George Howard and Roy Hill Hitting The Promotions Trail in 2010

Two titans of the promoting world are coming together and at least one doorslammer racer is going to walk away with a might big payday.

Friday evening during the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show, George Howard, of Million Dollar Bracket Race fame, and Roy Hill, Pro Stock legend turned Drag Racing School instructor, announced they will team up to present the Outlaw Doorslammer Series throughout the southeast in 2010.

In at least one instance, a racer’s loyalty will be rewarded with the opportunity to race for $100,000 in a winner-take-all contest.

“We paid $50,000-to-win once and that was the largest before,” said Howard. “This is going to be a large payday for someone out there.”

In business, as in life, timing is everything.

For Roger Burgess and the rest of the Pro Modified contingent, a depressed economy and troubles back in Detroit, proved to be just the right time to push for professional status with the NHRA.

The exodus of factory support for Pro Stock teams and the sanctioning body turned out to be the foundation Burgess, founder of Get Screened America, the title sponsor of the NHRA Pro Modified division, needed to further the interest of the Pro Modified car owners and drivers.

“I viewed that as the perfect time to go directly to Tom and bypass all the intermediaries and so I did,” Burgess revealed. “I went straight to Tom. I sent him an email and said, 'Tom, I think now is the best opportunity we've ever had to make Pro Mod a class.”

Just one day of testing is enough to convince Larry Morgan that his new Mustang GT is going to be the bomb. For Morgan, his bomb reference is the youthful reference to an exciting experience and not the negative connotation.

Morgan, along with a score of Pro Stock teams, made a multitude of test runs on Monday during a test session at Palm Beach International Raceway in West Palm Beach, Fla. Morgan is making his initial runs on the new Rick Jones car.

He believes the racing community shares in his excitement of the potential of his new Ford program and he’s got the proof.

The American Hot Rod Association has signed Marion County International Raceway to the growing list of tracks for 2010.  Owned and operated by Mark and Kelly Primavera, MCIR is located in central Ohio just outside of Columbus, Ohio.  The quarter-mile facility was built in 1970 and hosted AHRA National events for three years.  Then during the mid eighties MCIR hosted Sportsman Nationals for IHRA.

If you think the months of December and January are for taking time off and vacation, think again. The new owners of the Super Chevy Show series couldn't be busier. One of the top priorities is arranging a feature category for each of the 10 national events featured on the 30th anniversary season in 2010.

While each of the 10 national events will have some consistency in the type and caliber of entertainment on and off the race track and car show stage, there will be room for local interpretation on what the feature category will be at each venue. The owners of each Super Chevy Show series event has the ability to provide one major feature category – a task they are taking seriously. Each track wants to give fans and participants something exciting, especially in the 30th anniversary of the Super Chevy Show series.

Bill Bader, owner of Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio and host of the June 12-13 event, has already booked the nostalgic Fuel-Altered race cars to feature his Super Chevy Show.

The first couple of drag racing, Tommy Johnson Jr. and his wife Melanie Troxel, will test their mettle on legendary Mount Van Hoevenberg, Jan. 8-10, during the fifth annual Lucas Oil Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge presented by Whelen.

Johnson and Troxel join Morgan Lucas, Shawn Langdon, and Jeg Coughlin Jr. as members of Team NHRA. As such, they will try their best to take home bobsledding glory for the straight-liners in the annual winter match-up against Team NASCAR, led by legend Geoff Bodine and newly-crowned Rookie of the Year Joey Logano.

"We're both really excited that our schedules finally lined up right for us to compete," Troxel said. "We've known Geoff for a long time and every year he invites us up but until now we've never had the chance. We can't wait to get up there and give it a try.

The NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals will feature nine events in 2010.  Every NMRA Ford Nationals event features heads-up Ford drag racing, the UPR Products All-Ford Auto Show & Shine, a giant manufacturers' midway & swap meet, and 30-plus MPH jet cars.  Every NMRA event is featured on Fox Sports Net's Inside Drag Racing, and on the web on www.NMRATV.com.

When racers compete at Maple Grove Raceway in 2010, they will notice several improvements made to the quartermile track.
 
A new surface should translate into record runs by drivers from all classes, especially at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in May and the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals in October.
 

WFORadio.com with Joe Castello will air two special editions recorded at last weekend's Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Orlando, FL.  A special edition of NHRA Tuesday, airs live tonight at 7 p.m. ET, followed by a special PRI edition of WFO Radio on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.  To listen live, on demand, or to download, go to www.wforadio.com.

WFORadio.com with Joe Castello was recorded on location from the Red Line Synthetic Oil exhibit at the 22nd annual PRI show.  This year's PRI show had exhibitors from over 1,200 racing companies, including over 100 new exhibitors for 2009.