SIX WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS BUOY MATCHUP BETWEEN TWO SAN DIEGO AREA HIGH SCHOOLS

There
was some real drag racing pedigree on hand during this past weekend’s
SPEED original Drag Race High live shoot finale at Auto Club Dragway in
Fontana, Calif. In a bit of irony, these multi-time professional
champions were on hand to witness an ode to true ‘first-time’ racers as
two Southern California high schools battled it out on the quarter mile.

GM correspondent Jeff Romack has sent CompetitionPlus.com a
series of photos and updates related the NHRA drivers visiting the
military troops abroad. Today's installment includes the group of
drivers in their second day of Kuwait as well their visit to Frankfort,
Germany.

Day 2 in Kuwait we headed north for the Ali Al Salem Air Base
which is about 40 miles from the Iraqi border. It's a Kuwaiti Air Base
but it is shared with U.S. Army and Air Forces and it's where a lot of
the U.S. troops come for a few days to kind of unwind before flying
home. There are these huge, thick concrete bunkers that are visible
here that are about 60 feet high, and about 30 yards. These were
smashed by US bombs when the Iraqis were ran out after the 1991 war.
Understandably, there are also a lot of place where you can't
photograph, including some flight-line areas around these bunkers. The
first pictures coming your way, though, were taken at the Rec Center at
the LSA (Life Support Activities) at Ali Al Salem. This is where the
troops watch movies, play video games, catch-up on e-mail, watch
football, play cards. There's a McDonalds here and other amenities of
home, but at the same time, it's still a long, long way from home. A
lot of the troops were getting ready to fly home for Thanksgiving and
again, their appreciation for the drivers and the fact that they were
there, meant a lot to them. You will see that in the photos and the
smiles on the faces of both our drivers and the troops. Our drivers are
doing a tremendous job with very little, and at times, no rest
(catching catnips during some of the few downtimes we've had) and NHRA
fans can be very proud of the way they are representing the sport. 

Despite all its ups and down, the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season
ended for Pontiac's Greg Anderson the same

way it began - with a Pro
Stock victory from the No. 1 qualifying position at Auto Club Raceway
at Pomona (Calif.).  Bookend wins at the NHRA Winternationals in
February and at the NHRA Finals on Nov. 16 were two of a class-leading
six wins for the 47-year-old Anderson as he led a Pontiac contingent of
three drivers into the top five of the final 2008 Pro Stock standings.

Pontiac teams turned in impressive on-track performances in the factory
hot-rod Pro Stock category including a class-leading 12 victories, 19
final-round appearances, 13 No. 1 qualifying awards and low elapsed
time of the meet 11 times.  Four Pontiac GXP drivers, Anderson, Mike
Edwards, Jason Line and Greg Stanfield, qualified for the Countdown to
1 and three went on to finish in the top five of the POWERade standings
led by three-time NHRA POWERade champ Anderson.

Less than 48 hours before the start of the 2008 JEGS ProMod Challenge,
a spot opened in the 24-car field of the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in
Gainesville, Fla., when Mike Knowles crashed during a preseason test
session. Logistically speaking, there weren't many drivers who could
fill Knowles' slot in such a short amount of time. Then someone
mentioned Floridian Joe Baker, who lives five hours away in Milton,
near Pensacola.

A call went out and Baker accepted the invitation, saying he'd do his
best to get there, although he wasn't promising being anything more
than filler in his NHRA debut. Little did Baker know when he ended that
phone call that seven and a half months later he'd end up as the JEGS
ProMod Challenge Rookie of the Year with a pair of victories to his
credit, including an unlikely win in that fateful debut race.

"I had the luck when I needed it, that's for sure," Baker said after
his shocking Gators win. "We had to scramble just to get here but it
all seems worth it now."

Tim Wilkerson  came into the 2008 NHRA season with five career victories, and left the season with 11. He entered the campaign having just come off a 15th-place finish in '07, but finished the '08 season in second place, after a storybook run. To all who were witnessing this remarkable "arrival," the Levi, Ray & Shoup driver seemed fully capable of turning everything around, including the startling ability to erase the memory of seven DNQs from the year before by recording absolutely none in 2008, while he also improved his round record from a pedestrian 14-16 in '07, to an astounding 42-18 this year, a mark no other Funny Car driver could match.

In the end, though, it was the final day and the ever-so-close but narrowly missed chance at a championship that far too many people remember. Having spent most of the season leading the Funny Car points chase, Wilkerson entered the Countdown to the Championship knowing, full well, what the rules were and how they worked.

NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Bill Reichert accepted the trophy for his third-straight National Championship at the NHRA Lucas
Oil Series Championship Banquet in Los Angeles last Monday after
posting a runner-up finish at the season-ending Auto Club Finals at
Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif.  Reichert wheeled his Rislone
Engine Treatment backed machine to his third-straight Championship on
the strength of three national event wins (Chicago, Indianapolis and
Charlotte) and five divisional wins (Reading, Pa., Chicago, Bowling
Green, Ky., Atlanta and Reynolds, Ga.).
 
Reichert, who runs the family business Reichert Racing Engines in
Owosso, Mich., started off slow but found his stride around the middle
of the season.  At the Division 3 event in Bowling Green, Ky., in
August, Reichert started a string of 20 straight round wins before
losing in the final of this past weekend’s race.

Matco Tools has launched a new, interactive technical educational program website, www.matcotools.com/TechEd/. The contemporary
site prominently features Matco Tools Top Fuel driver Antron Brown and
Courtney Hanson, host of Spike TV’s Powerblock.

“This new Matco Tools Tech Ed site is more than just a portal for users
and students,” Matco Tools Director – Commercial, Government and Export
Sales, Jeff Peterson said. “The site was designed as a fun place to
visit with easy navigation and we hope that users will bookmark the
site and log on frequently. This is a micro site for students and
instructors and it’s loaded with video and expanded content and
discounts on industry-leading Matco Tools.”

Australian drag racer Peter Leahy won’t be featured on the entry list for January’s ENZED International Nightfire New Year Series, but without him the Event could well be missing its lynch-pin – US Nitro Funny Car legend Gary Densham.

Leahy is the proprietor of Peter Leahy Custom Imports after taking over
the business from his father and drag racing identity Roly five years
ago, and will provide the freighting costs and service to see Densham’s
Nitro Funny Car machine arrive safely next month ahead of the January
twin-events.

Specialists in custom imports, the business ships items from LA to
Brisbane with at least one container leaving the US every week loaded
with everything from lounge suites and shoes to racing cars and tyres.

CompetitionPlus.com published a news item in early-October proclaiming engine builder Sonny Leonard had produced a 2,000-horse,
naturally aspirated engine via his dyno readings. The 892-inch engine
profiled found its way into the Top Sportsman GTO of Frank Tamez, who
during the recent PSCA Street Car Supernationals, provided Leonard with
the ultimate commercial.