NHRA has announced that the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League Eastern and
Western Conference Finals will return to Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway and
Denver’s Bandimere Speedway in 2009.  Bristol Dragway will host the
Eastern Conference Finals July 9-11 and the Western Conference Finals
will be at Bandimere Speedway, July 23-25.

“Both of these tracks offer first-class racing operations as well as
the unique touches required of any facility that hosts a Jr. Drag
Racing League Conference Finals event,” said Eric Lotz, NHRA director
of Field Marketing and Contingency Programs.  “Not only do they know
what it takes to put 400 or more race cars down a track in three days,
but they know how to make these kids and their families feel welcome
and show them a good time after the racing is done.”

Gateway International Raceway is pleased to announce the hiring of Rich
Schaefer as its new drag strip manager as well as the promotion of
Brandon Mudd to director of public and media relations. Both moves are
effective immediately.
 
Schaefer, a graduate of Greenville (Ill.) High School, has a 20-year
background in motorsports promotion. He started his motorsports career
working at tractor pulls and moved on to become one of the most
respected promoters on the monster truck circuit.  Schaefer has managed
some of the biggest monster truck events in the sport working with Live
Nation, Bigfoot, and most recently Monster Truck Challenge.  Schaefer
has also worked with the Gateway International Raceway over the past
two years in several event related capacities, including event
promotion and pre-race management for both Gateway’s 1.25-mile oval and
its drag strip.

“We were searching for a drag manager with national motorsports
experience and we found one from right here in St. Louis,” GIR Vice
President and General Manager Lenny Batycki said. “Rich had been
assisting us during our major events for the past couple of years and
started working on our drag crew this summer to pass time while he was
in town between other events he was managing around the country.

During the O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Nationals, the Drag
Racing Association of Women held its annual auction hosted by Billy and
Deborah Meyer and the staff of the Texas Motorplex. During the evening,
members of the DRAW Board of Trustees presented DRAW’s Person of the
Year, Company of the Year, and Volunteer of the Year awards.

The 2008 DRAW Person of the Year award was presented to the NHRA Media
Relations Staff, which worked hard to promote DRAW by involving both
the drag racing community and the fans in NHRA Softball Classic
fund-raising activity. Even though Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and
the first ball of the softball game wasn’t even thrown out in Maple
Grove. Lachelle Seymour accepted on behalf on the staff.

When Hurricane Hanna hit the Epping, New Hampshire area during the
Amalie Oil North American Nationals IHRA officials had to adjust the
race schedule to ensure they were able to get the race in. One of the
victims was the IHRA Pro Stock Showdown.

The $100,000 Showdown, which included the top eight Mountain Motor Pro
Stock drivers in the business, was scheduled to run to completion at
New England Dragway. The first two rounds were completed at NED, but
when rain washed away the Saturday evening Night of Fire the decision
was made to move the final round to the final race on the 2008 IHRA
schedule…the IHRA World Finals at Rockingham Dragway Sept. 17-19.

The delay could possibly have been the best thing that happened to
Montecalvo. Berner was tearing things up in Epping, running a pair of
6.30’s passes during the Showdown, grabbing both Quarter-Max Pro Stock
Challenge bonuses, qualifying on top of the qualifying sheet and
ultimately winning the Ironman. It was his weekend in New England.

Spectators may have thought they were watching hot rods racing down
Gateway International Raceway’s quarter-mile, NHRA-sanctioned drag
strip Wednesday. What they were actually seeing was a glimpse into the
future; a future not beholden to foreign oil, but provided by flex-fuel
vehicles and corn-based ethanol.

The E85/Ethanol Challenge, an event hosted by GIR, the Illinois Corn
Growers Association, the American Lung Association, and 5.0 Mustang
Magazine, displayed for both private citizens and some of Illinois’ top
lawmakers how ethanol is a legitimate and less expensive choice for
American consumers.

Several E85 flex-fuel vehicles, ranging from an everyday street cars to
high-performance race vehicles, made passes down Gateway’s drag strip,
all using ethanol provided by Center Ethanol. The exhibition was an
effective one.

 “What I’m seeing is very interesting,” said Mike Campbell,
representing U.S. Congressman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.).” If you look at
the Congressman’s record, he’s been a strong supporter of renewable
fuels. We have an ethanol plant in operation right now in Sauget, his
Congressional district. I think (today’s demonstration) is one way of
showing that (ethanol is a viable fuel option). Any concept we can use
to show that any method we can use to show those thoughts that we can
produce renewable fuels and lessen our dependence on foreign oil is
always positive.”

PRO SYSTEMS Carburetors, known worldwide for their record setting carburetion and fuel system designs, has moved into a new and larger facility. 

"We have really grown over the last decade and especially in the last
couple of years," company president Patrick James said.  
"At Pro Systems we do more than just carburetors," James said. "We also
do development projects for Professional race teams and high end engine
builders.  As a result of these projects and their needs, a few years
ago we built a shop and put some pavement down on 10 acres in Tampa,
Florida so we can effectively test products year round. 

Fans of the CMT show, Trick My Truck, and fans of Terry McMillen and
the IHRA Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series have waited all season long to
see who would win the popular Trick My Crew Sweepstakes. Several
hundred thousand electronic entries were figuratively dumped on the
table from CMT computers to find the one lucky entry.

Gail Williams, of Hartman, Arkansas, is the lucky winner of the Trick
My Crew sweepstakes. While she is a big fan of the Trick My Truck
program, she admits to not knowing much about drag racing. In fact, her
first visit to a drag strip will be as a crew member on the Amalie
Oil-sponsored Top Fuel Dragster driven by Terry McMillen as well as his
Hoosier Thunder Motorsports teammate, Paul Noakes, who drives the
Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car.

Williams will bring her son-in-law, Robert Hudspeth, who is a little
more familiar with the sport. Robert and Williams' daughter Robin
attended their first NASCAR event earlier this year in North Carolina
and are looking forward to attending their first IHRA drag race.

Don Prudhomme Racing announced today that it has signed 2008 IHRA Top
Fuel points leader Spencer Massey to a multi-year agreement, with plans
to see Massey behind the wheel of a new Top Fuel dragster team
beginning with the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle season.

In his first season piloting a Top Fuel dragster, Massey, 26, has
recorded an impressive four wins in five final rounds and is in a
position to claim the 2008 IHRA Top Fuel Championship this weekend at
Rockingham, NC.  Massey has also posted an impressive effort this
season in Division 4 of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, winning
once in three final rounds while competing in the Top Alcohol dragster
category.

The recent five second runs by Jim Halsey and Mike Castellana might
just be scratching the surface of the newfound performance increases by
nitrous doorslammers, this according to their respective engine
builders. Gene Fulton and David Reher admit newfound gains in the
five-inch bore spaced, nitrous-injected engines will quickly propel the
bottle rockets through the 5.9-second realm and into the 5.80s at a
rapid rate.

According to Fulton, engine builder for Halsey, the 5.80s are already
in the bag and if the season were one month longer, we’d see them.

“Nitrous Pro Modified still has piece to go and it can go quite a bit
further,” Fulton added. “It’s just a matter whether there are people
mechanically inclined enough to make it happen and people financed
enough.”