NHRA Top Fuel star Antron Brown will be the Newsmaker of the Week on The Race Reporters radio show, Wednesday, October 21, 7 p.m. EDT, on www.PowerUpChannel.com.

The Matco Tools dragster driver is currently fourth in the Full Throttle series point standings, with two races to go. He has five wins, seven poles, and a 46-17 rounds won-loss record this season. Brown swept NHRA’s traditional “Western Swing” races – three events in three consecutive weeks.

Before moving up to Top Fuel in 2008, Brown raced in NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle class, where he won 16 times.

Host Michael Knight will be joined for the journalists’ roundtable by Bobby Bennett, editor of Competition Plus.com; Corinne Economaki, president and publisher of National Speed Sport News; and Larry Henry, host of Pit Pass USA on the Power Up Channel.

Matt Smith, rider of the Nitro Fish Ultimate Gear Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle for Don Schumacher Racing in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, and fellow rider Angie McBride, were married In Greensboro, N.C., on Friday, Oct. 16.

Guess who had his turn to visit the NASCAR races? Earlier in the season, Bob Tasca hosted the Wood Brothers at an NHRA event. Tasca attended the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway as the their guest. Tasca is pictured here with Leonard Wood, Bill Elliott, Len Wood and Eddie Wood. (Kevin Thorne)

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The 18th annual California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, Ca, hung its hat on an overflow Nostalgia Funny Car field and in the end it was the second quickest qualifier who emerged as the top runner during the final run of the event.

Chris Krabill drove his 1978 Plymouth Arrow Nostalgia Funny Car to the winner’s circle with a tire-shaking 7.192 elapsed time at a coasting 135.12 miles per hour when Josh Crawford left before the tree was activated.

Krabill qualified for the eight-car field, out of 31 entries, with a 5.872, 242.52. Along the way to the finals, he stopped Cruz Pedregon and Tim Boychuk.

Pedregon had top speed of the event with a 247.72 blast in his Joe Pisano tribute flopper.

Billy Meyer is a little over two decades removed from the driver’s seat of a fuel Funny Car, yet his legacy remains as a driver, drag strip innovator and one time, sanctioning body owner/president.  That’s a pretty full resume for a guy from Waco, Texas.

Meyer believed he could achieve anything through the power of positive thinking and an insatiable desire to succeed, a credo he learned at the feet of his father, Paul, who made his fortune through the Success Motivation Institute (SMI). 

As a drag racer, Billy was one of the best both in terms of driving and marketing. He was also, according to those who witnessed his racing career and competed against him, one of the wildest young men to have ever tried his hand at drag racing.

Due to high winds and cool temperatures, Virginia Motorsports Park will run the Al-Anabi Shootout Monday. 

Gates open at 8 AM with the first round of qualifying set for 10 AM.  Admission is just $10 per car load.

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The video will take you back to an era when the top name professional drag racers will able to compete in both sanctioning bodies. Cameo appearances include the late Scott Kalitta, Kenny Bernstein, Darrell Alderman and Roy Hill just to name a few.

In the final rounds of qualifying Bill Reichert and Mickey Ferro grabbed the top qualifying spots for this weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Silver Dollar Raceway.

Reichert, the reigning Top Alcohol Dragster National Champion out of Owosso, Mich., clocked in at 5.337 seconds at 268.87 mph for the top spot and is followed by Duane Shields, Boulder City, Nev., and Marty Thacker, Robinson, Ill., in the second and third spots respectively.  Shields ran 5.342, 264.86 and Thacker went 5.407, 266.69.  Shields won the last NHRA Southeast Division race at Atlanta Dragway, in September.

Bobby Rowe, a former Funny Car driver from Memphis, Tenn., passed away on Thursday. The cause of death is not known at this time but Rowe had experienced health issues over the last four years.