Four-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney pointed out last season
that she hoped to have a Top Fuel team for the 2008 season with Top
Alcohol Dragster driver Sheila Kopchick as the driver.

Muldowney’s vision of fielding a car under the Doug Herbert umbrella
didn’t pan out in time for the first race of the season, the NHRA
CARQUEST Winternationals in Pomona.

For
a man that made so many headlines as a Top Fuel dragster tuner, Mike
Kloeber appears to be settling into his new challenge of Funny Car crew
chief just fine.

“We started basically right around the first of November and we really
got to working in earnest right after Thanksgiving, but we're still not
done yet,” Kloeber said. “It's a lot of hard work and I couldn't be
happier to get the car down the race track.”

Not only did Kloeber and co-crew chief Chris Cunningham guide rookie
driver Bob Tasca III down the track, but also provided the impetus for
a first round victory. As different as the combinations are for a Funny
Car as opposed to a Top Fuel dragster, the tuning duo drew on Kloeber’s
Top Fuel experience.

Wally's Garage gets its first job! The special section, housed within the Wally
Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern
California, is hosting a special Saturday seminar on Mar. 1, from 10 a.m. - 2
p.m., where the legendary Howard Cams Rattler will undergo a rebuild. Cost of
the event is $20 and includes admittance to Museum and refreshments.

"We
want to do more of these seminars in Wally's Garage," said Tony Thacker,
executive director of the Parks Museum. "These interactive events are what the
Museum's 'living history' philosophy is all about."

Former NHRA VP Steve
Gibbs, along with Dusty McWilliams, will work on the historic dragster while
Mike Kuhl (part of the famous Kuhl & Oslson team) will provide commentary
during the rebuild. The "Rebuilding the Rattler" seminar is sponsored by
A&EDesign.com, American Shine Products, Classic Industries, E3 Spark Plugs,
GoJaks (Zendex Tool Corp.), Grant Products and Injen
Technologies.

The sportsman national concept was developed to give sportsman
racers the chance to chase national championships in a way that is
easier on the wallet. Four racers were able to take full advantage at
IHRA’s season opening weekend at Immokalee Regional Raceway.

Drivers
had three chances to win at the weekend event, two Division 2 Summit
Pro-Am events were held Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s Sportsman
National. Peter Biondo, Tony Gray, Steve Corker and Scott Richardson
each visited the Winner’s Circle twice, Biondo in Stock, Gray in Super
Rod, Corker in Top Sportsman and Richardson in Top Dragster. Richardson
also won the Super Stock Ironman Sunday while Corker won the Quick Rod
class Friday.

“It was a bonus just doing anything good down
here,” NHRA heavy hitter Peter Biondo, a New Yorker who headed to
Immokalee to give IHRA shot, said of Immokalee. “Just to get out of
that cold weather up in New York was worth it. Needless to say I had a
blast racing with IHRA. It was a great atmosphere, the officials were
extremely nice and it was action-packed from Thursday morning to Sunday
night. After I beat Anthony Bertozzi in the third round they even
brought me some ice cream as a bonus for beating the World Champion.”

Some like him, some love him - many fear him. Brett Stevens is bringing a
serious commitment to the upcoming Summernationals at Western Sydney
International Dragway NEXT weekend (15th-16th February) with a racing outfit of
7 Group One vehicles!

Currently the Brett Stevens Racing 'super team'
amazingly leads 3 out of the 4 professional Drag Racing brackets they compete in
with Stevens himself heading Top Alcohol in his Kitten Car Care Products Funny
Car, Troy Mclean showing the way in Top Bike on his Jack Daniel's Racing Nitro
Harley, and Pete Cochrane on top of the Pro Stock Bike ladder with the S&S
Powered Buell.

With only the teams Top Doorslammers missing from the
leader board, a rigorous 3 day testing schedule for the cars was planned around
a busy calendar of exhibition events in the lead up to the
Summernationals.

However unusually wet weather has hampered the
preparations for the Queensland based team with their testing being reduced to
just one full day on the track.

The NHRA is desperately trying to find a happy medium in track prep between the nitro burning cars and the Pro Stockers.

The wicker, which it the name given the ledge on the end of the
spoiler, has been the focus of change for this season. Instead of the
3/8th inch requirement in 2007, the size has been increased to 5/8th.

Some drivers, particularly those under the GM banner, are finding this
change to be an unnecessary adjustment while a number of the Mopar
teams have noticed no difference in the manner in which their cars
handle in the second-half of the drag strip.

The following are the pre-entries received for the 8th annual CSR Eastern Spring Test Nationals presented by Torco's CompetitionPlus.com hosted by South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga. 

Kalbones Racing Inc. is more excited than ever about the year that
lies ahead of them.  While many new things are happening for the team’s
primary sponsor Kalbones Grill’n Sauce, the new additions for the IHRA
Alcohol Funny Car team don’t stop there.

After a fantastic debut
with driver Laurie Cannister and tuner Dale Cannister during the last
two races of the IHRA 2007 season, crew chief Mike Couch knew that
there was one last ingredient missing from the special recipe he was
brewing up for a run at the IHRA championship in 2008.

“Let’s
face it, we are dead serious about what we do.  We can do great on the
track but we really need to work on helping our sponsors.” explained
Couch. “Bottom line is that we need for our Kalbones Grill’n Sauce team
to be as professional as possible. We knew we needed to get some help
and that’s when Laurie mentioned Kathy Fisher.” 

NHRA has announced that the Youth
& Education Services (Y.E.S) program presented by the U.S. Army is
adding these program partners for 2008: the University of Northwestern Ohio, Valvoline, and Caterpillar (CAT).

Created in 1989 as a tool to connect education and drag
racing, the Y.E.S program is a one day event held at 15 POWERade Series
races. It is motorsports' first and only full-time program devoted
exclusively to educational programming. The Y.E.S. program demonstrates
to young men and women the variety of career opportunities within
motorsports, the U.S. Army and the automotive industry.

Drag racing fans who had visions of a mono-strut dragster reigning
supreme in Top Fuel might want to chalk those thoughts up to fantasy.
At least that’s how it looks for now.

Rob Flynn, crew chief for Rod Fuller, the driver who tested the
mono-strut, said that project has been put on hold until further wind
testing and certain safety aspects can be improved on.

“We need some wind tunnel testing to secure up some areas that we’re a little uncomfortable with,” Flynn said.