In the opening day of racing at Brainerd Int’l Raceway’s Thunder at the
Lakes event, a round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Dan
Kracht of Gretna, Neb., set the pace in Top Alcohol Dragster while Des
Moines, Iowa’s Vern Moats heads up the Top Alcohol Funny Car
contingent.  St. Cloud racer Pat Nahan is No. 1 in Comp
Eliminator.         

Kracht blasted the field with a 5.395-second, 256.80 mph pass.  The No.
2 qualifier, Ed Schmeeckle of Gothenburg, Neb., ran 5.465 seconds at
261.88 mph.

Moats, a veteran racer wheeling his ’08 Mustang, laid down a
5.720-second lap at 254.14 mph.  Kirk Williams, Glenwood, Iowa, is in
the second qualifying spot with a 5.758-second, 248.25 mph pass.  Bruce
Carlson of Prior Lake, Minn., is qualified No. 4.

Twelve-time NHRA National Champion Frank Manzo and Mike Kosky grabbed
the top spots for this weekend’s NHRA Northeast Division Lucas Oil Drag
Racing Series event at Maple Grove Raceway.

Manzo put his Lucas Oil sponsored ’08 Monte Carlo in the No. 1
qualifying position of the Top Alcohol Funny Car field running 5.568
seconds at 258.81 mph.  The Morganville, N.J., racer, who picked up his
100th NHRA divisional win last weekend in Norwalk, Ohio, is followed by
Olympic gold medalist Marty Nothstein.  Nothstein, who was born in
Allentown, Pa., and now calls Orefield, Pa., home, clocked in at 5.649,
255.82 mph, good enough for the No. 2 position in funny car.

Kosky of Cuddy, Pa., covered the quarter mile in 5.441 seconds, 263.77
mph in his Top Alcohol Dragster for the top spot.   Bill Evan, Miramar,
Fla., is right on Kosky’s heels running 5.449 seconds at 262.39 mph and
John Finke, Selkirk, N.Y., sits in the No. 3 spot at 5.453, 262.39.

Shawn Cowie of Delta is leading the Top Alcohol Dragster qualifiers at
the Lordco BC Nationals, a round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing
Series at Mission Raceway Park, while Brian Hough, Junction City, Ore.,
is No. 1 in Top Alcohol Funny Car.  Another Delta resident, Terry
Spargo leads the Top Sportsman contingent and Kelly Vos of Burnaby is
the best qualifier in Sportsman Motorcycle presented by Harley Davidson.

Cowie made a 5.371-second, 269.94 mph pass which was enough to put him
ahead of No. 2 qualifier Joey Severance of Spanaway, Wash.  Severance
ran 5.408 seconds at 260.64 mph.

Hough laid down a 5.657-second, 256.77 mph lap in the opening round of
qualifying while Clint Thompson of Klamath Falls, Ore., ran 5.748
seconds at 251.53 mph to put him in the second slot.  Chilliwack’s Tim
Nemeth is qualified in the No. 4 position.

Success in drag racing is largely predicated on having a routine.

That’s why Extreme Pro Stock provisional low qualifier John Montecalvo
was concerned during the first day of qualifications at the ADRL
Quarter-Max Memphis Drags in Memphis, Tenn.

Montecalvo slipped out of his usual game plan of arriving on Thursday
in order to get as many shots as possible during professional time
trails on Friday.

“I was a bit concerned,” Montecalvo said. “We were delayed a bit at the
airport. I really wanted to make a time run and we never got to make
one.”

A brilliant, record-setting run by Pro Extreme star Jason Scruggs
highlighted the opening round of qualifying today for National Guard ADRL
Quarter-Max Memphis Drags II at Memphis Motorsports Park. Scruggs
covered the Memphis eighth mile in an incredible 3.66 seconds at 207.43
miles per hour with his supercharged ’68 Camaro, making it the quickest
and fastest pass in history by a full-bodied drag racing car.

“To
be honest, I feel very fortunate,” the cotton farmer and businessman
from Saltillo, Mississippi said. “I knew it was on a good pass, but it
surprised me just how good it was. Everything had to come together just
about perfect for that to happen.”

Boy, that 70.5 Camaro is a looker.

ADRL.us

If you’ve ever seen the Armor All commercial where NASCAR racer Tony
Stewart stands in a daze staring lovingly at his clean car, then you’ll
get a good idea of how Alex Hossler feels when he looks at his new toy
from Duncan Race Cars.

Hossler has the first of the Cynergy Composites lightweight 70.5 Camaro
bodies and has mated the impressive bodywork with an extremely
lightweight chassis chock full of ingenuity and, oh yeah, titanium.

A 3.90-second, 190 miles per hour test run gives Hossler the feeling
this classic muscle car will be a trophy girl when it’s all said and
done.

They used to call him Mojo because it sounded like a name fitting for a Pro Stock driver.

After nearly a two decades off from competition, while he served in
roles as a consultant and crew chief for championship teams, Morris
Johnson Jr. has returned to competition.

He’s not racing a 500-inch, NHRA legal Pro Stocker.

The driver who has won national event titles in three countries (United States, Canada and Finland) sought out a new challenge.

He wants to win with a mountain motor engine while racing on the eighth-mile within the ADRL’s Extreme Pro Stock division.

Moses had Mt. Sinai. Kenny Nowling, President of the ADRL Series, has the retaining wall at Memphis Motorsports Park.

After a weekend of racing attended by 112 spectators, Nowling, somewhat
depressed, rested on the wall as personal assistant Jessica Alcoke
walked up. Looking up at the Memphis sky, Nowling pondered the future
of the fledgling sanctioning body.

Alcoke approached Nowling and commented, “We might as well give the
tickets away. At least we can make some money on t-shirt sales.”

Nowling looked at the near two dozen spectators in the grandstands,
half of which were Elvis impersonators in town for a convention, and
once he got past the initial anger over what he initially considered a
ludicrous and untimely statement, he realized Alcoke's words made
sense. Certainly things couldn't get any worse.

Rocky Mountain Raceways will be hosting their annual Jet Car Spring Nationals on Saturday, May 23.

Chuck Haynes in his Volcano Jet Car will be racing at Rocky Mountain Raceways on Saturday, May 23.

According to Ron Craft, Drag Strip Manager for Rocky Mountain Raceways,
the Jet Car Spring Nationals is an amazing motorsports spectacle with
some of the fastest racing on the drag strip.

“I am expecting large car counts, fantastic weather and a great show for spectators,” said Craft.

With Jet Car racers from all over the United States and Canada coming
to Rocky Mountain Raceways, the jet-powered dragsters will run more
than 250 miles per hour on the drag strip.