Drag racing has a rich history of vintage cars.

Unfortunately, memories of most of those dragsters and Funny Cars are relegated to photographs, home movies and old TV footage.

That’s not the case for the Jim Kirby/Dick Harrell 1968 Camaro AA/Funny Car. This car, which was last raced in 1972, is still available for the racing world to see in its original glory. The car is now owned by Bill Porterfield.

“I was match racing the Gibb/Harrell ZL-1 in 1990 and heard about this Kirby car,” Porterfield said. “I talked to Jim (Kirby) a couple of times and he gave me a price, but I could not handle it. Matt Murphy acquired the car in 2003. He restored the chassis, but left the original paint and I bought it from him in 2009.”

Three days removed from one of the most memorable moments of his racing career, Kurt Busch is still answering questions concerning his very

first professional foray into NHRA Pro Stock drag racing.

Taking questions on a pre-arranged NASCAR teleconference, Busch let his enthusiasm for the recent weekend on the NHRA circuit shine through.

“It was such a great time that I had there with the fans,” remarked Busch, revealing one of the most significant differences between the NHRA pit area and a NASCAR garage.

“The grandstands are right there. (Fans) file out of the grandstands, then you have the perfect pit-area-type atmosphere. It's easy that way because all the cars are towed through the pits. Nobody really drives through like we do with our garage area, where there's the hot pit area.”

Atlanta is a thriving metropolis with tourist attractions, a lively night scene, exceptional restaurants, and an energetic vibe which blends the Old South with 21st Century style. And people keep asking Melanie Troxel how she likes her new home.
 
She'd like to tell friends and family about the hotspots or her favorite eatery, but the trouble is that since moving to Atlanta from Indianapolis last September, she's rarely there -- or when she is, she has no time to explore the historic city.
 
Especially in her new role as General Manager of Roger Burgess' R2B2 Racing team, Troxel has her hands full. Just before Christmas, Burgess announced she would return to the Pro Modified class for all 10 Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series at the NHRA races, as well as a complete slate of Full Throttle Drag Racing Series action in the In-N-Out Burger Funny Car.
 
Troxel said becoming R2B2 General Manager wasn't up for discussion when she relocated to Georgia to be near team headquarters in Duluth. Her reason for heading south was "making myself more valuable to the team by going beyond the standard job description."

Matt Hagan is banking on being less of a man making him more of a competitive driver.

For the first time since high school, Hagan, last year’s NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship runner-up, tips the scales under 200 pounds at 190.

Hagan has shed over 40 pounds since last season by religiously adhering to a rigorous workout regimen. He’ll readily admit a change was necessary, if only to shake off last season’s stinging championship loss.

John Force is driven by emotion.

Admittedly the 15-time champion was emotional on Thursday afternoon when he made his first qualifying run at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, CA. For the first time since 1986, Force was racing without his longtime crew chief, tuner, and voice of reason, Austin Coil.

“I love Austin and Bernie’s [Fedderly] been talking to him this week,” said Force. “You know he always talks to Guido [Dean Antonelli] and Robert [Hight] and we just haven’t talked.”

Coil announced his resignation from the team just days after the John Force Racing team captured an improbable 2011 world championship by overtaking Matt Hagan at the last race of the season. The two haven’t spoken since.

Sean Holly, President and general manager at Crane Cams, wants it known the company is back in business and rebounding strong.

“I think customers are going to be very happy and pleased with the new Crane,” Holly said. “These products are made in the United States exclusively by Crane, for Crane customers, and it’s going to be with quality that can’t be beat.”

Crane Cams, which is based in Daytona Beach, opened its doors in 1953 and by the late 1960s future drag racing legends like Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, “Dyno Don” Nicholson, Bruce Larson and Don Schumacher were using Crane camshafts and valve train components in their racing engines.

In the following years, Crane Cams became a respected and iconic brand in the high performance

Ever wonder what Gary Scelzi's up to? The former Top Fuel and Funny Car world champ, one the most successful and popular fuel racers of the past 20 years, is back home in Fresno, Calif., working at the family business, watching sons Dominic and Giovanni race at tracks around central California, and not particularly missing the life of a world-famous drag racer. (Well, maybe a little.)

"I did it for 12 years," Scelzi says. "You fly home for a couple days, work on plane and hotel reservations and whatever appearances you're going to make at the next race, and then you're right back on a plane headed to the next one. There are other things in life, you know? For a guy who's 25 years old, it's great. You'd do any thing to race. I would've – I did. But now I'm 50. Your priorities change."

For two years now, Scelzi has been working at Scelzi Enterprises, which manufactures custom truck bodies for the service and construction industries. And now his boys don't watch him race – he watches them.

Courtney Force can't remember a time when she didn't want to drive a nitro Funny Car, just like her famous father's.

“It has always been a dream of mine to get into a Funny Car and one day race my dad and then my sister. It's really crazy that I am finally living that dream,” exclaimed Force in a recent phone conversation.

“I grew up going to the races, watching my dad race every weekend on television if I couldn't make it,” remembered Courtney. “It's funny, I was at my mom's house last night going through old arts and crafts stuff from school and I have a million pictures of me drawing race cars that barely look like race cars, but then you can see a Castrol GTX written on the side of the car.”

Mike Thermos believes the process of injecting nitrous oxide into automotive applications can be both a safe and efficient way to gain cheap horsepower. However, lately, Thermos, the founder of Nitrous Oxide Systems and renowned nitrous expert, admits he’s seen good intentions turn dangerous from those taking unsafe liberties with nitrous oxide.

Thermos is afraid those unsafe practices can quickly change what has been a relatively safe practice into a game of Russian roulette if some practices aren’t stopped.

“There have been a lot of issues lately with a lack of knowledge when working with nitrous oxide,” Thermos claims. “My goal and objective is to educate racers of what nitrous oxide can do if not handled properly. We just want to educate racers how to stay within the envelope of what nitrous oxide is supposed to do.”

Thermos says his mission is to let racers know that nitrous bottles, while helpful to elapsed time and speed, can in a split second become a thrust rocket or create a deadly explosion.

NASCAR Champion Kurt Busch's rush to destiny at Gainesville Speedway is slowing down.

No, he's not backing off his plans to enter the Pro Stock portion of the NHRA Gatornationals. Those plans are full speed ahead.

Where Busch is experiencing a slowdown is inside the cockpit of his Shell/Pennzoil sponsored Dodge Avenger and as Busch explains it, slowing down is absolutely necessary to his efforts.

“We're 85 percent,” said Busch when asked if he was ready for Gainesville. “We're almost there. There is still more to learn and there always will be. The comfort in the car is settling in; things are slowing down when we're making our passes.”