European road racing had its wake-up call last July. Formula One driver Felipe Massa suffered a serious head injury from a rear-suspension spring that popped loose from Rubens Barrichello's car and struck him in the helmet as he was traveling about 170 mph in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. That incident happened six days after Henry Surtees died from injuries in an accident at a Formula Two race at England's Brands Hatch course. Surtees was struck on the head by a wheel that had come off another car.
 
For drag racing, the alarm sounded six years ago -- Sunday, June 27, 2004, at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, with the death of Top Fuel racer Darrell Russell. Cut down in his prime, his life blunted by a broken piece of his dragster, Russell died so suddenly and so incongruously from the way he lived.
 
Always smiling, always unflappable, Russell was the epitome of happiness. He genuinely was joyful, and that radiated from him. No one would have guessed such an alarmingly violent, ugly act ever would be associated with the polite, handsome, clean-cut Texan. This was the same unassuming man who in 2001 capped his acceptance of the Auto Club Road to the Future Award by saying, "I love you, Julie" to his wife in a boyishly innocent touch of sweetness.

Ford fanatics now have one more reason to head to Thunder Valley for this weekend’s Thompson Metal Services Blue Oval Bash… the chance to be on television. Bristol Dragway officials today announced that Masters Entertainment Group will be at the event on Saturday filming racing action, car show participants and the exciting Battle of the Ford Jet Cars.

On-track action will be used for upcoming episodes of Inside Drag Racing TV which airs on Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m. and Monday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. on Fox Sports Network. The car show footage will be shown during the “Mother’s Car Show” program, also on FSN, on Sundays at 11 a.m.

Veteran tech man Jeff Norton has been retained as race director for all 2010 Goodguys Vintage Drag Racing events. Norton worked tech, scales and served as assistant race director with Goodguys/VRA during the West Coast Championship Series for west coast vintage drag racers from 1994 to 2006 and remains active in the West Coast vintage racing scene as a tech inspector for the NHRA Heritage Series.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. is best known for the four Pro Stock titles and 49 national event wins he's amassed in his JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt, but its no secret the 39-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, loves to race in the sportsman classes.

The American Drag Racing League (ADRL) is proud to announce Speedtech as the title sponsor of the next event on its 2010 tour, the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III at Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP), May 21-22, in Petersburg, Virginia.

The ADRL has enjoyed a long, mutually beneficial relationship with Speedtech, beginning with the Speedtech Winter Drags, the first official ADRL event in 2005 at Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Also, last season Speedtech became the title sponsor of the ADRL’s unique Speedtech Battle for the Belts, which pits the top eight points earners in each ADRL professional class against each other in an end-of-year, championship-deciding showdown.  

“We’ve also been involved with several top teams in the ADRL since its inception and feel the time is right to step up our presence in the series by becoming an official event sponsor,” Speedtech General Manager of Sales and Marketing Wayne Davis said. “We dramatically increased our involvement with the ADRL last year as the series’ official nitrous company and when the opportunity presented itself to become the title sponsor for the Speedtech U.S. Drags III it was an easy decision to say yes.”

Carolyn Ashbee, Goodyear’s sales account manager for drag racing, will retire May 7 after 38 years of service to the company. Ashbee started with the company as a teenager and has spent her entire Goodyear career with the Racing Division.

Bryce Jones has been selected to replace Ashbee at the helm of Goodyear’s drag racing effort.

“We’re all happy for Carolyn that she can retire now and pursue her other interests, but we’ll miss her,” said Stu Grant, Goodyear’s General Manager for Global Race Tires. “Carolyn’s loyalty to Goodyear and her work ethic are extraordinary.”

Two-time cancer survivor will be on hand for American Cancer Society event Friday

Lynn Nickerson stuttered as a child. He’s not alone, many children do. But how many of those children grow up to be a nationally known PA announcer?

Nickerson, a Fort Worth resident, is the voice of Division 4 NHRA drag racing. He cleared a lot of hurdles that included speech therapy and loads of patience to become a highly revered man with a microphone.

The battle to overcome a stutter, however, is nothing compared to the two times he has fought cancer.  Nickerson beat esophageal cancer in 2004 and then conquered it again in 2006 when that same cancer traveled to his kidneys.

NHRA announced today that Fox Sports Net will be the television home for NHRA Unleashed, an event and television series like no other, featuring “Pure American Horsepower” and celebrating the American muscle car and the passionate world of NHRA grassroots racing.

NHRA Unleashed events will be featured nationwide on Fox Sports Net in a series airing on consecutive weeks in November and December 2010. Two half-hour shows will be produced from each of the four NHRA Unleashed events at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. (June 11-13), O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis (Aug. 6-8, 2010), National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio (Sept. 10-12) and Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla. (Nov. 5-7).

The shows will be produced by Disrupt/ive Studios, led by Jack Schaeffer and Stephen Pullin, who have produced the popular PINKS, PINKS ALL-OUT and PINKS ALL OUTTAKES shows.

Frightening and dramatic were just two of the words used to describe Rick Stivers' racing accident just a year ago at Gateway International Raceway - the same quarter-mile racetrack he'll be piloting this weekend when the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series competes at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals. For the 53-year-old Kentucky native, that moment in time changed his life forever.
 
Last year during a qualifying run, the studs on the rear axle broke during a qualifying run, directing Stivers' car into the left retaining wall at an almost 90-degree angle. After a hard crash, the car tipped onto its front end
 and rolled once, sliding to a stop in the center of the track - right-side up.
 
"I still remember seeing the wall coming up in front of me like it was slow motion and thinking, 'ok, I'm going to hit it, I just have to keep the car from rolling over.' That was just before I slammed into the wall and rolled down the track," Stivers recalled.

Mother Nature has caused Roy Hill to change his racing plans this weekend.

Hill’s Spring Fling event featuring the Outlaw Door Slammer Series scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Holly Springs (Miss.) Motorsports Park has been postponed because the weather forecast is calling for rain all weekend.