Nothing says Rookie of the Year like a No. 1 qualifying shot. Just ask Mike Neff, the former crew chief turned John Force Racing driver.

“That was a very important run. To get down the track and get in there
solid is our game plan. We want to get all four of our Mustangs in the
top 4 or 5 spots so we wouldn’t have to race each other until the
semis. There are three runs left but that was pretty solid and I expect
that will stay in the top twelve,” said Neff.

J.R. Todd loves Pomona, he just prefers to stay away from Los Angeles.

Todd, driver for Morgan Lucas Racing, isn’t much for the fast-pace of
the big city but the fast pace of the Fairplex suits him just fine.
There’s a good reason for that.

He seems to do well at the NHRA’s closest home track and his
provisional low qualifying effort in Top Fuel on Thursday during the NHRA AAA Finals confirmed
that.

OLD SPICE PILOT MIKE NEFF SECURES PROVISIONAL POLE IN FUNNY CAR

Todd, Connolly and Krawiec round out provisional pole-sitters

NHRA
Rookie of the Year favorite Mike Neff powered his Old Spice Ford
Mustang to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car at
the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway on
Thursday.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the sixth and final race in
the NHRA Playoffs, the Countdown to 1, were J.R. Todd (Top Fuel), Dave
Connolly (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle). There
will be one more round of qualifying on Friday and two on Saturday
before the 16-car fields are set for Sunday's race.

Dave Connolly's mission when he arrived at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona was to finish second in the final NHRA POWERade Series Pro Stock standings -- right behind his Cagnazzi Racing teammate Jeg Coughlin.
 
Connolly and the Lucas Oil/Charter Communications Chevy Cobalt team got
off to a great start by grabbing the provisional No. 1 qualifying berth
in Thursday's first of four runs to set the field for Sunday's Auto
Club Finals.  He toured the 1320 feet in 6.660 seconds at 207.75 mph.

A dilapidated drag car minus engine or transmission turned out to be one of the original six Pontiac Factory Super Duty Tempest
coupes, and the find fetched a surprising $226,521.63 from a 9-day eBay
sale which ended on November 9, this according to AutoBlog.com.

Amidst the rumors that Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., has
experienced a massive cutback of manpower and major events, a visit to
their website reveals the facility located outside of Chicago plans a
handful of major events in 2009 beginning with the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event on June 4 - 7, 2009.

She’s only run a limited number of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle races this season, so Peggy Llewellyn wanted to run well at each event.

She did so until running into some bad luck at Las Vegas.  She wasn’t
able to coax a competitive qualifying elapsed time and was relegated to
spectator status for eliminations.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to wait long for another race because you don’t
have time to dwell on not qualifying and you move forward,” said
Llewellyn, who will be back onboard the R2B2 Motors Buell for the Auto
Club Finals, Thursday through Sunday, at Pomona, Calif.  “I know my
team went back Rocklin (Calif.) to try and figure out why the bike was
so unruly in Las Vegas.

The 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season will come to a close this weekend with the running of the Auto Club of Southern
California Finals in Pomona, CA.  Although much of the attention will
naturally be focused on the championship tilts where two of the four
titles remain undecided, there is plenty of motivation for racers in
all the professional categories to do well. 

For example, Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team are
currently involved in two separate battles beyond that of scoring their
fourth win of the season. On one hand, they are looking to secure as
high a finishing position in the points standings as possible.   In
addition, they seek to capture this year’s Full Throttle Pit Crew
championship, a prestigious award given to the team that produced the
highest and most consistent qualifying performance throughout the
24-race schedule.

Top Alcohol Funny Car driver and crew chief, Steve Harker made the final round for the twelfth time this season at the LODRS

Division
Seven Event held at ZMAX Dragway, November 7-9 and was successful in
claiming the ‘Wally’ trophy and his fifth Divisional win of the year.

Harker rounded out qualifying in the number two spot with passes of
5.62et and 5.60et in one of the biggest fields of the season with over
twenty-three funny cars looking to make the eight car show. When all
was said and done, Harker faced off against number seven qualifier, Von
Smith and took the win with an impressive 5.59 seconds at 257mph pass
to defeat Smith’s 5.71seconds run.

With one race to go before the end of her first season as an NHRA Funny Car driver, Melanie Troxel isn’t positive if she’d

rather race more or kick back and chill for a few months.

”I always wish we had more time to go out and fix the things that
didn’t go quite the way you wanted during the season,” Troxel said,
“but, at the same time, I think that by this time of the year everybody
is worn out and ready for a break.”

The 24-race campaign that began at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in early
February concludes at the same facility, Thursday through Sunday, with
the Auto Club of Southern California Finals