Melanie Troxel said her objective was to gain experience behind the
wheel of a Pro Modified. Monday afternoon she gained a bit more than
she bargained for at Gateway International Raceway.

Troxel, an NHRA national event winner in both Top Fuel and Funny Car
divisions, crashed behind the wheel of Raymond Commisso’s 5.8-second
Pro Modified entry. She was uninjured in the accident.

“I went out and shifted the car into second and it tried to spin the
tires pretty hard,” Troxel recalled on her third run behind the wheel
of the 2,500 horsepower race car.

“It just got out of hand and it became a combination of a not-so-good
situation and my inexperience,” Troxel admitted. “I just didn’t have
enough laps.”

Mike Edwards doesn’t want a valuable message lost in the midst of his recent success.

It’s a message that transcends any No. 1 qualifying effort or round win.

Through a relationship with Young Life, a Christian-based
non-denominational youth organization, Edwards reaches out and provides
encouragement to teens when others may turn their back on them. Mike
Edwards Motorsports calls itself a “Team on a Mission,” and provides
trips to camp for every round win. Several drivers, companies and
individuals have stepped up the plate to make the program work. In
2008, the project was able to send 140 kids to Young Life camp for a
week.

The Young Life logo can be seen plastered across the hood of his car,
but Edwards and his team receives no financial support from Young Life.

Race officials for the Street Car SuperNationals IV, a street legal style event hosted by The Strip at Las Vegas have increased the winner's purse of two popular classes. The Outlaw 10.5 winner will now receive $10,000 while the Xtreeme Drag Radial/TT-5 winner will earn $5000.

The event is scheduled for November 19 - 22, 2009. 

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God Speed Ministry will hold a Memorial service for Shirley Blankenship, the IHRA Employee who recently lost her battle with cancer on Saturday, May 9th, 8:00 - 8:30 a.m., at the God Speed Ministry pit area during the IHRA Piedmont Pro Am event.  Everyone is invited.
 

NAMPA RACER SCOTT STEPHENS SCORES WIN AT FIREBIRD RACEWAY’S LUCAS OIL DRAG RACING SERIES EVENT

The 39th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor presented by Dan Wiebold Ford,
a round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, is in the books.
Although most of the final rounds were delayed a day by rain, it was
worth the wait for the racers who ended up in the winner’s circle
Monday, including Nampa’s Scott Stephens who earned the Top Sportsman
win.  Stephens was joined in the winner’s circle by Super Stock racer
Steve Wann of Modesto, Calif., and Clarance Bidniack, a Stock
Eliminator competitor from Edmonton, Alb.

Stephens had qualified his ’98 Monte Carlo in the No. 11 spot and beat
top qualifier Curt Geise of Auburn, Wash., in the semis.  In the final
he squared off against No. 10 qualifier Robert Matthews, Gig Harbor,
Wash.  Stephens made a 13.033-second, 64.96 mph pass when Matthews
red-lighted in his ’67 Nova.

When Cary Goforth entered the 2009 racing season, he knew that he had a
team that could be competitive and possibly contend for a few wins.

He just didn’t know that it would all happen so fast.

After years of coming close, Goforth finally broke through with his
first career victory last weekend at the IHRA Spring Nationals at
Rockingham Dragway and the reaction as he exited the car told the story
of just how long this win has been coming for Goforth and his team.

Although they are worlds apart, NHRA drag racing and Avoca Elementary
School share one thing in common…testing. On Tuesday, May 5, Avoca
students, just days removed from their TCAP tests, will visit Bristol
Dragway to watch NHRA Pro Stock drivers test their tune-ups for the May
15-17 Thunder Valley Nationals.

To earn their trip to the track, the students had to meet reading goals
assigned by their teachers. The students, excited by the prospect of
visiting the dragway, took the challenge and 265 met their goals and
will be in attendance to watch NHRA’s best make practice runs.

Bristol Dragway President and General Manager Jeff Byrd challenged the
group to read 70,000 books during the course of the school year. To
date, Avoca students have read 67,900 books.  Melinda Loveday, Avoca’s
librarian, feels confident the group will reach Byrd’s goal.

Comp Eliminator racer Jeff Lane  and Nostalgia Top Fuel pilot Mike
McLennan made their way to the winner’s circle at Firebird Raceway.
Unfortunately, they were the only categories to be completed.  Despite
the best efforts of NHRA and Firebird Raceway officials, the final
rounds of the 39th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor presented by Dan
Wiebold Ford, a round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, will be
finished up on Monday.

Lane, a resident of North Bend, Ore., qualified his ’07 Cobalt in the
No. 4 spot and took out No. 1 qualifier Adam Bowdish, Oregon City,
Ore., in round two of eliminations.  In the final, he squared off
against Arvada, Colo., racer Clint Neff and his ’23 roadster.  The pair
left the line with identical reaction times but Neff slowed giving Lane
the win.

McLennan, a resident of Oakley, Calif., qualified No. 2 with a
6.068-second, 244.43 mph pass.  In the final he ran 6.775 seconds at
190.15 mph against Jim Murphy, Santa Rosa, Calif., who was disqualified
when he crossed the center line.

Ron Capps knows what it looks like from the outside but he’d like to set
the record straight. His season is not one of feast of famine.

“I know it looks that way on the outside but it's not,” Capps said.
“You have to remember that we don't have test dates anymore. We have
four and we get to test when we want. I think if you went around to all
the Funny Car guys you would find the most relaxed guys with a [short]
sixteen-car field. With Funny Car it's like having two weekends, you
have to make the show itself and all season long it's stressful.”

On those weekends when a gaggle of Funny Cars show up, Capps says the stress level rises.

Eddie Krawiec loved the experience so much he had to have an encore.

Two weeks ago he became a first-time national event winner. Now the
rider for the Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson team is a two-timer.

Krawiec used a combination of quick reactions and stellar elapsed times
to work his way through the sixteen-bike field at the NHRA O'Reilly Midwest Nationals, eventually beating
Craig Treble to gain another trophy for his once barren mantle.

“To get that first one out of the way was a big weight off my
shoulders,” Krawiec said. “The end result of it all is you take that
pressure off yourself. Now I just go out there. I'm capable of winning.”