Usually when high-dollar sponsors invade drag racing, the "little guy" gets pushed around.

Jim Halsey, however, has stood his ground just fine with the big boys in the American Drag Racing League's Pro Nitrous class.

Through
the first six races in 2009, Halsey is blowing away the competition.
His easily atop the Nitrous points standings with a 3,071 total,
followed by Shannon Jenkins (2,039) and Khalid Al-Balooshi (1777).

"I can't complain about how things have gone," said Halsey, who pilots an 820-cubic inch 1968 Camaro.

For almost 20 years, the name 'Al Billes' has been synonymous with innovation in drag racing. Starting in the nitrous ranks in IHRA's
Top Sportsman, progressing into a feared competitor in Pro Modified and
evolving into one of the most sought-after tuners in the class, the
Canadian national is a force to be reckoned with.
 
Until suffering back-to-back crashes in 2005, Billes spent his time
behind the wheel of a Pro Mod and an alcohol Funny Car. He was a
powerhouse in IHRA competition and moved to NHRA Pro Mod Challenge
events in 2004, where he won three out of ten events and the shootout.
In '05, he ran a handful of races before he crashed his '53 Corvette
and suffered a concussion during a match race at Lancaster Raceway Park
near Buffalo, NY. 
 

This weekend  the motorsports community will take time from its busy racing season to lend a hand to one of their own.  On Saturday,
August 8, the defending NHRA Pro Stock champion Cagnazzi Racing team
will hold a fundraiser to benefit Todd Bevis, the head of the team’s
chassis fabrication shop, who was diagnosed with head & neck cancer
in May.  The event, which will be held at the team’s shop located in
the Lakeside Park industrial complex in Mooresville, NC will feature a
live and silent auction (for which donations are still being accepted),
live music, food and drinks, with the proceeds going to help defray the
family’s rising medical costs.

When Martin Heatherly rolled his 1967 Chevelle into his shop nearly
twenty-five years ago, he figured the old all-steel musclecar had made its last passes down the drag strip.

Heatherly, of Buffalo, S.C., is a throwback to the old school of drag
racing. He’s a dyed-in-the-wool, old school class racer who reluctantly
converted his former Super Stock/"F" entry into a Super Pro bracket
racer as the face of drag racing changed in the 1970s.

Heatherly refused to abandon his Gene Fulton-built small block and Doug
Nash four-speed, or 4+1 as the old gear-heads called it, both icons of
years passed. When most of his counterparts dummied down their motors
and went with automatic transmissions, Heatherly not only raced with
them but also won despite using an antiquated combination.

There’s
a strong likelihood at six-foot, six-inches and 280 pounds that Tyler
Brayton will never become the stereotypical Pro Stock Motorcycle rider.

However, if the defensive end for the National Football League’s
Carolina Panthers chooses to race NHRA Super Comp or Super Gas, he’s
got the right credentials. Brayton recently graduated from Frank
Hawley’s Drag Racing School with both licenses.

“It started as just a passion for old cars,” said Brayton, who is in
CompetitionPlus.com’s Spartanburg, S.C. hometown for training camp.

Sometimes the most logical decisions are the toughest to make. Just ask NHRA Pro Stock joint venture team owner Rick Jones.

Jones will embark on a new in-house engine program for 2010 and in
doing so will abandon his Mopar program for GM. His son and driver,
Rickie Jones, will pilot a new Pontiac GXP at next year’s NHRA
Winternationals in Pomona, Ca.

Together, Monte Bailey and Rick Jones, partners on several projects,
have recently purchased a former NASCAR engine building shop in
Mooresville, N.C.

NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Peggy Llewellyn, the first black woman to win a professional motorsports event (the 2007 O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec), has inked a one-year helmet sponsorship deal with Akuma Helmets, a leader in technologically advanced motorcycle helmets.

Race vehicles representing every major series that will compete at Lowe's Motor Speedway, zMAX Dragway and The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway will parade north on Tryon Street between Third and Trade Streets in Charlotte, N.C., to announce the speedway's fall Season of Speed including the NHRA Carolinas Nationals, Sept. 17 – 20. Led by Lug Nut, the world's fastest mascot, in his Legends Car, the parade will include Top Fuel racer Doug Herbert and Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Smith. Also included in the parade will be the Chevrolet Cobalt of Jeg Coughlin Jr.

Auto racing’s version of “Decision 2009” is in full swing, but the
polls will close soon for the Ford Customer Service Division’s Second
Annual Funny Car Design Contest to Support Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

The candidates  - in this case, JDRF kids - are campaigning for your
vote in the final week to be featured on the Motorcraft/Quick Lane
Shelby Mustang driven by Bob Tasca III.  The Funny Car Design Contest
voting started on July 2, and runs through August 14, 2009.

Until August 14, the public is invited to visit www.jdrf.org/ford, view
more than 300 paint scheme designs, and vote for their favorite
children’s design by making a monetary donation to JDRF.