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May 15, 2012

We are just three days away from the first major Drag Race in BC (The North West actually). Then they come fast and furious.

This weekend is the Eagle Motorplex's IHRA Pro Am event. It is a double header Pro Am with full purses and points both Saturday and Sunday. Then on the holiday Monday (in Canada) a third race for the IHRA Summit points at the 'Plex sponsored by Zimmer Wheaton. Both Saturday and Sunday are Zimmer Points races as well. All IHRA Sportsman classes are running, including Top Dragster and Top Sportsman, Super Rod, Quick Rod and Hot Rod, Stock, Super Stock (might be a combo), Jrs. and Box and No Box. Get on up to the 'Plex (go here for pricing and info).

Then the following week is the 17th Lordco Part BC Nationals at Mission Raceway. Part of the revamped Lucas Oil Drag Racing series. For the main feature classes Top Alcohol, it is one of only two event to host Top Alcohol in the LAnd of the Leaders. Hopefully the car count is good.

ifter the Lordco event, another bracket race at Mission (June 2 and 3) then the 25th Anniversary Langley Loafers event at the Eagle Motorplex June 8-10.

May 10, 2012

Both speedzonemagazine web sites are now active. ( .com and .net )

Not quite sure what happened at Bucky Austin racing, but veteran Kris Krabill is now the driver for Bucky. I will get the lowdown in the next few days and will also have his new look web site updated soon. Edit: As far as the driver change goes, Kris Krabill moved to the Pacific NW and the fact that Krabill is close by and works on the cars made ita good fit. I am guessing this will be a real good fit for the team, hopefully they start to kick butt.

Two Top Alcohol features.

Brian Mans (TAD)

Bryan Brown (TAFC)

May 9, 2012

Mission Raceway weekend results and final round photos are posted.

The Canada West Doorslammer results are at the DS Site.

The NW Outlaws weekend results are up.

May 7, 2012

You think RH Race Cars make a good car.....I think so!

In the first race with Kirk Lanz's new RH 69 Camaro SS in Top Sportsman, Stefan Kondolay won the event in fine fashion over Daryl Hemley. He took out past Division champion Robert Matthews in the semi final. Kondolay also went to the final in Super Comp, but the bigger question is....why the heck did he run Super Comp with his low seven second dragster. Anyway kudos to Stefan and to RH on their first of what will be many Divisional wins in the Top Sportsman class. Full Boise results are here.

At Atlanta, Steve Torrence won Top Fuel over Tony Schumacher. It is the first win by a non team driver in over a 100 years....Just kidding, but it has been a long time since a driver without a team mate has won in Top Fuel. Ron Capps finally got another win in Funny Car. Robert Hight won has won almost every race this year was the runner-up. Jason Line gave the final round to his team mate and boss Greg Anderson when Line was uncharacteristically late In Pro Stock. Eddie Krawiec won Pro Stock Motorcycle over Michael Phillips. Full results are here.

Locally at MRP, Dane Lachelt won the 1st NW Outlaw event of the year. The Canada West Doorslammer winner was Terry Langdon Davies. He defeated Rob Charlton in the final round. More Mission results late Tuesday.

May 5, 2012

A busy weekend on the 1/4 mile right around the continent as the NHRA Full Throttle is in Atlanta, the IHRA is in Baton Rouge, the ADRL is in Reading, the LODRS series has two races, the opener here in Boise and in Kansas. Many are affected by weather unfortunately.

Locally is was a damn cold day at Mission when the weather was supposed to be decent. It was on and off with minor delays all morning and into the early afternoon. Around 3:00pm it finally started to break and thanks to the Mission staff they stayed with it. The good news is the corrected air was -600 feet. un believable. So many cars ran career bests when the sun finally put a bit f temperature on the surface. Doorslammers were almost a tenth quicker than previous bests, The NW Outlaws were qualifying for their first race of 2012 and right out of the box Quentin Chambers ripped off a 6.20/219. Not to be outdone, Brent Murray ran a 6.24/230 mph blast. His quickest in that car by over 2/10ths. Steve Kendall got his small backup engine to run 3/10ths quicker than ever before. He went 6.98.

In the ADRL at Maple Grove, Mick Snyder won Pro Extreme, Mike Castellana won Pro Mod, Billy Glidden won Pro 10.5, Robert Patrick won Pro Nitrous (his third event in the class after a couple decades of Pro Stock), Eric McKinney won Motorcycle, Chris Holbrook won Super Car and Chip Forman won Top Sportsman.

At Atlanta Tony Schumacher is the #1 qualifier in Top Fuel, Robert Hight is #1 in Funny Car, Hector Arana is #1 in PS Motorcycle and Jason Line is #1 in Pro Stock. The final qualifying recap is here.

At Baton Rouge, the IHRA is struggling with weather and on track incidents, plus the no shows of a number of NFC's. Mike Hilasbeck won Fuel Altered Friday night and tonight weather ended the day before finals could be run. He faces Ron Maroney in the final of race two. Only two floppers showed and James Day in the Candies and Hughes car won Friday. He faces Brad Thompson in race two now set to be completed tomorrow. Jay Turner won Nitro Harley Friday and he faces Mike Scott in the now Sunday final. In Pro Nitro Dragster, Bill Evans won Friday and he races Robin Samsel in the day two final.

At Boise, Jason Rupert leads NFC, and Local rookie NFC driver Jim Obalek (in Zeigler's Satellite) is #3 with a out of the box 6.010/237. Good Job Jim. He repeated with a 6.03 in run two. Ryan Davenport in the "Hitters" car was on and off the gas in both laps and could only turn in a 6.65 best. He is #4. Boise final qualifying for the sportsman classes is here.

May 1, 2012

On the eve of the 1st 2012 Division Six event at Boise, Frank Nelson Jr was named the Division Director in the NW. Congrat's to Frank. He is one of the hardest working Div. Six staff for sure. Hopefully the Division Six DD graveyard has ended. I bet father Frank Sr. a "Hall of Fame" inductee in the NW is a proud papa. Kudo's to the Nelson family.

Good news for a local race family. Steve Lowe's son Tyson went missing yesterday but was found today (by police) and is okay. Very good news.

At last weekend's NHRA event in Houston Tny Schumacher had a run disqualified due to an illegal part or modification. He was not doccked any points but today the NHRA announced Crew Chief Mike Green was fined 5k for a derogatory remark made to an NHRA official.

Todd Hoerner, past div 6 champion now working an living in Virginia thanks his sponsors and friends on his first Pro Stock event in the ADRL.

RAD Eliminator race two coverage is here.

April 30, 2012

The Canada West Race one report is here.

RAD Eliminator race one coverage is here.

Mission Raceway weekend results are posted.

April 29, 2012

A busy weekend in the NW as well on the NHRA Full Throttle tour. Race #6 in the 2012 Full Throttle season was in Houston for the O'Reilly SpringNationals. Team Force won funny car again and it was Mike Neff taking out Ron Capps in the final. Four in a row winner Robert Hight was ousted in the semis. Morgan Lucas got the win in Top Fuel. He defeated Antron Brown. Vince Nobile got the surprising win in Pro Stock his final round opponent was a bigger shock, as Dave Connolly defeated two of the top hitters, (Greg Anderson and Allen Johnson) in the previous two rounds. The PS final round lights were amazing, as the to drivers went .009 and .011. In PS Motorcycle, Andrew Hines got the win over Hector Arana Jr. Hines had a perfect light in the final and needed all of it. Danny Rowe got the Pro Mod victory over Manitoba's Kenny Lang. In TAD, it was BAD powerhouse Jim Whiteley taking out Duane Shield, Whiteley went 5.264/272 in the final round. Shields has righted his ship after early season struggles, but was no match for the 5.20 Blown Car. In TAFC, Jay Payne got the win over fellow Californian Steve Gasparelli. Houston results are here.

The wild weekend continued locally at MRP as Kieth Vahle called Houston and said, "We have lift-off". All four were off the ground. (Bill Jeffery photo)

........ it was the first big race of 2012 at Mission Raceway, as the CWDS series and the new RAD Eliminator series ran their first events. In the Doorslammer series, it was like the "Upset Open" as all the hitters were gone in the early rounds. The event winner was George Lachanas, in his Doorslammer debut. He bought Zak Clarke/s Beretta and took out 2011 champ Rob Charlton and then 2011 runner-up Terry Langdon Davies. In the final, he defeated first time finalist Nick Duda.

In RAD eliminator, Justin Bond, one of the series organizers took it all as he doubled up taking two wins and a big points lead. The Triple"0" driver, Stefan Kondolay having four perfect lights, he could not get the job done in the semi finals to reacxh the finals. Instead he got the semi final (3rd place run off in both races), giving him a decent payday. The runner-up also had the same name in both finals, as Fort St. John's Darryn O'Connor was second best. We will have the full report in the all new RADZONE over the next couple days.

April 29, 2012

A wild weekend at Mission Raceway.

Zak Clarke blew the hood off his new Chevy II below.

Wayne Davis rolled his 9 second bug.

Henry Zacharias Hit the wall hard in his 55 Chevy.

April 25, 2012

The Canada West Doorslammers start their season this weekend. A preview is here.....

April 24, 2012

Many race series' have come and gone in the NW, but a new series has serious backers and a core group of racers that will ensure long term success ........ (more here)

Results from the Virginia Regional are posted. Belated results from Charlotte Z-Max Sportsman classes are posted.

A feature on Pro Sportsman official photog David Smith is here (David got his start here with SpeedZone Magazine). A feature on Chase Copeland is posted. A feature on 50 year TAD veteran Len Cottrell is posted.

April 21, 2012

Photos from Saturday are here.

April 21, 2012

A great cackle fest highlighted by Big Daddy Don Garlits and Swamp Rat III

The NW Terror "Herm Peterson" lit up the night. More here.....

April 19, 2012

Sad news up here in the NW as we hear of the passing of legendary artist George Bell. He was instrumental and a key part of the NW rod and racing scene. He was the founder of the Greater Vancouver Motorsports Society. His graphics were seen in all faucets of the motorsport world, including work done by George for SpeedZone Magazine. He will be missed. Our condolences to George's family. We will try and have some of his work here at SpeedZone over the next week or so.

The B.C. Classic & Custom Motorsport show is on tap this weekend at the Abbotsford Tradex. It should be a huge weekend based on the number and quality of entries arriving tonight on set-up day. Make sure you come and check out the biggest show in BC, as "Big" is in the house.

The 1st drag racing for 2012 at the Eagle Motorplex is this weekend. It is a test n tune and a volunteer weekend as they get the desert facility on track for what is an aggressive 2012 season. Being their 25th anniversary, a bunch of fast paced action is planned including what will be their largest event and the largest for the Langley Loafers as well, as they both celebrate a 1/4 century on the track. That race is June 9-10. Three weeks before that is the IHRA Pro Am, the Victoria day long weekend up here in Canada.

Next week is the first big race weekend at Mission Raceway. The Canada West Doorslammer series opens their season. The Doorslammer group is the largest door car only class in the NW. 8.70 and quicker and guaranteed payouts for round two losers , all the way up to 1000.00 to win and the most generous season points payout in the North West. 4/10ths pro tree with or without electronics. TCS Performance Products is the first race sponsor.

RAD Eliminator debut the new fast bracket class at MRP as well. Open to any race car running 8.99 and quicker. A full tree, full electronics, and cross talk. Are you man enough to take on the best bracket racers in the NW. Come on out and give this new class a try. 2k to win.

April 11, 2012

Mission Raceway final round results and photos from Easter Sunday are posted. NW Outlaw 2011 champion Mike Peck ripped off an out of the box 6.60/209 mph.

Three or four major projects are in full swing here at SpeedZone as we prepare for the HUGE BC Classic & Custom Car Show in 10 days at the Tradex in Abbotsford.

This weekend the NHRA gets back in Full Throttle mode at Z-Max Raceway and the Four Wide Nationals.

April 9, 2012

Today is the one year anniversary of Shawn Cowie's horrific accident in Nashville. His recovery is still ongoing and he does go in for surgery this week to fuse the ankle that sustained the most damage. The surgeries that were necessary to save the right ankle did not allow the ankle to sit in the proper position. While this upcoming surgery will place the ankle in the right position there will be a substantial lack of mobility, but it is the best option so he can resume relatively normal day to day activities. As far as getting back in the seat, it is still along time away, as physio will be necessary following the surgery. Good luck Shawn and keep on getting better.

April 8, 2012

Saturday photos from Mission are posted.

Happy Easter to all DR fans.

A great Saturday on opening weekend at Mission Raceway. Friday started off great for their tnt but it got washed out as well at Street legal #1 in the early afternoon.

A look at Zak Clarke's new RH Race Car built Chevy II and Justin Bond's new digger is very nice. More photos and Easter weekend results late Sunday night.

April 3, 2012

Photos are added to the Vegas story.

April 2, 2012

Pit notes and full array of photos from Vegas will be posted later today. Locally, MRP is scheduled to open this weekend for their first drag race event of the year. Weather is not on their side aearly in the week, but it is said to be improving as the week moves forward.

Another birthday note for a young racing fan. Happy 13th Birthday goes out to Kaila Springer today. have a good one Kaila.

April 1, 2012

Vegas is complete and it appears that the John Force Funny Car team is making a mockery of the class as they have all four wins so far this year. Hight won his third in a row and had an 80 point lead in the standings over team mate Mike Neff. Hight defeated fellow Ford driver Robert Tasca, who was in his first final of the year. The DSR team is having their success in Top Fuel, as it was team mates Spencer Massey and Antron Brown squaring off. Massey got his second win of the year, while Brown took the point lead with his third final round of 2012. He is 1-2 in those three finals. Allen Johnson defeated fellow Dodge driver Vince Nobile in Pro Stock. In TAD Jim Whiteley looks to be the odds on favorite in 2012 as he easily defeated Chris Demke. This season will come down to those two drivers IMO, with perhaps Bill Riechert in the mix. Tony Bartone looked real deadly all weekend long and was in the 5.550's throughout getting a tenth of a second win over Jay Payne.

Final rounds are posted. Photos will be uploaded Monday

Round two and semis from Las Vegas is up.

Round one elimination's is posted.

An April fools morning haha here in the NW, as we woke up to a snow storm lasting a couple hours. This part is no April fools joke, the NHRA concludes the Summit Equipment Nationals in Las Vegas.

Final qualifying is posted.

Nitro Jam from San Antonio is complete. Results are here....

Houston ADRL final results are posted

March 31, 2012

The ADRL opens their season this weekend in Houston.

The IHRA completes 1/4 of their season in their second weekend in San Antonio. Here are the results.

Vegas Friday recap.

Todd Hoerner's new car is ready for action at the Bristol ADRL race. A couple more pictures are here.

March 30, 2012

Happy 13th birthday to my daughter Shelby. It's now begun!

The Las Vegas Summit Racing Equipment Full Throttle race #1 is up this weekend. Results are here.

March 29, 2012

One of Drag Racings true legends has passed away. Bill 'Grumpy' Jenkins died early this morning at the age of 81. He was voted #8 on the all time greatest list compiled by the NHRA 10 years ago. Here is an NHRA feature and tribute on 'da Grump'.

March 27, 2012

Sportsnationals results from Belle Rose are posted.

The Las Vegas Divisional final results are here.

Put this one in the oops department. Ron Hope in the Rat Trap is in KIWI land and he was at the world famous "Leadfoot Festival" doing a burnout on the road course there. It went a bit array. Here is the link. Scroll halfway down the page, the seventh picture in the sequence (the one with the photog running) shows the altered way out in the weeds just to the left on the one small tree.

A cool deal for 20 Jerry Bickel employees at the win $250,000 Mega Millions lottery. Go here....

March 25, 2012

The NW Outlaws web site is under the .net domain, www. nwoutlaws.net and they are now part of the Mega Ford weekend at Mission Raceway September 8-9.

SpeedZone talked with Todd Lesenko at Gainesville a week ago and it is posted.

Saturday results from Tucson is posted.

March 24, 2012

You ever wonder if Street class racing is still legit, or if the guys running those type of classes even care to make sure their car is street legal and if they pass the tests like they used to do. Running a 10-50 mile cruise and then race. Well there is a posting at Yellow bullet that takes true street class racing to the extreme. A guy from New Mexico decided he wanted to race in the street race in Bradenton Florida (he used to live in Fl). Instead of towing his 800+ hp 8 second Mustang to Florida and race he decided to drive all the way there in his 8 second race car (1700 miles one way and then drive it home as well for a 3500 mile total. He did it and also won the True Street class with a 3 run average of 8.8 (around there). He left the car there instead of driving straight back and raced the next weekend in the NMRA event and he won that one as well (then he drove it the 1500 miles home, including a Texas thunder storm and a snow storm at 8500 feet of elevation in the mountain pass just miles from his home, all on drag radials). Here is his whole story chronicled from start to finish, all 110 pages of it. It is a great read (photos as well).

Tucson Nitro Jam coverage is here.

Las Vegas coverge (LODRS event) will be up shortly.

Two Top Alcohol features. Geno Trumbarello feature. Doug Gordon feature.

March 22, 2012

This weekend is the first IHRA Nitro Jam. It is in Tucson and SpeedZone has two photogs there. The following weekend, their show goes to San Antonio. Tucson coverage is here.

The first race at the local MRP track is in two weeks, April 6-8. It is the 20th Anniversary for the second generation track.

The other major BC track, the Eagle Motorplex celebrates its 25th this year. Their first big race of the year is in May. The details for their Pro Am the Canadian May Long weekend are here.

Las Vegas has two big back to back weekend. This weekend is the LODRS/Regional event. Next weekend is the Summit Nationals.

Mike Austin, the Oregon driver who had a horrific crash at Pomona a month and a half ago has a new ride. YNot Racing (the Whiteley family) has put together a second TAD. This version will have a Convertor /B&J drive behind the Norm Grimes Bullet.

The NHRA strapped 20 lbs. on the two Harley Davidson Motorcycles in the PSM class. Now if they would look at the class and make other changes to the class to allow other teams to but that combination.

March 16, 2012

A huge announcement by NHRA as the March Meet winning team in Nitro Funny Car (Hodgeson and Boychuk) were disqualified as their pump exceeded the maximim allowed as per Heritage rules. Rick White in Top Fuel was also disqualified for a fuel pump violation. A tough break. My guess is it was in the 21-22 gallon range.

A Snake/Mongoose full feature film is being produced, and the leads have been cast.

March 13, 2012

A Gainesville gallery is here.

March 12, 2012

Gainesville got done by noon today and it was extremely entertaining in the semi finals and final rounds for the pros. Lucas, Hight, Edwards, Krawiec, Demke, Ferro, and R. Smith were the winners in the pro classes. Go here for all the results.

March 11, 2012

Gainesville was postponed today as moisture hit the track just before the semi finals of the Pro Classes. They will resume tomorrow morning at 10:00am.

11:30 PST update. An epic staging dual forces new official starter Mark Lyle to show the Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Hector Arana Sr. and Matt Smith he won't take any crap. After a long dual Lyle motioned the two riders to stage and second time full of animation and forceful language and neither rider obeyed the command. He shut both off and sent them to the back of staging. After allowing the other teams to run he called the two suspects forward and this time they staged within reasonable time, and Smith came away the victor. Do we have the legend of Buster Couch in the makings?

By the fourth photo (below) Mark had had enough, he shut them off and pushed them back, to think about it.

In other happenings, John Force was ousted in round one against Alexis DeJoria, as DeJoria ran a career best 4.11/309. In Top Fuel, the biggest upset based on qualifying was Clay Millican taking out Kalid Al Balooshi on a huge holeshot, 3.875 -3.831. Doug Kalitta also took out Brandon Bernstein but this one was close a 3.850 to 3.851 for Kalitta. Doug also had .04 advantage at the tree. #11 Bob Vandergriff also advanced as he defeated Steve Torrence 3.832 - 3.844. In Pro Stock, huge upsets in round one including #1 and 2 qualifiers ousted. Larry Morgan took out Allen Johnson with a .02 holeshot and a 6.57 to quicker but losing 6.56 et for Johnson. Jason line shook on the starting line and was a late as well, as Canadian Mark Martino got the holeshot and shocking round one victory 6.58 -6.60. Erica Enders went red against Chris McGaha, and Rickie Jones got a slight .008 holeshot and a victory from the #11 spot against #6 Vincent Nobile Nobile went .023 at the tree so he can't really walk away from that round knowing he gave it away. Only three driver had better RT's.

Final Gators qualifying is posted.

March 10, 2012

Gainesville Friday qualifying is posted. Saturday qualifying is quick, with Chris Demke (TAD) ripping off a 5.250/271 and two Pro Stock cars in the 6.40's (Allen Johnson 6.486 and Jason Line 6.490). Eddie Krawiec (PSM) now has the first leg on the world record with a 6.750 this morning.

Unfortunately Pro Mod like in early testing, saw another driver up end his ride. Mike Janis, one of the best drivers in the class had his blown entry get loose and end up on its roof. We have photos and will post them in a couple hours.

March 8, 2012

Today SpeedZone mourns the loss of the Tom Jeffery, the son of one of our long time photographers and longer friend Bill Jeffery (mom Dianne and sister Amanda). Words can not describe the way we feel as Tom was a bright light and a ray of sunshine to all who knew him. His suffering has ended. Funeral is today at Forest Lawn Funeral home in Burnaby.

Sad news in the IHRA as one of the lead hands for the assoc., Jim Weinert died in his sleep at the age of 59. He was their head prep and starter and had been with the IHRA since leaving the same position at Norwalk in the 90's. More here.

Their first Nitro Jam is just two weeks away at Tucson, then they head South East to San Antonio a week later.

This weekend is one of the big '5' in the Full Throttle series as the NHRA heads to Gainesville. They will honor Kenny Bernstein historic 300 mph shot 20 years ago.

Pro Stock Motorcycle makes its first start of the season and beside it being the 25th anniversary of the class, the big buzz their it the run Eddie Krawiec made in testing He turned in the first 200 mph lap in the class, albeit only in testing, but it does lead to the mile marker being the next big milestone to shoot for in the NHRA in 2012. George Bryce and Star Racing are back in the class after a number of years away. Rule issues have been the main reason George has stayed away. The lack of parity and advantages to the Vance and Hines Harley team in the issue. Division Six and Seven rider Scott Pollacheck is one of his riders. John Hall is the other.

Pro Mod also makes it debut this weekend at Gainesville. This is a class in flux as their lead sponsorship is in jeopardy at the end of the year and if no sponsor comes forward will the class stay in the NHRA. Three or more drivers have crashed their rides in early season testing including Roger Burgess (his third or fourth in the class in the last couple years) just yesterday. He will likely be in a back-up car this weekend Leah Pruett is his only other team driver at the moment, but it would not surprise me if he brings someone else on board. 'Big' Bob Brand is his crew chief of choice to start the 2012 season. He has gone through three others in the last two years. Bubba Stanton and Rick Stivers also crashed yesterday testing in Florida.

Brady Kalivoda is back behind the wheel of a Top Fuel Dragster as he teams up with the Dakin Brothers (Mike and Chris) and 'Warrior Racing'. They will compete at 15 races for sure in 2012.

Peak has renewed and increased its support of Zizzo racing through the 2013 season. At least 11 events per year (22 total) and Tony Zizzo starts the season this weekend in Gainesville.

March 6, 2012

A March Meet gallery is here.

March 5, 2012

Final round photos, winners circle and full results are posted.

March 4, 2012

The March Meet wrapped up on time today and it was a good day for two Canadians in two of the top classes. The marquee class, Nitro Funny Car was won by Tim Boychuk in the Troy Lee designs Trans Am. The Boychuk/Hodgson flopper defeated upstart Chad Head in Jim Heads Firebird. A 5.80 defeated a 6.00 Way to go team Canada. In A/Fuel Les Davenport won it all in the Davenport/Kaplan Blown Alky FED. He defeated Kin Bates in his Injected Nitro FED, 6.22 to a 6.29. In Top Fuel, Jimi Young won with a great 5.68 to a game 5.69 for Rick White. What a great side by side. Jessie Adams (in a flopper) defeated Terri Brewster in Pro 7.0. JD Zink defeated Don Enriquez in Jr. Fuel. In the Gas classes, Rafael Qiroga won A/Gas, Roy Castagmetto won B/Gas and Justin Shears won C/Gas. Steve Schoenfeld won Nost. Eliminator I, Bob Johnson got the win in Nost II and Lindsay Lister won Nost III. Chris Pederson was the champion in Hot Rod.

Eagle Motorplex announcement

The Eagle Motorplex is pleased to announce that it will be having an Open House Saturday March 10th 2012 for all moto x riders interested in checking out the new 2.1 kilometer track. There will be a select few riders that have been invited to do some testing on the new facility to ensure that we are set for our season opening BCMAS Open Practice March 17-18.
We are also interested in forming an Eagle Moto X Club and anyone interested in joining and helping out around the track throughout the year, there will be a meeting at 10.00am at the base of the tower.

March 3, 2012

A Duane Shields feature is posted.

Final qualifying is posted from Bakersfield. Round one is also complete at the 'Patch. Qualifying results are here. They also ran round one and in Funny Car, Tim Boychuk wins round one with a weekend best 5.75 over Dan Horan Jr. #1 qualifier Jason Rupert smoked the tires and went out early. Mike Halstead got the win there. Paul Romine defeated Ron Capps with a 5.87, Brad Thompson match Romine in a real close win over Steven Densham 5.87 - 5.91. Chad Head ripped off a 5.77 to take out Dennis LaCharite. Rich Rogers got his first ever round win with a 6.06 over Canuck Claude Lavoie. Kris Krabill defeated Donny Watkins and Dale Van Gundy defeated Will Martin. In Top Fuel, Bill Dunlap, Ronnie Young, Adam Sorokin, Rick White, Mendy Fry, John Rasmussen, Jimi Young and Michael Irwin all advanced. Heavy favorites Tony Bartone, Jim Murphy, and Rick McGee all were ousted early.

Day two of qualifying is complete at Bakersfield and Jason Rupert is #1 in Funny Car with a great 5.668 at a world record 262 mph. Second year driver Chad Head is #2 with a career best 5.73/257 mph.

A bit of excitement in Both Nitro Classes as Roger Garten had his Mustang body exit North as the car went lean and banged the blower so hard the body took flight. Denver Schutz hit the wall in His Top Fuel Dragster. It was a hard hit but Schutz was examined at the local medical center and released. An update on Mark Sanders after his hard hit Thursday. He is still and sore but he found the time to head back to the track and actually announce Friday's second session of qualifying.

In Top Fuel, Rick McGee is #1 with a 5.653/244. Qualifying Numbers for Top Fuel and Funny Car are here.

March 2, 2012

As you can see on the links above, SpeedZone has dialed in its Facebook page. My daughter Shelby (12yrs old) who scares me with her Internet savvy, said "my personal Facebook (which is so far away from being envogue) page is fine, but get with the times dad, it is time for a SpeedZone Facebook Page". So guess what I told her, "okay smart aleck you're in charge of it". A work in progress, but over the next few weeks it should look like something. And it is fun to use parenthood for slave labour.

March 1, 2012

The BC Classic & Custom Car Show is confirmed to have Big Daddy as a guest of honor. Click the link to the left for all the info from the official site. Here is the release as well as the poster and all the info.

3:35pm...In testing five minutes ago Mark Sanders hit the wall hard at 300 feet. No word yet on how he is, but the body looked to have suffered pretty good damage. He did get the car stopped before the second turn off. Word is he will be heading to hospital to get checked over. Here are a few shots of Sanders deal. Go here for more.

February 29, 2012

The March Meet is this weekend. One of the largest non NHRA events of the year. Huge car counts, including 30 nitro floppers and 16 Nitro FED's. we will have photos up throughout the weekend. Our coverage is here. The Bangshift live feed for the MM is here.

February 28, 2012

Full results and photos from Phoenix are posted. The PSA TA wrap up is posted here.

February 26, 2012

Phoenix Division (numero deux) is complete. John Lombardo Jr defeated Jay Payne in Funny Car. Megan McKernan got her first ever Wally as she took out Division Six's Joey Severance in TAD. James Butler driving Hugh Ridley's TAD made a career best run a 5.39 in round one and got the win, but his car broke just after fire up in the semis handing a freebie to Severance. In the Sportsman classes, many runner-ups were either real late or RED. In Comp Matt Hartford got by a red lighting Adam Ellis, In Top Dragster George Slatten defeated George Clark (also red). Top Sportsman saw Jeff Gillette defeated a real late John Baker. In Super Stock, Staci Smith defeated Michael Wesolowski (real late). Tom Bayer took out Val Torres in Super Comp. Scott Burton defeated Michael Brand in Stock. The Super Gas winner was Jimmy Lewis. He defeated Gary Mignacca. In Super Street Joseph Greco defeated Al Alguire went Alguire's ride went silent in the burnout box. In Motorcycle, Division Seven champ Tom Medlin defeated Division Six's Travis Patridge. The full story and photos Monday.

February 24, 2012

Lots of news this week, including the word that "Big Daddy" Don Garlits had a mild stroke. He had the stroke while caring for his wife Pat who also had recent medical issues. 'Big' is reported to be fine. Not sure if many know this, but Garlits is said to be a special guest at the Car show in April at the Tradex. He will be there as part of the BCCCA 60th Anniversary celebration. Very cool! They will be having a huge Cackle Fest and Jet Car Blast off show as well. One of the feature cars (below) in the MRP 60th display is Jack Williams Syndicate Scuderia, Likely the most famous car to come out of the Province. Word has it a couple of the innovations on this car were used by Garlits. The big noticeable innovation on this car was the canopy, something used back in the 60's and the NHRA is still dragging their feet on the new DSR design.

Also, did you know (locals anyway) that there is a Mission owned Jet Funny Car (unique design) being readied for debut this year.

A number of NW drivers are at Phoenix this weekend for the first ever NHRA 'double header' Divisional. Friday saw the completion of race one and winners and Runner-ups are posted here. NW drivers Ken Mostowich (Super Comp) and Toby Lang (Stock) were winners.

Blake Alexander will be running Paul Smith's Nitro Funny Car for at least nine events in the Full Throttle series stating in two weeks at Gainesville. Hillary Will (who we interviewed a month ago at Palm Beach) and Dote Racing signed a major sponsor for her Top Fuel run in 2012.

Brittany Force was testing the Force Top Fuel car that past week at Phoenix. She made short squirts.

Top Alcohol features.

Payouts are posted for the regional champions in the two Top Alcohol classes, and each event with the TA classes

We posted all the special awards at the Division six awards banquet. Go here for all the series winners: LODRS, Nat'l Open, Bracket winners and others......

February 20, 2012

All explosive Phoenix final rounds are posted as well as photos.

February 19, 2012

Robert Hight Antron Brown and Jason Line get wins in Phoenix. All three professional finals were against team mates as Hight faced Mike Neff. It was a great side by side (rts were within .002) with Hight winning with a 4.13 to 4.16 for Hight. DSR team mates Brown and Tony Schumacher were side by side as well. Three thou separated the two at the tree then brown steadily pulled ahead with a 3.79 to 3.81. In Pro Stock Line ran the other Summit car, with team leader Greg Anderson finishing .013 back at the finish line. Their RT's were .041 to .042. The three final rounds certainly show the cars and the drivers well very much in synch. Three Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars were at Phoenix as well and the three were a few of the top cars in the country. Jason Rupert was the quickest of the bunch running a 5.68 best at a whopping 259mph. Tim Boychuk ripped of a 5.74 best, his top speed was 244. Ryan Davenport is continuing to progress in Bucky Austin's Arrow and he turned in a best of 5.82@ 248mph.

The Sportsman winners at Phoenix were: Tom Koenen in Top Dragster over JR Lobner, J Wayne Silvia in Top Sportsman (Ted Carli broke), Dan Fletcher won over Ken Etter in Super Stock, Leo Glassbrenner defeated Brad Hawk in Stock. Greg Butte got the best of Steve Whitfield in Super Comp, Mike Miller got by Ed DeStaute when the veteran had transbrake issues on the line. And finally in Super Street, Ray Dew defeated Ryan Herem.

February 18, 2012

Qualifying is complete at Phoenix. A Friday/Saturday gallery is here.

February 17, 2012

A big change for the team ACE Nostalgia Alcohol Funny Car for 2012. Sitko Family Racing and Team Ace Racing expand. More here......

February 16, 2012

A few issues with the NPSA South of the border has necessitated a disbanding of the assoc. Here is the official announcement.

The Phoenix Arizona Nationals event is up this weekend, as is the Gainesville Divisional (and regional for the TA classes).

The Orlando divisional results are posted.

Two Todd Veney features in advance of the first NHRA regional event (at Gainesville)

Artie Allen.

Micky Ferro.

February 13, 2012

More videos on Mike Austin's wild ride on You Tube. ESPN's video is here.

Sportsman winners from Pomona Monday include Dan Fletcher over Randy Jones in Comp, Mike Cotton defeated Jody Lang in Super Stock, Brad Burton defeated Don Keen in Stock, Greg Ventura defeated Jimmy Lewis in Super Gas and Kevin Wright defeated Tommy Philips in Super Comp. A Sunday gallery is here.

February 12, 2012

Pomona suffered through a moisture delay Sunday morning, but elimination's did get underway around noon. The sportsman classes will complete Monday. In Top Fuel, two DSR drivers paired up in the final round, and it was Spencer Massey getting the win. His two final runs in the day were the second and third quickest in history and he also ran the fastest lap and set the mph record in the 1000 foot era. His winning run was a 3.750@325.77 victory over Antron Brown. In the semis, he ran a 3.745/328.77 in a victory over his other teammate Tony Schumacher. In Funny Car, John Force laid down his best run of the weekend and strapped a huge holeshot on one of his team mates, Mike Neff. Force went 4.080 to Neff's stellar 4.036, But Neff was real late, over a tenth off and could not catch the boss despite the quickest run of the weekend. In Pro Stock, Greg Anderson took on Jeg Coughlin, but Coughlin was no match for the Summit driver. Jeggie was one of the better leavers all day long, but it is evident his Dodge Hemi is a few HP back of the two Summit cars and Mike Edwards. In TAD, Chris Demke ran low et of the weekend a great 5.28/270 and defeated Larry Miersch. Miersch could only muster a 5.45 and was over a car length back at the end of the 1/4 mile. Daniel Oliver ran quicker and quicker all weekend long and he was a bit better than the 'Thunder Slug' Jay Payne in the final. Oliver's 5.531 was just enough for a very close 5.548 by Payne. Results are here.

Happy Birthday to my wife Lisa. We'll try and be nice to you today. Love you!

Here is a video of Mike Austin's over the wall crash in round one of TAD yesterday. Mike was shaken up but not injured other than his pocket book. Great work by video guru Les Mayhew.

February 11, 1012

Qualifying is complete at Pomona and they fell one round short. The rain came in just as the final session was due to start. Morgan Lucas' new hires pay dividends as he runs a career best (in competition) 3.783/325 to nail down the #1 spot. Robert Hight gets the Funny Car nod with a great 4.060 and Jason Line goes 6.535/212 and faces the #16 qualifier Grace Howell in Pro Stock. In Top Alcohol Dragster, Hugh Ridley's driver James Butler runs a career best 5.45/260 but loses a close one to Joey Severance. Duane Shields is upset in round one. Brooks Brown gets the win there. The other hitters, Whiteley and Demke both get wins.

Whiteley's win came at the expense of Div 6 driver Mike Austin. Unfortunately for Austin he suffered a real bad crash while running Whiteley. He got loose and the car went up over the wall just past half track. Mike did exit the car and was checked over by medical staff, he will be stiff sore and bruised and a lot lighter in the wallet.

In TAFC, Favorites Tony Bartone and Jay Payne advance, as does Div 6 hitter Brian Hough. Results are posted.

Two galleries are posted. A Sportsman class gallery is here.

Pro Classes are featured here.

February 10, 2012

Friday qualifying #'s are posted.

February 10, 2012

Morgan Lucas, Jack Beckman and Mike Edwards lead pro qualifying.

Thursday qualifying results, numbers and photos.

February 9, 2012

It's really here!!! The 2012 NHRA Full Throttle season is upon us.

Wednesday photos are here. All classes make one qualifier today including Top Fuel and Funny Car.

A Top Alcohol feature on Jim Whiteley is posted.

February 5, 2012

Go Patriots!!!!!

Davenport just went 5.85@250 at Vegas. A pretty good lick at the desert facility, in 65 degree temps, corrected air around 2800 feet.

February 4, 2012

Looking at testing this weekend at Las Vegas reigning world champion Duane Shields will have a new crew chief turning the screws in his A/Fuel dragster. With the announcement by Rick Henkelman that he was back in drag racing and starting his return in the TAD class (with Garrett Bateman), his old crew chief Dana Hopewell was returning to the team Hopewell will likely graduate to Top Fuel in 2013 and beyond with Henkelman. Legendary owner/crew chief Mike Johnson is in Shields corner this weekend. Mike and son Brandon sat out last year, getting their new business off the ground and it looks like they could not stay away or were given an offer they could not refuse. Good luck to the Shields team, but I was hoping NJ and BJ were going to be back with their own team.

To continue on the TA topic, the new Pro Sportsman assoc. hired Todd Veney to be their media liaison in 2012. That is a great choice. Here is the release announcing the signing. Locals running at Pomona next weekend (yes next weekend is race #1) are Joey Severance, James Butler (in the Hugh Ridley TAD), Mike Austin and Garrett Bateman. In TAFC, Brian Hough is the only entry so far. In Comp only the Alberta car owned by Ken Reich, Jeff Lane and John Edwards are there from Div 6. Here are the full entry lists. Speedzone will be there for the Winternationals

The latest info with regards to Shawn Cowie is he is still undergoing daily therapy but hopes to be able to attempt a return to the seat late in 2012.

Bucky Austin is in Vegas getting his new driver licensed. Alberta's Ryan Davenport is the new shoe.

We are currently working on the Mission Raceway schedule handout and their 2012 poster, and will start soon on the Eagle posters and schedule as well.

SpeedZone is happy to announce Sonny's Engines is back for the 2012 season as title sponsor.

February 1, 2012

As SpeedZone Magazine predicted over two months ago, Mark Lyle was infact named the official starter for the NHRA Full Throttle tour. He is a no BS guy but is very fair and has earned the position with the NHRA. Congratulations Mark. Now the question is, who will replace him in Division Six.

January 27, 2012

IHRA latest press announcments.

January 26, 2012

Good banter at the Team Mission site regarding classes, payouts and the loss of sport compact etc. Go here. With that being said, DRR also has a great thread on similar subjects.

January 24, 2012

January 23, 2012

Three gallerys from Palm Beach

Top Fuel

Funny Car

People and Pits

We have four interviews from PBIR, coming in the next 24 hours. Firstly, a legend in the sport, Gene Snow was there to watch and talk to a bunch of long time friends. He is still going strong and has one of the baddest A/Fuel cars anywhere. His chat is surprisingly frank and an extremely good read. Courtney Force chatted for a few minutes prior to a run against Jack Beckman. She talks about her race against her Dad Saturday. Hillary Will is back behind the wheel again with the Dote Family. She talks candidly about her time away from the sport and what is in store for 2012. Terry McMillen is looking to be a contender in 2012, as he re-upped with his main sponsor Amalie, he added two more substantial associates for 2012, and he gives some insight into what motivates him as he took a major leap a couple years ago from running a TAFC in the NHRA to being a fan favorite in the NHRA's quickest class. Check back in the next day for each interview.

Mainstream NHRA testing is complete at PBIR (but there is a few teams still in private rentals). The fans were out in droves for the evening sessions at one of the nicest facilities in N. America. Why the owners don't do something to make the facility a major event contender, is the major question for most drag racing pundits. It is IHRA sanctioned but does not host a Nitro Jam. They also are not hosting an ADRL event after what appeared to be a good event in 2011. Are they looking at the NHRA? We will have to see. Anyway, here is the photo coverage from Palm Beach. Coverage and photos are here.

January 20, 2012

Speedzone Dean is a proud granddude (grandpa for all you old fashioned) Granddaughter Brooklyn Rae was born via emergency 'C' section and was 5lb5 oz. She is fine and momma is doing well.

Speedzone has one of a few photogs at the Palm Beach test session for the pros this weekend. Pat Welsh will have photos sent to us starting later tonight. Over 20 pro cars are there including all the JFR cars, DSR cars Al-Anabi, Lucas, Wilkerson, Millican, McMillen and others. Bangshift is also there live all weekend. Go here for their live feed.

January 12, 2012

The new Speedzone Magazine email address is speedzone1@shaw.ca Please take note. My secondary email address is speedzoneracing@gmail.com

Continued issues with my internet provider and TV has forced a change to the new provider starting today. We wil have a new email address and will have that address later today. In the meantime, if you need to contact us go tmy standby address speedzoneracing@gmail.com

January 11, 2012

To no surprise, Courtney Force is announced as the four JFR Funny Car Driver. Traxxas, the mega RC car company will be the title sponsor. on the car. Ron Douglas is slated to be the crew chief, with Scott Wible the assistant. The team will also debut a triple frame rail Top Fuel car with the JFR built Boss 500 inch Ford Hemi between the rails. The car will be in test mode all year, as they developed the unique chassis built in-house.

Clay Millican sign on the the full 23 race schedule Parts Plus stepped up to fund the entire season. The TF class is looking to be the most competitive in quite a few years. Rumors of Hot Rod Fuller joining Bob Vandergriff are swirling as well, and when you have the refitted Lucas team, and two new drivers for AJ, the DSR TF team has stayed intact, so they could be the early favorites.

On a sad note, Don Garlits long time crew member and close friend T.C. Lemon passed away from complications due to cancer.

We are working on the NW Outlaws schedule for 2012 and should have it posted in the next five or six days.

For the first time since Speedzone has been on the scene (14 years), a major event at Mission Raceway may be missed. The annual Pro Mod event held in late June or early July is scheduled for the same weekend as the Edmonton Rocky Mountain event. That one, since its inception has been an important event for SpeedZone, but with two major events on the same weekend, we will have to make a decision on which one gets our primary coverage.

January 9, 2012

Here are all the awards winners from the Div 6 banquet.

SPECIAL AWARDS
LODRS Track of the Year
Firebird Raceway

Summit Racing Series Track of the Year
Walla Walla Drag Strip

Most Improved Track
Woodburn Dragstrip

Top Alcohol Driver of the Year
Joey Severance

Sportsman Driver of the Year
Jackie Alley

Mel Bresaw Memorial E.T. Driver of the Year
Paul Comeau

Don Rhyne Memorial Jr. Driver of the Year
Josh Schmanke

Rod Hoerner Memorial Rookie of the Year
Josh Dalrymple

Jerry Verheul Memorial Top Alcohol Crew Chief
Joe Severance

Sportsman Crew Chief of the Year
Barney Davis

Janet Lang Memorial Gracious Lady Award
Taylor Heritage

Ernie Hall Memorial Person of the Year
Shawn Cowie

Hall of Fame
Joe Severance

Had an email conversation with Jon Adams today, and his reason for leaving the NHRA is simple. His wife got great opportunity career wise and and it is close to her family as well. The family thought is would be a great opportunity for them, and I give kudos to Jonathan for letting his wife have her time. He will be missed because of his cool demeanor. While I have certainly been one to question some of his decisions, I also know he did a job that was always going to piss off 50% of the people the decision affected, and he was always available. A tough job and he did it with integrity.

I will have an in-depth interview and Q&A with Jonathan later this week or early next week.

Good luck to the family and good luck in your job search Jonathan.

On the rumor front, Jason Murray has resigned from his position as track Manager at Pacific. I think he wants the job, so he has to be the odds on favor. I don't think you would quit a job unless you got another one??? We'll see soon enough.

A few NHRA announcement Full Throttle wise, as Morgan Lucas announced Brandon Bernstein has been signed as the new driver for the second team car on the Lucas Oil TF team. John Force has a huge press announcement slated for tomorrow. Likely it is a three or four part Release. (1. Courtney announced as a FC driver for the 2012 season. (2. A sponsor announcement (Traxxax) (3. The possible addition of their new Top Fuel operation with daughter Brittanny learning the ropes under the tutelage of (4..........???

Rick Henkelman is back in drag racing, this year he will own and tune an A/Fuel car with Garrett Bateman driving. Sponsorship will come from HipLink Software. The team is reportedly going to acclimate themselves back into the sport and then step into Top Fuel in 2013.

THE NHRA NFC rules have been clarified for the Carbon Brakes on the front wheels. THey are mandatory for all cars running 240mph and faster. Exhibition and match race cars that are running less than 240 need only carbon fibre on the rears. But the first time you run faster, you must have the Carbon Fibre ones on for the next run at an NHRA track. Also single mag and coil rules are clarified.

January 8, 2012

The Division Six banquet was last night and Shawn Cowie and Taylor Heritage was deserving recipeints of two of the major awards. Shawn was voted Div. Six "Person of the Year", and Taylor recieved the "Gracious Lady" award. All the winners will be posted as soon as we get them.

January 6, 2012

The Division six awards are up this weekend and local Al Omond takes home the cash for being the Motorcycle champion.

Big news from the banquet is that DD Jonathan Adams has left the job. Hopefully we find out soon who the new guy or gal is. Will Mike Rice come back? That is a possibility, but I doubt the NHRA would allow him to move back up here.

Mission's Pro Mod event this year has the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mods tapped in as the feature. Hopefully the South West based series can attract a solid field to the event. The bigger thought for Speedzone though, is hoping Mission looks hard at the date, and maybe change it out to the week prior (it is scheduled for July 6-8, 2012), the race as it stands in scheduled for the same weekend as the Rocky Mountain nationals event. The June 29-July 1st weekend is a better choice in my opinion. While the Rocky event does not have pro mods scheduled this year, the Top Sportsman class at the Rockies attract at least 6-10 fast doorcars, ones that would fit right into the Pro Street shootout portion of Missions race. Plus the fact that a numberof other cars and likely a fair number of spectators would be at Edmonton instead of Mission. Even 50 spectators lost isa dollar figure of 1,000-2,500 dollars.

On a personal selfish note, it would mean that the editor of SpeedZone Magazine would have to make a decision to possibly NOT attend a major event at Mission Raceway for the first time since it re-opened 19 years ago.

Click here for the WCOPM schedule (Note their rival assoc., the WCPM's have three events on their schedule at this time. Their tentative schedule is Medicine Hat 7/20-21, Spokane 7/27-28 and Woodburn 9/15-16

The New Regional Top Alcohol series has brought forward a new assoc. dedicated to promoting the two TA class. This is a good deal, and hopefully the tracks and all sponsors will work with the teams to make the 3rd and 4th quickest classes in all of motorsports respected more, promoted more, and eventually compensated more.

Here is the official announcement from Will Hanna Webmaster of Inside Top Alcohol.com:

Just dropping a note to let everyone know that we are making progress in making our Top Alcohol Organization a reality.

The organization will be called the Pro Sportsman Association. We currently have an interim Formation Board of Directors that consists of myself, Noel Manton, Marty Thacker, Mark Billington and Ray Drew. The Board is currently and plans to work free of charge.

We are in the process of trying to finalize our official mission statement, but our goal is still to build the value and ‘brand’ of Top Alcohol racing through the hiring of a professional PR/Marketing staff. This staff and organization will work hand in hand with NHRA, Lucas and the tracks we run regional events to better promote our events. We intend to specifically target increased media exposure in both local and national markets. If we can build our value to both the tracks and NHRA, we feel we can not only insure we maintain the number of races we have currently, but hope to get more tracks to pick us up in the future. By building the awareness of the class through the media, we hope to build our fan following in the long term. We also hope that increased awareness will lead to more new teams getting into the Top Alcohol classes. The Pro Sportsman Association will not get involved with performance based rules issues. The scope of the organization is to be a promotional tool for the Top Alcohol classes, not a governing or mediation board between the NHRA and the racers.

While we have not become an official organization yet, we are diligently researching our options on what type of corporation we will file as. We are not able to accept any dues as of yet, but dues will be set at $695 a year for team or manufacturer membership. We will give everyone roughly one month (from the time we are official) to take advantage of an introductory offer to become a “Founding Member” of the PSA. The discounted rate will be for $595. We will offer a payment plan for those who may not have all of the money up front. The initial payment of $400 must be in before the conclusion of the one month period, with the final $295 (plus a $5.00 filing fee) due by June 1. After the one month grace period, all dues will be set at $695 per year.

We understand during these tough times this may be a tough pill to swallow, but our concern is if without sufficient funds, we will not be able to do the job that needs to be done. If we lose more races in the near future, we all will be spending much more than these dues. This is a very modest investment in our future. When we accomplish our goals, it will be well worth it to all of us.

Our goal is to reach at least 100 members in our first year. We feel this is easily attainable if we are to get a minimum of 35 racers from each class (70 total) and a minimum of 30 manufacturer members, we will reach our goal. I really feel we can go above and beyond that goal.

Our intentions are to use the dues to pay for a full time staff member to do the bulk of the PR and Marketing work. Ideally we would have the budget to have this person on the ground at most of our regional events. We would also like to recruit some college interns to assist our paid staff. Obviously a portion of the dues would have to go to legal, admin and other expenses the association would incur.

We hope to be ‘official’ and accepting dues by the end of January, if at all possible.

Please feel free to email me or any of the other board members if you have any questions or ideas.

Will Hanna - will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com
Noel Manton – noelmanton@msn.com
Marty Thacker – mlthacker@marathonpetroleum.com
Mark Billington – mark.billington@pepsico.com
Ray Drew – rdrew@wi.rr.com

January 5, 2012

A big announcement for the NHRA as they schedule its first NHRA ever double header Divisional event weekend. Thursday and Friday, February 23-24 will see race #1 and then Saturday and Sunday February 25-26 will see race #2 which will include the two Top Alcohol classes for the first regional event of 2012.

All three SpeedZone Magazine Calendars are now ready for shipping the Last one complete, the Nitro Funny Car version is a 13 month calendar. Go here for ordering and shipping details.

Here are the three calendars ready for shipping:

January 4, 2012

The latest and greatest new product for the multi car teams or guys who double or triple up on classes.

Finally a chiller that doesn't require any ice! That's right NO ICE REQUIRED !!!! Sonny's new chiller is the latest state of the art unit, that only requires water for the initial fill, and 110v power source, this unit is small in size, (24"x22"x31") yet is a work horse. The unit features digital L.E.D. display, to pre set your water temp in between rounds, so you can service the car, and not worry about engine temp. This unit will chill down an engine in just a few minutes, with ultra fast recovery. Works great for multiple car teams. Comes complete with hoses, and fittings. Get yours today. Only 2999.00 on this introductory offer. Call Todd @ Sonny's 434-239-1009 or 509-710-6544

January 3, 2012

NHRA is starting off on the right foot for the TA classes. The regional and National competitor are going to have their team profiles as part of NHRA data base. Here is the release from Eric Lotz, the long time NHRA field marketing liaison for NHRA:

NHRA wants driver profiles
From Eric Lotz, NHRA Field Marketing:

To: All Top Alcohol Class Participants

NHRA recently announced the formation of the new NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional program featuring the drivers of the Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes.

In our ongoing efforts to elevate this new Regional program and these two premier classes we would like to develop driver profiles for each of you for use with both motorsports and local media. The profiles may also be used in various ways to help build the fan base of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and that of the Top Alcohol classes.

If you have already filled out this profile form as a division champion, please disregard this email – you do not need to fill it out again.

Below you will find a link that will open the profile. Please take a few minutes and fill it out and submit it as soon as possible. This is time sensitive project as we need to keep things moving forward as the 2012 season approaches.

https://adobeformscentral.com

If you are unable to open the link please let me know and I will re-send it.

Please feel to contact me at any time if you have any questions and/or concerns.

Happy Holidays!

Thank you,

Eric Lotz
Director, NHRA Field Marketing
elotz@nhra.com
626.250.2287

January 1, 2012

Happy New Year to all drag race fans. We are only a month away from the start of the 2012 Full Throttle season. Testing gets underway in two weeks at Las Vegas and Palm Beach.

Shipping gets underway this week for calendars, Hemi and Doorslammer Tuesday and Nitro Funny Car Thursday.

Speedzone Magazine coverage from 2011 and earlier is here.