Nancy Bellemeur, the mother of Top Alcohol Funny Car competitor Sean
Bellemeur, passed away on Wednesday, March 18, at the age of 62 after a
nine-year battle with lung cancer. She was beloved in the drag racing
community while she supported the endeavors of her husband Gregg, who
raced his “Easy Rider” altered entries on the West Coast in the 1970s,
and her son Sean, who came up through the Jr. dragster ranks and has
had success behind the wheel in the Top Alcohol Funny Car and Nostalgia
Top Fuel classes.

The NHRA has received notice from SFI, Inc. that a Notice of
Decertification was issued to Impact Racing Products, Inc. regarding
certain products (listed below), and that Impact will issue a Notice of
Recall of such products. Therefore, effective immediately, the products
listed below will no longer be accepted for use in NHRA racing.
NHRA.com reports that Impact will issue a recall notice today.

If you’re a fan of the Fuel Altereds then you’ll want to be in
Bakersfield, Ca., on May 2nd and 3rd when their Dragfest event kicks
off.

This event, for the first time in over three decades, will have the
legends together on the same strip in competition. CompetitionPlus.com
has learned these AA/FA entries are run by the original families and
crews and they emphasize this is not a cacklefest and these cars will
run side-by-side.

If you watched Bob Tasca III win on Sunday in Gainesville, you might as
well have been watching John Force win another national event.

Tasca, No. 2 in the NHRA Full Throttle Champion Drag Racing Series
Funny Car points standings, considers the 14-time world champion to be
a mentor. He also had a good measure of Tony Pedregon teaching as well.

Between the two seasoned drivers that experience accounts for 16 world
championships, and one huge national event victory last Sunday.

The grandson of noted Ford dealer Bob Tasca, Tasca remembers a
conversation with his elder that led him to travel a successful path.

Force and Pedregon taught him how to win on the track. Grandfather pushed him to make it happen.

There was a time when John Force was the long Mustang driver in the NHRA Funny Car field.

Force had an exclusive on the Mustang body style in the nitro Funny Car
division for nearly a decade but after comments made in a Ford
teleconference yesterday afternoon that exclusivity might be a thing of
the past.

Bob Tasca III was the first team owner to transcend that exclusivity by
debuting a Shelby Cobra version of the nitro Funny Car body in 2008.
The rookie team owner expanded his team to include Tim Wilkerson,
previously a GM frontrunner.

What a week for IHRA Pro Stock driver Jason Collins.

From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, Collins had everything
but the kitchen sink thrown his way at the season opening IHRA Summit
Racing Equipment Mardi Gras Nationals earlier this month. But at the
end of the day Collins was able to push past the obstacles and turn a
potentially disappointing weekend into a big victory for the Patriot
Performance team as he claimed his first Ironman since 2003 while
taking the early points lead after one race on the 2009 IHRA Nitro Jam
Tour.

Collins’ saga began on March 3 as the team rolled out of Tuscaloosa,
Alabama on its way to Belle Rose, Louisiana for testing the following
day. Collins turned in some pretty solid numbers during the session,
giving him plenty of confidence as the team packed up and headed south
for the short trip to Baton Rouge for the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment
Mardi Gras Nationals.

Be happy for Spencer Massey, but not because he’s earned the driving gig of a lifetime. Be happy because he’s learning the swagger from the king of swagger – his team owner Don “Snake” Prudhomme.
 
“He's taught me a lot about presenting myself better,” Massey admitted,
when asked about the most valuable lesson he'd learned from Prudhomme.
 
“I'm not the most clean cut guy and Snake is THE clean cut guy. He's
Mr. Smooth. He has the best looking stuff out here. Look through the
staging lanes with all the Top Fuel cars and ours is one of the best
looking one out there. Not that he's really had to clean me up, but you
know, it’s the image there and that's what he's helped me understand.”
 

Infineon Raceway will step up to the plate to help the North Vallejo
Little League, which was vandalized by burglars this week.The raceway
will donate $5,000 to cover the cost of the equipment, uniforms, and
computers stolen during the robbery. The monies for the donation will
come from a 3J’s Motorcycle Track Days charity event to be held at
Infineon Raceway April 22. Vallejo is approximately 10 miles west of
Infineon Raceway.
 
Thieves broke into the league’s concessions and storage building and
stole all of the uniforms and equipment as well as $600 worth of candy.
The burglars also ransacked the building and left behind broken
computer equipment and trophies.

Discount tickets for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, April 2-5 at
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will be available to race fans
for a limited time. Single-day, general-admission tickets for the NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series national event will be priced at just
$19 each. The sale runs through Monday, March 23. After March 23,
ticket prices will revert to normal rates: $32 for Friday, $51 for
Saturday, and $55 for Sunday.

From the wild Super Stock and A/FX cars of the 1960s through the factory hot rods of today, NHRA Drag
Racing’s Pro Stock category has always been known as a “driver’s
class,” complex at times but always packed with performance and
thrilling to watch. Now, straight from the legendary photo files of the
National Hot Rod Association and National DRAGSTER, NHRA presents The
History of NHRA Pro Stock, the third in a collection of specialty photo
books aimed at the NHRA Drag Racing fan.