Not
only is Don Schumacher seeking a replacement for the non-retiring,
sabbatical-taking Gary Scelzi for next year, but he’ll be seeking a crew chief
as well. Schumacher confirmed that Mike “Zippy” Neff will leave the team at the
end of the year to drive a fourth Funny Car for John Force Racing.

“Mike
Neff informed me Saturday morning in Seattle that he is going over to John
Force Racing next year and drive the fourth Funny Car,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher
said the move came as no real surprise to him. He said that it had been
discussed prior to Neff’s decision to leave but felt it was a non-issue. In
Seattle, it became an issue again.

“Mike
had talked to me about it about a month or so ago,” Schumacher said. “He
committed to me in Denver on Thursday and Friday that everything was fine and
that he’s staying with me. We shook hands and a commitment was in place. He
told me that he was not going over there and that was that.

“Then
on Friday in Seattle we talked and John Force had been working him, working
him, and working him about driving a race car there [JFR Racing] and that was
the chance of a lifetime.”

Current NHRA Top Fuel points leader Rod Fuller
will pilot the yellow-and-black Peterson CAT dragster during the 19th running of
the FRAM-Autolite Nationals. David Powers Motorsports and San Leandro,
Calif.-based Peterson CAT have partnered for the FRAM-Autolite Nationals, July
27-29, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, it was announced today. This is the
fifth time that David Powers Motorsports and a Caterpillar dealer group have
joined to back Fuller’s car.

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. Peterson
Holding is the parent company to Peterson Tractor Co., Peterson Machinery Co.
and Peterson Power Systems. Peterson has 19 locations in Northern California and
Southern and Central Oregon and employs more than 1,000
people.

“It’s awesome to again fly the yellow-and-black of
Caterpillar,” Fuller said. “Two weeks ago at Denver, we put our Wagner CAT car in the
winner’s circle. Our goal is to bookend the Western Swing with wins for the CAT
dragster.”

The 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Awards Ceremony will be held at the historic Westin Bonaventure Hotel
and Suites, an architectural icon of the Los Angeles city skyline, Monday, Nov. 5.

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Awards Ceremony will feature a
pre-event cocktail reception, a formal sit-down banquet, and an after
party.

“After three years in the desert, we felt the move to downtown Los
Angeles provides a convenient yet electrifying atmosphere for the
year-end celebration to crown our NHRA POWERade World Champions,” said Tom Compton, president, NHRA.  This
is the inaugural year of the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the
Championship, a playoff-style format to determine the POWERade World
Champions in each of the four professional categories.

It seems like only yesterday that John Force and Eric Medlen were
playing cowboy with two-time PRCA champion Jerold Camarillo on his
ranch just outside Oakdale, Calif., Medlen's hometown.

It seems like only yesterday the two were floating in the pool at a Bay
Area spa for an episode of the hit A&E Network TV series, Driving
Force.

And it seems like only yesterday Force was celebrating with Medlen in
the winners' circle at Infineon Raceway, site of the 20th annual
FRAM/Autolite Nationals, where, in a perfect world, his young protégé
this week would have been defending his Funny Car championship.

But, as Force so often has been reminded the last four months, the
world is not perfect and Medlen, one of the brightest young stars of
the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, is gone now, his light
extinguished in a freak accident during testing last March at
Gainesville, Fla.

Scott Griffin Motorsports has made a change in personnel by releasing
crewchief Wes Cerny. Assistant crewchief Tony Shortall will assume the
duties this weekend with Rahn Tobler serving as a consultant.

When Pete Berner laid down some
impressive passes at the recent Tulsa race, the Pro Stock pits quickly
became a hornet’s nest of rumor and innuendo. The Jon Kaase-built
powerplant in Berner’s GTO was topped by carburetors from the shop of
Dave Braswell, and some claimed that this gave Berner an unfair
advantage.

Like so many similar situations, this turned out to be a tempest in a
teapot, as Berner explained. “Everybody has them now. When it started
out we did the prototype work for Dave Braswell, with the castings that
we had last year. Out of what we learned last year Dave developed this
casting. We had the first set, the prototype set, and in fact we’re
still running them on the car. To tell the truth they’re not as good as
the productions carbs are now – Brian Gahm ran a 6.29 with them last
night.

Clay Millican and SPEED TV are looking for feedback on Clay's new Blow It
Up TV program airing at 10 p.m. Sunday nights. The series began last Sunday. 
Anyone interested should send it to rich@launchhour.tv.

Drag racer turned Speed Channel analyst Johnny Rocca will be on camera
at Summer Thunder V in Purcellville VA this Saturday July 28 starting
at 3:00PM. Rockville, MD’s 3AM Studios, who are well acquainted with
filming automotive events, will be taping a TV quality DVD of this
years show.

Those of you familiar with some of the Speed Channel’s programming have
seen the shows that are filmed at car events all over the
country. Johnny will be the Summer Thunder’s Don Garlits, Dennis Gage
and Barry Meguiar all rolled into one. Johnny is an internationally
know racer and Gear Head of the 1st degree. Rest assured, if any one
can handle this task it's Johnny Rocca.