IHRA’s official magazine now available in digital form
on www.ihra.com/dragreview

DRM, the official magazine of IHRA drag racing and the
Knoll Gas Nitro Jam, will now be available online at www.ihra.com/dragreview. Issues #21
through #23, the final three issues of the 2007 season, will be free to all
visitors to nitrojam.com while registration with a membership number will be
required beginning with Issue #1 of 2008. You will be asked to enter an e-mail
address and zip code to view Issues #21 through #23.

Foley & Lewis Racing and Dake are pleased to announce that Dake will be the
Official Machine Tool of Foley & Lewis Racing and Doug Foley's Drag Racing
School for the 2008 season. Dake, a well established company since 1887 is based
in Grand Haven, MI.

Patience is a virtue in
most cases, but for crew chief Brian Corradi it isn’t – at least when it comes
to the safety of his driver.

Corradi, crew chief for
Mike Ashley’s Gotham City Racing team, along with co-crew chief Mark Oswald, have retained the services of Dr. Rory
Davis as well as Chuck Haase to test the safety of their chassis.

Corradi said they’ve delivered
a chassis already to Haase for a stress analysis this week.

“They are just testing to
see where we can improve on it,” Corradi said.

John Force is at least one
team that has said they plan on building their chassis in-house. Corradi said
Ashley’s Torco Race Fuels-sponsored
Gotham City
Racing doesn’t plan to take their program that far, at least not at this stage
in the game.

Six-time NHRA champion and
motorsports icon Kenny Bernstein made a surprise announcement
Tuesday that he is stepping out of the cockpit of the Monster
Energy/Lucas Oil Funny Car effective immediately and has hired
well-known Funny Car shoe Tommy Johnson Jr. as his successor.

"I was only contemplating driving one more year," said
Bernstein, "but when Tommy became available at the end of the '07
season, we started to give the situation a lot of thought. We've
been fortunate to win six championships and 69 races, and we have some
milestone performance marks, chief among them becoming the first to
crack the 300-mph barrier.

"I guess we can always look to win one more race or one more
championship, but in reality, I've had a great career and many talented
crewmembers who have helped mold my success through the years. For me at this stage of my life, the right decision is to step away from the cockpit.

JEGS Mail Order has signed a multi-year agreement with NHRA to sponsor all three NHRA SPORTSnationals events.

JEGS Mail Order will renew its sponsorship of two of the events – the
JEGS NHRA Cajun SPORTSnationals, April 4-6 at No Problem Raceway in
Belle Rose, La. and the JEGS NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals, Sept. 19-21
at historic National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio – and will
become the new title sponsor of the JEGS NHRA Pacific SPORTSnationals,
Oct. 3-5 at Auto Club Dragway at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

“JEGS Mail Order is excited to support all three NHRA SPORTSnationals
events,” said Scott Woodruff, director of media and motorsports for
JEGS Mail Order.  “This is a program that we are excited to continue
helping bring to the next level.  As always, the plan is to continue to
add new elements to the race program so that all three events will be
more enjoyable for everyone involved.”

The JEGS NHRA SPORTSnationals are NHRA national events designed to
showcase NHRA’s sportsman categories exclusively. Competitors in Comp
Eliminator, Stock, Super Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas and Super Street
will compete for more than $50,000 at each of the JEGS NHRA
SPORTSnationals events in 2008. NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
national event points will be awarded to drivers in all categories
except Super Street.

Steve Gibbs knows his role and even though it’s not an official title, he has no problem with it.

“I’ve become an elder statesman for some of the things the NHRA does,”
Gibbs said. “That’s certainly not an official title but when you’ve
been around long enough, those kinds of things happen.”

Some of those capacities include delivering eulogies such as the one he
most recently delivered at former NHRA Division 3 icon Bob Daniels
funeral and a special Cacklefest during the NHRA AAA Finals honoring
his former employer and NHRA founder Wally Parks.

“I got a phone call from the NHRA asking me to take care of it,” Gibbs
said. “I would have done anything for Wally. That’s the kind of stuff
that I do.”

Gibbs labels himself “an old retired guy on a pension.”

Karl
Klement announced that Peggy Llewellyn's contract will not be renewed to ride
his Rush Racing Buell in 2008.

"I
really want to thank Peggy for the job she did for us this year," said
Klement, whose NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle team finished fourth in points in
their very first year on the POWERade circuit. "Never in my life would I
have thought we'd do that well this quickly. I want to thank Peggy, all the
crew members, George and Jackie Bryce, George Smith, and everybody at G2
Motorsports for making this season so successful.

The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that veteran jet car racer Art Arfons passed away on Monday at the age of 81.

Arfons was an innovator in Jet Car racing as well as a world speed
record holder and champion Tractor Puller. He was a member of the 
Motor Sports Hall of Fame of America, International Drag Racing Hall of
Fame, International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, National Tractor Puller
Association Hall of Fame and the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame. He
was a veteran of the Navy serving in World War II.