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May 1, 2004
Breaking News!! Speedzone Magazine learns about BAD's being added to Top Fuel in the IHRA to go along with the A/Fuelers. It was announced yesterday on the Inside Top Alcohol Site. Further to this announcement SpeedZone has recieved confirmation from an inside source of a BAD team that in fact Will Hanna, Webmaster of ITA and crew chief on a couple prominent TA cars just completed licencing in a BAD in anticipation of this announcement and he will be in the seat of one of the said BAD's at Rockingham in three weeks for the Spring Nationals. More on this story later this week. April 1, 2004- (this one is unfrtunately true), Mert Littlefield long time Top Alcohol Funny Car driver and owner of Littlefield blowers was involved in a huge highway crash on I-15. He had to be cut from his rig as it was nder a semi, but only recieved a few lacerations. The race car trailer was said to be relatively unscathed. The accident was in Cajon Pass, which is the crooked uphill section between Riverside and Victorville. He was on the way to Las Vegas for the Summit Nationals, on I-15. A total of 66 cars involved. apparantly, there were no fatalities. March 31, 2004 LAS VEGAS - Micah Roberts, oddsmaker for Station
Casinos in Las Vegas, Tony "Sarge" Schumacher, driver of the U.S.
Army dragster and 1999 The weekend kicks off Thursday with a free NHRA autograph
session at the TOP FUEL DRAGSTER Tony Schumacher - 5-to-2 FUNNY CAR John Force - 3-to-1 PRO STOCK Greg Anderson - 7-to-5 Paul Romine the driver of that car last year was very surprised to hear that Jimmy Walsh was fired from the Carrier Boyz Top Fuel team this week and replaced by Todd Smith. Especially since is happened only three races in to the season. The lack of loyalty and respect in the professional ranks makes me think of the stick and ball games. Yikes!!! Did I just say that? Speaking of Paul Romine, it is rumored that he is suing on of the teams he was partnered up with in 2003, for breach of contract. At San Antonio, the absence of the new Steve Hamilton/Bill Mitchell team was a big shock especially to Steve Hamilton. He was notified earlier in the week that Mitchell decided to pass on attending that race leaving Hamilton and his sponsor for that event Dave Hirata in the lurch. Hamilton approached the Dave Hirata A/Fuel entry and they agreed to add Race Girl to the side of the car for the weekend. Hamilton had worked on getting deal to drive a Top Fuel Dragster for a couple years with various teams, all to no avail so far. The A/Fuel cars at San Antonio did not make the early splash many were hoping. Four cars attempted to qualify in the huge (20 cars) field. But none of the car there had the time to take advantage of the rules the IHRA have allowed. One team had a 500in powerplant, and I believe a cannon clutch and one other team had a 460 inch combo. The other two had only their NHRA legal combination. Three teams will debut their new Monte Carlo body at Vegas this weekend. Both Worsham cars (with the graphics they ran at the last two races) and Cruz Pedregon will have the new supposedly better aero bodies. With Worsham winning the last two events with the old Firebird, I guess his team is not that superstitious. Greg Goldstein, son of legendary Funny Car
driver the late Leroy Goldstein, has been selected as the "Nitro
Intern" for Bob Gilbertson's Trick Tank Funny Car team
at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway April 1-4. "I'm looking forward this more than I've ever anticipated anything else in my life," said Goldstein. "I just can't wait to go to the races, be a part of the Trick Tank team and working on a Funny Car and meeting a lot of my fathers friends and fans who are still out there. To be selected to intern with Bob Gilbertson's team for the weekend is a big honor and I'm going to do whatever it takes to do the best job I can for these guys and make my dad proud, I'm sure he'll be watching over me." "Leroy was one of my heroes when I was just starting out racing a Funny Car," said Gilbertson. "I remember when he ran the first six-second run in a Funny Car back in the 70s and I loved the Ramchargers car. When I saw Greg's email I knew that I wanted him to be a part of my team at Vegas. Maybe some of Leroy's karma will channel through Greg and bring us some luck, we tested there in February and we're all confident that we'll go some rounds." Kevin Nash, the muscle-bound wrestler and co-star
of The Punisher, will Surrounded by a crew of gorgeous Punisher girls, Nash
will escort the The dramatic unveiling is in support of Lions Gate's
April 16 theatrical
March 10, 2004 Seattle's
Pacific Raceway is well underway with the new surface. The right
lane has been poured and they are probably working on the left
lane as we speak. They are set to debut with a test n tune the last
weekend of March. Dave Fletcher long time crew chief and co-crew
chief for various top fuel teams has joined Bob Gilbertson's
Trick Tank Funny Car team. He will assist Nick Boninfante. Roy
Hill stated on "Inside Drag Racing" this past weekend
that he will have a new two and possibly three car Pro Mod team for
2004. Richie Stevens is said to be one driver and Scott
Geoffrion is rumored to be another. In the Top Fuel pits, Doug
Herbert had a problem in the pits when the team went to start
the car. A bunch of yellow foam flew out of the headers and the car
was shut down and re-examined. Another team said to be Doug Kalitta's,
was on the pro jacks to be fired up and while the car did flash, the
team found out there was no nitro in the tank. Once that was remedied,
they fired again and found no oil pressure. Rumors has it the was
also a lack of 70 wt lubricant in the block and oil pan. I bet Connie
was not happy. Todd Paton will have Rob Flynn assisting
the team when they make their 2004 debut next weekend at the Gatornationals.
From there the team starts its IHRA season at San Antonio
a week later. New technology is stated to be just around the corner
for both teams and fans, and it is in the form of a Nintendo "Game
Boy" called Icard. That's right, "Game Boy"!
With a special module inserted into the game, you can get real time
stats from each run down the track through the track's timing system.
It is already in use in LeMans. Here is a link
to the technology. Here is a funny one found in
March 2, 2004 "Sealed Power" the sponsor of the Low Qualifier bonus for the POWERade National events and the Lucas Oil Divisional events have dropped the National Event part of the program, and cut back the amount at Lucas Oil Divisional races as well. The new 2004 payout and the 2003 is as follows: 2003 Payout 2004 Payout While it is too bad they stopped paying at National
events at least they are doing the 44 race Divisional series. Did any sportsman teams notice the LED's were quite a bit different at the Winternationals? Well they were! A new brand of light supplied by Porta Tree Systems was used at the season opening event. The lights were said to be a little less bright. They also tried a second new type as well during the event. As well, they were said to have put another digit on the filter which they have up to 3/100ths to play with on the Compulink system. They now have used 2/100ths in the computer as a filter to slow down the firing of the lights. Jeff Foster will probably get in touch with me as regards to what was done (whether or not the number I posted are indeed correct), but I did hear from a very good source this is the case. The odd part about the story why did they change brands of LED's to begin with? The interesting thing is that the racers were not told about the changes but had to find out by baptism so to speak. Feb. 12, 2004 Locally, Looks like another series may be in the works in the North West in the form of Top Sportsman. Contact Jim Hurlock at jandchurlock@comcast.net. He's working hard on the project for cars with two doors that run 8.99 and quicker, full electronics and .5 tree. Sounds good. Hey guys there already is a very cool series called Canada West Doorslammers. Nine races this year. Mission, Ashcroft and a paid exhibition at port Alberni. Talk to Marcy @ 604-533-8675.
"The NHRA has moved forward and developed a program that is family-oriented," said Pratt. "We are able to get the spectators, who are also our consumers, into the pit area and be one-on-one with the teams and drivers. That's what delivers our clientele. Here is the final paint on Koretskys Pro Stock Hemi
Feb. 9, 2004 Checking out in the rumors department a link off Deepstage.net came the confirmation that Jerry Tolivers team will be sponsored by Schick Quattro Razors. Go to Schick's web site and click on sports to see a picture of his ride.
Feb. 4, 2004 Nitro has become THE topic of discussion on the Internet and amongst the teams in NHRA. The cost of the exotic fuel has been 600-650 US dollars for the past few years. This past fall VP fuels (the official fuel supplier to the NHRA) announced they they had the exclusive to Angus nitro and Wego nitro (both were the suppliers to Fuel retailers Sunoco and VP). Sunoco could not buy the product from either. Was the formation of this partnership was announced the price went up 50 % to 900.00 per barrel. An increase that could ambient to 60-100k for the larger teams in the NHRA. Because of this increase a couple teams with Asian contacts brought in a Chinese brand of Nitro that proved to be every bit as good a product as the stuff Angus and VP sold. To top this off, VP just signed with the NHRA as the official fuel supplier to the POWERade series. This is certainly not going to set well with the teams as witnessed on various message boards. Don Schumacher is quoted as saying when one thread about this controversy was pulled from a pro NHRA message board, " I wonder if someone from NHRA was unhappy with this thread"? Will the price stay high or will other suppliers such as Sunoco (who were left out in the cold on this deal) be allowed to supply teams with other off brand nitro? This is a topic that will be discussed at length. Virgil Hartman, team owner of Rhonda Hartman's and John Smith's Top Fuel dragsters is recovering from multiple bypass surgery. Larry Minor (of early 90's drag racing fame) is back as a financial partner in the Pedregon Brothers Funny Car teams. Brian Corradi has been hired as assistant crew chief for Jim Dunn's K&N Filters nitro funny car driven by Tony Bartone. Corradi was the crew chief for Dean Skuza at the end of 2003. The Skuza team will not be out this year unless a major sponsor is found. Previous Facts and Rumors and Press releases are below by their date. Click on each link, and then scroll down to the date posted on the left when you get to the page. Feb. 9, 2004 Schick Quattro will be the sponsor for Jerry Toliver. Feb. 9, 2004 David Baca wins Motorsport Press association driver of the year. Cory Mac signs with the Carrier Boyz. Feb. 4, 2004 Lucas Oil re-signs as Sportsman sponsor Feb. 2, 2004 The NHRA TV schedule is here. Jan. 29, 2004 Division Six schedule change for Medford. Go to the forum for the details. New date is October 8-9. Jan 28, 2004 More updates news including local stuff in rumors zone. Jan 28, 2004 NHRA updates including the 50th US nationals happening this year. Jan 26, 2004 Check out Larry's site for a few new North West rides for 2004. Jan. 25, 2004 Las Vegas Bracket series awards Banquet winners are here: Jan.19, 2004 New George Bryce rider is announced. Is it the next Angelle, or......? Jan 18, 2004 Seattle's Pacific Raceway gets ripped... apart. Photos included Jan.19, 2004 Division 6 chassis inspections are here in the speedzone forum. Jan.16, 2004 Today is supposed to be the day that............ Second WJ team car makes a home in the dogwood province. More stuff here as well. Jan. 13, 2004 Press Releases added. Nov. 23, 2003 Lucas Oil Canada steps up in a big way. IHRA Stuff Feb. 5, 2004 IHRA TV schedule Jan. 30, 2004 McVey Motorsports signs another Hooters Jan. 26, 2004 The IHRA confirms what we broke on the weekend that A/Fuel will be added to the Top Fuel class in 2004. The rules are here!! Local stuff Feb. 2, 2004 Rash Dhalaiwal's Smooth Performance web site is now up Jan. 12, 2004 Changes at the top at MRP. Mission Raceway Park, CANADIAN racers meeting, Langley Civic Centre, 208th + 42nd. Sunday, Febuary-8th at Noon. Local event schedules and track schedules are now posted here Doorslammer Zone updated with CW Doorslammer rules and regulations and 2004 schedule.
|
2004 |
the
pits. David Grubnic is not only having fun racing for team
Kalitta this year, he is jokingly putting it in Scott Kalitta's
face. This was found on Aussie Dave's rear wing. My guess is that
the money spent on Dave's top fuel season is a drop in the bucket.
"Ya can't take it with you". The new Goodyear 2096 tire
will be available in ample supply at the Mac Tools Gatornationals
in Gainesville, Fla., March 18-21. The use of this new tire is
optional, and Goodyear will continue to have the current 1486
tire in supply. Goodyear will no longer produce the 1430 tire. The
MSD 7530T will be mandatory in all Pro Stock vehicles beginning with
the Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 18-21. This
unit will not be allowed on any Pro Stock vehicle prior to this event.
NHRA has made the MSD 7530T unit mandatory on the basis that its
primary feature is the proprietary Traction Control Detection Circuitry
(TCD). This circuit gives NHRA the means to detect illegal traction
control devices. For the racer, the unit features a faster microprocessor,
retard maps for each gear, and gearshift timing advance. Data recorders
are now legal in all NHRA electronic's (Super Pro & Advanced ET)
based bracket classes. More when it happens!
The
3-A-Day of Dairy nutrition-based marketing and consumer education
campaign is managed by The American Dairy Association/National Dairy
Council, with the monetary support of the dairy industry and the professional
support of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy
of Pediatrics, American Dietetic Association and the National Medical
Association.
Look
for an announcement in the next week or so that Nitro Fish will be
on the side of another Pro Stock ride in 2004. Kenny Koretsky will
team up with Larry Morgan and Nitro Fish will be on the side, front,
top and back of the car.