Hi Bob, my name is Des Pimm from Gladstone, Queensland (Benaraby Raceway). My son is building our sponsors a website and we have linked you to their site. I'm wondering if you could link us to your site? The name is Thunder Road Race Cars.

They are chassis builders and component manufacturers. The site is not yet finished, but you will get a fair idea of what it is about. Some products not yet on display are wings for dragsters and injector hats (for Top Fuel and Top Alcohol). Thanks in advance.

LUCK MUST CHANGE IN PERTH FOR BRAY'S TITLE DEFENCE

With just three rounds of the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship remaining, including the Perth event this weekend, Castrol Chevy driver Victor Bray believes he has to generate a change in the bad luck that has plagued him over the last three events if he is to have any chance of successfully defending his title. His attempt to win a fifth straight championship started perfectly with Victor not only winning the opening event and scoring the bonus points for quickest time and highest speed, but also setting a new world record at 232 mph.

The following event at Perth's Ravenswood Raceway saw him again top qualify and he looked set to continue his march towards another title. It was at that point that Bray's luck changed. A near new ignition unit failed, cutting all electrical power to the engine when he was comfortably in front of Dave Koop, resulting in Bray suffering a first round loss for only the fourth time in his entire Top Doorslammer career.

At the next event In Adelaide, Bray again again went down in the opening round when he had difficulty seeing the starting lights against the setting sun and he was unable to chase down Brett Stevens after a late launch. Bray's cruelest luck was reserved for the Australian Nationals at Calder Park in Melbourne, when a throttle cable snapped in the burnout prior to the first round, forcing him out of the race after qualifying second and again recording the highest speed of the event.

"They say things come in threes and I definitely hope they're right," commented Bray. "The trouble is they also say the harder you work the luckier you get. I'm not sure about that one anymore. Nobody could have worked harder to win the Nationals than our Castrol guys, but a two week old throttle cable with only seven runs on it broke. How can you predict that?"

"We know we've got a strong car and we know we can win in Perth so we've got to put the luck thing behind us and just get on with winning some races. We went to the Nationals 72 points back and now we're 67 points behind the leader so the task ahead of us is basically the same. With the fifty percent bonus available in Perth, there's a maximum of 385 points left over the last three events, so it's not over yet. We'll have to do well in the west though, or it's going to be really tough."

Following the Perth event, Bray and his Castrol Team will be heading straight to Melbourne for the Formula One Grand Prix where he'll be performing burnout exhibitions throughout the event with his Castrol 1957 Chevy exhibition car. The final two rounds of the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship will be held at Queensland's Willowbank Raceway on April 15th and June 9th to 11th.

Be careful, buddy. You start bad mouthing my boy and you will be in for it. Basically "if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen." That goes for all Rick's competition too. Bitch, bitch, bitch.... They all play by the same rules. It just shows that George (Santos) and the gang are smarter than the rest.

Also, put a link to your email in more than one place so I don't have to go to the bottom of the page to give you heck.

HotRodder.com is proud to present a live chat with Kenny Youngblood, legendary automotive artist, this Wednesday evening, March 1st, at 9:00 pm, eastern time.

Kenny's creative lettering and realistic airbrushing techniques have been applied to cars driven by Prudhomme, Jungle Jim, Muldowney, Beadle, McEwen, Snow, Karamesines and many more. His artistic talent adorns the canvas as well, and his fine art prints are showcased at his Youngblood Motorsport Gallery in California.

You can find out more about Kenny on our website at: www.hotrodder.com/News/youngblood.html

We look forward to having you join us on Wednesday evening in Rodder Chat

What is this world coming to? It looks like the old "Green Mamba" Jet dragster minus the jet thing (they call it an "engine", Bob). What I would like to know is, who was driving it and how fast did it go?

You asked for input; well, I liked the format of the last (old) web page prior to this one. I know how much work it is to get a new computer all figured out as I bought a new one just before Christmas. A Sony PCG-F390 laptop, as my old one was getting a little slow. I just figured out how to use the scanner that I bought about six months ago; there's just not enough hours in the day and I'm sure you know that feeling.

You know if you start feeling bummed out from not having your dragster here to play with, you're welcome to come out and play with mine anytime. Got to go now, I have to check out some flight info; I'm going to try and go on a holiday. Till next time.

Here is a list of our Drag Racing Stories of The Day for this past week. If you missed any, head on over to www.draglist.com and check 'em out!

Just a few holiday snaps from Pomona . . . as you can see I'm not a professional photographer but I think you will get the idea. Also, we've got a link to Scotland's only Dragstrip! Slick website....

Can anybody in Sweden recommend some cheap hotels in the Gothenberg - Stockholm area? It looks as if I will have to come over to get my Whipple certified before the season starts.

This is a test of email from horsepowerheaven.com to northernthunder.com.

We've just completed most of the official Smax Smith web site; any chance of putting up a hyperlink to it? Thanks in advance.

Igor lives: even if he is now a little smaller at 323 cubes. We will be on the dyno at Parr's in March with our new everything. After 211 dyno pulls and many runs down the track (not to mention how many times we hurt it), Igor finally has new everything. The five-stage dry-sump system is pretty cool and we are told it will pull 20 inches of vacuum. We now have three camshafts to try and all rotating assemblies are new. The day we have a spare motor is still a ways off, but we are gathering pieces.

On the telus issue, we are among the first 100 test group at our house. That would be thanks to my son Rob, as he has forgotten more about computers than you and I will ever know and he is only 20. Rob is in the computer tech world solving problems all day long. On that note, he has started our web page at inlinesix.com. and we hope to put some time and effort into that real soon. Maybe a web page motto as a start up: "Get in-line . . . you'll be fine"

Further to my securing the inlinesix domain, my new email address is: rob@inlinesix.com. Keep up the good work on the best web page in motorsports.

Hi Bob, thought maybe you'd like to let your visitors know that they're all invited to a live chat with automotive artist, Kenny Youngblood, on Wednesday, March 1st at 9:00 pm eastern time at the HotRodder.com chat room.

If you receive an email (with an attachment) entitled "It Takes Guts To Say Jesus" DO NOT OPEN IT. It will erase everything on your hard drive. This information was announced from IBM. AOL states that this is a very dangerous virus, much worse than "Melissa," and there is NO remedy for it at this time.

Some very sick individual has succeeded in using the reformat function from Norton Utilities, causing it to completely erase documents on the hard drive. It has been designed to work with Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It destroys Macintosh and IBM compatible computers. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it.

As a tease for an upcoming CD release, "The Big Sounds of the Drags 2001," Nitronic Research has unveiled an internet first: In-car audio from the cockpit of a grunting, cackling, fire-breathing Top Fuel Dragster.

If you sport a Real Player and a 56K modem, you can dial in this verite snapshot of what it is like to blast down the 1/4 mile in a modern fueler. Simply point your browser here and ride along with "Techno Tim" Gibson as he guides the Bill Miller Engineering fueler down Parker Avenue at the recent 2000 Winternationals, out California way.

This unique recording is a sort of multi-media sidebar to the ongoing "Top Fuel Diary" serial that Gibson submits to Nitronic Research, the latest installment of which has just been uploaded to: Top Fuel Diary. Uhh . . . you have been following "Top Fuel Diary," haven't you? I mean, where else on the planet are you going to find a professional nitromaniac explaining the nuances of running a Top Fuel car? Eh?

Also: Please be advised that since the recent winter solstice, Nitronic Research has uploaded fresh, mono-propellant-centric content onto its homepage as often as twice a week . . . if you have been bypassing the NR homepage, your fellow drag strip cybernauts are cutting a holeshot past you towards nitro nirvana. Remember: "Snoozers Lose..."

As per "The Big Sounds of the Drags 2001," the production drones at the Nitronic Research Wind Tunnels have been slaving feverishly to finish meeting their May 1, 2000 release date for this audio document, which is kinda' the sound track record for a movie whose working title is/was "Fuel Dreams" and that may or may not ever be released (which is another story, altogether . . .)

"The Big Sounds of the Drags 2001," features both the cars and the stars of that slice of teutonic overkill we like to call drag racing: thundering, over-the-top recordings of everything from Top Fuelers to Funny Cars to Weiner Roasters to Wheelstanders; as well as sound bites and interviews from 'Big Daddy,' Shirley, 'Nitro Neil' Bisciglia, Jon 'Thunderlungs' Lundberg, Dean Skuza, Ron 'Crazy Legs' Capps and more, all of which have been underscored by a "Go! Cat Wild!" cross section of premium SoCal surf bands.

Will the worker bees at NR make their deadline for the record release? You'll be the first to know . . . In the interim, take a ride with "Techno Tim" . . .

Bob, ol' buddy: Well I did it. As of Saturday I am the proud owner of a front engine dragster. The <--- at this point the message runs off the edge of the page and I forgot to save it; doh! ---> Good luck as always.

Yes, it came with an injected small block with 14:1 compression and Hilborn injectors. It is <--- damn, can you believe it? I cut it off again --- If it will run in the 7's it will be Junior Fuel, if not, we will run Nostalgia Eliminator <--- more data missing ---> I just couldn't pass on the deal. Can't wait to get going, started tearing it apart <--- you guessed it: the message runs out at this point --->

What are my chances for a 10 second video clip for my computer? Enjoyed the Aussie Babes.

Danny White's hard work has produced brand new lists for 2000! There are now 38,877 individual racer entries at DragList.com. Please check out the "DRL Lists" page to see what's new.

Gas Dragsters Newest Drag Racing List Category:

I am proud to introduce our newest list of cars, which covers one of our oldest classes -- Gas Dragsters. These legendary racers had been orphaned into the Top Fuel and Alcohol Dragster lists for years (mainly because we young 'uns didn't experience them until Pro Comp in 1974). Now that we have been properly schooled, we have provided them their own place in the sun at Draglist.com. As our newest list, we probably have many more holes and inaccuracies in the information, so Gas Dragster racers, have a look and set us straight.

Heads Up Drag Racing Calendar Updated:

We also have made huge updates to our "Heads Up Racing Calendar," adding dozens of new races for 2000. Check it out for all the action this year. Special thanks to Roger Warnock, who went around and gathered up several track schedules and emailed them to us.

DragList.com Debuts "Drag Racing Story of the Day":

We are also debuting a new feature at DragList.com -- our DRL Story of the Day. Are we crazy? The answer is a definite yes! But we are going to try this anyway. We are going to try to give you a brand new drag racing story every single day of the year. No, we haven't added any staff -- we are going to tack this on to our current duties. But for the most part, this great new feature will be pretty much "cut and paste."

We have the privilege of corresponding daily with the greatest racers and fans in the world. This correspondence brings to light great drag racing memories, lovingly retold by dozens of drag racers and fans who put finger to keyboard and let the memories flow. I am just amazed at some of the great stuff that comes my way. Now I am going to share it with you. Our first story is a nice piece on Don Garlits by John Wilson. If you have any stuff you would like to see as a DRL Story of the Day, send it to: story@draglist.com.

DragList.com Columnists Coming Soon:

We still have dozens of columns to get in here by our intrepid columnists. That is the next big push for us. This includes great stuff by Bill O'Neal, Bret Kepner, Danny White, Doug Dornbos, James Morgan, Jim Hill and Pete Millar. We are getting caught up slowly but surely.

DragList.com Gets Wired:

An internal note: we finally got the DRL Home Office completely wired into a LAN. Thanks to my best friend Sean Speer, who again came through in a crunch. This frees us up to share the internet, share more disk space and get more things done at the same time.

Hi big guy, hope you're saving lots of money. By now you'll know all the results from the Nationals. Sounds a bit disappointing from what I've read. Hey, a quick question: I was watching the Winternationals on pay TV last night and realised that I still don't know who Cory Mac's MBNA is? Can you enlighten me, oh great one? Catch you soon.

Heck, Bob, I could care less what you run, at least of the older stuff. I'm flattered that anyone would want to read it, frankly! I think that in the long term there are going to be problems with situations like yours. So as long as you can bail out quickly, you shouldn't have any major problems. But, the first time you receive a threatening letter from a lawyer, I'd be gone, if I were you. Don't lose your life savings trying to protect yourself from something you can't possibly win at regardless.

I'll check your site in a while, and keep doing what you're doing. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know, and I'll try.

In response to my questions about what the future holds for his downunder tour, Jim responded:

To answer your questions, I have already located a Stage VIII KB block and am awaiting delivery of Ron Parr's new (billet) connecting rods. Some new, off the shelf, Arias pistons, one high-helix Littlefield blower (which my Australian partner has on hand) and "Presto" . . . bigger, badder, faster.

I will be coming home for a while to take care of some personal business and don't know how long I will be back in Canada, or how many events I will miss. The guys here are more than capable of rebuilding the car. Our next scheduled event was to be the Nightfire Championships at Willowbank and I am pretty sure that we won't be able to make that one. The next race after that was to be the Supercharged Outlaws show at Adelaide. Maybe . . . we'll see.

All of our work and preparation went for naught at a great event this weekend and it was simply inexperience that did it. On our first qualifier, we threw a rod out the side of the block. Having no spare motor, we were forced to sit back and watch 500 cars compete over three days in 40 degree heat in what was the biggest event that my car has ever been entered in.

After bleeding the brakes in preparation for the "Win-A-Ride" contest that we were supposed to conduct on Friday night, I forgot to reset the proportioning valve for the back brakes. After my burnout I had trouble stopping the car on the front brakes alone and as a result, wound up at the finish line. After backing the car up the length of the track and resetting the valve, I jumped the lights and was told to wait while the other fellow made his run.

By the time he did, the car was just too hot and I should have shut it off. I didn't, because we had only three qualifiers and I wanted so badly to be in the show. Ironically, it was the heat that caused the rod to fail and I never got another chance to make the show. It was small consolation to know that we would have made the field after qualifying ended. We also could have hit the wall and be looking at a total write-off.

While the mandatory "nappy" caught most of the oil, the rod came out of #1 and took the (oil) galley out with it. I drove over quite a bit of oil and was looking at the wall at about 150 mph. I was able to save it and all things considered, am quite grateful. We have already sourced another stage 8 (KB) block and I've spoken to Ron Parr about his new connecting rods which should be ready soon. Ironically, we'll be back better than ever!

It was a chance for the guys and I to watch some racing and have a barby or two. The guys say that actual racing is easier on them. Watching Peter Kapiris win Top Doorslammer was especially gratifying as he and his crew have been very nice to us and tried to make us feel welcome. He top qualified with a 6.37 at a corrected altitude of over 3400 feet! Very stout. Mark Brew won the Top Alcohol class and Roy Smith won Top Fuel. It was a lot of fun and I hope to be able to compete next year.

As you may or may not know, my wife and I had our son Corey on the 18th of January. Leading up to that time I was very busy and as you can imagine, very busy after also. This is the reason there have been few updates as I was unable to find time on the computer and have not been able to talk to people about track plans, progress, etc.

Yesterday I went out and had a look at the facility and was impressed with the amount of work that had been done:

I have been told by the Club that all help is greatly needed on weekends. If you are thinking of coming to help on a weekend, please ring Bob Reid on (07) 4661-1054 before coming and organize with him a time and day.

Again, I am not going to say when we are likely to open. I am being told many different things as far as work to be done and the time frame to do it in, so when I am told, I will in turn let you all know. The reason being that I have been given many dates in the past and all of them have come and gone.

Lastly, until the track is almost ready to use, i.e., when we set a date finally, I will not be updating the website that often. If anything of importance happens, then I will post it, but that is all. E-mail news will be sent each time important progress is made.

If you have any questions, then please e-mail us and I will answer them, or direct your e-mail to those who can. Again, I apologize for not keeping everyone up to date.

Top Doorslammer at the Australian Drag Racing Nationals is developing into a battle of the oil companies with Castrol's Victor Bray and his Pennzoil rival Peter Kapiris separated by two hundreths of a second in the opening qualifying session, 6.39 to 6.41. In the second session, positions were reversed with Kapiris moving up with a 6.37, while Bray overpowered the race track at the startline. His Castrol Chevy looked like it was doing a burnout with smoke pouring off the tyres. Bray back-pedaled completely off the throttle before reapplying the power and flying to a 6.91 at 229.00 mph, the fastest speed of the event so far.

"We've got the power to run a world record again if the air cools down," said Bray. "It really spun the tyres hard off the line and to still run 229 miles an hour tells me we can run quick tomorrow night when it counts. The Nationals are something we went to win pretty badly and the championship points would also be very handy at this stage."

Bray is currently running second in the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship behind Adelaide's Dave Koop. One qualifying session is scheduled for 1:00 pm tomorrow (Saturday) before elimination racing commences from 5:30 pm. With the temperature predicted to reach 38 C (100 F) tomorrow, Bray has indicated he may not contest that session and spend the time preparing for racing.

G'Day mate. Just dropping you a line to say hello. I was hoping to see you here racing. But I suppose work has been busy.

Brooks' Corvette looks awesome. I'll try and get a photo over to you. But I suppose you would receive one from David Cook and get all the gossip from him. Robin Kirby had an engine fire on his last run of tonight's qualifying. The (elapsed) times haven't been too good - it's very hot, around 38 to 42 C. (100 to 105 fahrenehit). So it's been tough to get an optimum tuneup for the guys. A lot of clutch dust from the guys in Top Fuel, too.

Keep in touch. Regards, Steve Piesley "The Aussie"

Victor Bray is in the top spot after the first qualifying session for Top Doorslammer at the Australian Drag Racing Nationals being held at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne. Bray monstered the race track with a 6.39 second elapsed time at a speed of 228.77 miles an hour in very hot conditions. While the 35 degree plus heat is far from ideal for supercharged cars, Bray's Castrol Chevy produced enough power to be smoking the tyre on both gear changes as he wrestled the car down the lane.

With two more qualifying sessions remaining, Bray will be working hard to maintain his advantage over fourteen other drivers trying to fight their way into the eight car field to contest eliminations on Saturday night. Currently in second position is Melbourne's Peter Kapiris with a 6.41 just ahead of Perth's Robin Judd on 6.43. Other qualifiers are Peter Gratz at 6.55, series points leader Dave Koop at 6.60, Colin Will at 6.78, Lui Raschella at 6.90 and Alf Sorbello on the bump at 6.94 seconds.

No one will ever understand Bob Wilson. Bob Wilson doesn't understand Bob Wilson. Thankfully Bob doesn't give a flying "fig" what anyone thinks. It is with this wisdom that Bob runs the most successful Drag Racing website on the internet.

Victor Bray is looking to score his second Top Doorslammer win of the season at Calder Park's Australian Drag Racing Nationals this weekend. At the opening round of the championship at the Victorian track in November, Bray not only won the event, but also set a new world record with a speed of 232.13 mph in his Castrol Chevy.

Since then, series points have proved elusive for the four time Australian champion. At the Perth round of the series, Bray top qualified but was defeated in round one when an electrical fault cut power to the ignition while he was leading comfortably. Willowbank Raceway's January event was rained out with no points earned and last weekend at Adelaide International Raceway, Bray suffered only the fifth round one loss of his Top Doorslammer career when beaten by Brett Stevens.

An upbeat Bray commented, "After two first round losses I'm hoping things don't come in threes. It's just been a bit of bad luck both times. In Adelaide we raced directly into the setting sun and I couldn't see the starting lights at all. I hit the throttle when I heard Brett leave, but even running a tenth of a second quicker, I couldn't catch him. We're not losing sleep over it. It's another day now and the Nationals is another track and another event. We've looked back at all the data from the last Calder meeting and we're reasonably confident that if the track conditions don't change too much we should be able to get back to a similar sort of performance. Records aren't our target, though. It's championship points we need this weekend."

Qualifying for the Top Doorslammer category commences on Friday with two sessions scheduled at 5:00 and 8:00 pm. Saturday will see a final qualifying opportunity at 1:00 pm, with eliminations beginning at 5:00 pm. Full updates will be posted as they happen in the "Race Results" section of Victor Bray's website: www.victorbray.com

Robert, the link for Evans Racing, i.e. the "Grapveine" one is out of date. I killed the team site when Larry took it over. The Grapevine as you know it is still alive. You should update the link though, as the one you have with my now "shortened" car doesn't work.

And get my damn calendar.

Silly season is finally over in the South City section of San Francisco. Champion Speed Shop, the #5 seed on the Nitronic Research AA/Fuel Dragster List, have finally announced a replacement for their self-exiled cockpit cowboy, "Swingin' Sammy" Hale, aka "Sammy the Crank." His replacement is Rance McDaniel, a venerable nitro-huffing journeyman from Fresno, California.

Although he has shoed a variety of Chevy-powered fuelers in the past, among the notable being the "Valley Fever" entries in the mid 1970s, this will be McDaniel's first go-round with a volatile small block Bowtie at his feet in the fore position of the cockpit, coursing and percolating with the fickle nectar of nitromethane...

McDaniel has earned plaudits from the drag strip cognoscenti during his "Senior's Tour", capturing Top Fuel Eliminator at the NHRA's Winston Finals in 1993, and subsequently shoeing the same Dan Olson-tuned dragster to runner-up at the '94 Winternationals.

In an interview conducted via e-mail, Champion benefactor and co-tuner Bob McLennan elbaorated on their approach for this year's front engined fueler wars and why Rance is their guy:

NITRONIC RESEARCH: What does Rance McDaniel bring to the team?

McLENNAN: Experience. Big show networking. We seemed to hit it off the first time we met. He is a no-nonsense guy. The first thing he said to he was "Bob, I am going to tell you what I think; you don't have to listen but I am going to tell ya!" All tolled, we have had lunch twice, talked on the phone a few times and he has sat in the car once. I think we both felt, OK, that is enough, let's get it on the track and find out. He has a great desire to win, which is very important to us.

NITRONIC RESEARCH: How hard was it to replace Hale? And were you surprised when he left the team?

McLENNAN: My arrangement with Sammy was on a year-to-year basis. At the end of last year I gave him a call to talk about our plans for the next race and the following year. My assumption was he was going to continue, but my heart knew it was time. The year was a tough one for us. We had some tremendous highs and some real lows, (all regarding the car's performance). I think Sammy still can -- and maybe still will -- drive a front engine Top Fuel car in the future.

But for now, he felt that he has a few professional and personal things he wants to take care of and it was time for him to step down. He still wants that Chevy to absolutely dominate the Top Fuel class. We will never replace Sammy but an era has been completed. We now have a new driver and we will move forward.

NITRONIC RESEARCH: What are your goals for the Year 2000?

McLENNAN: I do not anticipate any great qualifying times this year. Our goal is to be consistent. We will try to qualify in the top half of the grid each race, then in eliminations tune the car to 6.0's every pass, unless we need to go quicker. Based on last year, we may need to go quicker pretty often. We have brought back the combination with very few bells and whistles; it is a pretty straightforward deal. It is the first year that we are setting our sights on the Goodguys crown. We have never gone into a season looking for a particular championship before, (this year) we plan on getting after it.

In related news, Nitronic Research has learned that the Mastercam AA/FD team, whom have also been the subject of much rumor mongering after the sudden departure of "Wild Bill" Alexander from the cockpit last summer, are doing a meet and greet this weekend at Famoso Raceway with their new choice for cockpit management. Pending completion of some shake down runs, the team won't release the true identity of their new driver, but they have coughed up his "nom de plume", Buck Carbon. (Shades of Floyd Lippencott, Jr!)

Whether Buck Carbon's true identity will be announced after this weekend's test and tune remains a mystery.

Would you consider taking on our line? www.bulitpruf.com. Thank you.

Actually I want them all.... Get me a calendar please! Also, please take me to Australia.... I need to talk to them in person.

Bob, I am trying to get people to email TSN and CTV Sportsnet in an effort to have NHRA drag racing broadcast north of the border. Please help by directing them to my website where I have tried to make it easy for them to contact the two networks. I have nothing to gain from this as my site makes nothing off anything.

Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. We need to get the message out. My website address is: The Grapevine.

Hi, Uncle Bob. I need to know what you're doing with your old computer and maybe I could have it? What do you say? PS: Your web page rocks, Uncle Bob.

I was flattered that you would think the first article I did on the Jade Grenade was worthy of inclusion on your site. I certainly have no problem with your running it, but just remember, every time you do something like that you run the risk of someone at Petersen Publishing spotting it and deciding to take action.

My advice in that eventuality would be to play incredibly dumb, as in "Ya mean I can't do that? Even from a magazine that's really old? I didn't know that!" Then I think they won't be able to do anything but make you stop.

Hope things are going well for you with the site, and I'll be visiting again soon. Keep working on it. Don't give up! Sell some ad space to make some money, too!

Adelaide racer Lui Raschella races a '63 Chevy (Impala) sedan with a KB and a 14-71. As you know, he has raced the car for years and had run a best of 6.98 - 199 once or twice. He sent his fuel system to me and we did our stuff and sent it back to him. Bolted it on, let out the clutch and ran 6.83 - 201 on his first pass. A little "twiddle" and on the next run he goes 6.71 - 201. This isn't bad for a race car that is bigger than some racer's garages.
Ken Lowe Fuel Systems

I thought I would write a quick note to see how you are going. I thought you were coming back to Australia around Christmas, but I guess you can't make it. Are you coming back soon? I have asked Ken Lowe a few times, but he just shrugs his shoulders. Does this mean the awesome Top Alcohol B-1 is up for sale? Or are you coming back to show us how to run fast?

We have one of your fellow countrymen here with a Dodge Dart with a Hemi in it. His name is Jim Grant. Do you know him? The car is white with huge maple leaves all over it. One of my friends looked at the car and asked him if he was American. I don't think he saw the funny side of it... Oh well, you can't offend everyone you meet.

Hey, is that why you haven't come back yet? Did we offend you? You know the only way to get us back is to come over here and kick our butts on our own tracks. Take that as a challenge. Send a return email if you have the time and tell us when you're coming. I'll be sure to tell the boys at the Surfers Paradise Drag Racing Club. Good racing.

Today is a cool, rainy, overcast Sunday . . . . what a relief from the monotonous continual perfect weather.

Bob, I just don't seem to have the time or the ambition to update my own site these days and seeing as how you do such a great job keeping people up to speed on things downunder, I thought I'd send an update report on our performance after the Adelaide Top Bike/Top Doorslammer show. AIR may not be the biggest or the fanciest facility in Oz but the people were really great.

I found out that this is the city where all of the Aussie Chryslers are made and as a result there is a tremendous Mopar following here. My '69 Dart resembles very closely the Valiant VE, VF, and VG coupes made about the same time and there are quite a few good restored ones around, both on the track and on the street.

They had a great turn out (don't know the numbers) but oil downs and computer timer glitches stretched the Saturday event into a two day event. The return crowd yesterday was unbelievable! I believe that almost every Harley in Australia came to the meeting because I have never seen so many H-D's in one place. Despite an excessive police presence every one behaved like sportsmen, my hat's off to you guys.

Caroline Miilics ran a great show and her husband John and his mate came out to help us in the pits. Thanks guys, great job and a big help. We had a couple of bigwigs from our sponsors, Best Western Hotels come out and I think they had a good time. It's much more fun when they get involved.

As for us, the guys worked their backsides off and we made progress. We have had a bit of a time figuring out the clutch. It doesn't seem to matter what we do, we run 7.5 - 7.6. We finally added a "ton" more centrifigal to the clutch and bingo, ran a 7.43 before the eliminations. We qualified 9th in Comp Eliminator and as a result drew the #1 qualifier, Rod Rainford, who is a tough, tough, bracket racer and eventually won the meeting.

We're happy though because we made progress and know we're on the right track again. We'll have some qualifiers before the Australian Nationals next week and hopefully we'll be able to qualify in what promises to be a super tough field. We have to run on a 6.97 index and will have to find a way to pick up a few more tenths.

I have complete confidence in Grant and Gordon and I know we'll be there to race. We'll be having a "win-a-ride" winner in the car at the Nationals as well as the winner of the trip for two to the Nationals. Best Western put up the accommodations, Flight Center put up the airline tickets, and Calder Park Raceway is putting up the Gold Passes so the winners should have a pretty good weekend.

I know how much you want to be here and all I can say is, you should be here Bob, it's great! Thanks again for the web postings and I'll try to get on those pictures and video soon. Actually Dragster Australia had a great picture of the car launching in last week's issue. Check it out.

Your new computer sounds like a rocket, but I was worried when you said it had a 56K modem. But you soon cleared that up; good deal; time is money, isn't it? Thought I would send some photos of what is going on.

How is the front pad coming? How is the back pad coming? How is the place for room now? A few more loads and I can turn the trailer around in front of the shop. I'm waiting until I can do "Figure 8's" out back with the Duallie and trailer. The "Chap" is jacked up, getting the suspension tidied up a bit. New bushes, etc.

I see from your conversation with Norm Drazy that you had heard about his mag drive. I'm told that Norm has been checking out all the available mag drives in preparation for manufacturing his own, and he thought that my dad's mag drives were the best on the market. Norm used the upper halves of the Sitko Mag Drives for the units he sold to Dale Carlson and John Hyland.

The Sitko Mag Drives have been around for about 8 years. My dad wanted to build a drive that would be durable and dependable, as tire shake was destroying the ones that were available at the time. The current version of the Sitko Mag Drive has evolved into a bullet-proof unit that is very accurate and trouble free.

Norm has retro-fitted some of these with his own design of a large diameter shaft to reduce flexure, and subsequently, changes in timing. My dad now offers the large diameter shaft with his drives also, but some of his customers have not seen the need to switch. Rick Santos runs a Sitko Mag Drive with the original size of shaft, and his results speak for themselves.

In addition to having his drives on better than 50% of both alcohol classes in Pomona, George is getting into the Top Fuel market, as Jerry Darien (Melanie Troxel) has six in his trailer. A bunch of our local guys are running them also: Steve Sitko (TA/D), Jay Mageau (7.50 FC), Darryl Webb (7.50 FC), Geoff Goodwin (TA/FC), John Evanchuk ("Red Wolf" TA/FC) and ourselves. In all, his customer list includes over 80 names.

George has built mag drives for Alcohol Dragster, Alcohol Funny Car, Nostalgia dragsters, Pro-Mod, Top Fuel, Funny Car and Bonneville cars. Custom mag drives can be easily built to fit any application, at very reasonable prices. Any problems with the mag drive will receive personal attention and will be repaired quickly. George can be reached in Azusa, California at: (562) 243-0482

NITRONIC RESEARCH OFFICIALLY UNVEILS THE "LIST"
JIM MURPHY NAMED INAUGURAL RECIPIENT OF "AA/FUEL DRAGSTER LIST" AWARD

They say that membership has it privileges and its perks. Such is the case with Jim Murphy and the WW2 race team, as they have earned the spoils and accolades of the NITRONIC RESEARCH AA/Fuel Dragster List Award due to their superlative performance during the 1999 season.

Among the spoils for the recipient; $1000 worth of hardware from Titan Speed Engineering; a single-edition personalized portrait by drag racing's most revered cartoonist, Pete Millar; and swag from the only silkscreen company with a reputation for mixing CH3NO2 into its ink dyes, Mysterion Screenprint.

"The LIst" ranks front-engined fuel dragsters by the following criteria: Top Eliminator, Low ET and Top Speed at any 8-car AA/FD Eliminator. Despite never leaving the State of California, Murphy and his minions posted superior numbers at a majority of races they competed in, catapulting them in front of some teams that traveled to dates as far away as Indianapolis, Indiana and Noble, Oklahoma. More details are available at Nitronic Research - The List.

"We didn't have a problem smoking the tires (last year)," is how Murphy explained their drag strip success. "We killed a little bit of bottom end power -- which had been our nemesis -- and it made the car more consistent; we didn't beat ourselves." Conversely, the WW2 team made tremendous amounts of rpm on the big end of the drag strip, but didn't hurt any bearings or valve springs. "The times we ran 245 and 246 mph, we didn't do any damage at all," Murphy explained. (In recent seasons, Top Speed has been downplayed in many facets of drag racing, but is rewarded by "The List".)

Murphy and WW2 Racing, whom have taken the Goodguys VRA Points Title consecutively for the last three seasons, will take delivery of their NR List spoils at the Goodguys March Meet (March 10-12, Bakersfield, California) during a brief starting line ceremony on that Saturday morning.

In defense of not only his premier position on the List, as well as his victory at last year's March Meet and the VRA Points Title, Murphy says his team will unveil an ace-in-the-hole: More bottom end power. "Bakersfield is a good track, but we can still blow 'em off pretty easily. We'll probably put more power back in it. We just moved the power around; if you watched the car last year, it was pretty sluggish out of the gate, then about 100' out it started marching pretty well and it just kept building power. I think it will take a little more at the starting line."

THE NITRONIC RESEARCH AA/FD LIST

My name is Jeff Lee, and along with my partner, Owen Stampflee, have launched The Digs. We are just two nobody drag racing fans and sometime racers who thought it would be cool to have a place for all types of drag racers and fans to talk freely about drag racing topics, get news and results, give tech tips, find articles and show off their drag cars to the rest of the world on the net.

The site is not quite complete yet, but check back often as we are always updating. The links page is operational, as is the picture/readers rides page, and the message board which will be a great place for productive discussion on all facets of drag racing. We want to cover every type of drag racing, from professional nitro cars and pro stocks, to street legal, import, sportsman and bracket racing.

We love drag racing and would love to hear what you have to say about this great sport, when you're not too busy trying to win. Have a great season everyone and please check out "The Digs." Hopefully you will stop back often, filling us in on how your season is going.

Anyone with pictures, info, thoughts, or anything about the site can contact me, Jeff Lee, or Owen Stampflee. Thank you for your time.

Victor Bray and his Castrol Team has set regaining the lead in the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship as their major target at this weekend's round of the series at Adelaide International Raceway. After one win apiece, Bray is currently a slender 12 points adrift of South Australian Dave Koop and is keen to wipe out that deficit.

Bray commented, "It's going to be a busy week with the round in Adelaide on Saturday and then the Nationals starting at Calder next Thursday. We really want to be back on top of the points table when we go to Melbourne. Dave Koop is going to be tough to beat on his home turf but that's certainly our goal. Adelaide has been a good track for us in recent years and I hope that luck continues.

"We've done a lot more testing since we set a new world record at Calder back in November. We tried a few things that worked and a lot more that didn't but that's what testing is all about. You can be guaranteed there'll be a well proven combination in the car this weekend because we can't afford to take risks. The points are too important."

Bray will debut an all-new Castrol "Corporate" paint scheme on the team's veteran 1955 Cheverolet at the event. He has won four straight Australian Championships behind the wheel of this car and is determined to add a fifth with the same vehicle. Despite the fact that his faithful Chev has done more quarter mile passes down the drag strip than the rest of the field put together, it's still the quickest and fastest of them all, holding the National Record for elapsed time at 6.28 seconds and both the National and World speed record at 232.12 mph (373.56 kph).

Results from both this Saturday's Adelaide International Raceway event and next week's Australian Nationals at Calder Park Raceway will be posted as they happen on Victor's internet site at www.victorbray.com.

Just a few random notes from the Castrol New Year Series at Willowbank last weekend:

Hi Bob. Hope that every thing is going well and the new DownUnder Assault is close to happening. I had my computer changed over to Rogers Cable on the weekend and when the Techie was working his magic, I believe I saw an e-mail from you and when the Techie left me with my new 90% monster, your e-mail was gone. If you could re-send it that would be great. Thanks!

We at the Drag Racing List have enjoyed reading Inside Motorsports for years, but the paper has really become great since going "drag racing only" in July 1999. I was talking with the guys from IMS about the "hard core drag fans" and racers who hang out at the Drag Racing List website and in the mailing lists and newsgroups online. We agreed that DRL readers and friends would really enjoy the independent, unbiased coverage IMS provdides to ALL forms of drag racing.

Inside Motorsports then made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "Bill, if you tell your readers and pals about IMS, we will give them a special Drag Racing List rate of $10 for 12 issues." Hey gang, that's $5 off their already reasonable subscription price and $14 off their newstand price! So here goes...

If you've been thinking about checking out Inside Motorsports or if you want to get an independent opinion of what is going on in drag racing, here is your chance to do it for an unreal price. See? Drag Racing List membership has its privileges -- but don't tell American Express on me!

Inside Motorsports covers ALL forms of drag racing -- big-bucks race results, match race coverage, international pro coverage, bikes, boats (eventually), and whatever else they can find that defines itself as a standing start acceleration contest. As IMS says, they offer harder news, faster reporting and deeper analysis. There is a lot going on in the world of drag racing that a lot of people would rather not talk about. Some publications would rather not do the work to find out what's really going on. Inside Motorsports is the place to go to find out what's really going on in drag racing.

They find stories before they become stories. They profile up-and-coming racers before anybody else bothers to read their press kits. They interview the movers and shakers in drag racing and they get the real story behind what's happening in the sport. Bottom line: reading Inside Motorsports is an eye opener. We HIGHLY recommend it at the Drag Racing List.

If you want to take advantage of this special deal, send your name and address to: Inside Motorsports, P.O. Box 122, Wytheville, VA 24382. Include a check or money order for $10 and BE SURE to request the special "Drag Racing List rate".

IMS also takes Visa and MasterCard. Call 1-800-655-1406 to order. Be sure to request the special "Drag Racing LIst $10 rate". Racers and fans outside the United States please email Inside Motorsports to inquire about additional postage costs.

Just got back to Adelaide from Perth and I thought I would update you on our progress. We were supposed to have a "Win A Ride" thing in Perth at the third to last race ever at Ravenswood Raceway before they start the new track. But ANDRA expressed some concerns about the unproven performance of the car after the two rainouts. Considering they had only seen three runs from the car, I understand and don't blame them at all.

We concentrated on getting some consistency rather than flat out speed and have now run our last six passes from 7.52 to 7.67 seconds. I think for a blown alcohol door car that's pretty consistent, wouldn't you say?

As far as the event at Perth goes, it seems that they have a rule which penalizes racers (i.e., out of state racers) for missing races. We missed three races so our index was dropped three tenths to 7.20. We did qualify 14th in a 17-car field and drew Hutchinson's T/D Commodore Statesman in the first round. We got a bit of a jump on him at the light but he top-ended us for the win.

We are quite happy with the performance of the car and my improvements with the pedal clutch (.430, .423, .403 lights). We will step up a bit here in Adelaide this Saturday for the Supercharged Outlaws event. A big "G'Day, How Ya Goin' Mate?" to all up north. PS: I have some video footage that I will try to get copied and send up to you and Larry.

Interesting race in Pomona. Both fuel classes performed pretty well I would say. Federal-Mogul Dragster was awesome as well. Maybe NHRA was right to leave well enough alone in regards to injected nitro. With four "compressors" in the semis, you might see the 99% boys begging for rule changes.

Thanks again for putting together the Speedzone section and going the extra mile with it. See you at the (Vancouver) Motorsport Show. I'll be at the Northwest Drag Race School booth.

Uh, I thought that NHRA dropped the idea of lowering overdrive limits in the alky categories in favor of a minimum weight/maximum cubic inch rule. Unless I'm off on another planet, Santos can still run 115% overdrive, unless his motor is less than 450 CID (in which case he could go 104% over). Let me know quick if I'm wrong so I can go buy different pulleys. :-)

I must have missed something in the translation. You mention in your "What's New" column that the maximum overdrives had changed for the TAD's this year, but I thought all that was thrown out in December. A/Fuel was going to be scrapped and the rest of us were going to have to make our engines smaller with less overdrive, but NHRA decided (after obviously getting a lot of flak about it) that it was best to leave everything alone.

Graham Light had a full page article in National Dragster that ended up saying something like "the best changes were the ones we didn't make". Did they make the blower change anyway? I didn't hear about it.

Just read your article about doings at Pomona. Sorry, but you're wrong about the overdrive limit for FM dragster in the US. It didn't change at all for 2000. You might be talking about a proposed change, which went out the window at the same time the ban of unblown fuel cars died. Santos runs 2.04 to 1 overdrive, or 104%.

Just a quick update from Pomona. The overdrive for FM/D has not been changed. Santos made some incredible runs, all on Hoosiers. Mark's (Hentges) .660 light (in the first round of eliminations) was after we had to push him back from the burnout, when the reverser lever came off the transmission. As we got him close to the starting line, Rick Stewart (Starter) was standing there pointing at the line, so Mark put it right in and the light flashed. I would say he was probably a bit rattled.

Here's some really cool news for the new year:

FUEL DRAGSTERS: WE DID IT FOR LOVE
The largest drag racing photo site in the world, with over 3100 photos of front engined dragsters from 1950 to 1972, has just completed its move to I-Server. Bigger and faster with a new face. Plus, over 200 new photos have been added since the New Year and at least 50 more will be added every 10 days in the months to come. With over 1000 unpublished vintage photos in the wings (and more on the way), we won't run out soon. Check out our new look and come back often. An incredible journey down memory lane.

WW2 RACING ON-LINE
Goodguys Top Fuel Champion Jim Murphy and the WW2 Racing Team have taken their act to the Web. Their new website debuted this past weekend to rave reviews. Stop by and see what the fastest front engine Top Fuel dragster in the world has in store for 2000. This will be a banner year for nostalgia fuel racing and the WW2 Racing Team will surely lead the way.

SOUTHERN OREGON SPEEDPARK 2000 SCHEDULE
Drag racing or circle track -- take your pick at Oregon's premier racing facility. Southern Oregon Dragway, the quickest, fastest and safest drag strip in Oregon has racing from April to September, including an NHRA Division Six Federal-Mogul Series race.

Drag racing photographer, drag strip manager, nostalgia drag racing film producer, drag racing memorabilia dealer, and my good friend, Raymond "Ray Ray" English passed away this morning at a hospital near his home in Maryland. Further details, including funeral arrangements, will be forthcoming as they become available.

Ray English was a good man and a true drag fan. A straight shooter all the way, Ray didn't have a problem telling anyone exactly what he thought. He was a lot of fun to talk to and a real character. Ray and I became close over the past several years, working together on his series of "Drag Racing Yesteryear" nostalgia drag racing videos. We were just about to begin selling his vast collection of drag racing memorabilia on eBay.

Ray, along with Dave Heisey, Joel Naprstek, and others, was instrumental in organizing the annual USA-1 Dragfest at Bruce Larson's Stony Creek Barn. Ray rallied and led the "southern contingent" of the Dragfest -- a large group of racers and fans from D.C., Virginia, and Maryland who travelled north to the first two events. Ray had already begun soliciting participation for this year's event, scheduled for April 15.

It's hard to imagine an East Coast racer from the 60's or 70's who doesn't know "Ray Ray". He was a long time Super Stock & Drag Illustrated photographer and accompanied the magazine's writers on many zany adventures. Ray shot drag racing action at events from coast to coast in all three major sanctioning bodies.

Ray also managed Maryland International Raceway for Tod Mack, and in that capacity, coined one of drag racing's most enduring terms: "Mountain Motor" Pro Stock racing. During a late night session of searching for a name for their inaugural big motor Pro Stock race, Ray talked about those big match race motors being built down in the mountains of the Carolinas. The "Mountain Motor Nationals" was born and in 2000, the race enters it's 22nd consecutive year at MIR. Of course, the Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars became the mainstay of the IHRA version of Pro Stock racing.

I will send a more official press release tomorrow after talking further with Ray's family. RIP, buddy.

Did you catch on the IHRA website the announcement that several racers had been suspended indefinitely for cheating? An hour later it was gone. Here's a copy of the news:

I just learned a lesson yesterday and I thought I would share it with you. If I pass out Ken Lowe Race Cars stickers (decals) for people to put on their cars and trailers I always get a lot of resistance. When I passed out stickers this weekend at Willowbank that said http://www.kenlowe.com.au they went like hotcakes and I ran out of them! Unreal! Just another life lesson I thought I would share.

Graeme Frawley is undefeated this season in his new Ken Lowe car. See the story at: Graeme Frawley. Also, the Modified racers at Willowbank now have their own website. Check it out at: Drag Race School Modified Eliminator. What do you think? Good idea or not??

More news from yesterday's Castrol New Year Series race at Willowbank: Dave Coles rented the Drag Racing School dragster, qualifying it in Modified Eliminator at #11 and losing in the first round with a .640 reaction time. Bummer.

It was a beautiful day at the races yesterday: bright sun, pleasant weather and good racing. We kept the dust off your green lawn chairs for you. They seemed to enjoy the races but I think they missed you. We had a great time, wish you were there.

If you have seen the very funny "Shakespeare in Love" movie, the producer character played by Geoffrey Rush keeps getting asked how the plays actually get put together and on stage. To which he frequently replies, "It's a mystery."

I love that line as it applies to drag racing as well. If any of us took a look at the amount of time and money that it takes to put a race car down the track BEFORE we spent the money and time we would not do it.

I frequently see people "doing the sums" before they decide to go racing. Seldom do these people actually put a car together as it is a sure cure for the sickness of drag racing. It is like looking in a dark room and seeing the "boogie man" and getting the crap scared out of you and never going back in the room. If you want to go drag racing, don't look too close or you will run like hell. The other option is to not look too close and join the rest of us who are forever hooked, never to be cured.

A lot of us old guys have seen this message on the back door of a race car trailer. Picture a skull and cross bones. Message underneath says:

Hi Bob and welcome to reality bud. You asked for my thoughts, so here they are:

The costs (of competing at Mission Raceway) are comparable to previous years and yes, it is getting more expensive. Surprise, surpise. A little increase again this year. You said it had been a while since you ran your car and you don't remember paying this sort of money. You're right! But have you noticed prices going down anywhere else? If you have, let me know and we'll be there.

So you think sportsman drag racing is high dollar. To tell you the truth, I'm sick of the people whining about the costs. Get a life, or a sponsor! We all know MRP isn't making any money and we know what is happening to Ashcroft. So anybody who has shipped his alcohol car to Australia and is flying back and forth to the land downunder shouldn't whinge about having to pay an extra five bucks here and there to keep race tracks running.

Sorry Bob, but you won't get any support from this guy when it comes to costs. And I still owe a lot for my experience. I'm a realist and I know nothing comes cheap anymore . . . but when were drag racers ever realists?

PS: I think it's time for me to take some shots again on the Grapevine. And I think I will be taking some at you and Larry. Don't take it personal; I just think we need to balance things out once in a while. Stay tuned.

I was pointed in your direction by a mutual friend of ours, Bret Kepner. I've enjoyed browsing through your site and would like to mention it in our "Slick Sites" feature of our newsletter which goes out to over 600 emails at the moment. I'd appreciate it if you could e-mail me with a short description of your site and what you'd like our readers to know about you, otherwise I'll just write something up myself and tell them to check you out. I usually try getting out the newsletter the first week of the month.

My website, HotRodder.Com, is dedicated to hosting and designing websites for a community of hotrodders and racers and my newsletter keeps them up-to-date on the happenings at our site as well as pointing them to other websites that I find very interesting. Another thing we feature are chatrooms for meeting live, online. That's actually where I met Bret, who popped in one evening and caused a ruckus. We try to schedule interesting guest chats as well, so I'd like you to think about maybe scheduling some evening where our chatters could talk to you about your racing program and the Motorsports Marketing that you do. I know we have racers who are interested in getting and maintaining their sponsorships. Let me know what you think.

And thanks for replying back if you would like to provide me with some info I can stick in the newsletter.

Do you know what "packy parts" are? Nostalgia Photos.

Holy cow, where did THAT month go? We have been turnin' and burnin' here at DragList.com! Lots of good stuff is going on and we are starting to feel REAL good about things. My good friend Sean Speer came over Saturday night and helped me get the computer back in shape. We pulled out the ailing D: drive and I will ship it off for a hopeful recovery this week. We had to reload Windows 98 to get the computer to stop locking up. It has been SHEER BLISS to be able to work for two days straight without the computer locking up on me every 30 minutes.

Yes, I did say TWO days straight since Saturday. The reason? We got ICED IN today after our nice snowfall of last week. A nice crystal clear inch of ice covered everything today and prevented any serious attempts at leaving the neighborhood. That gave me another day of GETTING BUSY on the site.

Here is what we have going on: I have sent Danny White about 2,500 (!) email updates that he is busily putting into the lists down there in Texas. He says he is about half finished with them. When he gets them in, I will get them up on the web. What an amazing change it will make to the lists.

We have updated the Heads Up Racing Calendar, adding some neat features. We added links to the Chasin' Racin' Race Track Locator and to MapQuest. Now, racers can find the event they want to attend on our schedule, then they can find the track address on the Race Track Locator, then they can plot their trip on MapQuest. As one of the most navigationally-challenged folks you will ever meet (yes, it is WELL documented), MapQuest has been a godsend for me. I hope you like it, too. Oh yes, we added the NHRA TV schedule to the Heads Up Calendar as well. If you have any event you want to add to either schedule, drop me a line at Events.

We added two new features by Doug Dornbos. Well, ONE new feature and an old one that Bill never got around to loading last year. Doug provided photos of his experiences at the IHRA Northern Nationals last year, but I have just posted them now. Check them out! Doug also has some neat ideas for how to run an unlimited Top Eliminator category in drag racing. He promises more details, but he has already provided some fascinating early thoughts. Check both features out at Dornbos Reviews.

We added dozens of new DRL links (and lost a few as well). It might seem like we stay stagnant in our number of links. Actually, with over 5,000 links on our site, we lose quite a few through attrition. At least 20 to 30 sites fall off the DRL links every week! We hurriedly replace them with new links we find, but it's tough to keep ahead of the curve sometimes. We also have updated our links page to make it a How To Use The Linkbank page.

A BIG achievement was putting our Match Race Madness game back online. We have been sending it to folks via email for about 14 months because the number of downloads were not appreciated by our former hosting service. I also created detailed "How To Download" and "How To Play" pages for my venerable little game. They include lots of tips and tricks. If you haven't tried MRM, give it a shot. It's in no way a Tantrum or Burnout, but it's a great deal for free. Go to the Free Stuff page to check it out.

By the way, we moved the Free Shirts winners to their own page. Denise will begin sending the shirts tomorrow. We couldn't do it in all the ice and snow.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our inaugural DRL 2000 Drag Racing Census poll. It got some fascinating numbers out of that. Did you look at it? An unbelievable 66 percent of our readers are actual racers. That includes 41 percent sportsman racers. Now I feel like a real heel that I can't chase down numbers in those classes. I want to say this again -- I will run the information on ANYONE who sends it to me. While Danny and I are spread a little too thin to capture all the tens of thousands of sportsman and bracket racers out there, we certainly will find a place for you at DragList.com if you fill out our Entry Form.

Now it's February and that brings a NEW survey. We want to know what racers think about buying speed parts and general auto parts online. Do you think you would do it? Yes? No? Why do you feel the way you do about it? Please fill out the survey on our home page and let us know what you think. If there is a demand for it, maybe one day soon The Drag Racing List will have hundreds of thousands of things to list.

We also made several dozen changes to the navigation of the website, making sure the page titles were right and that the internal HTML was right. It's time consuming, but unfortunately, the changes are not as obvious.

Coming Up Next: Lots of stories by Jim Hill and many others as the Hill Files and Quick Quotes sections are up for massive updates. I have tons of stories for both sections in my inbox. I just need to get them up here. We also have some new entries for our Desperately Seeking area. I will upload them in my next burst. And last, but certainly not least, Denise has created 57 new Team DRL pages. We are undergoing final updates on them and we will load them to the web very soon.

OK, that's the extent of my usefulness for tonight. I'm going to spell check this and fire it off to the server. See you soon.