Doug Foley owns a two-car
team that competes on the IHRA Knoll Gas Nitro Jam tour. A recent incident has
him concerned following the IHRA Canadian Nationals in Grand Bend, Ont., and he
wants to give his fellow racers a heads up. The source of his concern is a
possible change in border-crossing procedure.

Nothing appears on the
IHRA website announcing a change in policy.

“Our drivers were told
that from now on we were going to have to be bonded,” Foley said. “We were told
that a broker was going to be necessary for the paperwork required. You will
need to be bonded and all of that will need to be done before you get to Canada. We are
going to have to do that and it is certain to be costly to the teams.”

The IHRA’s Skooter Peaco
confirmed that a few teams and racers had been stopped before and after the
Grand Bend event. He even added he was one of them.

Foley, who owns the
dragster driven by Terry McMillen, said the IHRA always provided the teams with
a letter that was intended to make the border crossing as easy as possible.

“It was the understanding
that we were coming in to put on a show and once we were done, we were
leaving,” Foley said. ‘We could get out without paperwork or permits or any of
that. They told us that was no longer allowed.”

"Dyno Don" Nicholson might be fifteenth on our "Top 20" Mountain Motor
Pro Stock list, but that's only because he ran the big engines for a
relatively short time during a celebrated career that spanned five
decades. In the annals of drag racing history, and in the hearts of
drag-racing fans around the world, no matter what he drove, “Dyno” was
at the top of the mountain, pun absolutely intended.

Nicholson’s drag racing roots extended back to the colorful,
no-holds-barred days of Super Stock and Factory Experimental
competition of the 1960s and 1970s. At that time there were very few
national events of the calendar, so most of the top guns of the day
made their reputations, and livings, on the match-racing circuit.

In 1961, Nicholson won the Stock title at the first running of the
Winternationals at Pomona, California. That began a string of victories
that soon led to Nicholson becoming a staple on the lucrative
match-racing trail.

Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com
has learned the NHRA is aggressively taking a stance against team orders and
diving with the Countdown entering its second phase this weekend.

Reportedly, a letter was
issued from Graham Light to the professional teams pointing out this practice
will not be tolerated.

Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com contacted a member of the NHRA’s management team to confirm
the authenticity of the letter but the official couldn’t immediately verify or dispel
the letter’s contents.

Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com obtained a copy of the letter issued and it leaves no room
for interpretation.

Leading up to Charles Carpenter’s trip to Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports
Park in Norwalk, OH, all talk in the shop revolved around one thing: going
rounds. Carpenter did more than just go rounds Saturday night, as he captured
the Pro Nitrous crown at the inaugural Flowmaster ADRL Chevy Drags with a final
round win over fellow North Carolinian Rod Houck. The win was Carpenter’s second
ADRL national event victory of 2007 and fourth major win overall.

A policy and its
enforcement threatens to push one of drag racing’s and the NHRA’s longstanding
icons from the show.

Ollie Volpe says his team
has had enough and the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis will be the last time
you’ll see the Mr. Gasket trailer on the Manufacturer’s Midway at NHRA events.

“We’ve been doing this for
20 years, but after Indy we won’t have our big rig at any of the events,” said
Volpe, Racing Services Manager for Mr. Gasket. “The people who will really
suffer from this will be the racers, and I feel really bad about that.”

Volpe said the issue isn’t
that NHRA has rules, but rather the selective way they enforce them.

“They have their rules and
they are going to stick by them,” Volpe said. “We own a company and we can’t
push out a gondola to display our products. If I can’t do that, I’m not
bringing in an 80-foot rig just to display four products.”

Although three-time NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Champion Greg Anderson will try to
approach it as just any other race, the 53rd annual NHRA Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals may be the biggest race of his career.   

First and foremost,
Anderson, driver of the KB Racing LLC-owned, Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac
GTO, along with every driver on the O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis
facility, wants to win what is considered by most as the largest and most
prestigious event on the NHRA circuit.

Secondly, and maybe more important
from a historic point of view, Anderson, who has won five times in six final
rounds at Indy, including four-in-a-row, is trying to become the only
professional driver to win the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals five consecutive times. 
He won here in 2001 and 2003-2006 and was runner-up in 1999.  He also earned the
No. 1 qualifying position three times (2004-2006).  

"Obviously, winning
four-in-a-row at Indy has been pretty cool for me," said Anderson.  "I think
there is only two other Pro Stock guys that have done that -- Bob Glidden and WJ
(Warren Johnson). I don't believe that anyone in any professional class has ever
won five straight, so if I could do it that would put me alone in the record
book.  That would be a heck of a feather in our cap, winning
five-in-a-row.”

Torco's
CompetitionPlus.com always feels a sense of pride when we see our brave
troops overseas. Thanks to our good friend Lee McKinney we have this
picture of the brave soldiers  from the 240th MP battalian working in
SADR City and Northern Baghdad. That's the worst part in baghdad.

Here are a few diehard Mike Ashley fans and and a few drag
racing fans doing the deed. Thanks to Gotham City Racing as well as all the teams for their support on
the project.

Current NHRA Top Fuel points leader Rod Fuller
will pilot the yellow-and-black MacAllister CAT dragster during the 53rd running
of the prestigious U.S. Nationals. David Powers Motorsports and
Indianapolis-based MacAllister Machinery have partnered for the Indianapolis event, Aug. 29-Sept. 3, at O’Reilly Raceway
Park at Indianapolis, it was announced today. This is
the seventh time that David Powers Motorsports and a Caterpillar dealer group
have joined to back Fuller’s car this season.

The
relationship between David Powers Motorsports and the CAT dealer groups is
designed as a pilot program to increase technician recruiting. Caterpillar
dealers are experiencing a shortage of technicians and NHRA drag racing offers a
technician-rich recruiting environment to find qualified candidates with
experienced mechanical backgrounds. MacAllister Machinery is Indiana’s leading heavy equipment supplier and operates 14
locations throughout Indiana.

“This is the seventh time we’re running the CAT colors,”
Fuller said. “I hope this is lucky number seven and we can put this MacAllister
CAT dragster in the winner’s circle. To do that at the U.S. Nationals, our
biggest race of the year, would be an awesome way to showcase our talent and to
get the word out about the need to hire technicians for the Caterpillar dealers.
We want to have another strong showing in the CAT car as we begin the
Countdown.”

Australia’s
most successful drag racing organization, Team Bray, has signed a new naming
rights sponsorship deal with ARMOR ALL, the country’s most popular automotive
detailing products company, for the 2007/2008 season.

Ben
Bray’s 2005/2006 championship-winning Top Alcohol Funny Car will change from
its silver ‘shark’ livery and debut in the trademark ARMOR ALL black, orange
and yellow colors at the opening round of the new season, the East Coast
Nationals, at Sydney’s
Western Sydney International Dragway on August 31-September 1.

Mother Nature tried her
best Saturday, but the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League's inaugural ADRL
Chevy Drags were eventually able to crown four champions to conclude a
spectacular weekend of eighth-mile racing.

The ADRL's first trip to Summit
Motorsports Park
- and first trip into the northern part of the country - ended early Sunday
morning with Bubba Stanton (Pro Extreme), Charles Carpenter (Pro Nitrous),
David Janes (Extreme 10.5), and Eddie Gonder Jr. (Pro Extreme Motorcycle)
claiming event titles in their respective classes. The event was plagued by
three rain delays Saturday, beginning just before the scheduled start of
eliminations, but the track was dried and prepped in good order each time.