Bartone Sits No. 1 in Topeka; Dixon, Connolly Also in Provisional Spots at Heartland Park
After nearly two years since his last No. 1 qualifier, Funny Car driver Tony Bartone raced to the provisional top spot Friday at the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals.
Larry Dixon and Dave Connolly were also No. 1 qualifiers in their respective categories at the ninth of 24 events on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
Bartone drove his Canidae Pet Food Chevy Monte Carlo to a 4.881-second pass at 301.81 mph to become the provisional top qualifier. It would be Bartone’s second career No. 1 qualifier, with his first coming in 2006...
Read the full article at Motorsports Journal
Summer Nationals notebook: NHRA facing nitro crunch
Rumors of a nitro shortage appear to be true - NHRA cancelling post event testing, including August testing session at Indianapolis, recommends teams use methanol for pit warmups.
From the article:
National Hot Rod Association officials met with POWERade Series teams Friday afternoon to announce measures to conserve the use of nitromethane — used in the Top Fuel and Funny Car divisions — for the foreseeable future.
VP Fuels, the exclusive supplier of nitromethane on-site at POWERade events, has been in discussions with the NHRA in light of the recent decision by the Chinese government to halt and/or limit production and shipment of nitro this summer...
Read the full article by Rick Peterson in The Capitol Journal
Tags: NHRA, Nitro, Summer Nationals2008 O`Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals – Friday Recap
With air temperatures teetering near 90 all day and track temperatures bumped up near 120 degrees, competitors got their first taste of summer conditions during the opening day of action at the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX, and Larry Dixon, Tony Bartone, and Dave Connolly adapted best to the hot, muggy conditions, grabbing the top spots on the provisional ladders in their respective classes.
[snip]
Bartone’s roller coaster ride of a season went back on the upswing when he outpaced the rest of the Funny Car field with a 4.881 clocking in his Jim Dunn-tuned, Canidae-backed Monte Carlo that seeds him No. 1 after two of four qualifying runs for the weekend. Bartone has one previous career start from the top spot on the ladder, in Englishtown in 2006.
[snip]
Rookie of the Year candidate Bob Tasca III is primed for the best start of his young career after wheeling his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang to a 4.901 for the provisional No. 2 spot. After sitting out a couple of events, Frank Hawley made a
...
Read Candida Benson's full recap at NHRA.com
NHRA Young Drivers Proving Themselves Once Again
TOPEKA, Kan. - It must have felt a bit like proving themselves all over again.
In 2006, Melanie Troxel reached a stunning nine final rounds with two wins in her first year of fulltime competition in Top Fuel, good enough for a fourth-place finish on the year. Then she followed that with another two-win season in 2007, firmly establishing herself as a contender in Top Fuel.
[snip]
Both Troxel and Connolly come to Topeka fresh off of their first wins of the season. For Troxel, the victory was a landmark.
After struggling through the first half of the regular season, Troxel became the second female to win a race in Funny Car, and the first female and the 14th driver overall to reach the winner's circle in the sport's two fastest categories, Top Fuel and Funny Car....
Read the full article
Daniel Wilkerson takes the world by storm in his Funny Car debut
Milan, Mich., May 26, 2008: All across America young men are borrowing their father’s car for the weekend, some to impress a special young lady, others to haul their possessions home from school. 20 year-old college student, Daniel Wilkerson borrowed his dad’s car this weekend. Only he didn’t get a big SUV or a luxury car, instead he got a 7,000 horsepower nitro burning Funny Car. By the way, his father happens to be the current NHRA POWERade points leader, Tim Wilkerson. And Daniel took the Lev, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS to the IHRA Motor City Nationals in Milan, Mich. to make his nitro Funny Car debut...
Read the full article about Dan Dilkerson at IHRA
2008 Championship races heating up as IHRA heads to Budds Creek June 13-15
May 31, 2008 by Robert
Filed under Racing News
Comments Off
With three races in the book heading into Maryland International Raceway, the 2008 IHRA championship points chases are starting to take shape. One thing is for sure, this season’s Torco President’s Cup Nationals will force each and every race team to swing for the fences if they want to be players in this season’s title hunt.
[snip]
Steven Macklyn (Salt Lake City, Utah) captured the Ironman in San Antonio while Matt Hagan (Christiansburg, Virg.) took the title at the IHRA Spring Nationals. Lee knows the Nitro Funny Car class is wide open this season.
“IHRA has a fantastic program right now,” he said. “You look at Top Fuel and look at Nitro Funny Car…there are competitive racers from...
Read the full article
Gilbertson Among The Stars Appearing In Friday’s Night Of Fire At Bristol Dragway (Bristol Herald Courier)
May 31, 2008 by Robert
Filed under Racing News
Comments Off
The veteran NHRA and IHRA competitor from Gastonia, N.C. gets his chance to recharge Friday night at Bristol Dragway with a diverse program dubbed the Night of Fire.
“It’s cool to race a guy like (14-time world champion) John Force, but sometimes the fans really like to see a jet-powered race car along with a Funny Car and a guy (Benny the Bomb) that blows himself up. That’s real entertainment,” Gilbertson said.
The Night of Fire will also include...
Read Allan Gregory's (Bristol Herald Courier) full article at TriCities.com
From Indy to Charlotte, NHRA racers work to spread the message
It may be the busiest non-NHRA-racing weekend of the year, but many teams of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series are from sitting out around the backyard barbecuing steaks. From Indianapolis to Charlotte, many of NHRA's top drivers and teams are taking advantage of the intense focus on the weekend's Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 to help bring more awareness to NHRA drag racing.
From shop tours to facility visits, from the media centers down to pit road, some of NHRA's best and brightest will show the circle-track crowd what makes the NHRA world go around.
In Indianapolis, where the 92nd annual Indy 500 will take the green flag at 1 p.m. Sunday, but there's plenty going on the day before. Melanie Troxel, recent...
Tags: Cruz Pedregon, John Force, Melanie Troxel, Tony Pedregon