NEFF, SCHUMACHER, JOHNSON, CLAIM PROVISIONAL NO. 1 QUALIFYING SPOTS IN THUNDER VALLEY

One race after reaching the final round, rookie driver Mike Neff holds the provisional pole.

Mike Neff raced to the provisional top spot in Funny Car Friday as he
looks to collect the first No. 1 qualifier of his career at the eighth
annual O’Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

Neff drove his Old Spice Ford Mustang to a 4.783-second pass at 321.04
mph to become the provisional top qualifier at Bristol Dragway.

Tony Schumacher and Kurt Johnson were also No. 1 qualifiers in there
respective categories at the eighth of 24 events on the NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series.

Josh Hernandez took full advantage of unseasonably cold weather to storm to the
Day 1 qualifying lead of the JEGS ProMod Challenge at Bristol Dragway.
Hernandez's 5.950 at 241.11 mph was more than enough to put the reigning series
champ and Tommy Lipar's InterLinc Mortgage Camaro out front under cloudy and
sometimes rainy conditions. It was the only five-second pass of the
day.

"We're on a serious roll at the moment," said Hernandez, who has won
races in each of the past two weekends, one on the JEGS series and one in ADRL
competition. "Jim Oddy, my crew chief, when he gets onto something he's tough to
beat. He just stays in a groove and I get to go along for the ride.

"The
car has been exceptionally consistent for the last few races, and it's fast.
That's a great combination in Pro Mod drag racing. We're having fun and we'll
see if we can't go quicker tomorrow and shoot for the record. If the weather
stays like this, it could be time to swing for the fences."

The Darrell Russell tribute firesuit worn by Top Fuel driver Alan
Bradshaw at the recently-completed 12th annual O'Reilly Midwest NHRA
Nationals will have a permanent home in Russell's hometown of Houston.

Seth Angel, general manager and co-owner of Houston Raceway Park, was
the highest bidder for the firesuit, which was auctioned online at
eBay. Angel paid $1,100 for the one-of-a-kind item and plans to have it
framed and hung in a prominent place in the racetrack's Top Eliminator
Club, which is already named in Russell's honor.

"I was going to pay whatever it cost to get that suit," Angel said. "It
belongs here. It belongs in Texas and Houston Raceway Park, where
Darrell had so much success. We're going to get it mounted and framed
up so we can share it with Darrell's fans. It's great to remember and
honor a wonderful person like Darrell. He will never be forgotten at
Houston Raceway Park."

It’s a long way from May to September when the subject is qualifying for NHRA’s
Countdown to the Championship. 
 
Only the top 10 drivers will be title
hopefuls after the POWERade Series’ first 18 races, so the scramble for
positions is far from finished.  This weekend’s Thunder Valley Nationals at
Bristol Dragway is No. 8 and it’s an important one for sophomore Pro Stock
driver Justin Humphreys.
 
He is on the bump spot in 10th with 286
points.  Humphreys has been in the top 10 since the season opener and maintained
his place among the leaders despite an off-weekend at St. Louis (May 4). He
couldn’t get the RaceRedi Motorsports Pontiac GXP to make a run without spinning
the tires and it cost him a place in the starting lineup.
 
Now
Humphreys, new crew chief Frank Gugliotta and engine builder Richard Maskin plan
to hunker down and get back to winning elimination rounds.  Gugliotta, a
Humphreys’ family friend and IHRA Pro Stock competitor, stepped in when veteran
Bob Glidden retired.  The Pontiac picked up the pace at Atlanta before
encountering traction trouble the next weekend.

T.J.
Zizzo will make his Torco Pro Nitro Top Fuel season debut at the Motor
City Nationals in Milan, but his opinions and aspirations are already
in mid-season form.

Zizzo has yet to compete this season after finishing second in IHRA Top
Fuel points standings last year. He fell 41 points shy of Bruce Litton,
who won the title, but his bank account was much further behind than
his season points total. Zizzo is a case study in how a sponsorship can
go very, very wrong.

He headed into the 2007 season as one of the favorites to compete for
the World Championship. He had a new sponsorship with the now-defunct Race News Magazine
and things seemed to be headed in the right direction…but things were
not as they seemed. The sponsorship soon started to crumble and, by
midseason, had completely fell apart leaving Zizzo and his race team
with a stack of unpaid bills and an uncertain future. It was a
situation Zizzo is still trying to fight his way out of…even to this
day.

Alan Bradshaw enters Bristol on the strength of a positive St. Louis showing. (Roger Richards)

Having secured his first round-win of the 2008 season at the
last NHRA event in St. Louis, Top Fuel driver Alan Bradshaw returns to his
traditional Vis Viva "Living Force Energy" colors for this weekend's
running of the O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

"Team Vis Viva is certainly showing signs of hope," Bradshaw
said. "In St. Louis we had three runs in the 4.50's and that is the kind
of consistency we have been looking for all season.  It also shows that we seem to have a good
'average weather' tune-up, and our 'playbook' is getting bigger at every
race.  Anytime you have more runs to the
finish line under power than not, it is a good thing."

Elton
"Al" Eckstrand, who campaigned the Lawman series of Dodge Stockers and
toured them overseas to entertain and inform U.S. troops in the 1960s,
died May 10 in Naples, Fla., after a short illness. He was 79.

Now that he's driven in his 500th NHRA race, won his 1,000th round,
made his 201st final round appearance and celebrated his 59th birthday,
all within the last three weeks, John Force acknowledged Wednesday that
he may be ready to take the final step in his recovery from
career-threatening injuries suffered last fall in a 320 mile-an-hour
crash.

John
Force enters this weekend as the defending event champion. Bristol 2007
marked his first national event win since the tragic death of Eric
Medlen. (Brian Wood)

"Every race I'm feeling more comfortable in the car," proclaimed the
14-time series champion.  "The car's gotten better.  I'm better.  I
think we're ready to win again."

Construction at zMax Dragway @ Concord, which will host the inaugural
NHRA Carolinas Nationals Sept. 11-14, is progressing at a record pace.
Much of the initial work on the grandstand and tower is already
complete, and the whole facility is taking shape, as these aerial
photographs attest. The event will be the first of six races in the
NHRA Countdown to 1.

Team owner chartering jet to send drivers to Congressional Medal of Honor function …

While many of the NHRA POWERade teams are preparing for competition at this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Dragway in Bristol, Tenn., at least one team will put racing aside long enough to honor those heroes who have disregarded their personal safety for valor on the battlefield.

Roger Burgess, co-owner of Gotham City Racing, has arranged for a private jet to fly the team’s drivers Melanie Troxel, Frank Hawley and Mike Ashley as well as Kenny Bernstein Racing’s Tommy Johnson Jr. from Bristol, Tenn. to Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday evening for the In the Company of Heroes dinner. This gala function is presented by The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.

Burgess feels this event is one the team can learn from and apply to their everyday actions.