The final round of Atlanta Motor
Speedway’s Friday Night Drags Series is set for this Friday, Sept. 8 and a
number of drag motorcycles are on the card for the final drag event of 2006.

The high speed motorcycles will be demonstrating the incredible
spectacle of professional drag bike racing with a combination of street, top gas
and pro-mod bikes.  The fastest class is expected to travel the entire AMS
eighth-mile drag strip in under five seconds.

After having interviewed 35 team
owners, drivers, tuners and sponsors for their views of the new points system,
here’s the bottom line:  The majority of those polled aren’t against change
per se, and most aren’t even opposed to the system of reducing the
championship contenders to a field of eight in each professional category
beginning with next year’s U.S.

As the world now knows,
two-time NHRA Pro Stock titlist Jeg Coughlin, Jr. will return to active
competition in Victor Cagnazzi’s Slammers Milk-backed Chevrolet beginning with
the NHRA POWERade Series national event at Virginia Motorsports Park later 
this fall.

The first day's talk at the Mac
Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals
at newly re-named O’Reilly Raceway Park was
dominated by discussions
of the new points system for next season (See
previous News items for
the details). Racers, manufacturers and the media
could talk of
little else, and Torco’s Competitionplus.com will be posting

reactions throughout the weekend. Everyone was asked the same basic

question: What’s your opinion of the points system change for next

season?

Three-time NHRA champion Jeg
Coughlin Jr. announced Friday he will return to the POWERade Drag Racing Series
full-time in 2007 behind the wheel of a second Slammers Ultimate Milk Chevrolet
Cobalt. Coughlin, a 47-time national event winner, will be driving for Victor
Cagnazzi.

On Monday, and prior to the start of
eliminations at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, NHRA was surprised and
disappointed to learn that Ray Alley, director of Top Fuel and Funny Car racing,
was leaving the organization to work with Kenny Bernstein and his newly-formed
Funny Car team for the 2007 season.

With the 2006 eMax IHRA Drag Racing
Series schedule entering the home stretch, Pro Modified competitor Alan Pittman
feels that the knowledge and experience he and his team have gained this year
will see them through to a solid, top-ten finish.

Currently sitting in the No.

World War IV is coming to Montgomery
Motorsports Park in October! The battle royale, presented by Comp Cams, TCI and
George Howard Racing, will be played out over the October 14-15 weekend and will
feature nothing but heads-up, Pro tree racing. Classes that will be contested
include Outlaw 10.5, Outlaw 4.70, Outlaw 5.30, Limited Street, Real Street and
6.0 and 7.0-indexed classes.

Roy Johnson, Allen’s father, told
Competitionplus.com that he’s been told (by Mopar, we assume) to have an engine
ready for Richie Stevens’ use at the Maple Grove race.  This would tend to
confirm the rumors that Stevens will be “traded” to the Johnson team immediately
following the U.S. Nationals.  At this juncture it may be pure speculation, but
it would appear that Schumacher’s relationship with Daimler-Chrysler is becoming
increasingly strained.

Patti Barrett, who along with
husband Bill Barrett sponsors Scott Weis' dragster, shared with Torco's Competition Plus
an explanation of what caused the explosion with the car near the starting line
this past Sunday during the final Top Fuel qualifying session at
Indianapolis.