The second half of the NHRA Full Throttle regular season starts this weekend at the 12th annual United Association NHRA Rt. 66 Nationals
in Joliet. Early season championship favorite Robert Hight is looking
to forget about the first half of the season and concentrate on the
second half.

Never before has Hight started a season with less success than 2009 but
instead of getting down, the 2005 NHRA Rookie of the Year and two-time
championship runner-up is focusing on battling through the tough times
so success will taste that much sweeter.

“We are a team that is used to winning. We aren’t doing that now
obviously. We have sponsors like Auto Club, Ford, Castrol, Mac Tools,
and Brand Source that pay us to go rounds and we didn’t get the job
done in the first half of the season. Trust me I want to win. (Crew
chief) Jimmy Prock wants to win. We are going to really focus on the
second half of the NHRA season before the Countdown. I think if we can
average semi-final finishes the rest of the way we can get into the Top
5 in points,” said Hight.

Although John Force has been driving like a champ this year, his results could have as easily been achieved by a chump.
 
With just seven races remaining before the field is pared to 10 drivers
for the NHRA's Countdown to the Championship, Force and his Castrol GTX
High Mileage Ford Mustang have no number one starts, no final rounds,
no wins, a losing record and they occupy only ninth place in the Full
Throttle Funny Car standings.
 
Needless to say, those are very un-Force-like statistics, ones the
60-year-old icon hopes to amend this weekend when he brings his Mustang
back the site of some of his biggest racing moments to compete in the
12th annual United Association Route 66 Nationals.
 

If the NHRA returns to quarter-mile racing, and some tracks are not
improved, then racing could transpire without the 14-time champion John
Force and the members of his four-car Funny Car team. Force made the
statement on the new online radio show The Race Reporters with Michael Knight.

Force was asked by CompetitionPlus.com senior editor Jon Asher, a guest
on the show, about rumors that suggest he privately said that he would
retire and subsequently pull his daughter Ashley Force Hood from
competition if the NHRA returned to the 1320. Force denied the rumor
but added two prior catastrophic accidents and insurance regulations
would prevent his team from competing on a track deemed unsafe for
quarter-mile competition.

Marvin Rifchin, founder of M&H Tires, died June 3. He was 94.

Rifchin is survived by a daughter Debbie, her husband Bill and two grandchildren. Services will be held Friday at the Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon, Mass.
 

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The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, which has more than 20
sponsors and/or partners who are listed on the New York Stock Exchange,
has been invited by the NYSE to perform the prestigious task of ringing
The Opening BellSM at 9:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.

The ringing of the Opening Bell will kick off a momentous week for the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, which will be hosting the 40th
annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals June 11-14 at historic
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.  The NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series remains the only major motorsport to host a
race in the New York Area, the nation’s No. 1 DMA.

NHRA President Tom Compton will be joined in ringing the Opening Bell
by Coca-Cola North America Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing
Beatriz Perez, Coca-Cola North America Director of Motorsports
Marketing Ben Reiling and George Pyne, President of IMG’s Sports and
Entertainment Group.

In support of its unprecedented engine guarantee announced this week, Valvoline® is working with its NASCAR and NHRA teams to build awareness with consumers and support high school vocational programs this fall.

Three different teams will take to the track this weekend with special
Valvoline Engine Guarantee paint schemes. In the spirit of the
“guarantee,” the teams need only to qualify for their respective races
for Valvoline to commit educational materials in the amount of
$300,000, coinciding with the 300,000-mile engine guarantee available
to registered consumers.

The Goodguys 21st Hot Rod Nationals is set to blast off June 12, 13
& 14 at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, officially kicking
off another
hi-revving trio of Midwest vintage drag races for the Goodguys. The Hot
Rod Nationals is one of the country’s largest hot rodding events as it
combines a massive car show featuring over 4,000 ’72 & earlier
rods, customs, muscle cars and classics with a weekend long vintage
drag race on O’Reilly Raceway Park’s vaunted dragstrip. Of course
vendor exhibits, a swap meet and lots more fun is on tap.

A brilliant field of twenty-four fuel cars is confirmed in the
Nostalgia Top Fuel and Nostalgia Funny Car categories. Both classes
will be run as 8-car open shows with qualifying sessions scheduled for
Friday, June 12th at 3pm and Saturday, June 13th at NOON. The first
round for both Top Fuel and Funny Car eliminations is scheduled for
3:30pm Saturday afternoon with final eliminations commencing Sunday
morning the 14th at 10am.

Bob Tasca III, driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang, will
host Eddie and Len Wood, co-owners of Wood Brothers Racing, a prominent
NASCAR team. This will mark the first time they have attended an NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event. 

Bill Kraft Racing of Tonawanda, NY, has finished their SS/AH 1968 Barracuda.  

Kraft’s 1968 Barracuda chassis was built by F.J. Smith of Smith
Performance Specialties and will run a 438-inch Hemi.  Tuning
assistance comes from Jackson Engine Tech, Competition Transmission, as
well as Howes Racing.  Scott Jahren applied the gorgeous paint scheme
designed by Scott Brown, while lettering and striping were finished by
Dan the Sign Man.

Originally, Ron Capps, the 2009 NHRA Funny Car points leader and
four-time national-event winner this season, was planning to make a
detour to run in tonight's Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway in
Rossburg, Ohio. Instead, persistent rain has postponed that event to
Sept. 9., and Capps is turning around and heading directly to Joliet,
Ill., for this weekend's NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

"It's unfortunate, but the bright side, and this happened a few years
ago when it was rained out, is that the rain-out date is going to be
Wednesday night, Sept. 9," said Capps. "And it happens to be right
after the biggest race on our NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
schedule, the U.S. Nationals, which we run on Monday, Labor Day, in
Indianapolis. So, I'll be able to stay in town again and cruise over
and run the Prelude. It will be held prior to what they call ‘The
World,’ which is one of the biggest Late Model races they have. It's
going to be just as big an event and we expect the weather will be good
at that time."