Cecil County Dragway officials announced a 3-year agreement naming VP
Racing Fuels as Cecil’s Official Fuel, as well as its Official Traction
Compound. With the agreement, VP will be the track’s exclusive supplier
of race fuels via its trackside vendor, Palmer Racing Fuels, including
C12, VP110 and Motorsports 103 unleaded in bulk along with VP’s most
popular specialty fuels, such as C16, Q16 and others, in drums and
pails. In addition, VP’s Lane Choice 6 (LC6) traction compound will be
used exclusively for track prep throughout the term of the agreement.

“We’re excited to bring VP on board as our Official Fuel and Traction
Compound. VP’s well-deserved reputation for quality products and
unsurpassed service made this an easy decision,” said Jimmy Halsey.
“We’re confident our racers will appreciate the extra power and torque
for which VP’s fuels are famous. And we’ve been extremely pleased with
LC6—it’s given us better performance and a better value, which is a
nice combination.”

Bob
Vandergriff last saw action on the NHRA trail last November, at the
2008 Auto Club Finals in Pomona, and the time off in the interim has
been a tough pill to swallow for the popular Top Fuel owner/driver. 
Accustomed to going fast, the Georgia resident is never comfortable
going nowhere, but a lack of sponsor backing had left him parked
throughout the first five races in 2009, and with the annual trip to
Atlanta Dragway looming he put the "pedal to the metal" to find a
marketing partner for this weekend's Summit Racing Southern
Nationals.   Speedco, the only national network to specialize in
quick-lube and tire service for heavy-duty trucks, was quick to see the
value in such an association, and Vandergriff will proudly fly the
Speedco colors this weekend in Commerce, Ga.

The marketing agreement will include the Summit Southern Nationals
(April 17-19), as well as the Mac Tools US Nationals in the fall
(September September 4-7), and Vandergriff is not only thankful for the
support, but also believes it will provide a much-needed boost for a
number of other potential sponsor programs he is currently discussing.

"Mark Clark and the team at Speedco have been longtime supporters of
our racing efforts, and we're thrilled to be able to run the Speedco
colors at our home track in Georgia, as well as at the US Nationals in
Indianapolis," Vandergriff said.  "It's been really difficult to sit on
the sidelines for the first part of the season, so I'm even more
appreciative that Speedco stepped up in time for us to make our '09
debut at our home track.  We're looking forward to jumping right back
into the mix, and maybe we can turn some heads and have some success
this weekend.

PGA
superstar Tiger Woods had better count his lucky stars that Pro Stock
legend Bob Glidden didn’t put all of his efforts into being a
professional golfer. That’s because now he’d have to deal with Billy
Glidden, who is more of a chip off of the old block than the
competition can handle.

The second generation Glidden, the defending Extreme 10.5 world
champion extended his streak of consecutive ADRL round wins to 19
(including the championship-determining Battle of the Belts last year)
with a victory at the recently completed Hardees Georgia Drags in
Valdosta, Ga.

He now holds a 26 – 2 round win record in ADRL competition. Of those
two losses, Glidden only concedes one and that was at the ADRL Ohio
Drags when he lost in the finals. The other was when he failed to
participate in the arm-drop drags conclusion of the event in Martin,
Mich.

Jason Hamstra isn’t one to boast about himself or his team. The DeMotte, Ind.-based driver and his crew just do it.

Saturday night in Valdosta, Ga., Hamstra became a first-time Pro
Extreme ADRL national event winner, driving his supercharged,
Lencodrive-equipped entry to the Hardees Georgia Nationals title by
stopping the dominating Jason Scruggs.

Hamstra raced like he’s raced for much of his career to this point,
under the radar and with very little fanfare, posting just enough to
win. 

Stolen from the secured yard of Spectre Performance in Ontario, California at approximately 2:30AM Saturday April 11th.

2002 Freightliner FL70 Toterhome with 38' 5th Wheel Trailer

License Number: 2QPN682/ Trailer License Number: 4DG4349

Color: Black with Speed by Spectre Logo on side of trailer in silver. 
Silver Spectre logo on Tailgate and on front of windshield.
(both truck and trailer were originally white before being wrapped).

If the circle of good fortunes sometimes runs counter to the norm,
judging from Jim Halsey’s performances of the last seven months, the
Street, Md.-based Pro Nitrous veteran was due for
a run on the downside. Unfortunately for his competitors, Halsey has
become such a strong runner that his downside still turns out pretty
good.

Saturday was a tough day to be Halsey, but a good one as well.

“We had a tough weekend,” Halsey said, describing his winning weekend
in Valdosta, Ga. “We had some mechanical issues with the car and then
the track was so good … we’ve never had to run in those kinds of
conditions with this new car, if we had our old one we probably could
have backed down the race track.”

Halsey didn’t back into his ADRL Hardees Drags title by any means. It
just wasn’t his typical leave no prisoners style as he stopped a
determined and consistent 3.90s runner, Steve Vick, in the final round.

TOP FUEL VETERAN MCCLENATHAN BONDING WITH NEW TEAM; IS A COUNTDOWN TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER ONCE AGAIN

In the sport of NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing, Cory McClenathan has been there and done that.

He’s been on fire, flipped upside down and walked away from spectacular
wild rides. He’s won races at just about every track on the circuit and
chased the world championship title into the sunset many times. He
knows what a good hot rod is supposed to feel like just by easing into
the throttle.

He can also tell when all the pieces are in place for a very good race team to become great.

So that’s why he’s excited about the opportunity in front of him in 2009.

McClenathan has embraced a new crew on his 7,000 horsepower FRAM Tough
Guard dragster, led by co-crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara, and
they are quickly hitting their stride. In just five events they have
produced two final round appearances, allowing McClenathan to display
the driving form that has led him to 30 victories in 53 final round
appearances and four second-place championship points finishes during
his 18-years behind the wheel.

“They make this FRAM car go down the track,” McClenathan said. “It will
go from A to B all the time and it can run with everybody else. And
everybody realizes that.”

Even with all that experience, past success and strong early season
performances McClenathan is sometimes overlooked as one of the
favorites in his category. However, hardcore fans and his opponents
know that McClenathan is always a major threat to win.

LuquiTec issued a statement today confirming that rumors of Crane Cams
sale to Scorprion was false and they are committed to its scheduled
auction date of April 22, and is entertaining as many interested buyers
as possible." Crane Cams further stated that "Crane has no agreement to
sell its assets to Scorpion Performance, nor has it received any offer
of any kind from Scorpion."

LiquiTec was retained by Crane Cams to conduct a public auction of the
company's assets on April 22, 2009 and is also working to sell the
assets before the auction to a variety of buyers who have expressed
interest in the company's very well-established high-performance
valve-train and ignition components and product lines. LiquiTec is
handling all negotiations in connection with the sale of the Crane
Cams' assets.

Four women racers gave thanks to some 4000 US Military troops and their families at last weekend's NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event held at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX across April 3-5.
 
Tina Stull (Super Comp) and the Harker Twins (Alcohol Dragster), were
honored with an invitation to visit the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve
Base in Fort Worth, TX.  Prior to the race "Team Troops" were featured
celebrities at the base and were given a private tour getting to meet
the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the US Military, all the while,
passing out tickets donated by the Texas Motorplex.
 
"It was such an honor to be invited to NASJRB Ft Worth" comments Diana
"We had an amazing time and would like to thank all who worked hard to
organize the day for us and most importantly, Thank You to the troops!"

Tom McKernan, Chief Executive Officer of the Automobile Club of
Southern California, has been named the Grand Marshal/Honorary Starter
for the upcoming NHRA JEGS Cajun SPORTSnationals at Auto Club Dragway
at Auto Club Speedway.  The event, slated for April 17-19, is the
second of three NHRA SPORTSnationals events sponsored by JEGS.
           
After years of corporate involvement in motorsports, McKernan’s
participation in NHRA drag racing evolved to a personal level in 2007
when his daughter Megan earned her Super Comp license and began
competing at NHRA events. Since then, it is not unusual to find
McKernan out in the pits among the sportsman racers or at the starting
line cheering on his daughter rather than in the corporate suite.
           
“The McKernan family is a drag racing family not unlike JEGS or the
thousands of other families involved in NHRA,” said Scott Woodruff,
JEGS director of Media & Motorsports. “That’s why we wanted to
honor Tom for his dedication to the sport of drag racing. Not only does
he support his daughter’s racing efforts but he helps support the drag
racing community through the Auto Club’s many sponsorships.”