John Buttera, who left his stamp upon the drag racing world in the
1970s by building a series of winning Funny Cars and dragsters, created
some of hot rodding's most beautiful street rods of the 1980s and
1990s, and built the first billet wheels, died March 2 after a long
battle with cancer. He was 67.

Buttera began his career in his native Kenosha, Wis., when he teamed
with Dennis Rollain to form R & B Chassis. They fielded a very
light unblown fuel dragster, but a chance meeting with Mickey Thompson
in the staging lanes at the U.S. Nationals lin the late 1960s led him
to move to Southern California, changing his life forever.

After initially working for Thompson on his Ford-powered Land Speed
Record streamliner, he built Thompson's blue Mustang Funny Car in which
Danny Ongais dominated the 1969 season. He then opened his own chassis
shop in Cerritos, Calif., where he built a radical streamlined dragster
for Barry Setzer. His talents soon led such customers such as Don “The
Snake” Prudhomme, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen, Don Schumacher, and
Shirley Muldowney to his door for both dragsters and Funny Cars. He
built Schumacher's 1970 Indy-winning Funny Car, the Hot Wheels entries
of Prudhomme and McEwen, the national record-setting Braskett &
Burgin Vega, and many, many more.

Atascadero, California-based reader Troy Berg scored the winner in our later informal "Name The Caption" competition. 

The prospects of Rickie Smith racing his new Chevrolet Cobalt Pro
Stocker in 2008 are slim, but that didn't stop him from showcasing the
potential of the car during the Mid-South Street Nationals in Memphis,
Tennessee. This triumph came in the maiden entry of the car.

The
event marked the first exposure for Smith the Outlaw Pro Street
division and although he didn't know what to expect initially, he
quickly found his groove with a 6.33 elapsed time at over 220 mph. This
came during a Friday afternoon test and tune.

Brett ‘The Boss’ Stevens from the
Jack Daniel’s Racing team was the standout performer over weekend at the Westernationals Drag Racing Championship
with a dominating display in the Top Doorslammer bracket, with teammate Troy
McLean also taking out Top Bike.

In front of a huge crowd at the Perth Motorplex,
Stevens lead from the start with a 6.02 second Top Qualifying effort before
charging through the Elimination rounds with consistent 6.0 and 6.1 second
passes at over 240 mph to take home the winners trophy.

In addition, he also took away the event low ET (6.01
seconds) and high mph (243.24 mph/391.45 kph) bonus points and has catapulted
himself to second place in the ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship Series with
just two rounds remaining.

“We had a plan as a team coming into the
Westernationals to back up Kath’s (Stevens) World Record performances from
Sydney two weeks ago here in Perth with some good
results and I think we have definitely done that,” Stevens
said.

The following are the pre-entries received for the 9th annual CSR Eastern Spring Test Nationals presented by Torco's CompetitionPlus.com hosted by South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga. 

Another Orangeburg, South Carolina
Chamber of Commerce day closed out the testing at Orangeburg Dragway’s revamped
eighth-mile facility.

In Saturday’s first session,
Herman Sheppard ran a 4.31 elapsed time at 171 miles per hour.

IHRA nitrous frontrunner Burton Auxier
cranked out a 1.00 sixty-foot time then before aborting the run from tire shake.
Auxier’s quick early incremental time and the subsequent end result established
the standard for the Saturday session -- a few modest passes and lots of tire
shake around the 200-foot mark.

Auxier would later record a 4.04
elapsed time at 189.70 miles per hour.

WHAT: Celebrating the 50th year of the March Meet, featuring top
nostalgia drag racers competing in 14 categories such as Top Fuel,
Junior Fuel and Supercharged Gassers, as well as Hot Rods and Nostalgia
Eliminator classes. Event is also the inaugural race of the NHRA’s new
7-race nostalgia program, the Hot Rod Heritage Series The weekend will
include hundreds of street rods, customs, and muscle cars and feature a
Swap Meet, Manufacturers Midway and lots of drag racing celebrities.

KDH Racing announced today that youngest member of the Harker Family, Diana will
debut in her first full season as a rookie driver in the NHRA Top Alcohol
Dragster Class with support from Michael Ashley’s Lend
America.

The 24-year old Australian will
follow in her twin sister, Kate’s foot steps and be at the wheel of 2003 Top
Alcohol Dragster Champion Team Owner/Crew Chief and Four time Division Five
Champion, Randy Meyer’s A/Fuel Dragster for a schedule 12races. No stranger to
the alcohol class, the Harker-Meyer team made a successful campaign in late 2007
across four events with a great semi-final finish to add to their credit. Harker
is set to compete at 7 National and 5 Divisional races on the NHRA Lucas Oil
Schedule and will proudly carry the Lend America logo along with support from
Lucas Oil and Hedman Hedders, ARP, Aeroquip, Taylor Cables, Solder Seal Gunk,
Aeromotive, and Meyer Truck Center.

“On behalf of Randy Meyer and myself
we are proud to welcome the team at Lend America on
board. Kate and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Ashley at the end of last
season and it was certainly a memorable experience getting to know Mike, the
Team at Lend America and Gotham City Racing. I
can’t thank Mr Ashley enough for this wonderful opportunity and I look forward
to proudly representing Lend America both on and off the track.”
said Diana

Almost a dozen Pro Modified entries are testing this weekend at the
revamped Orangeburg Drag Strip in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The
testing conditions were aided by Chamber of Commerce weather and a
track temp of 90-degrees by mid-afternoon.

The perfect conditions threw some teams a curve and many were struggling to make full passes on the eighth-mile track.

Kerry Crosby, record holder for the Automatic Pro Modifieds, produced
the first full run with a 4.13 elapsed time.  Roger Johanson and Greg
Godwin followed with a pair of 4.08 elapsed times.

Ford Racing has officially joined the PSCA as Title Sponsor of the newly formed
class "Mustang Maddness" and as the Presented By Sponsor of the "Hughes
Performance Arizona Nationals" this September 26-28 at Firebird International
Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona.

In addition, Ford Racing through
one of their Top-Ten Dealers (Hawaii Racing of Simi Valley, CA.) will award the
PSCA Ford Racer who accumulates the most Championship Points, a Ford Racing BOSS
Engine Block.

"We are really excited to be part of the Mustang Maddness
Class and look forward to working with the PSCA in the future", said Ford
Racing's Joseph King.