Jim Cunningham wouldn’t exactly describe
his mood as enthused to hear banter floating around the pits suggesting
that he’ll have company in running a Ford Pro Stock program in 2010.

“I’ve run Fords since 1988,” Cunningham said. “I’ve had about six Pro
Stockers since then and I’ve spent about $6 Million and now everybody
wants to get on the bandwagon. Everyone says I have partners, but I
don’t have any partners. The only partner I have is my wife, and I
can’t get rid of her. It would cost me too much money.”

Most recently Larry Morgan announced a switch from Mopar over to Ford
for 2010 and reportedly at least three teams are rumored to be ready to
follow that same path.

Cunningham understands that more chefs in this kitchen will not
necessarily spoil the broth but it’s still frustrating to see others
adopt a combination that he never gave up on and inevitably funded the
rebirth of the brand in Pro Stock.

I’ve had a truly wonderful driving career, and even if I could go back and change a few things, I doubt if I would.  It’s not that I’ve gotten
philosophical as the years have gone by, but I guess that when you get
right down to it, you live your life the best you can, and take the
good times with the bad.

Everyone’s heard the stories of how difficult it was for me to become a
driver, so I won’t bother repeating those yet again.  I will admit,
however, that I do appreciate it when women drivers acknowledge me as
having paved the way for them.  I’d love to say that I’m glad I did it,
but in all honesty, when I was going through it I never considered the
long term picture.  You never see yourself as a “pioneer,” and that
certainly wasn’t my intention at the time.  All I wanted to do was
drive a race car without being hassled because I was a woman.  Now,
looking back on it all, I’m glad that I went through all of the crap
just so today’s women drivers don’t have to.  Well, maybe “glad” wasn’t
the right word.  I went through it so others don’t have to, but from
the conversations I’ve had with some of the younger drivers out there I
get the feeling that some of them have been subjected to additional
scrutiny just because they’re girls.

READ THE FULL COLUMN ...

JEGS Mail Order recently announced that the popular Top Dragster and
Top Sportsman classes will be added to the 2010 JEGS Allstars race at
Route 66 Raceway and brothers John and Mike Coughlin have every
intention of being a part of it. John took his first step towards
qualifying for the prestigious event by winning the Top Dragster title
at this weekend’s North Central Division Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
event at Route 66 Raceway. Driving his JEGS.com dragster, John took
over the points lead following his final round win over Jeff Hurst
while his brother, Mike, also claimed some critical points with a
semifinal finish in the Top Sportsman division. In addition, third
generation Coughlin racer Troy Jr., also enjoyed his most successful
outing to date by driving his dragster to a round three finish in Super
Comp.

Eliminations are complete and the winners have been crowned at the
inaugural NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event hosted at the newly
renovated Spokane County Raceway.  This wraps up the third of seven
events in Northwest division competition in which racers are in search
of divisional and national championships.  Local winners walking away
with the coveted Wally trophy included Mike Strickland, Moses Lake,
Wash., in Top Sportsman and Sportsman Motorcycle racer Buff Kobs of
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Strickland drove his beautiful '07 GT500 to the finish line at 7.161
seconds, 195.70 mph to defeat Todd Fricke of Pasco, Wash., to pick up
his 1st NHRA Wally.  Kobs made a quick trip over the state line and
drove his '95 Kawasaki right into the winner’s circle by defeating top
qualifier Danny Lee Patridge of Kennewick, Wash., in the finals.

In the final results from Route 66 Raceway and the Lucas Oil Drag
Racing Series it was Jim Whiteley and Chris Foster taking home their
share of the more than $150,000 in purse and contingency awards along
with valuable national and divisional championship points.

This was Whiteley’s second win in as many weeks in Top Alcohol Dragster
here at Route 66 Raceway picking up the NHRA national event win last
weekend.  The Grand Junction, Colo., resident saved his best pass of
the weekend for the final round against Bill Reichert of Owosso, Mich. 
Whitely was out first and never looked back posting a time of 5.298
seconds at 271.41 mph to Reichert’s 5.304, 272.67.

Foster of Davenport, Iowa, made his way into the winner’s circle from
the No. 3 qualifying position in Top Alcohol Funny Car with a final
round lap of 5.685 seconds, 253.42 mph to take out Mick Snyder. Synder,
Demotte, Ind., qualified No. 1 but suffered mechanical problems in the
final and slowed to a 6.860 second, 144.91 mph pass.

The unsettled Midwest spring weather claimed ultimate victory at the
Goodguys 21st Hot Rod Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park. As the funny
cars of finalists Paul Romine and Shawn Bowen were backing up from
their burnouts, the rains started to fall and progressively worsened
forcing a cancellation of all final rounds.

The fastest class of them all, Nostalgia Top Fuel, was simply dominated
by the Fresno, California based “Raisin Express II” team of Jim Cullen,
Denver and Darren Schutz. Using Darren’s tuneup, Schutz’ set low
elapsed time of every round, the quickest of which was a 5.837 in
Saturday’s opening eliminations. In fact, every run they made here this
weekend was in the 5.8 second zone with zero parts breakage! In the
final, Schutz was to face the 2007 event Champion Howard Haight.

As representatives of the Army and Schumacher Racing cut the cake celebrating the 334th birthday of the United States Army, Eddie Hakim stood off to the side and smiled. This moment transpired during the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J.

Hakim served in the Army at one time and now he serves the Army through
his work with Edison Job Corp. Hakim assists in the preparation of
young men who desire to enter the Army but may lack the skills to pass
the the recruitment tests.

“We prepare them by getting them tutoring through 'March to Success', Hakim explained.

You can call him the champ. You can call him the winner. But the way he has beat a heavily-favored opponent time and time again, you can logically call him Houdini.

Aside from 2000, when he won six of the first seven national events on
the NHRA schedule, four-time and reigning Pro Stock champion Jeg
Coughlin Jr. has never had a start like he's enjoying in 2009.

Sunday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey, Coughlin
collected his NHRA-leading fifth trophy of the season by stopping a
quicker Mike Edwards. The win, 46th of his career, expanded his point
lead in the Full Throttle rankings to triple digits with 11 races gone
in the season.

Craig Treble has an exceptional amount of experience racing in Englishtown, so much so that he can read the
barometer like the back of his hand. Only this time, to borrow a quote
from Joe Cocker, Treble got by with a little help from his friends.

Treble worked the weekend with a makeshift crew, comprised mainly of
members of Michael Philips’ crew and any of their friends he could pick
up. His bike didn’t have a performance advantage as it is ten years old
and the engine is one borrowed from Philips.

Once Philips was eliminated in the first round he also joined the Treble group.

Larry Dixon made a pre-emptive strike on the gathered media following his NHRA SuperNationals Top Fuel victory over Antron Brown. He wanted to count his blessings.

“I’m glad I don’t race Funny Cars,” Dixon said, commenting on Tony
Pedregon, who posted his second win of the season in four final rounds.

“He is good all the time. Is he ever off?” Dixon asked.

“Never,” Dixon said, answering his own question.