Reigning JEGS ProMod Challenge champion Josh Hernandez thrilled a
partial hometown crowd when he pushed his way into the No. 1 qualifying
position Saturday morning at the 21st annual O'Reilly Spring NHRA
Nationals presented by Pennzoil.

The Conroe, Texas-based Hernandez was one of four racers that recorded
five-second passes in qualifying, with his 5.962 at 242.50 mph in the
AMS Staff Leasing Camaro the quickest of the pack. Ray Commisso
(5.967), Friday leader Steve Engel (5.970), and Gainesville winner Joe
Baker (5.981) also dipped into the five-second range.

The first day of qualifying at the
O’Reilly Spring Nationals in Houston, TX
provided Warren Johnson and his GM Performance Parts Pontiac GXP Racing team
with a little more excitement than they had hoped for.  After opening with a
solid 6.679-second pass, which came with the top speed of the day in Pro Stock
at 208.42 mph, WJ came back in the evening session looking to pick up the pace
even further.

Running in the left hand lane
opposite his son Kurt, The Professor seemed to have things well in hand when a
major malfunction in his engine sent smoke billowing throughout the car,
blinding Johnson.  Despite his best efforts to retain control, the car spun into
the other lane, eventually contacting the wall with the right front and right
rear corners. 

One time could be considered a fluke. A second represents a trend. At least this is the thought process

Alan Bradshaw made the point clear his Gainesville top qualifying effort was no fluke. (Roger Richards)

for
former Top Alcohol Dragster driver Alan Bradshaw, driver of the Vis
Viva Top Fuel dragster who laid down the provisional pole position
Friday evening with a 4.526 elapsed time at 323.50 miles per hour.

“I couldn’t think of a better place to pull this off than in my home
state of Texas,” Bradshaw proclaimed in the Friday evening press
conference.

Jim Dunn didn’t look a day over 39, although he was celebrating
his 74th birthday in Houston, Texas on Friday. The veteran Funny Car team owner
has seen a lot of drag racing since he started competing back in 1949.

“I’ve seen the sport grow to where it is today,” Dunn said. “The sport
has changed a lot but it’s largely the same. You still want to win
every time you go to the line.”

Dunn chalks up his most memorable drag racing experience to winning at
the Bakersfield March Meet. He won the revered event twice – once in a
Top Fuel dragster [1964] and another time in a Funny Car [1973].

For the first time since the NHRA season-opener at Pomona, Bob Tasca
III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang team were able to make
two qualifying runs on Friday of an event weekend. With a little bit
less pressure on day one at the NHRA Spring Nationals than the two
prior events, Tasca put together two solid runs, giving his team a good
baseline to work with heading into Saturday.

“It was probably the best run we’ve made in the car,” said Tasca of his
second run of the day. “This has really been a great day for us. We
haven’t put together two back-to-back solid runs like that, I don’t
think all year. The guys have certainly made progress; they’ve done a
lot of work between races to refine and make small changes to the car.”

Tasca’s first qualifying effort at Houston Raceway Park was 5.05 ET and
264.49 mph, while the second was a little bit quicker at 4.94 ET and
264.49 mph. Unfortunately, Tasca crossed the centerline on his second
run and hit a cone on the track, resulting in the time not counting for
position.

The youth movement at John Force Racing made a big jump during the
second round of qualifying at the 21st annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring
Nationals in Houston, Texas. Heading into the second session Rookie of
the Year front-runner Mike Neff and his Old Spice Ford Mustang along
with second year driver Ashley Force and her Castrol GTX Mustang were
both on the outside of the qualified field but at the end of the day
both drivers had blasted down the Houston Raceway quarter mile and
landed solidly in the top half of the field in the No. 3 and No. 6
positions, respectively.

Both drivers understand that making good runs during the night session
is good but making solid runs in the heat of the day is critical to
race day success.

“It will be important to make two runs tomorrow in the middle of the
day. Obviously the night session gives us really good conditions but we
won’t see those on race day. You need to go down the track on Friday
night for qualifying spot but it really won’t mean that much come
Sunday,” said Neff, the former motocross racer from Hemet, Calif.
“Ideally, we’ll have the same conditions tomorrow that we’ll have on
race day and I’d like to get two good runs tomorrow.”

PIPO, Inc., northern Ohio’s largest recycler, has come on board as
the title sponsor for the 25th Anniversary PIPO Season Opener presented by
Donald M. Graham & Associates and The Norwalk Reflector. The race will be
Saturday, April 19, 2008 at Summit
Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
Although PIPO was started in 2005 and is one of Ohio’s newest recyclers, PIPO (Plastic In,
Plastic Out) has already recycled millions of pounds of plastic waste for use in
manufacturing new products.

“Recycling and being ‘green’ is on
everyone’s minds these days,” said Bill Bader, Jr., president of Summit Motorsports Park, “so I’m personally excited to have
PIPO, Inc. as a sponsor. They process more than 800 tons of plastic each month,
that’s just amazing. And as part of our association with PIPO, Inc., we are
recycling all of the track’s waste plastic, too.” 

NOPI continues to add to its partnership portfolio by teaming up with Scion Corp
for the Xplod NOPI Drag Racing Series Sanctioned by the NHRA. Racing is
something that Scion does not take lightly and it shows. During the 2007 season
Scion not only took home the Pro RWD championship but also set two world records
while doing it. Being the first car in NHRA Sport Compact history to blast
through the quarter mile in less than seven seconds while clocking in at over
200 mph is something that will definitely put you on the racing world’s radar.
In the 2008 season, Scion Racing has entries in four out of five classes running
in the Xplod NOPI Drag Racing Series Sanctioned by the NHRA

"The
momentum for Scion drag racing has been building over the last few years and we
expect it to increase as we continue our participation in NOPI Motorsports,"
said Steve Hatanaka, Scion auto shows and special events manager.  "Drag racing
is an exciting motorsport.  It was thrilling to see our tC sports coupe speed
down the track and take the championship last season.  It's also a great
opportunity for Scion owners and enthusiasts to engage with our brand,
experience the cars, get close to the track and meet the drivers."    

Considering they're looking for a full-time sponsor, Doug Foley and his FX
Caprara Kia crew are doing a great job of showing their value, storming past
numerous Top Fuel heavyweights Friday night to earn the No. 5 position on the
provisional qualifying sheet of the 21st annual O'Reilly Spring NHRA Nationals.

In just his fifth run down a racetrack this season, Foley dipped into
the 4.5-second range with an impressive 4.582-second pass at 303.09 mph at
Houston Raceway Park. The run virtually assures the drag racing instructor from
southwest New Jersey a position in Sunday's elimination field.

"Now
that's exciting," said Foley, who will be forced back to the sidelines after
this event due to funding concerns. "That was a crucial run for us because we're
in Texas and our experience in this state is that you never know what the
weather will do. It always feels good to make a big run Friday night to put your
car solidly in the field, and that's especially true here in the Lone Star
State."

Patty Foster was a man’s man – but not in the sense of what used to be
called a male chauvinist pig.  Pat was the kind of guy who’d strap on a
welder’s mask at night, and a firesuit the next morning.  As a race car
driver he competed in an era when some car owners regularly said to
their drivers, “No matter what, don’t lift.”  I saw Foster live – and
come close to dying – following this credo.  When I asked him, after
he’d climbed out of another inferno in Barry Setzer’s Vega at the
Springnationals in Columbus, why he continued to drive like that, he
just winked, smiled and said “He tells me to drive it to the lights,
but it’s my decision whether I go all the way.  Gotta fix this.  We’re
running at Englishtown Tuesday night!”  Foster always went all the way,
in every aspect of his life.

Pat’s boys are terrific, but in all truth Patty himself was not lucky
in matters of the heart.  It was if the gods had said, “You’ll be a
master craftsman, a renowned racer, an envied constructor and have a
wealth of friends, but in this one area, my friend, things will not
always go your way.”