NHRA will kick off the
inaugural NHRA Carolinas Nationals with the Countdown to the
Championship Fan Fest in the heart of downtown Charlotte Sept. 10.
Fans will have the opportunity to meet several racers who clinched a
spot in the Countdown to 1, including Funny Car drivers John and Ashley
Force and defending POWERade Funny Car world champion Tony Pedregon,
Top Fuel pilots Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown, Pro Stock drivers
Greg Anderson and Jason Line, Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Andrew Hines
and Eddie Krawiec, and many more.

Last season the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship format made a mockery of Dave Connolly.

In Indianapolis he returned the favor.

Connolly, 25, of Elyria, Ohio, clinched a sixth place finish in the
first phase of the NHRA’s championship series by winning his 20th
career national event title at the expense of past Indy winner Larry
Morgan.

The largest collection of outlaw doorslammers and motorcycles ever assembled is expected this weekend (Sep. 12-13),

The
2007 Scion of New Market, FL’s Gary White carries a turbocharged,
183-cubic-inch engine, while Steve Kirk Jr.’s 1963 Corvette from
Monroe, GA, is motivated by a multi-stage, nitrous-injected, 800-plus
cubic incher—yet both remain Hushpower Dragstock V title contenders in
the ADRL’s hyper-competitive Extreme 10.5 class.

when
the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League (ADRL) presented by the
National Guard stages its oldest and most prestigious event of the
year, Hushpower Dragstock V, at Rockingham Dragway.

Professional race teams from as far away as Oregon, California,
Massachusetts, Florida and all points in between will vie for supremacy
on the venerable Rockingham strip, along with a couple of Canadians and
at least one crew from Puerto Rico. Cars will range from turbocharged,
six-cylinder imports to front-wheel-drive domestics to 900-cubic-inch
classics—with all capable of covering the eighth-mile distance in 3.7
to 4.5 seconds at speeds reaching over 200 miles per hour. There will
also be wild, nitrous-fed motorcycles laying down 4.2-second passes at
more than 170 mph—over just 660 feet from a standing start.

George Landis has fully recovered from injuries suffered last July in
his Florida high performance shop, when a pipe fell and severed his
lower leg. Fully recovered, Landis will compete in the upcoming NMCA
Muscle Car Nationals at Commerce, Georgia's Atlanta Dragway, September
19-21.

Landis' Atlanta Dragway experience has been somewhat sporadic, first
visiting the Georgia 1/4 mile for a motorcycle event in the late
1980's. It took 20 years before Landis made it back to Atlanta, this
time as driver of Next Generation Racing Team's Hemi-equipped Dodge
Stratus. "The Atlanta event from 2007 was one of our more eventful
outings," commented Landis.

The recently introduced digital version of DRM, the IHRA’s slick,
all-color magazine, is now available absolutely free of charge.
 
Simply go to the DRM page in the IHRA family of web sites (http://www.ihra.com/dragreview
), click on the cover of the latest issue in the left-hand margin, and
you’re there. Digital DRM can also be accessed via the Nitro Jam,
Summit SuperSeries, Summit Pro-Am, and Junior Drag Racing web sites.

For the third-straight year Don Schumacher Racing opened its 100,000-sq.-ft.
drag-racing facility doors in Brownsburg, Ind., to the public in an effort to
raise money for Indianapolis-based Riley Hospital for Children. In six hours on
Friday, Aug. 29,, an estimated 4,000 fans, drivers, VIPs and NHRA drag-racing
participants passed through the shop in advance of this weekend's 54th annual
U.S. Nationals.

Western Sydney Dragway announced that the upcoming
December 26 and 27 event, will now be known as the 'Scott Kalitta
International
Top Fuel Memorial' and that the best performing Kalitta driver so far this
season in the NHRA - Hillary Will - will contest the two-day ANDRA Championship
event.

Scott Kalitta fatally succumbed to injuries sustained during the
Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Englishtown, New Jersey (USA) earlier this
season.

"I am delighted to confirm that Scott's father Connie is very
happy for us to rename the event in Scott's memory and this gesture means a
great deal to the entire Kalitta organization," explained Dragway Chairman Jim
Read. "I think it will add great emotion to what has already been a spectacular
event in its short history."

If the drag racing doesn’t work out, Bob Bode has a future as a stunt show driver.

This comes after his display of driving prowess during Saturday evening
when a fuel line came loose on his Funny Car engulfing the car in
flames.

Bode was in trouble five feet after his ride left the starting line.

Bode crossed from the left lane into the right and appeared headed
directly for the retaining wall. A last minute correction saved Bode
from hitting the wall violently.

So what caused all of this chaos?

Schedule the party.

Spencer Massey is headed to NHRA Top Fuel, at least for one race.

Massey will drive Mitch King’s Top Fuel dragster during the NHRA O’Reilly Fallnationals next month in Dallas, Texas.

Massey would have run on the NHRA tour sooner had it not have been for
his car not being legal by SFI specs adopted this season. The car was
given a back half update prior to the IHRA Northern Nationals in
Martin, Mich.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Kurt Busch made his first visit to an NHRA
event, the US Nationals in Indianapolis, the day after competing in the
Pepsi 500 at California Speedway. 
 
Attending as a guest of Don Prudhomme, Busch quickly realized how
monumental the moment was in his life. 
 
“I was walking with (Don) and I said 'stop for a second. This reminds me
of the time that I walked with Roger (Penske) on the grid for the
Indianapolis 500.' He laughed. He giggled at that.”