Stock champions.  Once qualifying was
completed at the last event in Englishtown, NJ, the elite eight took
time to answer some questions about Pro Stock’s all-star race:

If anything, Kevin Poynter has learned to keep all his options open in 2009.

The veteran drag racing tuner, who was the co-crew chief for Doug
Herbert's NHRA Top Fuel Dragster most of last year, is presently
exploring numerous avenues for future employment.

Currently, Poynter is helping former A/Fuel dragster standout Mike
Bowers make the transition to the Top Fuel Dragster dragster division
on the IHRA ciircuit.

"Mike and his father Jerry Bowers and my family have known each other
for years," said Poynter. "They've been putting this deal together to
move to Top Fuel for around four years and because I've known them for
so long and I've been involved in Top Fuel, they wanted me to come help
them out."

Results from the 2nd Annual Ohio Crankshaft No Box Nationals at Bunker Hill Dragway.
 

What a difference a year can make. After struggling through 2008, in what would easily be considered his toughest season in two decades,
Quain Stott is back in the groove that led him to much of the success
he has enjoyed during his career. After spending most of 2008 in a
research and development mode, Stott is back to his winning ways - as
both a driver and a tuner.

"I was just being hard-headed," Stott admits about the 2008 season.
"The stuff we had figured out on paper should have made the car faster.
It just wouldn't work in racing conditions."

With
six races completed and three remaining in the Get Screened America Pro
Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx to qualify for the $35,000 Matco
Tools Pro Mod Clash, the field is quickly defining itself.
 
Beginning at the NHRA Gatornationals in March, drivers have earned
points for the "race-within-a-race" which pits the top Pro Mods against
each other with the chance to race for a $25,000 top prize when the
Clash is contested Oct. 29 - Nov. 1 at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals.
 
The NHRA SuperNationals at Englishtown, N.J. last weekend saw only a
slight change in the lineup with the qualified drivers jockeying for
position. Raymond Commisso's victory launched him from a tie in eighth
to a solid fourth, and Danny Rowe's runner-up performance moved him
from fifth to third.

NHRA is partnering with Auto Club Speedway in Fontana to offer one hot
ticket for motorsports fans in Southern California. The SoCal Speed
Pass will provide a reserved seat and pit pass to the Automobile Club
of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona on
Nov. 15 and a reserved seat and pit pass to the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series race at Auto Club Speedway on Oct. 11.

The SoCal Speed Pass, available for the low price of $95, will save
fans $80 off the retail value of both tickets while supplies last. The
SoCal Speed Pass offer expires on Sept. 11.

Drag racing entrepreneur George Howard has leased Holly Springs
Motorsports Park and has planned something unheard of in the sport ---
free car and driver entry to all of his bracket races at the popular
northwest Mississippi eighth-mile track.

Howard, of GHR (George Howard Racing) in Birmingham, Alabama, the
“father” of the Million Dollar Drag Race, to be held in October 2009 in
Memphis, will gear Holly Springs to weekly bracket races and special
events featuring everything from Pro Mods to big-time motorcycle races
and nearly everything in between. Howard said the track will be open
from Friday through Sunday every week through the 2009 season and will
include test’n’tune sessions, Midnight Madness shows and heads-up and
ORSCA events. The track will be NHRA-sanctioned, and will field a team
at the NHRA Division 2 bracket finals.

It’s four days after Kenny Koretsky was photographed holding the race winner’s trophy following the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J., and the veteran businessman/team owner/driver hasn’t stopped smiling.

No
surprise here because this was his first victory of any kind in NHRA’s
nitromethane-fueled categories (Top Fuel and Funny Car) or Pro Stock
Car in more than three decades of trying.  It came from two-time Full
Throttle Series champion Tony Pedregon, who drove the vibrant Nitro
Fish Impala to the Funny Car win.

That was quite a happy ending
for the first collaboration between Pedregon and Koretsky’s Nitro Fish
brand – and there could be more.