Sometimes a malfunction can make a driver look like a genius. NHRA Southern Nationals Top Fuel

A troublesome brake led to lightning quick reactions for two-time winner Antron Brown. (Roger Richards)

champion
Antron Brown can relate. All weekend, the Matco Tools-sponsored driver
fought problems with his hand brake and the more he fought, the better
his reaction times got.

Nothing defies the traditional definition of breakage more than a hole
shot victory over the point leader and former U.S. Army teammate Tony
Schumacher.

“My car just kept rolling on me,” said Brown, the former Pro Stock
Motorcycle standout. “I just kept pulling the lever back and I kept
rolling a little bit.  I was popping up with some good reaction times
this weekend so it made me look like I was doing good.  I was hurt in
the ET a little bit but I went into the final round knowing that we
were racing Alan Johnson and Tony Schumacher with that great US Army
race team over there. 

“They’re five-time world champs and you've just got to give it
everything you've got, so as soon as I saw that thing just flicker
yellow I just hit the pedal as quick as I could.”

Ron Krisher is having fun in NHRA Pro Stock again. (Roger Richards Photos)

Ron Krisher abandoned his own in-house engine program to lease an
engine from Cagnazzi late last season. The program has been paying
dividends ever since. On Saturday, the program yielded a quite an
accolade during qualifying at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce,
Ga. He led qualifying from start to finish.

“The best money I've spent in a little while,” Krisher said. “Aside
from the fact that their really, really good people to work with.  I
just have an excellent relationship with all of these people and I'm
extremely happy with the whole situation.  You can run it and be at
odds with everybody but that's not happening.  It's a really, really
good situation that I'm in.  It can't get much better than it already
is.”

Krisher said this pathway has put the fun back in racing for him.
 

The Drag Racing Association of Women is seeking items for its annual auction at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., Saturday, June 7. There will be the usual silent and live auctions.

DRAW holds multiple live and silent auctions
during the 2008 racing season, including the large annual silent and
live auction held in Joliet, Ill., and a live auction held in September in Ennis, Texas. Small silent auctions also are held throughout the race season.

The range of items popular at these auctions
includes racing collectibles, vehicle parts, custom or handmade
treasures, t-shirts, team shirts, memorabilia items, anything
autographed -- a little bit of everything and anything. If you have
something you no longer want, remember the old saying, “one man's junk
is another man's treasure.” Don't throw it out. Give it to DRAW for the auctions.

John Force will score his 1,000 round win with a first round victory on Sunday. (Roger Richards)

Having been stopped just short in his most recent bid for drag racing
immortality, John Force takes his quest for 1,000 round wins to Gateway
International Raceway this week where he'll try to put his Castrol GTX®
High Mileage™ Ford Mustang in the winners' circle on his 59th birthday.

 
Beaten by his daughter, Ashley, in the final round of last week's
Summit Southern Nationals at Atlanta, Ga., drag racing's biggest winner
needs just one round win in Sunday's 12th annual O'Reilly Midwest
Nationals to reach 1,000.
                                                                 
Last week, the 14-time Auto Racing All-American tried to play down the
importance of becoming just the second pro driver to compete in 500
NHRA events ("It ain't hard.  All you gotta do is just show up").  By
contrast, he is keenly aware of the impact of his next achievement.
 
"Winning all those rounds, that even impressed me," joked the 14-time
Auto Racing All-America selection, "but I remember the days when we
couldn't even win one round. 

Alan Bradshaw and Vis Viva "Living Force Energy" will celebrate the
late Darrell Russell's life by debuting the "Tribute to a Champion -
Never Forgotten" special edition Top Fuel dragster at this weekend's
12th annual O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals. Vis Viva driver Alan
Bradshaw, a friend of Darrell and his family, also will wear a custom
helmet and firesuit commemorating the event. Darrell's parents, Gwen
and Burnell Russell, and his brother Chris Russell will also be in
attendance as guests of NHRA.

"We couldn't be more thrilled that Darrell is being honored in this
way," Chris Russell said. "This was something Darrell would have been
very proud of, and the fact Alan will be driving the car is a perfect
fit."

Like many racers, Darrell began his driving career in the Sportsman
ranks competing in a Super Comp dragster for a number of years before
eventually moving up to his family-owned Top Alcohol Dragster. With
Chris tuning the car and Gwen and Burnell serving as crewmen, Darrell
won a total of 26 national and divisional NHRA events along with four
divisional championships in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser brand has sponsored Kenny Bernstein’s NHRA
drag racing team for 29 years, the longest current team/sponsorship
association in all of auto sports.

It’s no wonder that Brandon Bernstein, driver of the Budweiser/Lucas
Oil dragster is excited about the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals May 2-4 at
Gateway International Raceway.

“When we come to St. Louis, our friends at Budweiser roll out the red
carpet for us,” said the second generation driver.  “It’s as if St.
Louis is our second home and all the executives at Budweiser that work
with us are our extended family.

“Dad actually sold Budweiser on sponsoring his race team during a rainout at Baton Rouge in 1979,” explained Bernstein.

“The race rained out on Sunday, he went to St. Louis and met with
Budweiser and sold the sponsorship, and then went back to Baton Rouge
on Wednesday night and beat John Force in the Funny Car final.

Ashley Force, driver of
the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, became the first woman in series history to win a
Funny Car event this past

Ashley took five races to get her first victory. Herfathe John had nine runner-ups before gaining his first.

weekend at Atlanta Dragway. In the final, she defeated
her father – John Force, who has more wins, 125, and championships, 14, than any
other driver in drag racing history. Ashley Force, who continues to lead the
Funny Car standings, participated in a national teleconference on Tuesday and
discussed her historic victory.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS, NOT ONLY ON
GETTING YOUR FIRST CAREER WIN, BUT HAVING IT COME AGAINST YOUR FATHER?

“Well,
it’s been a long road. I started in ’07 in Funny Car and we had so many ups and
downs and struggles with the car and having a new team and driver and everything
brand new. But we were able to kind of build on that and the same group of guys
joined me this year in the ’08 season. It was exciting to kind of step-up, go to
the next level, be going rounds, going to finals. We knew if we kept getting to
finals, eventually we’d get a win. So, we just had to be patient and keep doing
what we were doing. But it was a great night for us. My team is still texting
me, some of them texted me last night, ‘Can you believe it? It’s not a dream!
We’re reading it in the newspapers.’ We’re just so excited that our day finally
came.”

During the May 2-4 J.W. Performance
Transmissions Thunder Valley Southern Shootouts, fans can expect to see exciting
races for very large purses and a Pro-Mod
grudge match featuring Scott Cannon Jr. and Chip King. 

The Cannon name is synonymous with
Pro-Mod racing and fans in attendance can
expect a big show from the pair.

While the Pro-Mods make exhibition passes, Bristol’s Ken Haga will be
in the pits serving as the crew chief on his daughter Kendra’s car.  For the Haga family, success in racing,
and in life, can be measured differently.

For the past four years, Haga has
taken part in a mission trip to Costa
Rica where he, along with a group from the Abingdon
District of the United Methodist Church, helps construct churches in rural
areas.

Each year, Haga spends a week with
the same family in the same Costa Rican village.  The mother sews to earn enough money to
raise her 22 children.  Most of the
houses are open rooms with quilts draped from the roof to simulate walls.  Very few homes have electricity and
those with power only have one outlet and no hot water.

Tom Hammonds, NHRA Pro Stock Car driver/owner and retired NBA player,
will take his national school program, Tom Hammonds Race for
Achievement, to Bartelso Elementary School in Bartelso, Ill., on
Thursday, May 1, at 9:00 a.m. CST in conjunction with the O’Reilly NHRA
Midwest Nationals.

“I am looking forward to speaking to the students at Bartelso
Elementary on Thursday,” says Hammonds.  “It is always good to be
fired-up about education, and I know, as a result of the students’
state performance record, Bartelso Elementary is fired-up about
achievement.”

Tom Hammonds Race for Achievement allows Hammonds to interact with
students through message.  The Bartelso Elementary School students will
participate in an assembly where he will speak about the importance of
education, sportsmanship, and leadership.  

For the first time in his 29-race NHRA Pro Stock driving career, Justin
Humphreys is going into POWERade Series event with confidence that comes from a
good performance in his last outing.
 
The second-year pro from Monrovia,
Md., fought his way into the semifinals at Atlanta Sunday before losing to
eventual race winner Jason Line.  It was one of Humphreys’ finest outings since
the last 2007 race when he marched to his first final round and finished
second.
 
This turnaround was dramatic, with credit going to Frank
Gugliotta, an IHRA Pro Stock driver and longtime Humphreys’ family friend. 
Gugliotta stepped in after veteran crew chief Bob Glidden
retired.