Gary Scelzi will bring out his new Brad Hadman chassis in Phoenix for testing. If that goes well the car could run Gainesville.

Gary Scelzi’s new Brad Hadman chassis didn’t run in Pomona during the NHRA
Winternationals. Scelzi has confirmed the car will not run during the NHRA CSK
Nationals, either.

This new Hadman chassis will make runs during the
traditional post-event test session at Firebird.

Scelzi told Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com that this season he
would be driving a chassis he was going to pay for himself that would be built
by his long time Northern California buddy,
Brad Hadman.  When that car did not make
it to Pomona, Scelzi
began the season in the Murf McKinney-built car that he drove last year.

“What happened was that all of the last minute changes that
came down while the car was being built meant that it couldn’t be ready in
time,” Scelzi said.  “NHRA didn’t make up
their minds until the last minute.  Brad
was working on dragster chassis until the last minute because we didn’t know
what the tubing size was going to be.  We
thought it was going to call for .095-wall tubing, but we didn’t want to build
a car that we would have to throw away in June (when all of the new F/C chassis
specs go into effect).

Two time NHRA POWERade Funny Car Championship
runner-up Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang team proved that one day
really can make a huge difference in your perspective.

Just twenty four hours before Hight’s
dramatic win at the 48^th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Nationals in
Pomona the level of confidence Hight felt was somewhere between low and
lower.

Now the 38 year-old
Yorba Linda,
Calif., resident is
excited to be heading back to Firebird Raceway with the No. 1 points position, a
consistent race car, and momentum on his side.

“I am definitely looking forward to getting
back to Firebird. Last year we were in the final with Tony Pedregon and we lost
the race at the top end when we had a malfunction in our Auto Club Ford
Mustang,” Hight said. “We were going for a national record to beat or back-up
our 4.636 second run from earlier in the race (last year). If we get good
conditions there again I think we can put up some more big numbers.”

Bloomington, Illinois-based reader Bernie Uszcienski scored the winner in our informal "Name The Caption" competition. 

Tom
Hammonds admitted he sacrificed much of his 2007 season but did so with
a bright future in mind. He’s hoping to write a new chapter in the book
this weekend.

“The engine program is coming along reasonably well,” said Hammonds.
“This is our first year in our new shop and we've had the winter to
kind of work on our engines.  I think we've improved our engines. 
We're just scratching through the surface I believe.  As the year
progresses I think it could get better and better.  As Jimmy Oliver
gets more time in the shop and gets to massage a lot of the things that
he wants to massage and tries a lot of the things that he wants to try
we should get better.”

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. 

NHRA Top Fuel driver Rod
Fuller and Firebird Raceway might just be the hottest combination since peanut
butter and jelly. The Las Vegas-based driver of the CAT-sponsored dragster has
won fifteen consecutive rounds of competition at Firebird.

“To me, Phoenix is the promise land,” said Fuller,
who finished runner-up in the 2007 championship standings. “The last three
times I’ve raced there we’ve won, so we have a great streak going on. Arizona is like a second
home. We did really good in testing and we have a good combination for that
race track. I’m very excited going into Phoenix.”

Fuller qualified 10th at
the season-opening Winternationals two weeks ago with a time of 4.539 seconds.
He advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to two-time champion Larry
Dixon. Fuller clocked low elapsed time of the event at 4.494 seconds in the first
round. It was the sixth low E.T. of the meet for Fuller.

It is the vision of God
Speed Ministry to build a community of faith within the family of IHRA drag
racing, its participants, sponsors, officials and fans. With this we are
committed to serving this community by providing a chaplain at every IHRA
divisional and national event.

We are currently searching for a chaplain to
serve in IHRA Division One. If you share in our vision and share God’s heart for
racers, we welcome the opportunity to talk to you more about investing with us
in God’s kingdom.

Happy birthday, March Meet.

Bakersfield born and bred in 1959, the drag race that helped put the
city on the map is turning 50 during its 3-day run, Mar. 7-9 at
historic Auto Club Famoso Raceway.

“We’re celebrating 50 years of racing here,” said Blake Bowser, vice
president and general manager of the Kern County Racing Association,
operators of Auto Club Famoso and producers of the fabled March Meet.
“It’s a historic occasion that all of Bakersfield, Kern County and drag
racing can be proud of.”

Half a century ago, Bakersfield was a sleepy oil town best known as the
last stop before climbing the “Grapevine” road to Los Angeles.  Things
changed rapidly when local country singer Buck Owens rose to fame in
the late 1950s. At the same time, drag racers from around the country
began pouring into Famoso for quarter-mile runs.

Such a concept looks great on paper but not realistic according to team owner Don Schumacher

One
of the hottest topics floating around the Pomona pits during the NHRA
Winternationals was the special fantasy feature on Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com proposing a weekend of drag racing throwbacks
similar to the one promoted by the National Football League honoring
vintage years. Up and coming rendering artist Greg Russell [http://www.gregrusselldesign.com ] combined classic paint schemes on modern day Funny Car body styles with current drivers.

Don’t get your hopes up for the chances this concept will happen in a modern drag racing setting.