:::::: News ::::::

IT'S A BOY!

Three-time IHRA Funny Car champion Rob Atchison, and his wife Julie,
the IHRA/SPEED Channel pit reporter, are the proud parents of an 8 lb.,
3 oz. baby boy born May 6, 2008. They've named their son Wyatt Robert
Atchison. Both mother and baby are doing fine.

KJ ON XM RADIO TONIGHT

ACDelco
Cobalt racer Kurt Johnson is a regular contributor to the Powershift XM radio show, calling in every
Tuesday prior to a POWERade Drag Racing Series national event to offer his
perspective on the goings-on in the highly competitive Pro Stock category.

WORSHAM RACING ON OFF WEEKEND

Del Worsham is a racer.  It's what he does, it's what he loves,
and it defines him.  So, faced with a string of 12 NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series events in 18 weeks, what did Worsham choose to do on the
first of only six off-weekends between now and Labor Day?   He chose to
pull his popular Blue Max Nostalgia Funny Car out of the shop to take
it racing, of course.

Worsham has entered his Blue Max in the "Funny Car Fever II"
event, set for this Saturday (May 10) at Southwestern International
Raceway in Tucson, Ariz., where he will compete with other dedicated
nostalgia competitors in search of low E.T.'s, bragging rights,
trophies, and purse money.  Though strictly a Worsham side-project, the
carefully restored version of Raymond Beadle's 1977 Mustang II Blue Max
has impressed crowds and racers alike, while either making exhibition
runs at NHRA National Events or competing at a select few sanctioned
nostalgia events and match races.   Worsham's first full lap in the
car, an exhibition pass at the '05 NHRA Dallas race with Beadle in
attendance, resulted in a 5.97-second time slip, making his Blue Max
the first Nostalgia Funny Car to dip into the 5-second range.
"We
just love racing the car, and when I heard about this event in Tucson I
knew we wanted to go have some fun, if the weather didn't mess up our
NHRA schedule," Worsham said.  "We've had some iffy weather at the last
two NHRA races, in Atlanta and St. Louis, so I was keeping my fingers
crossed and I couldn't commit to this deal until I knew for sure we
could go.  I don't know if the fingers being crossed helped or not, but
we dodged the rain drops enough at both races to get them in on time,
and now we have the chance to go nostalgia racing this weekend.

HINES KEY TO SUCCESS - CONSISTENCY

Andrew Hines has made sixteen consecutive runs in the six-second zone. Such actions speak volumes

Image
Andrew Hines has made sixteen consecutive runs in the six-second zone. (Roger Richards)

about consistency. They also lead to the winner’s circle too.

Hines won his fifteenth national event title in St. Louis in repelling
a determined effort from the defending NHRA Midwest Nationals champion
Matt Smith.

“We are just going straight and making good runs,” Hines said. “This is
the same engine we ran in Atlanta and we tried a new one on Friday and
it just didn’t have enough ponies. We put the Atlanta engine back in
because we wanted to qualifying No. 1 and just couldn’t find the
combination. We were just making too much horsepower. Our runs on
Saturday just ripped through the clutch. We were loaded for bear and it
got kind of ugly.”

Hines estimated he could have gone to number one qualifier if the bike
had run better in the first sixty-feet. If Hines had pulled off the No.
1 qualifier, he would have been the fourth consecutive top qualifier to
win an event in 2008.

Instead, he won from the third spot.

HINSHAW WINS FARMINGTON'S MAD DAWG COMPETITION

MadDawgsFarm5-03-08399.jpg
Until the Mad Dawg season opener in
Farmington, NC, Gilmer Hinshaw had never once qualified for an event,
despite several previous attempts. When he finally did make the show,
he flat stole it.

MadDawgsFarm5-03-08078.jpgHinshaw, a 2004 NHRA divisional champion in Top
Sportsman, campaigned a Chevy Monte Carlo in years past that was free of modern
conveniences like a computer, and other gadgets Hinshaw refers to as "fancy
stuff".

"I was an old school racer that would just make changes and hoped they
work, then until I discovered there was a better way," laughed
Hinshaw.

FOLLOW A DREAM’S MARTY NOTHSTEIN FINISHES SECOND

Marty Nothstein (Orefield, PA) and the Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny
Car team continues to get better with each passing weekend.  Nothstein
piloted his Permatex/Wynn’s/Texas Roadhouse 2008 Chevrolet Impala SS
Top Alcohol Funny Car to a second place finish at this weekend’s
Northeast Division 1 season opening race at Virginia Motorsports Park
outside of Richmond, Virginia.

Nothstein lost to defending division and national champ Frank Manzo in
the finals when his car broke at the line and shutdown about 150-feet
into the pass.  Manzo also had a tough time during the run, but his
mechanical problems occurred later than Nothstein’s.

"I'm disappointed that the car broke in the finals," said Nothstein,
who is a former Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist in track cycling. "It
was a $2 part that caused the throttle linkage to fail.  It's not often
that Manzo has trouble getting down the track, and he did in the
finals, and we weren't able to capitalize on that."

ANDERSON'S SIDE OF THE STORY

Recently, Funny Car icon John Force described his encounter with Pro Stock

Image
Greg
Anderson said there was no reason for Force to be embarrassed because
the 14-time champion has plenty to be proud of. (Roger Richards)

legend Greg Anderson. The picture Force painted of Anderson described a professional weight-lighter type.

Force said Anderson intimidated him so badly that he left the gym after seeing 300 pounds loaded on the bench press.

“No one can ever accuse John Force of ever exaggerating much, he
probably built the exaggeration factor quite a bit, but he tells a good
story no doubt about it,” Anderson said, pausing to laugh.

Anderson said there was no reason for Force to be embarrassed because the 14-time champion has plenty to be proud of.

NEW PRIZES & AWARDS HIGHLIGHT 2ND ANNUAL WORLD FOOTBRAKE CHALLENGE

The second annual World Footbrake Challenge presented by Jeg’s and Bill Taylor
Engineering is coming to beautiful Bristol Dragway Memorial Day Weekend: May
23-25. The event, which last season drew nearly 300 top Footbrake competitors
from across the nation, once again features an unheard of $125,000-plus purse
along with several great prizes. Saturday’s main event will feature one of, if
not the single largest Footbrake winners purse of the season; with $50,000 going
to the Saturday champion.

In addition to the great guaranteed payouts that racers have come to
expect from the World Footbrake Challenge, the 2008 event will feature several
additional prizes thanks to involvement from supporting manufacturers. For the
first five rounds of the World Footbrake Challenge (in each day of competition),
the best losing package of each round will be consoled with a great prize.
Mickey Thompson Tires will sponsor the first round of competition; with the best
losing package earning a set of Mickey Thompson Slicks for their machine. CSR
Performance Products is the 2nd round sponsor; the best losing
package in round 2 earns their choice of a CSR Billet Water Pump, Platinum
Series Starter, or Pro Series Tire Gauge. B&M Performance brings us round 3;
awarding the best losing package with a new shifter and transmission cooler.
Round 4 is sponsored by Goodyear Tires; with the best losing package earning a
complimentary set of Goodyear Slicks for their vehicle. The round 5 sponsor is
Nitrous Express, supplying the best losing package of the fifth round with a
$500 gift certificate good towards the purchase of any NX nitrous system or
affiliated product.

EXTRA INCENTIVES FOR PRO RACERS AT IHRA ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONALS

IHRA and Castrol Raceway have extended the incentive payout program for
2008 to racers competing at the CARS RV & Marine Rocky Mountain
Nationals, July 4-6, 2008. The payouts are earned against each team’s
winnings and based on seasonal point totals.

CECIL COUNTY DOORSLAMMER DRAGS VIDEO REVIEW

As racers continue to put their cars together and finish upgrades, turnouts in
all classes continue to increase. Many cars set personal bests and new track
records were set as the rain held off.

In Outlaw Big Tire, Ken Doak debuted his supercharged 1969 Camaro this
year sporting a new Hemi powerplant. Gary Naughton who is still shaking
the bugs out of Ken Doak's gold colored 67 supercharged Camaro were
both very impressive. Doak set the Big Tire track record with a 6.99,
207 and Naughton went a 7.28, 197. "Smokin" Joe Schroeder also brought
out his new supercharged Camaro with a 526 Allen Johnson Hemi.
Schroeder's day was short-lived as he would kick out the driveshaft
during the second round of qualifying. John Schroeder came out strong
the first round of qualifying but missed the remainder of the day as a
result of unknown issues. Charlie Micallef took the number one
qualifier money, but had a nitrous problem first round, which cost him
the win. James Houston was back again this month posting consisten
7.80's but his day was short-lived when he faced off against Doak who
set the track record in the first round. In the end, Doak would face
off against his other car (Naughton) and Doak coasted for the win.
Congrats to Ken Doak and his team for setting a new track record, and
for having such a successful start to the season as they were troubled
with various issues that plagued them throughout last season.

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