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

It would certainly be understandable if Warren Johnson simply wanted to put the 2008 season behind him.  After all, the six-time
champion has candidly admitted that this year’s POWERade Drag Racing
campaign has been one of the most challenging of his Hall of Fame
career.  Therefore, he could simply be approaching this weekend’s Auto
Club of Southern California Finals in Pomona, CA as nothing more than
the final stop on the schedule before preparations begin in earnest for
2009.

However, one of Johnson’s trademark qualities is his unbridled
determination to succeed in any and every venture he undertakes.  As
such, the GM Performance Parts Pontiac GXP crew will arrive at the Auto
Club Raceway at Pomona with the single-minded purpose of ending the
year in the winner’s circle.

Justin Humphreys has decided to begin his off-season one race before the other NHRA Pro Stock regulars.

The second-year driver from Monrovia, Md., said Wednesday his RaceRedi
Motorsports Pontiac GXP team will not be competing in the season-ending
Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., Nov. 13-16. 

“We’re sitting this one out. There’s no reason for us to be racing
because we aren’t in the top 10,” Humphreys explained.  “With the way
the economy is, it’s better for our team to save our resources for
2009.  We will definitely be back next year.”

For every story of unprecedented courage told here on the pages of CompetitionPlus.com, there are millions of others that will go untold.

In the days to come, CompetitionPlus.com will bring you five stories of incredible bravery, dedication and determination. Stories of people who did not let accident or illness end their dreams of racing.

The first lady of drag racing Shirley Muldowney, fourteen-time world champion John Force, second-generation Top Fuel driver Brandon Bernstein and cancer survivors Jack Beckman and Steve Torrence have all shared with CompetitionPlus.com their innermost struggles and fears coupled with undying determination to live.

This second chapter of our three-part series deals with the emotions from the battles with cancer that Beckman and Torrence endured.

Mopar hasn’t announced yet, but Avenger will be next Mopar Pro Stocker

Greg Russell's artist concept of what the new Dodge Avenger should look like.

If
you’re betting on one of those new Dodge Challengers to roll into the
Pro Stock wars in 2009, don’t put the farm up for collateral. This tip
comes from a source deep within Mopar’s Pro Stock efforts. A safer
wager will be the re-introduced Dodge Avenger, also introduced as part
of NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow program.

ADRL Completes Mid-East Goodwill Tour

Call
it a working vacation, but American Drag Racing League (ADRL)
co-founders Tommy Lipar and Kenny Nowling, who also serves as president
of the O’Fallon, Missouri-based series, are heading home after a
whirlwind, week-long tour of Doha, Qatar and Dubai and Umm Al Quwain,
in the United Arab Emirates.

Accompanied by ADRL Executive Assistant Jessica Alcoke, the trio were
guests of Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, an oil-rich
peninsula nation abutting Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. The Sheikh
is intent on globalizing the sport of drag racing and has invested
millions of dollars in building race facilities and teams at home and
recently expanded to assembling a multi-car ADRL Pro Nitrous team with
connections to New York, West Virginia and Alabama.

Pomona will likely be the last event Jerry Toliver drives for Don
Schumacher Racing. With that said, the Rockstar Energy Drink-sponsored
driver wants to end the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series with a
victory this weekend at the 44th annual NHRA Finals at Pomona (Calif.)
Raceway. More than anything, he'd like to add a fourth career win at
this facility to his resume and the first of the year for the Rockstar
Energy Drink team. The California native boasts triumphs in Pomona at
the season finale in 1999 and at the season openers in 2000 and 2004. 
 
It’s been a long season for the California native who joined Don
Schumacher Racing in 2008 and endured a year void of racing luck,
despite driving a car that has demonstrated strong performances
throughout the year. The one thing that has remained solid for Toliver
is his hard-working crew. Led by crew chief Phil Shuler, the Rockstar
Energy Drink team’s determination throughout the season has never been
in question. Coming off a strong No. 3 qualifying effort at the last
event in Las Vegas, Toliver wants to reward his crew with a victory.

Toliver plans to race next season, the destination undetermined at this time.