Tony Schumacher laid down a 4.510-second pass at 328.38 mph in the

Tony Schumacher honored U.S. Army Medal of Honor recepient Jon Caviani with his low qualifying run. (Roger Richards)

second
session to climb to the provisional pole position. The fact he was
carrying a little extra weight didn’t bother him in the least.

In fact, the extra weight made all the difference in the world.

Just 56 days after ground was
officially broken, The Dragway @ Lowe's Motor Speedway is rapidly
taking shape in preparation for the Sept. 11-14 NHRA Carolinas
Nationals.

“It's amazing to see how fast everything is coming together,”
said Roger Slack, Lowe's Motor Speedway's vice president of events.
“With the structure of the starting-line tower in place, concrete being
poured for the first pedestrian tunnel and the grandstands going
together, anticipation is building for the first race.”

Officials from the NHRA Pacific Division, Auto Club Dragway, and Auto Club
Famoso Raceway announced today a change to the 2008 Pacific Division Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series schedule.  Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car, which were
scheduled to run at the May 2-4 event at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, CA will
now be run at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, CA on September 12-13.  
This change applies to TAD and TAFC classes only, all other classes and
schedules for both events will remain the same.

Roger Richards Photos

A
significant part of drag racing history has taken place at Rockingham Dragway,
Steve Earwood’s venerable quarter-mile strip nestled in between the pine trees
near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. But while history and memories
are part of what makes Rockingham so special, the old guard better look out.
The young guns are coming.

Robert
Patrick was the low qualifier in San Antonio, can he bring forth the
same record-setting performances from pre-season testing in Valdosa?

Spencer
Massey, Steven Macklyn and Laurie Cannister each made strong statements at the
IHRA Knoll Gas Nitro Jam season opener in San
Antonio. And they have no plans to go away any time
soon. Massey defeated Terry McMillen in the Top Fuel final in San
Antonio a mere six days after securing his Top Fuel license in Houston. The 25-year-old Fort Worth, Texas
resident made his bones in the A-Fuel ranks, but drove through the Top Fuel
field en route to his first career professional IHRA victory.

Series champ Hernandez still the one to watch in JEGS
ProMod Challenge

The JEGS ProMod Challenge has featured its share of impressive winning streaks.
Shannon Jenkins started 2002 with back-to-back victories and later ran off three
wins in a row en route to the '02 title. Von Smith doubled-up at the end of
2003. Mike Ashley pulled off a trio of successive wins in 2005, followed almost
immediately by Josh Hernandez's pair of wins at the conclusion of the
season.

But if current points leader Joe Baker, the winner of the first
two races of 2008, wants to earn the all-time mark for consecutive victories
he'll need to stay perfect for three more events. Only then would he pass
Hernandez's record run of four straight wins, which started his march to last
year's title. It's both the longest winning streak in the seven-year history of
the series and the longest run of wins to start a season.

Catch up on last weekend's fast doorslammer action from Cecil County Dragway. Here are a few video clips relving the excitement.

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52683

The West Coast Hot Rod
Association starts its sophomore season with the Team Performance Products
Spring Nationals this weekend at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, CA.

Coming off a successful
first season series director Tim Rigby is looking for bigger and better things
in 2008.

“We have a good group of
sponsors on board and the future is looking bright for the series,” Rigby said.
“Our first year went better than we ever expected, the racing was great and we
saw things like Steve Paulauskis huge 6.33
Pro Street pass in less than ideal conditions. Our
racers are a great bunch of people and they really appreciate us putting the
fun back into the sport.

Eliminations are complete from the Gritz Blitz Jr. Dragster Nationals held this
past weekend at South Georgia Motorsports Park.  T.J. Tindle, son of the 2007
NHRA Promod Rookie of the Year, took the number one qualifying position and went
on to win the event.

2007 U.S Nationals A.M.S Pro Mod winner Harold Laird had a strong
finish to last season even though he missed the first four races of the
2007 season. While forming a new team with Crew Chief Terry Coyle on
board making the calls, Laird Motorsports was able to qualify at all
six remaining races, win the U.S Nationals, runner up in Dallas, and
semi-finals in Las Vegas. This all accomplished without any test
passes, a new engine combination and a new crew. Laird Motorsports went
on to finish seventh in A.M.S points standings.

Don Schumacher Racing drivers Tony Schumacher, Cory McClenathan and Jack Beckman
will sign autographs for fans at the Orleans Hotel & Casino, 4500 W.
Tropicana Ave., in Las Vegas, from 7-8 p.m. on Saturday, April 12. The
autograph-signing area will be set up at the South end of the Race and Sports
Book at the hotel.