The 25 th Annual Torco Racing Fuels Northern Nationals was a weekend of firsts for Illinois-based racer T.J. Zizzo. He claimed his first career pole position when final qualifying was said and done and, back where he made his first IHRA appearance last season, registered the low ET of the meet and captured his first career national event victory at US 131 Motor sports Park.
Zizzo was the best Knoll Gas-Torco Racing Fuels Pro Nitro Top Fuel car all weekend. After his Friday qualifying hit stood up he knocked off J.R. Todd, a recent two-time NHRA national event winner, in the first round of eliminations. He then handled Bruce Litton in the semifinals and Doug Foley in the finals to take home his first Ironman.

“This is an all-volunteer team, and I mean all volunteer,” Zizzo said. “Not even Dave Settles, the Crew Chief, gets paid a dime on this deal. US 131 is one of my favorite race tracks and I’ve won here before in an alcohol dragster, so this win really means a lot to us.”

Zizzo won the Ironman when he defeated Foley in the final, but it was his first-round match-up with J.R. Todd that Zizzo was most keyed-up for.

When
records are discussed regarding the IHRA eMax Drag Racing Series, the topic
usually centers on performance on the track. Saturday, at the 25^th
Annual Torco Racing Fuels Northern Nationals, all the talk was about everything
surrounding the race.  

Waves of people filed into the facility from the time the
gates opened until just after the final professional qualifying sessions were
completed. IHRA officials had to delay pre-race ceremonies for 45 minutes while
the late-coming drag racing fans made their way through the line of traffic that
backed up down the access road and onto US 131 in both directions.

“I have never seen anything like this,” IHRA President
Aaron Polburn said. “We are having trouble keeping up with the demand for
tickets at the gate. It is amazing to me that Jason and Stephanie Peterson and
their staff are still standing when you consider everything they have been put
through today. I have to take my hat off to them because they are performing way
above and beyond the call of duty.”

Ticket sales for the 25^th Annual Torco Northern
Nationals surpassed last season’s sales before the first pair of cars went down
the track Saturday. Saturday ended up being the single largest day, crowd-wise,
in Northern Nationals history. That record was not broken by hundreds, it was
surpassed by thousands.

Here's a look at Troy Coughlin's new
turbocharged Pontiac Grand-am. It is rumored to be headed to the IHRA with the
legalization of turbochargers in the Pro Modified class.

Troy Critchley put the Dr. Moon’s
Rage AMS ’57 Chevy in the sand, and in the air, at the end of his qualifying
attempt on Friday, and in an interview with John Waldie and 1320 TV he explained
what happened and how he managed to walk away from the scary crash with no ill
effects.

“We seem to be testing the boundaries right now,” he said.
“Our other car, the ’70 Cuda, has been 237 miles an hour three times now, but
the second time we did it we had problems with the chutes. The chutes went down
under the car and wrapped around the rear-end, actually. It’s pretty hard to
pull one of these things up – 2700 pounds at 237 miles an hour.

For drag racers, it’s burnouts,
shifting gears and parachute pops – but this weekend in Martin Funny Car driver
Mike Ashley will be moving to a different beat, adding his own creative flair.
Along with his Sponsor, Evan Knoll, Ashley and his team were involved in the
shooting of a music video with a drag-racing theme.

 
Having captured the
attention of all drag racing fans with their “Go Hard or Go Home” song which is
featured on NHRA POWERade drag racing telecasts on ESPN2, The Formula Project
will compile drag racing footage for their new rap/hip-hop song “The
Choice.”

Worsham Racing's popular Murray's
Discount Auto-sponsored "Madman Murray" car will make a surprise appearance at
this weekend's O'Reilly Midwest Nationals near St. Louis, with veteran Funny Car
driver Jeff Arend at the controls.   The Worsham organization will operate the
additional car at the event, while Del Worsham and Phil Burkart will drive their
standard red and blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlos, respectively.  
The Murray's car is also scheduled to appear in both Memphis and Indianapolis
later in the year, with Burkart driving.

"We have the equipment, we had a
good driver at our disposal, and we
have enough additional crew guys to do
this for one race without a lot
of extra effort," Worsham said.  "So, we got
with CSK and discussed the
idea with them, and the consensus was to do this
with the Murray's body
on the car.  This way, we're able to give the latest
addition to the
CSK family of stores some additional exposure, while we also
get to
provide the St. Louis fans with a chance see this great car.  With
our
midwestern shop in Auburn, Ind. being right on the way from

Englishtown, it wasn't that difficult of a project to take on.  We just

stopped here on the way, and got to work on it."

Jerry Eckman misses the home he
knew for almost three decades. To him, driving a Pro Stocker was the place he
had lived since 1955. He’s still involved in the sport but a fine related to a
controversial situation in the mid-1990s keeps him from returning to active
competition.

Eckman is a crewmember on Kenny Koretsky’s Pro Stocker driven by
Mike Thomas. The gig with Koretsky represents his first full-time racing gig
since the infamous nitrous explosion at Columbus in 1994. The controversial
incident took place in the pit area before Eckman had even turned a tire under
power in competition.

Veteran Funny Car pilot Tommy
Johnson Jr. and Don “the Snake” Prudhomme’s Skoal Racing Funny Car team will be
featured on the popular History Channel series Modern Marvels during a
60-minute episode dedicated to horsepower. Modern Marvels is for an
audience eager to dig a little deeper, explore a little further, and get a
little closer to the knowledge that shapes our everyday lives.

Johnson, a seven-time NHRA winner, will be prominently featured in
the first segment of the hour-long program that will air on Wednesday, June 21
at 10 p.m. (ET). The Modern Marvels production team attended the NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series event at Houston Raceway Park in late March to
gather b-roll footage and interviews for the Modern Marvels: Horsepower
piece. Johnson’s wife and Top Fuel driver Melanie Troxel also will be featured
during the segment.