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TONY SCHUMACHER TO RUN DRAGSTER IN CHICAGO HONORING THE LATE DON SCHUMACHER

Top Fuel's winningest driver, Tony Schumacher, has made a career of thriving under pressure. He'll have plenty of pressure to succeed this weekend at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. 

Schumacher will race a dragster featuring a throwback tribute on his JCM Racing Top Fueler to his father, Hall of Famer Don Schumacher. It will be the first time he's raced in Chicago since his father's passing. 

The Don Schumacher tribute will be unveiled at 11:30 a.m. CST on Friday, May 17, during the Celebration of Life ceremony. 

EXPECT A MUCH DIFFERENT TOP FUEL BIKE IN CHICAGO THAN NHRA HAS PRESENTED THE LAST FEW SEASONS

Top Fuel motorcycles return to the NHRA national-event stage this weekend in Joliet, Ill., after an absence of 19 months.

But it won’t look anything like the 2022 NHRA Texas Nationals in Dallas, when Harley-Davidson riders comprised the field. In fact, from 2015 through the ’22 Dallas race, the action was limited to Harleys; hence, the name of the class then, Top Fuel Harley.

This weekend marks the NHRA debut of Top Fuel Motorcycle – open to all manufacturers, not just Harleys. 

THE PROCK ROCKET TRANSFERS FROM MACHINE TO MAN

 

The family moniker was in effect long before Austin Prock became a drag racer.

Prock’s father, Jimmy, having come within a round of tuning rookie Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan to a championship, moved over to Joe Amato, where his tuning tendency of swinging for the fence earned whatever car he tuned as the “Prock Rocket.”

On occasion, even Robert Hight’s Camaro was called the Prock Rocket. 

JACK ROUSH ADDS EXTRA MONEY TO THE POT FOR NMCA RACERS IN BOWLING GREEN EVENT

 

It's about a friend honoring a friend, and in this instance, a series and its racers benefit from their friendship.

Thanks to former drag racer turned NASCAR legend Jack Roush, those competing at NMCA’s Muscle Car Mayhem event at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY., will receive significant purse increases and top qualifier cash over the weekend of May 30 - June 2. 

ENCORE SUNDAY: A MOTHER'S DAY TRIBUTE

On February 22, 1979, my life changed forever.

That was as far as she always got. Maybe a few sentences further each attempt, but the effort always ended in the same fruitless result. She always aspired to be a writer but things never materialized. Robbie Elizabeth, as my grandparents named her in February of 1935, was the second oldest among four children. I just knew her as “Momma.”

That fateful date she continually referenced provided a memory that affected more than just her life. It changed mine, my sisters Deborah and Karen and most certainly my Dad’s – Bobby, Sr., as well as our entire family Momma was diagnosed with an aggressive growth that began as ovarian cancer. By the time the physicians performed a “look-and-see” operation, the growth had swollen to the size of a football.

The doctors basically gave Momma a month or two to live, tops. Of course, they didn’t know her resolve to succeed against all odds. They certainly didn’t understand her mission from God. Her assignment was to touch as many lives as she could in the short time she had left. Momma’s illness came at a time when cancer research and treatments were in the formative stage and essentially rocket science to the medical community. In those days, you just didn’t beat the disease.

ATLANTA DRAGWAY WAS ALWAYS A PAWN IN A DRAG RACING POLITICAL CHESS MATCH

The discussion could only happen after the track was gone. With Atlanta Dragway gone in favor of a battery manufacturing facility, the real story is coming out. 

Atlanta Dragway was a political pawn, and when its use was over, it disappeared. 

ICONIC DRAG RACER JEFF TAYLOR HAS BECOME A MASTER OF THE FIDGET SPINNER

 

You'd think that by age 63, being fidgety would be a mannerism one wouldn't have to concern themselves with. But standing there in the pits at No Problem Raceway last Saturday, waiting for his team to get a run in the BB/Altered Dodge Status, was sportsman drag racing icon Jeff Taylor steadily working a fidget spinner between his forefinger and thumb. 

"My grandson got me hooked on these," Taylor admitted. 'I went to visit, and we were just sitting around, and he had one. So I started playing with it. So he said, 'Well, you can just have it." 

Taylor declined the generous offer and purchased ten of the units when he got back home.

ZIZZO’S SUPER PART-TIMERS READY TO LIVE UP TO THEIR REPUTATION IN CHICAGO DEBUT

 

Missing the first five races of a season would likely affect almost any drag racing team, but for Chicago native T.J. Zizzo, the deliberate delay in starting the season works perfectly into his master plan. He and his team are, what some in the media and drag racing community have coined, a super part-time team.

Zizzo, who reached the semi-finals last season in his NHRA Route 66 Nationals debut, has visions of lightning striking twice with his Rust-Oleum Top Fuel dragster.

BRITTANY TO RUN PEAK-THEMED DRAGSTER IN CHICAGO

 

PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant is the presenting sponsor for the NHRA Route 66 Nationals but over the weekend of May 17-19, they plan to present event more. After a decade of exclusively sponsoring 17-time Funny Car champion John Force, the PEAK and BlueDEF brands will expand to include another nitro-burning race machine. 

The expansion will remain in the family as Brittany Force will run a PEAK-themed dragster at the proclaimed home race for parent company Old World Industries. 

"I'm very proud to carry the PEAK colors next weekend in Chicago," said Brittany Force, whose PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant dragster will match her father's Funny Car. "When I see PEAK, I see my dad, John Force, 16-time champion. And now to be connected with him through PEAK is something very unique, something very special. I actually ran a PEAK car back in 2018, so I'm excited to bring it back on board again in 2024."

DOUG KALITTA ADDS MARK III EMPLOYEE BENEFITS AS PRIMARY SPONSOR FOR BRISTOL

 

Kalitta Motorsports continues to attract new-to-drag racing partners, and in Bristol will unveil their latest. 

Mark III Employee Benefits will debut as primary sponsor on reigning NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta’s Top Fuel dragster at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., June 7-9, 2024 – it is the company’s first NHRA sponsorship. 

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