Tears well up in their eyes, as Mark and Lauren Pickens discuss the decals on the side of their Top Fuel dragster driven by Clay Millican.

Mark and Lauren Pickens are on a mission, and this one is for God and
its no where close to the mission the fictional Blue Brothers were on
in the movies.

The couple who reside in Memphis, Tenn., have been involved in the
Hope-4-Sudan charity, supporting the children of war torn Sudan.

Mark remembers the first time Lauren traveled to Sudan and befriended
the malnourished children. The first visit and an honest mistake led
them to get more involved.

The 2008 season has been dire with two of the FIA events held at Santa
Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire completely rained out including the
prestigious European Finals where all four days of the meeting were
subjected to torrents of rain. A one shot qualifier for the
professional classes was completed on the finals day which was the only
one that was not totally washed out and with the some semis and finals
in each class about to be completed down came the wet stuff once more.
All the Champions were crowned later that evening at the official
banquet hosted by Santa Pod Raceway after championship points were
finalised.

Andy Carter clinched the FIA European Top Fuel Championship in the
Lucas Oil and Landmeco sponsored dragster coming from behind. He was
just five points behind Holland’s Lex Joon but qualified top with a
4.908/293 and would have faced Joon in the final if it had not rained.
Carter won the title by one point.

This week's cruise night (9/10/08) the duo of Shredd and Ragan hope to
raise money for the Variety Club by featuring some special attractions.
Nationwide Insurance will be bringing their NASCAR Nationwide series
car along with a NASCAR simulator. For a small donation to Variety
Club, guests will be able to compete for high score in the simulator.
Other fan contests will include the chance to guess at how loud (in
decibels) the Nationwide series car is with it's engine revving as well
as a burnout contest. Variety Club will be raffling off a prizes
revolving around these contests.

If you were at Maple Grove Raceway watching the Geezers at the Grove on
Sunday,  you would have never known that a tropical storm came through
the day prior.  The weather was gorgeous, and the racing was awesome!

Howard Haight, who recently returned to to New York after residing in
California for 30 years, dominated the Nostalgia Top Fuel Class with
Dave Mullett taking the number 2 spot in the Chicago-style eliminator. 
Philadelphia resident Rocky Pirrone took top honors in the Nostalgia
Funny Car class in his 1977 Trans Am Funny Car.  Keith Davidson took
second when he turned on the red light in his 1977 Monza. 

New expanded hours, including Saturday service, make it easier than ever to obtain personalized drivetrain assistance from TCI®

Just when you and your buddies were complaining about how most
companies have forgotten about the need to deliver personalized
customer service, TCI® bucks that trend by extending the hours of its
toll free TRANS HELP™ tech line service. Effective June 2, the TCI®
TRANS HELP™ tech line phone personnel will be available for longer
hours six days a week.

The TRANS HELP™ line will now be open Monday through Friday from 7am
until 8pm CST and on Saturdays from 9am until 4pm CST so that it now
matches the tech line hours of its sister COMP Performance Group™
company, COMP Cams®. That means just about any time you need
information, there will be a knowledgeable TCI® expert ready to help.

R2B2 Motors owner Roger Burgess has added NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
rider Peggy Llewellyn to his team for three more races and announced
that R2B2 Motors will be an associate sponsor on Matt Guidera’s Mohegan
Sun motorcycle in his run for the championship.

Llewellyn’s good performance at the recent Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis prompted Burgess to extend the relationship through events
at Dallas, Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif.  She finished fourth in 2007,
winning at Dallas, the NHRA race closest to her San Antonio home.

The third KB Racing Pro Stocker, driven by IHRA Pro Stock regular
Rob Mansfield and operated by the staff at Wilson Manifolds, will
compete at this weekend's NHRA Carolinas Nationals at zMax Dragway in
Concord, NC. This agreement was reached last Friday.

The team is more determined than ever after missing the cut in Indy by a mere .003.

Mansfield knew there would be a learning curve when
the Wilson Manifolds team agreed to campaign the third car for the
Summit-sponsored KB Racing team in arguably the most competitive
division within drag racing. What surprised him is that the team was
able to run alongside the seasoned veterans of 500-inch racing.

Drag racing’s winningest driver has no plans for NHRA purchase …

John Force sounded a little disheveled when he called the offices of CompetitionPlus.com on Monday afternoon.

Okay, he sounded a lot disheveled.

“I’m just in the middle of meltdown, but I wanted to call you,” Force said, as he forgot the topic of the conversation.

Veteran racer concentrating on 2008, nothing determined for 2009 …

Del Worsham has one message to the rumor mill.

The veteran driver wants the wheel to stop spinning so he can exit.

LPE Assets, an LLC owned by Ken Lingenfelter and an affiliate of
Metropolitan Motor Sports LLC, announces today that it has acquired
Lingenfelter Performance Engineering (LPE) from an unrelated third
party. With this acquisition, Lingenfelter intends to continue and
build on LPE’s worldwide track record in performance engineering.

Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, founded by the legendary drag
racer and engine builder John Lingenfelter, is a performance tuner and
specialty automotive parts supplier located in Decatur, Indiana. LPE is
recognized worldwide as a premier tuner of domestic North American
sports performance cars, and for ultimate quality, reliability and
workmanship in products and services. LPE’s work expertise includes
premier engine modification packages, customized engine rebuilds and
related performance engineering shop work.