Eaton Corporation’s Electrical Business (Canadian Operations) to sponsor Eaton PMRA Challenge at Quebec facility
 

As part of its commitment to customer loyalty and appreciation along
with presenting the best in Pro Modified drag racing, the Canadian
electrical group of Eaton Corporation will once again be host for the
Eaton Presents the Third Annual PMRA Challenge at the Sanair drag strip.
 
Situated just outside of St-Pie, Quebec, the Sanair track is just south
of Montreal. This year’s race will be the fifth on the 2008 Pro
Modified Racing Association Tour.
 
“Hosting this event in previous years has been a terrific way for us to
reward those who remain loyal to the Cutler-Hammer® and Powerware®
brands of Eaton products,” said Paul Tlustos, Marketing Communications
Manager, Eaton (Canada). “The PMRA teams offer an outstanding day of
racing for our guests, and everyone was thrilled to watch these 200-mph
plus doorslammers put on a terrific show.”

Royal Purple Synthetic Lubricants announced today its’ title
sponsorship of the 3rd Annual Powder Puff Race for the Cure, created by
M.O.R.E (Mohave Off-Road Enthusiast) & DAMZL Inc. Benefits and
donations acquired from this year’s event will support Cedar Sinai
Women’s’ Breast Cancer Research Center.  This year’s event will take
place in Barstow California October 10th – 11th 2008.

Jerry Eckman raced many years in NHRA POWERade Pro Stock and the
experience has never come in handy more than it has the last two
seasons.

Eckman, who serves as crew chief for Tom Hammonds, is regularly dipping
into the log books as he tries to find the right combinations for what
can be sometimes unpredictable racing surfaces. He heads into the NHRA
Southern Nationals in Commerce, Georgia this weekend with a past win
under his belt at the established facility.
 
Five races into the season Team Hammonds has qualified only once.
Eckman explains that the team has been working with new set-ups and
trying out new things to find the right combination which has not
always presented the result for which they were working toward – a win.

Chassis fabricator Tommy Mauney, who won IHRA world championships in
both Pro Stock (1990) and Pro Modified (1995), is among the headliners
descending this week on Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway to compete
in the annual Holcomb Motorsports Spring Civil Wars presented by TCI.

Mauney will race in the Carolina Outlaw Pro Mod Shootout contested for
the first time in conjunction with the Civil Wars.  Sharing center
stage will be eighth-mile racing in Outlaw Pro 10.5 Shootout that pays
$7,500 to the winer and competition in the PTRA/TCI Super Series
featuring Real Street, True Street and Top Street.

Pro qualifying will begin with a single session at 8 p.m. Friday and
continue at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday.  Single elimination
finals in the pro categories will begin at 12 noon on Sunday. 
Saturday’s show also will crown champions in three PTRA index classes –
5.30 seconds, 6.0 seconds and 7.0 seconds.

Racing NHRA Top Fuel is
nothing new for Elkhart, Indiana’s Terry McMillen. What will be new
for the IHRA regular is racing with the dual role of driver and car owner.

"We're excited about
being in Atlanta,"
McMillen said. "We planned on running several of the NHRA races this
season; Atlanta
wasn't really one of them, but our crew chief, John Smith, has done a great job
of getting a handle on this car and getting our crew to jell in a short amount
of time. We've got 10 laps on this new chassis and combination, and John
already has us in the .60s."

McMillen operates under
the Hoosier Thunder Motorsports moniker and will compete this weekend with
additional backing from Ole Country Smokehouse of Anderson, S.C. Primary
sponsorship comes from Torco Race Fuels and Amalie Oil.

On a sunny afternoon in suburban Atlanta, an 8,000 horsepower NHRA Funny Car and drivers Melanie Troxel and Frank Haley
had the rapt attention of special kids from the Dream House for
Medically Fragile Children, their siblings, parents and Dream House
staff.

Troxel will drive the special Gotham City Racing Dream
House Dodge Charger R/T in this weekend’s national event at Commerce,
Ga., and Hawley will be at the controls of the ProCare Rx Dodge Charger.
 

Troxel
happily gave up her accustomed seat inside the car for a spot on the
front wheel while she signed autographs and the grinning children took
turns sitting behind the wheel. 

Roger Burgess remembers a weekend, last year, when he joined a group of
friends attended the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. While
his associates were mesmerized with the thunderous sounds of the
nitromethane-burning entries, the Atlanta, Ga.-based businessman was
infatuated by the antics of the Pro Modified division.

So infatuated was Burgess, founder of ProCareRX, he went out and
purchased himself a Pro Modified car to call his own and a few more for
good measure.

“I actually wanted just one and I ended up buying a few of them,”
Burgess said as he laughed. “I specifically watched Pro Modified run
that weekend. They just looked like they were having a lot of fun.”

Yes, former IHRA Pro Stock champion Steve Spiess is racing in NHRA Pro Stock this year. No, he’s not doing it exclusively.

Spiess was running Pro Stock during the IHRA Spring Nationals in Rockingham, NC, and fared quite well, qualifying tenth.

Team
Jegs racers Jeg Coughlin and Troy Coughlin hosted Top Fuel racers Cory
McClenathan and J.R. Todd Monday at their annual Jegs outing at the
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The four drag racing stars
and several of their friends, family, and media members spent the day
learning how to drive the school's high-performance Acura TSX A-Spec
sport sedans. Retired Formula One driver and MOSCC instructor Tommy
Byrne gave the group plenty of classroom instruction before turning the
drivers loose on the famous 15-turn, 2.4-mile road circuit.

"We
have a lot of things we do each year with our various sponsors, but
nothing compares to Jegs Day at Mid-Ohio," said McClenathan, a Team
Jegs racer who put his Fram dragster in the winner's circle of the last
NHRA POWERade event in Las Vegas. "It's something I look forward to
even though, once again, I'm flat worn out. I'm aching in places I
didn't even know could ache."

Paul Blevins, one of the successful
campaigners in NHRA's Modified class with a U.S. Nationals title, world
championship, divisional championships, and national records to his
credit, and later a standout racer in the Pro Stock ranks, died April
22.

Blevins, who ran his cars out of the respected Duffy's
Performance Specialties shop on the East Coast, was a four-time
Division 1 champion and multi national record holder in Modified with
string of Modified production racecars.