The JEGS ProMod Challenge will end the 2008 season in spectacular
fashion at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Hours after
crowning a champion at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the best
Pro Mod racers in the country will get together for a celebratory
gathering at Christian Audigier The Nightclub within the world-renowned
TI hotel.

The party begins at 7:45 p.m. and will give way to Industry Night for
the SEMA Show at 10 p.m., which is open to all comers. The hotel also
is offering special room rates for JEGS ProMod Challenge competitors
and teams. Interested parties should call Carla Chapin at 702-894-7712
or e-mail her at cchapin@treasureisland.com .

"This has been a great season already and we wanted to have a final
gathering to send everybody into the off-season on a high note," said
series organizer Scott Woodruff. "TI has been the hotel of choice for
Team JEGS for some time now and they always take great care of their
guests.

Effective immediately, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Craig Treble will
ride for Don Schumacher Racing through the balance of the 2008 NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series atop the Albrecht's Fast Track Suzuki as
teammate to Schumacher Electric Suzuki rider Chip Ellis.

Treble, who left the Team Tigue Suzuki operation following Sunday's
24th Annual NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., after scoring two runner-up
finishes this season, will compete for a spot in the top 10 for the
Countdown to 1 championship playoffs at the U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend under the DSR banner. Entering the
U.S. Nationals, he is eighth in the PSM standings and the defending PSM
event champion.

Racing a Pro Stock Motorcycle since 1998, Treble has tallied 11
national-event wins in 25 final rounds, with his highest points finish
a runner-up in 2002. The 42-year-old Indiana native living in New
Orleans has also enjoyed a longtime association with Matco Tools, a
major associate sponsor on all seven DSR teams.

According to NHRA.com, team owner Harry Lartigue was caught off
guard by rider Craig Treble's announcement of departure from his Tigue Racing
operation in order to ride for Don Schumacher Racing. He won't try to find a replacement and instead park his
operation for the time being. The time could be permanent as he cited a
close relationship with Treble.

Lartigue, who has tuned numerous
riders to national event victories including Treble, Tony Mullen and
Michael Phillips, currently has
no plans to find a replacement.

Lend America, recently ranked 12th largest direct-to-consumer FHA lender in the nation, announced today that the company
will
claim the title-rights sponsorship position on current IHRA nitro Funny
Car points-leader Terry Haddock's 2006 Dodge Stratus and join the
37-year-old Haddock in his quest for his first IHRA championship.
 
In just his third year of IHRA Funny Car competition, Haddock has taken
the break-away points lead on the strength of consistent qualifying
performances and an event win in Grand Bend, Ontario Canada, and with
just three events remaining on the IHRA schedule he stands 42 points
ahead of Paul Lee, not including an additional 41 points he will earn
for having attended every event this season.
 

Clay Millican never expected to race until the NHRA U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis, so racing at the NHRA Toyo Tires in Reading, Pa., proved
to be a pleasant surprise.

If that’s a pleasant experience, how does one describe a semi-finalist
finish in a race where they only expected to take a few practice
swings?

“We had no pretenses about going rounds here because coming to this race was such a last-minute thing,” said Millican.

Millican, new owners Mark and Lauren Pickens, crew chief Lance Larsen
and the crew were very happy and surprised with their semifinal finish.

Millican was one of the multitudes of drivers put out of racing when
sponsor Torco Race Fuels abruptly pulled the plug on its racing
endeavors.

First he lost a sponsor.

Then he had his new and innovative bike rejected after initially claiming approval by the tech department.

Just last week he claimed a victory in the midst of the worst kidney stone attack he’s faced in his life.

Sunday's might have very well guaranteed Mike Neff Rookie of the Year accolades.

Mike Neff made a big move last weekend by clinching the final spot in
the Countdown to One and racing into the semi-finals before he dropped
a close race to professional drag racing instructor Frank Hawley.
R.O.T.Y. candidates Bob Tasca III and Rickie Jones fell early in
competition.

“It felt good to go some rounds. We couldn’t get the set-up right going
down track. We spun the tires the first two rounds and on the last run
we thought we were going to fix that but we put a cylinder out,” said
Neff. “That is what cost us that race. I really thought we were going
to get him and go to another final.”

Del Worsham just ran out of time.

Worsham in the CSK Chevy Impala saw his long-shot hopes of
qualifying for the Countdown extinguished when Jack Beckman and Mike
Neff advanced to the semifinals during the NHRA Toyo Tire Nationals in
Reading, but Worsham can take some solace in his making an improbable
dash over the last few months to qualify for the U.S. Smokeless
Showdown bonus event to be contested at the U.S. Nationals on Saturday,
Aug. 30, with $100,000 going to the one-day event winner.

Worsham won this bonus event, based on Funny Car qualifying over the
course of a year, in 2005, but with two DNQs to start the season and
two more in the month of June, qualifying for the Showdown was not on
his radar screen. But on the strength of strong qualifying efforts the
second half of this season, Worsham came to Reading needing to
out-qualify Jack Beckman and Gary Scelzi, while he also had to hope
that John Force would not out-qualify him by 35 Showdown points.
Worsham (9th) out-qualified Beckman (13th) while Scelzi and Toliver
both failed to make the race field here. As for Force, he outpaced
Worsham, but not by enough to get around him and the improbable
qualifying scenario was complete. The final math equation resulted in
Worsham not only making the Showdown, but doing so in the seventh
position, while Force completed his own unlikely comeback by moving
into the eighth position.

Frank Hawley has been around drag racing long enough to know an
incredible upset when he sees one. He almost had a front row seat for
one in Reading when he came close to winning the Toyo Tires Nationals
at Maple Grove Raceway.

His final round against Jack Beckman marked only his fourth race of the
season and first race in two months and their first with Rite Aid. It
wasn’t a fluke. Hawley qualified second with a 4.128-second time.

A two-time Funny Car series champion (1982-83), Hawley began
eliminations by defeating his teammate, Melanie Troxel (4.355 seconds,
247.57 mph to 4.670 at 214.66), reigning Funny Car champion Tony
Pedregon (4.211, 289.76 to 4.223 at 288.95) and Mike Neff (4.237 at
284.39 to 4.294 at 276.75) before squaring off against Beckman.

Less than a year ago, a battered John Force was holed up in a hospital bed with a plethora of injuries related to an accident during
the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Texas. Force had made his way into
the Countdown to Four points with the round victory which ended his
season.

An emotional Force plotted every which way he could return to
competition, even though he couldn’t walk, push the gas pedal or much
less grip the steering wheel.