How are you making out? When are you planning to run, and does it look like you'r going to make it on time?

Bob: You're running and ad for my Federal-Mogul Dragster. I've sold it, so please remove it from your For Sale pages. Thank's so much for running the ad.

PS: I was trying to locate a single mag drive. You have ads for two of them, but neither of the phone numbers is good. Please let me know how to locate these people. Thanks again.

Bob, please tell me how to put a For Sale ad on your site. I come back from time to time and have a car I need to sell. By the way, I enjoy your effort.

This attachment was sent to me in the form of spam this morning, titled "Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL Story" sent by HaHaHa.

Name of file: sexy_virgin.scr
Type of file: application/octet-stream
Scan Result: Virus W95.Hybris.Gen.dr found.

File NOT cleaned. This file is infected with a computer virus, a program that can spread to many other files on your computer and can delete files, steal sensitive information, or render your machine unusable. If you have access, please pass this warning along to anyone you can.

Hello Bob; welcome to the world of Drag Racing where nothing fits the first time. I bet you forgot to take the brass shim material for between the rods and bearings, or was that for the main caps? Actually I think you get the additional clearance from the earth's rotation and the gravitational pull downunder now on the serious side.

Your crank dimension is correct. I checked one of mine and it was 2.371 as well. I use the CB1512-M bearings as well and they measure .0057" clearance. The rods should measure 2.500" to 2.505" (tunnel bore); now if you take the 2.500" - 2.371" - .0057" = .0072". This .0072" is the total clearance, which is .0036" all around the crankshaft. Now if you take into account bearing crush of .001" to .0005" top and bottom, you end up with .0025" to .0035" clearance all around.

You should check it with some green plastiguage and end up with .0025" to .0035" clearance which is .005" to .007", which matches the measurements you have given me. I hope this helps out and if I can be of any more assistance, please let me know. Good luck; it's time to get that car down the track and get your license. Till next time, Bob.

You're not doing anything wrong. New rods typically come a little big; ours usually measure .0055" and .0065" clearance, (but I have had rods sent to me with these exact clearances). If you have extra rods, maybe keep the .007" ones as spares. What happens is that the rod collapses a few thousandths after only two or three runs, so you end up with the desired .0045" clearance. After about ten runs, most teams send the rods back for re-sizing because the clearance can sometimes go down to three thousandths or less, but we haven't found it necessary to do that so far.

Make sure you are measuring the crank and bearings properly; not too much tension on the micrometers or you could easily end up with an extra thousandth you don't need. Also make sure you use a good synthetic engine assembly lube on the bearings; this will make sure that there is still lubrication on the crank even though the clearances are a little high. After the first weekend you could take the rods out and re-measure. I think you'll find that the clerances are a little higher.

Even though former Division 5 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion David Wells didn't pick up the win at this past weekend's NHRA Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series race at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas, Wells feels the weekend was "Mission Accomplished". Wells entered his Blue Bunny Ice Cream "Plain Vanilla" dragster to test for his upcoming Division 5 season rather than to win the event.

Wells, who helps run the family Blue Bunny Ice Cream plant in LeMars, Iowa, looked strong in qualifying by running an elapsed time of 5.475 seconds at 257.80 mph to put him in the eight car show in the No. 2 spot. In round one, he took out former Top Fuel legend Gene Snow with a strong 5.526 at 251.81 mph, which gave him lane choice over his semifinal opponent Joe Fuentes. Wells stayed consistent with a 5.522 at 254.09 mph, but it just wasn't enough for Fuentes who stepped up to a 5.486 at 253.30 mph.

"The car was running pretty consistent, but we were fighting clutch problems all weekend," said Wells. "We had the car pretty stable, but it just wasn't doing what we wanted it to do. Joe made a nice run, stepped right up and ran a .48 and beat us. Congratulations to him, and he just outran us basically."

With the first race of the season under his belt, Wells feels confident that he will improve at his next race, the O'Reilly Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, March 22nd - 25th. "We came down here to get a run on the Division 5 season," commented Wells. "We wanted to get an earlier jump on the year, because we always have a few bugs at the first race of the year, since we put new stuff on the car during the winter. We know what to do now with the clutch, we finally think we have that figured out. Once we get that corrected, we should be able to jump right in at Houston and possibly get back into the 5.30's"

Former Division 3 Federal-Mogul Funny Car Champion Marc White lost his semifinal matchup with Defending World Champion Frank Manzo during this past weekend's NHRA Division 2 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event at Gainesville Raceway. Even with the loss, White feels the weekend was a successful test session for the Etterman Racing Team's upcoming Division 3 season.

White, of Glendale Heights, Illinois, struggled during qualifying with his new 2001 Firebird with the new 2001 supercharger rules in place, and only ran an elapsed time of 6.269 seconds at 235.47 mph to qualify him fifth. In round one, White ran closer to his normal form with a 5.899 at 247.04 to take out Mark Billington. Manzo would put an end to White's "test session" in the next round, as the pair put on the quickest side by side run of the weekend. Manzo took the win with a 5.735 at 249.43 mph over White's tire-shaking 5.905 at 246.30 mph.

"We're really happy with this weekend," said White. "I wouldn't exactly say everything went as planned, but we accomplished what we wanted to do. We got the car to be somewhat competitive, worked out some of the new car bugs, and put it back in the trailer in one piece."

Given what the car's performance this weekend, the Etterman Racing team feels the car has much more performance left that has yet to be tapped. "From what we did down there, with the way the car ran, and the way the data looked from the runs, I really think we can run the numbers Manzo ran," stated White. "As far as the next event, I don't know. It's in the car, it's just up to us to get it out of it."

The Etterman Racing team will return to Gainesville for it's next event, the Mac Tools Gatornationals, March 15th - 18th, where White will change from the 'test' mode to 'full competition' mode. "Coming back to Gainesville is really the reason why we decided to come down here," commented White. "We knew we could come down here and make three or four runs, then come back and race down here in March. We can take some of the knowledge we gathered here at this divisional race, and apply it at the Gatornationals. Our plan is to run it as hard as we can, and if all goes well, we should be in the hunt."

Just caught an eye of the latest "What's New" pages, and the car got a small block in it? I thought you brought a new dash 10 deal. I must have missed something. Anyhow, how is it all going? Hope you're getting things done around there with the "President/Dictator" Lowe looking over your shoulder. Enjoy yourself.

The Lyle Greenberg Motorsports team qualified in the tough 16 car field at the recently completed NHRA Checker Shuck's Kragen Nationals in Phoenix. Read the behind the scenes race story with details and some great pictures of their first round matchup with Bucky Austin. To go directly to the race story, click here. New Mexico drag racing pioneer Frank Turrentine passed away last week. Read Lyle's tribute to him.

Second year Federal-Mogul Dragster pilot Joe Fuentes had a career best outing during this past weekend's NHRA Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas. Fuentes made it all the way to the finals where he faced Houston runner-up Shelly Howard. A clogged fuel line caused Fuentes to have engine problems which slowed him and gave Howard the win.

Fuentes, of Austin, Texas, qualified for the eight car field third with an elapsed time of 5.533 at 253.37 mph. In the first round, Fuentes put away fellow Texan Lee Callaway of Channelview, with a 5.595 at 247.32 mph. In the semifinals, Fuentes took out former Division 5 Champion David Wells with a 5.486 at 253.30 mph, that was low e.t. of the round, and gave him lane choice going into the finals.

In the final, both drivers left right together, and stayed neck and neck until around the 1000' mark. At that point, a clogged fuel nozzle caused an exreme lean (hot) condition in the No. 4 cylinder which exploded the engine's burst panels. With no power, Fuentes watched Howard pull away for the win. With the runner-up finish, Fuentes currently sits No. 3 in Division 4 points standings.

"Everything went pretty much how we expected," said Fuentes. "We did better than we thought we would, though. My crew performed great all weekend; I had some good reaction times, and the car was running real good. Having Ora Vasquez back with us this weekend was the key."

"After the final, we initially thought we had dropped a valve, and that made the burst panel go," Fuentes commented on his final round. "We looked at the No. 4 plug, and it was black (fouled), and the computer showed that the cylinder was getting hotter and hotter down the run. After we saw that, we checked the nozzles, and it had a small piece of trash in the No. 4 nozzle."

The next stop on the J&D Racing schedule will be race No. 3 of the Division 4 FMDRS at State Capitol Dragway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, Fuentes hopes to improve on his Dallas runner-up for his first win.

"The gameplan is going to be the same going into Baton Rouge," stated Fuentes. "We're going to really check from now on to make sure the fuel system is clean. We're really going to get after them in Baton Rouge. This team is ready to win."

For more information on the J&D Racing team, visit their award winning website.

Just one day after losing the rained out Houston final, Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Shelly Howard reasserted herself by picking up the win during Sunday's eliminations of this past weekend's NHRA Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas.

Howard, a registered nurse from Tulsa, Oklahoma, qualified No. 4 with an elapsed time of 5.574 at 254.39 mph during Saturday's first qualifying session was a dual purpose run for the Howard team. Not only was it the final qualifying session, but would serve as the final round of the Houston Division 4 FMDRS race that was rained out two weeks prior. Howard red lighted, then smoked the tires immediately, giving her opponent, Troy Buff, an easy win.

"The final round of the Houston race Saturday night didn't go very well for us," said Howard. "The car rolled through and deep staged, and I redlighted. As I soon as I hit the throttle, the tires started shaking, and it smoked the tires, so we would have lost anyway. I wish we could have got a better qualifying run at least, but it worked out anyway."

However, Howard and her team did not let Saturday evening's loss get them down. Howard won her first round matchup with James Thompson, who smoked the tires, with a tire-shaking 5.752 at 245.76 mph. The semifinals would give Howard a rematch of the Houston final with Buff. This time, Howard would prevail on a .015 of a second starting line advantage, and held on for the win with a 5.526 at 253.95 mph over Buff's quicker but later 5.516 at 245.36 mph.

In the final, Howard would face first time finalist Joe Fuentes. In another close race, Howard and Fuentes were neck and neck until the 1000' mark where Fuentes had engine problems and Howard drove away to win with a 5.503 at 256.92 mph. With the win and her semifinal victory over Houston winner Troy Buff, Howard took over the Division 4 points lead.

"Today went real well," Howard stated. "We had some luck in the first round, but we definitely earned the win today. Overall, it was a good weekend for us. Going into the final, we knew that Fuentes had a bit of a performance advantage on us," Howard added. "All you can do at that point is not to dwell on that. You just have to concentrate on doing what you have to do, and hope the car will perform the way it should. We should have run better than a .50. So the car has some fine tuning left in it. We just concentrated on our game plan, and what we had to do."

In two weeks, Howard will return to the site of her first victory for the third stop of the Division 4 FMDRS at State Capitol Dragway in Baton Rouge, Lousisiana. Howard won the event in 1997, and hopes to add to her points lead with another win there this year.

"Really all you can hope for in Baton Rouge is to get a good qualifying position so you can have lane choice," Howard commented. "Everybody that runs well will be shooting for the same thing. We'll just go there and hope for the best. I know they have worked on the starting line, and hopefully it's much better than it was, because it was definitely a 'one lane' racetrack last year. It's a whole new race, and a whole new ball game. We're going to try not to dwell too much on Baton Rouge head on when we get there, and hope for the best."

For more information on the Howard team, visit their award winning website.

Click here to read the "clickable" version.

Send an email to a little drag pal: Larry Pfister from Horsepower Heaven sent me this note the other day. Take a moment or two to fire off an email to Brittany and let her know that her fellow drag racing fans are here and we care.

It's been a tough few days for motorsport people, but if you think you've had it tough, how about little Brittany King? Right now she's sitting in a hospital bed with Leukemia. Her dad Leeland rides that really cool drag bike that nearly took the Division 6 Championship last year. Everybody is really pumped up with Brittany's attitude, and guess what? She LOVES to get email. So send her some. Ask her about drag racing. She loves that too. Email Brittany and the whole family: Leeland, Kim, Brittany and Michael King - Racers Finishing Touch at: king6337@aol.com.

Search and Link Improvements: We have made subtle, yet useful, changes to our Search and Links features at draglist.com. On our Search Entire Site feature, we now return a portion of the search results with each match. This cuts down on the "false positives" we sometimes saw when searching for similar persons or pieces of information. Try it now by putting in your name or type of car of whatever. I think you'll be pleased with the results.

We have updated our Links page to show only ten links per page. Some of our links pages were getting so big that it took too long to load them. Now each page displays quickly, followed by a link to the next page. Remember, the separate Link Search on each link page can take you directly to the links you are looking for. I hope you enjoy these two new improvements!

Drag Racing Stories of The Day

February 26
Double Letter Class Designators: Flyin' Phil Elliott answers the age old question, "Why are some gassers AA/GS, while others are A/GS, while others are A/G?" Hint, the answer is not in black and white.

Feburary 25
Breaking on the Burnout: Funny Car racer Jay Mageau describes one of the most embarassing occurrences in drag racing.

February 24
Fun with Electricity: Tom Ivo tells how he had hours of fun with his Pep Boys "T" coil.

February 23
My First Trip to the March Meet: Drag racing photographer/filmmaker Dave Kerr fills us in on his first trip to Bakersfield in 1964.

February 22
From Mega-Bucks Luxury to Mega-Cubes Racer: Brian Wood shows us the all new Jaguar for 2001 - with an 814 inch Shotgun Ford.

February 21
Superbird Supermen: Robb Lowe regales us with a hilarious tale of good old boys gone wrong.

Drag Racing Pictures of The Day

February 26
Les Richey's '65 Mustang A/FX: Pete Garramone with another of his trademark crystal clear black and white shots, this of Les Ritchey's clean pony car.

February 25
"A-OK" - '29 Ford Model A Roadster: Paul Hutchins joined all his online pals at the CHRR last October. Among the great shots he captured was this prime '29 Model A.

February 24
Hanna's Heater - Al's Jet Funny Car: Mark Hovsepian catches a great shot of the business end of Al Hanna's high tech jet funny car. Can you find the hidden photo credit?

February 23
The Lady Drives a Quad Cam: Lyle Greenberg caught Sue Ransom at speed in the McGee Cams Top Fueler in 1986.

February 22
Big Red Twists Off the Line: Joel Naprstek with a shot and some history from NASCAR's heyday in drag racing.

February 21
The Suhrprise of Indy '99: Dale Suhr's Nostalgia Fuel Dragster. Jim Sorenson contributed this outstanding shot of AA/FD Dale Suhr.

Drag Racing Movies of The Week

February 26
Steiner Wins the Reunion! Dawn Mazi captured Gerry Steiner's winning Top Fuel "A" run at the 1999 California Hot Rod Reunion.

February 25
Dean McClennan Funny Car Burnout: Carl Witt caught Dean's AutoBarn Top Alcohol car laying one down.

WINNER !!!
(the points are just racking up!!!)
(Are we still having fun???)
(YES... and that's my final answer!)

Hey, Bob Wilson, howz everything up North and Down Under? I've noticed that your Northern Thunder site is missing a very important group of photos, ie., Door Slammers. Will you still include 'Borderline Insanity' with your line up of cars? I'd appreciate it, because with it on your site, I can tell potential sponsors that the car can be seen on a website. Thanks for your support.

The Match Race Madness PC drag racing game has been updated with all the racers and times from the early 2001 drag racing season. Racers' stats from NHRA Pomona and Phoenix are included, as well as all year 2000 racers expected to compete in 2001.

The game is available as a free download from The Drag Racing List website. It simulates drag racing in 25 different classes at over 350 drag strips around the world. Statistics are included from more than 2000 actual racers, from professional NHRA and IHRA categories, to Exhibition cars, to Nostalgia cars, to Street Legal cars, to Outlaw Quick 8 machines, and more.

In its 16th year, Match Race Madness predates its modern cousins by a decade. Unlike Burnout or the NHRA game from Tantrum, Match Race Madness features no graphics and requires practically no learning curve. The game simulates performance characteristics for various racing classes by comparing current world records, actual racer performances, and track records. The display looks like a drag racing announcer's screen.

Racing fans can download a free copy of Match Race Madness at DRL Freestuff.

Dear Sir: Ours is a Madras, India based trading house. We can offer you the following products: Castor Oil - edible grade, conforming to British standards. Electrical Products - selector switches, isolators, connectors, fuse links, etc.
Regards.

After a promising test session at Perth's Quit Motorplex yesterday Victor Bray is upbeat about his chances at round five of the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship to be held at the new Kwinana complext as the headline category of the Marlow's Westernationals next weekend. In hot conditions not conducive to good performances, Bray was very pleased with his Castrol '57 Chev responding well to changes and recording a best for the day of 6.35 seconds.

Speaking after the test session, Bray commented, "We've been refining our set up to make the car quicker in the first part of the race track. Just small changes can make a huge difference and things look like they're coming together for us. The sixty foot time was good, we recorded the quickest time to the 330 foot timers our Castrol Chevy has ever run and the conditions were far from ideal. We were chasing the good launch rather than the high speed and hopefully we're ready to put the whole package together this weekend. A good result here is vital to our chances of a sixth championship. We'll be throwing everything at it, that's for sure."

Under Australian National Drag Racing Association rules, Western Australian rounds of the championship carry a fifty percent points bonus to encourage participation by east coast racers. With the series now at the halfway mark, points at this weekend's Marlow's Westernationals will be critical in shaping the rest of the season, not only for Victor Bray and the Castrol Team, but also for the half dozen drivers still in contention for the title. With so much at stake, competition through the two day event is certain to be intense. Interest in the event is at an all time high with another capacity crowd expected at the Quit Motorplex.

In other news, ex-driver for Victor Bray Racing, Troy Critchley has landed one of the most highly sought after drives in the USA, having just been signed by Roy Singleton to take over the seat vacated by Tom Mauney in the IHRA's Pro Modified Championship. Singleton of the huge Majesty Homes Group runs one of the best funded and staffed teams on the championship trail.

"It's fantastic news for Troy. He left us to try his hand in the big time in America and after a successful stint with Johnny Rocca, this new deal with Roy Singleton means he's right up there. The phone runs hot between he and I and he's very excited about this drive. Congratulations to him. It's the chance of a lifetime," said Bray.

Hey Bob, I just tuned into your website to find that you are downunder. I can't tell you how glad I am for you to finally get reunited with your race car. I can just see you smiling all over as you work on your car. Keep the reports coming in on your progress and good luck on your licencing passes.

Any idea when and where we can access a copy of the 2001 SIR (Seattle International Raceway) schedule? Their link on the NHRA website goes to the 1999 schedule. Not too helpful! Thanks.

Good to see you back. Will make a point of running into you at the Winters. Say g-day to Ken for me.

Bob, please change the link for "Gasser Madness" in the Nostalgia section, to www.gassermadness.com. Thank you.

I just wanted to write and tell you how much I enjoy your website. Great links. The best part is the race reports. I own the car driven by Dave Beinaman that finished runner-up at Spokane in Top Fuel last year. I have looked everywhere to find an article on the race and after much searching I found it here. Thank you and good luck with your racing endeavors.

John Keigley - KPM Motorsports - Top Fuel Dragster

Just two weeks after suffering a horrifying top end crash at Houston Raceway Park, defending Division 4 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion Jay Meyer will return to competition at this weekend's Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas.

Fellow Division 4 Federal-Mogul Funny Car racer Warren Dauzat, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who formerly ran dragsters, loaned Meyer his old dragster to compete with until Meyer receives his new Dave Uyehara chassis. Meyer, who received a cracked vertebrae from his crash, was released by doctors on Wednesday, and hopes to pick up as close as he can to where he left off in Dauzat's car.

"Since Dauzat offered to let us borrow a car, the boys (Meyer's crew) have been working day and night," Meyer said. "As of today, the car is just about ready to go. We'll try to fire the car up later today to make sure everything runs okay. It's a shorter car, so we may run into a balance problem, but it shouldn't be a big problem. We still have the power, we just have to get it to the ground."

"The doctors released me this morning, so I feel good to go, and get after it again," Meyer added. "They did an MRI on my back, and everything is good back there. I've got a few stiff spots left, but everything is okay."

On that last run in Houston, Meyer was on the run of his life. His incremental times were the best of anyone that weekend, when he lost control on the top end of the track. Meyer ran through the timers with an elapsed time of 5.444 seconds at only 223 mph before impacting the wall just past the finish line.

After the first hard impact, the car broke in half, as designed, in front of the driver's compartment. The car ricocheted across the track into the other wall, where it slid to a stop. After being helped from the car, Meyer was able to stand on his own, and talk to paramedics before being transported to a nearby hospital.

This weekend, Meyer feels confident that even with the shorter, older style car, he can get back into the 5.40's at the Motorplex. "I think we should be able to run some mid .40's," Meyer commented. "I don't think we can get into the .30's, though. The incremental numbers on that run we crashed on were .03 better at the eighth mile than when we were on the 5.41 we ran in Houston last yearm so we knew it would have been a .36 or .37. This car is a little bit shorter, and the motor is not quite in the same position, so it's just going to be a matter of trying to get a handle on it. It gives us something to race with, so that's better than what we had before Warren offered us this car."

Meyer plans to compete in Dauzat's car in Dallas, and at the following Division 4 race in Baton Rouge. Meyer hopes to have his new car completed by the Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, an event he won last year. Meyer is also the defending champion from last year's events in Dallas and Baton Rouge as well. "Uyehara told me the car would be ready in a couple of weeks, so we hope to have it ready by Gainesville," stated Meyer. "If we don't make that race, we'll replace it with Atlanta (Advance Auto Parts Nationals)."

Meyer, who was picked to be one of this year's contenders for the World Championship, says he's not going to worry about going after the Championship, but winning at the races he goes to. "We're just going to do like we did last year," said Meyer. "Just go and race, and see how we do. We didn't plan on chasing the Championship last year; we just sort of got caught up in it at the end of the year. The Santos and O'Bannon team are pretty good. We're a little bit less funded than we were before because of this crash, so we'll just have to play it out and see how it goes. We'll just take it one race, and one round, at a time."

If Meyer can get back to his normal championship form, the rest of the Federal-Mogul Dragster class might not get the break they thought they were after all. For more information on the Jay Meyer team, visit their website.

Just a reminder about the "IGOR" blocks. The old man was the last one to have any interest in the project. I believe their name is Duggan although I am not sure. The two "292" blocks are only probably finished and are probably laying in the corner of some warehouse, along with any side covers, timing covers, etc. Thanks Bob for your efforts and all the best on your "dropping of the clutch".

This weekend at the Texas Motorplex, former NHRA Division 5 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion David Wells will attempt to repeat his O'Reilly Fall Nationals win here last year during this weekend's Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event.

In the finals of last year's race, Wells cracked into the 5.30 zone with an elapsed time of 5.38 seconds to become only the second blown alcohol dragster in history to do so in his victory over Division 4 and defending event champion Jay Meyer. Wells, of LeMars, Iowa, hopes to pick up where he left off this weekend in his Blue Bunny Ice Cream "Plain Vanilla" dragster.

"How good we run this weekend will obviously depend on how good the track conditions are," said Wells. "If the track is good, and the weather is good, hopefully we can put it back in the 5.30's again. I'm hoping to run at least 5.40's, but you never know. If the track is good enough, we should run some .30's."

After ending his 2000 season with the win at the Motorplex, Wells has high hopes for the 2001 season. Namely, regaining the Division 5 Championship, which he lost to Bruce Bowler last year. Wells is also looking for a strong national finish. "We want to get up as high as we can get in the top ten this year," stated Wells. "Everyone wants to be No. 1, and obviously, that's our goal, but that's a lot of other people's goals too. It's going to be tough this year because everyone is stepping up. It's going to be a tough season no matter what we do."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters at 4 p.m., followed by two more sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for day by day updates of the action from the Motorplex.

An old adage in drag racing goes, "enjoy your highs, because the sport can certainly humble you." Second year Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Joe Fuentes learned that first hand during the last Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event in Houston. There he qualified eighth, and lost in the first round, all on the heels of a career best outing at the season opening Winternationals in Pomona, California.

Undaunted, Fuentes, of Austin, Texas, looks to turn things around for the better at this upcoming weekend's Division 4 race at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas. The young team hopes to couple it's competitive drive and reunion with veteran tuner Ora Vasquez into success this weekend.

"Fortunately, our tuner Ora Vasquez can make it this weekend," said Fuentes. "We had trouble figuring out how to make the car not smoke the tires in cold weather. We're just going to let Ora figure it out this weekend if it gets cold again. We sure didn't. We are pretty confident that if we can get the car down the track we will do pretty good. With Ora back we should be able to run like we did in Pomona. I'm pumped."

With the assistance of Vasquez, Fuentes ran a career best elapsed time and speed of 5.44 at 257 mph in Pomona. Fuentes feels if the conditions are right, he might be able to duplicate that on the Motorplex's all concrete racing surface, or even better it.

"It's really hard to predict what we are going to run, because it's pretty much based on the weather," Fuentes commented. "We have been running the beadlock type wheels which are a little bit more aggressive, and that created a problem in Houston. We might try the inner liner type rims in Dallas; it really just depends on how things go. We've run .40's before, so if we hook up, we should again."

Qualifying begins at 4 pm Friday for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters, with two more sessions following on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to the J&D Racing team's award winning website for updates on the team's progress from the Motorplex.

Just minutes before she was to get the call to run in her first final round in two years, rain and cold weather put an end to Federal-Mogul Dragster pilot Shelly Howard's hopes of a win in Houston. This weekend, during the NHRA Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series race at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas, Howard will not only get a shot to win the rained out Houston race, but to pick up a win this weekend's event as well.

Howard, a registered nurse from Tulsa, Oklahoma, will face Troy Buff in this weekend's final qualifying session to serve as the Houston event's final. Howard lead the Houston event from qualifying on, qualifying No. 1 with an elapsed time of 5.443 at 252.90 mph and stayed in the 5.40's throughout eliminations to the finals.

The 5.47 she ran in her victory over Division 2 Champion Michael Gunderson will earn her lane choice in her final round match up with Buff, who ran a 5.63 in his semifinal round win over Gene Snow. Howard feels that if she puts her focus on winning this weekend's event, the Houston final will take care of itself.

"We're going into this weekend concentrating on the Dallas race the most," said Howard. "Whatever happens in that round with Buff happens. We can't focus too much on the Houston final, or we will lose focus on this weekend's event." Rather than attempt to "blister" the track with phenomenal times and speeds, Howard feels that consistency will put her in the winner's circle on Sunday.

"If I can be consistent in the 5.50's or 5.40's, that's really all I can ask for," Howard commented. "It really depends on the weather and the track. Running really killer numbers like 5.30's is not our priority, consistency is what we are shooting for."

Stay tuned to the Howard team's award winning website for udpates of the team's progress at the Motorplex.

Here is a memo that Mike Johnson released following the meeting with Tom Compton:

Will Hanna of Pro Race Communications met with team owners at the National event in Pomona regarding the formation of a Pro Sportsman Association representing the Federal-Mogul Dragster and Funny Car team owners. Out of this meeting a suggestion was made for having several representatives meet with Tom Compton to discuss the future of our class and determine whether we would be wasting our time trying to form an organization. Myself, Rick Henkelman and Jerry Darien volunteered and the following is a brief summary of some of the highlights from the meeting.

First of all, we were very pleased that Tom agreed to meet with us on such short notice. He is a very busy man and spent a considerable amount of time giving us some insight as to what he spends his time doing. The new ESPN television package is a good example. NHRA is very pleased with the new ESPN deal, which includes expanded Federal-Mogul coverage. Tom also informed us that there would be coverage of I believe 10 Divisional events to be included on the NHRA Heat program.

This information brought up some very basic concerns that it seems many Federal-Mogul owners have. What is the future of our class? Will we even be around in a few years? Does the NHRA even care about the health of our class? Tom's response was very direct. There is absolutely no intention by the NHRA to eliminate our class. The NHRA and Federal-Mogul are 100% committed to making every effort to strengthen and help our class grow. To him, the television coverage is an example of their commitment.

There was some discussion about our class not having the status it deserves, such as not even using any form of the word "Pro", lack of media attention and just plain lack of acknowledgement for the third fastest class in the sport. We pointed out that virtually all of the top professional drivers, crew chiefs and crew workers come from the Federal-Mogul ranks.

Even though Tom does agree with this, he really admits he doesn't have all the answers to a "fix". He stated that the NHRA is somewhat like a huge battleship cruising along and sometimes it is difficult getting it to change course. He indicated he would be open to any ideas, provided they were not intended to benefit only a few.

After spending two and a half hours talking with Mr. Compton, we came away 100% convinced that moving ahead with our association is the right thing to do. If we are to have any say in what direction we would like our class to go, or have an impact on issues that affect all of us we must move ahead and form our association. This will give us credibility, professionalism and a voice that the NHRA cannot ignore.

Mike Johnson: From the looks of it, this Pro Sportsman Association is going to work great! As you can see, NHRA is receptive to such an organization, as long as we handle it correctly. Now that we have the ball rolling, we need to finalize the actual membership, and establish the structure and who is going to run this organization.

Here are some proposals: One division rep per class, for a total of 14 committee members - submitted in Pomona. Three division reps per class, for a total of 42 division reps, with officers above the reps to form committee - submitted in Houston.

My feelings on the matter is that a board of one rep per class (per division) would be better now. With more reps per division, you run less risk of "one" owner promoting their own agenda on a committee, but that can be eliminated by making the division reps show a tally of the votes in his/her respective division, rather than just voting for the division.

After talking with many of the owners, the consensus points toward having at least four positions above the committee of division reps. This would consist of a treasurer, an executive director, a vice president of the board, and president of the board. The treasurer would keep track of all money matters regarding the association; pretty simple - no nominees.

The executive director would be someone to organize, and keep in correspondence with board members, and members in general. This person would be the "legs" (so to speak) of the organization. I (Will Hanna) have been nominated for this position, and accept the nomination.

The vice president would assist the president, and act as the president in his absence - no nominees.

The president of the organization would act as the spokesman of the association and cast a tie breaking vote on board votes. The president/vice president would also attend meetings with NHRA officials to convey results of meetings. All results would be documented and presented to NHRA. In addition to the president/vice president attending, select board members will attend meetings with NHRA officials. Mike Johnson has been nominated for this position and accepts.

NOTE: The nominated people for the above positions, are just candidates until I consult with more owners, and get more feedback and nominations. I would hope after a few more meetings, we could vote and have permanent committee members in place by May or June.

All things regarding the Pro Sportsman Association are still proposals at this point. We still have yet to have our east coast meeting at the Gatornationals. We are doing our best to reach out as far as we can to get 100% participation. I would appreciate your feedback and nominations greatly. I hope to see all of you at a race in the near future.

Former Division 3 Federal-Mogul Funny Car Champion Marc White will test his new 2001 Firebird during this weekend's Division 2 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series opener in Gainesville, Florida. The Glendale Heights, Illinois based driver plans to use the event as a test bed for the new 2001 rules for the class. White hopes by testing at an actual event, the team will learn more than at an individual test session.

"Basically, we are looking at this race as our 'test mode'," said White. "We didn't get a chance to do any testing out west. We have a brand new car, and with the rule changes, we need to make a few runs to figure the car out. We hope to go down there, work the new car bugs out, and get a handle on the blower overdrive change. Slow and easy, that's our goal."

If we can run anything in the 5.80's we'll be tickled to death," White added. "We've seen that some guys have run some .60's, but they don't seem to consistently run them. It seems in everything we read that a lot of teams are having tireshake problems out west. If we can just get our car into the .80's, we'll be more than happy."

White hopes that a strong outing in Gainesville will give the Etterman Racing Team a run on the upcoming NHRA Division 3 (North Central Division) season. "We've always been in the hunt for the Divisional points lead," White stated. "It will be a battle again with (Chuck) Cheeseman, so hopefully we can regain the No. 1 spot in Division 3."

"Our main goal is to win the Division 3 championship," White continued. "We would also like to finish high in the top ten nationally, and if we pick up a national event win or two, that would make a good year for us."

The Federal-Mogul Funny Cars will have one qualifying session on Friday, with two more following on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for day by day updates of the action from Gainesville.

Just a short note to let you know I am showing some friends your website. A little ditty from me, your website is awesome. Haven't seen it since you updated and reconfigured it. Great job, Bob.

Anyhow, I'm still in the Philippines and will probably extend my visit. Love the place and the thought of coming back to Canada and Casco Terminals makes me want to gag. Lots of stories for you when I get back.

I guess you are in Australia right now, so have a good time and burn lots of rubber. A sad day at Daytona. What a team they must have up there now.

Can you please forward me a schedule of races for Cordova, Illinois? Thank you.

Click here to read the "clickable" version.

Drag Racing Stories of The Day:

February 20
Sportsman Heaven: The U.S. Class Nationals. Jeff Lee fills us in on a huge sportsman-only race in July.

February 19
Kalitta, Force and W. Johnson Win at Firebird Raceway. NHRA.com provides words on the winners, round by round results, and the latest points standings.

February 18
Dunn, Skuza, and Edwards Earn No. 1 Qualifying Spots at Firebird Raceway. NHRA.com provides final pro qualifying from Phoenix and tomorrow's first round pairings.

February 17
Ron Burch's Showdown with The Outlaw. Chuck Pacini tells how he gave somewhat reluctant drag photographer Ron Burch a ride in his violent Anglia gasser.

February 16
Drag Racing's Biggest Influences. Karl Wortman gives his opinions. What are yours? Let us know and we'll print them.

February 15
Pro Nitro on Its Way for 2001. Jerry Hutchcroft brings us up to date on his nostalgia racing series; one that has some truly unique features for the racers.

February 14
Super Stock Nationals Memories. Joel Naprstek digs into the memory banks and provides highlights of past Super Stock Nationals.

February 13
Glass Rambler. Chuck Pacini with an entertaining story of what happens when a car dealer loans a brand new car to a funny car body manufacturer.

Drag Racing Pictures of The Day:

February 20
Carl Ruth's Crown Victoria. James Morgan grabbed this burnout shot of Ruth & Smigielski's popular nostalgia Ford funny.

February 19
Frank Pedregon, 1965. Darryl Huffman presents the patriarch of the Pedregon racing dynasty working on his car at Fresno '65.

February 18
Lindamood Under the Lights. Bob Plumer with a great nightime shot of the Color Me Gone Funny Car; circa 1973.

February 17
Lean and Mean Beetle. Anni Valder brings us the lowest, baddest VW we've seen in a long time.

February 16
Tim Wilkerson Lays One Down. Tog captured Tim Wilkerson doing a looong smoky burnout in the NAPA Auto Parts funny a few years ago.

February 15
TJ Junior Lights Up The Night. Dennis Roetman caught Tommy Johnson at the Texas Motorplex in Joe Gibbs' Interstate Batteries car.

February 14
Fireforce at Dusk. Britain's Sharkman got this beautiful shot of the Fireforce Jet Funny Car just before dusk.

February 13
Gasser on the Attack. Tom West graces our pages with a fantastic photo of Jim Pace's AA/Gasser.

Drag Racing Movies of the Week:

February 20
Dean McClennan Funny Car Burnout. Carl Witt caught Dean's AutoBarn Top Alcohol car laying one down.

February 18
Anders Karling's Nitro Harley. Sharkman sent us this footage of fuel bike action from Europe.

Plus: Updated DRL lists. Danny White, Steve Klemetti, and a cast of hundreds have sent new stats and info to our lists. Here is the latest stuff, updated through the NHRA Winternationals. Another update is due in early March at the latest. We now have over 47,000 individual listings.

The DRL needs content. We are always searching for new stories of the day. If you have a drag racing memory that you want to share with your fellow racers or drag fans, send it to: DRL Stories. We're trying to capture the flavor of drag racing from ALL perspectives, so yours is welcome. Don't worry too much about spelling, grammar and that stuff. We can smooth out the rough edges. All stories and photos will be credited to you and we can include a link to your email address or to your website if you like. Let's make The Drag Racing List YOUR site - send us a story.

G'Day, Bob. How are you? Just wondering if you've arrived in town yet. If so, could you ring me. Hope to hear from you soon.

A Friday afternoon qualifying run of 6.16 seconds at 233 mph was good enough to place Lyle Greenberg in the 14th position in the final Federal-Mogul Funny Car standings at the Checker/ Shuck's/ Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona. Greenberg's first round opponent was Bucky Austin, fresh off a win at the opening NHRA National event in Pomona two weeks ago.

Prior to the first round matchup. Greenberg noted that they were going to make substantial changes to try and find the performance that they needed to compete with Austin. "We made a big change in the clutch and minor changes to the engine," said Greenberg. "We are still struggling to find out what the car wants in order to perform with the new 92% overdrive supercharger rule."

The most important aspect of the matchup turned out to be Greenberg himself, as he recorded an excellent .448 reaction time to gain a significant starting line advantage over Austin. Unfortunately, Austin's superior horsepower allowed him to pass Greenberg at about half track to take the win. Austin recorded a 5.97 second elapsed time at a slowing 234 mph, while Greenberg trailed at a 6.10 at 236 mph.

"We were pleased to have taken such a great shot at beating Bucky," said Greenberg. "I'm sure that he saw a lot of the yellow car for a few seconds early in the run. Plus, it looked like he had to really lean on his equipment to beat us. Just at the finish line there was a considerable amount of oil smoke pouring out from under his car and his speed slowed, indicating that he probably hurt some parts."

For more information on the Lyle Greenberg Motorsports team, visit their website.

Hey Bob, nice to see you're starting back at the old web page. A couple of things: Can you delete your link to the old IBAA site, and replace it with www.awesomeburnouts.com? While you are in there, my old site is about to vanish and be replaced by www.dragracing.ca.

As far as your Canadian Dragster area: Some day when you're updating stuff, I've enclosed a few pictures of my dad's old cars. He ran the first one, an experimental turbocharged alky deal; then the second one, the ex-Wheeler Dealer Top Fuel car of Terry Capp. Thankfully, he has come to his senses and gotten rid of those silly, long, hard to park in your garage cars, and come over to the fibreglass roof set. (Oops, did I say that out loud?)

By the way, the kid in the goofy hat, hanging on to the wing at the then brand-new Prince George track, is me at 15, just wishing I could drive that baby.

Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Duane Shields suffered a disappointing first round loss at this past weekend's Checker/ Shuck's/ Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway, just outside of Phoenix. Shields, of Las Vegas, qualified strong with an elapsed time of 5.447 at 258.02 mph that put him in No. 6 in preliminary standings. In the first round he ran the quickest and fastest Blown Alcohol Dragster pass of the weekend with a 5.379 at 261.57 mph, but lost to Mike Strasburg's holeshot aided 5.523 at 255.43 mph.

"I was just concentrating too hard on cutting a light," said Shields. "I guess I overdid it. It's hard on everybody when you lose on a holeshot like that. We'll just have to put it behind us and move on."

The next stop on the Shields Racing schedule is this upcoming weekend's Division 7 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event in Tucson, Arizona. Shields hopes his new performance will help carry him to success in Tucson. "We are real encouraged by the car's performance this past weekend," said Shields. "Hopefully, next weekend we can turn that into a win."

Found your inquiry about EWMN car. We have a car by that name. It used to belong to Harley Griffith. It now belongs to Tony Vigna. Henry Contreras is still the crew chief. The car has not been to the track since Pomona '99. (We lost in the second round). We're hoping to get back at it soon.

Well-known fuel crew chief Tom Anderson has agreed to join the Mike Janis Racing team for the 2001 IHRA Pro Modified season. The Mike Janis Racing team campaigns a Jan-Cen Automotive powered '63 Corvette backed by the Heintz and Weber's Co. of Buffalo, New York.

Tom Anderson may best be known for his work with such fuel Funny Car teams as that of Al Hofmann's and Don "The Snake" Prudhomme's, among others. Anderson may be remembered most recently, for assisting the world's quickest and fastest Pro Modified to the 2000 IHRA Pro Modified World Championship. 2001 shows no signs of slowing down for the veteran crew chief. Anderson will be pulling double duty. Along with being the team consultant for Mike Janis Racing, he will also be the crew chief for Victor, New York's John Vouros and his CompetitionPlus.com Pro Alcohol Funny Car team.

When asked about his involvement with the Janis team, Anderson said. "Mike is a well liked person. He is well respected and has a reputation for being honest and straightforward, in business and in racing. Those qualities are hard to find nowadays. That's why I decided to help his team. I feel that we can do some damage this year in the Pro Mod ranks. I watched Mike at a few events last season. He can drive. I feel with a little help, Mike will be in the top pack of Pro Mods this year."

Mike Janis was pleased to say the least about the new addition to his team. "What can you say about a guy with the knowledge and experience of Tom Anderson? I couldn't be more thankful for Tom making the decision to join our team. There aren't many guys of his caliber out there. He alone can carry a good team to a championship. So for me to say I am pleased about his decision to be a consultant for our team would be more than just an understatement."

In other Mike Janis Racing team news, Nology Engineering has come aboard for a second straight season. Nology Engineering of San Marcos, California, produces performance ignition products for foreign, domestic and custom applications. You can learn more about Nology and their products on their website.

We have one less American icon.
Ain't it a sad thought to know Dale is dead....
Now it's up to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Defending Division 5 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion Bruce Bowler had his hopes of victory go up in smoke, literally, during the first round of this past weekend's Checker/ Shuck's/ Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway, just outside of Phoenix.

Bowler, of Denver, qualified for the 16 car field with an elapsed time of 5.502 seconds at 250.69 mph that put him in the No. 13 position. That number proved to be unlucky for Bowler, as he smoked the tires right off the starting line in his first round match up with Mark Hentges, giving Hentges an easy win.

"It really wasn't a good weekend for us," said Bowler. "The first qualifying run we torched a head at the end of the run, then on the second run, we broke a rear end. On our final qualifying session, it left good, then went into heavy tireshake. Finally, in the first round of eliminations, my son Scott, our crew chief, put a little bit too much horsepower in the motor, and it smoked the tires right off the line. It just wasn't our weekend."

The next stop on the Phoenix Custom Apparel's schedule will be the O'Reilly Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, March 22nd - 25th. There, Bowler will continue his quest for his first national event victory. "We just have to put this race behind us," commented Bowler. "We have to put all of our focus into our next race in Houston. I still think we have a pretty competitive race car that has a shot at winning anywhere, so we'll just take what we learned here in Phoenix, and apply it in Houston."

For more information about Bruce Bowler, or Phoenix Custom Apparel, visit the team's website.

Larry, let me know what tapes you think will do well up there, such as Lions, Bakersfield, etc., and I will start making them. Thanks.

After the first day of qualifying, Federal-Mogul Dragster team owner and driver Duane Shields currently sits in the No. 6 spot with a best elapsed time of 5.463 at 257.87 mph at this weekend's Checker's/ Shucks/ Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway, just outside of Phoenix.

The Las Vegas based team hurt a motor on the first pass, only running a 5.829 at 224.28 mph. Then in the second session, Shields regained his usual performance with the 5.46. With one qualifying session remaining, Shields feels he can step up in the field. "We broke a couple of valve adjusters the first run," said Shields. "The track temperature was so cold that the car was skating around and broke a blower belt. That ended up saving us from hurting our motor any more, since it killed the motor then. We put another motor in for the second session and ran the .46. We were really happy with that. It's a real tight field here. It looks pretty optimistic for tomorrow."

After dipping into the 5.30's in Pomona two weeks ago, Shields feels if the conditions are right, the Short Line Express team may be able to run a high 5.30 or low 5.40. "We would like to run a low 5.40," commented Shields. "We want to step it up just a little bit and stay consistent. We would like to move up in the order a little bit, since the field is so tight now. If the middle of the track would come around a little bit, there's the possibility of running a .30, but it would take a near perfect run."

The final qualifying session for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters will be at 10 a.m. First round of eliminations will be at 12:30 p.m. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the racing action from Phoenix.

Hi Bob. Yes, the March Meet is still a go! We leave on March 6th, in Jim Sibley's motorhome and trailer, and Larry Pfister will be with us too. Larry and I got media passes to take photos, and we are all pre-entered and paid to get in when we arrive there. Willie Skillings and two of his buddies will also meet us there, so it should be a hoot!

Well, you have a good flight to Australia, I know it's a long one. Make sure you walk around every half hour or so (on the plane), so you don't get that "flight clot" in your legs. Glad to hear from you again, talk to you soon!

Defending Division 5 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion Bruce Bowler is currently qualified No. 10 with an elapsed time of 5.502 at 250.92 mph at this weekend's Checker's/ Shucks/ Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway, just outside of Phoenix.

Bowler, who resides in Denver, had high hopes coming into this weekend's event, but experienced parts breakage in both of today's qualifying sessions. In his first session, a blown head gasket caused him to slow from his normal low 5.40 pace to the 5.50. In the second session, a broken rear end gear ended his run prematurely. Bowler feels his Phoenix Custom Apparel A/Fuel Dragster has much more left in it.

"On the first run, we were going on a good run, and ended up torching a cylinder head," said Bowler. "It dropped one cylinder, then another, and ended up torching the head. On the second pass, the car launched pretty well, then shook the tires about 150 feet out," Bowler continued. "I pulled the brake a little bit to get that under control, the car really started to take off, then it just quit. I thought I might have broken the motor, but when I got out of the car, I saw that we had a hole in the third member for the rear end. Even with that, the car went 188 mph to the eighth mile, so it was on a really good pass. Without the rearend, it doesn't go anywhere."

With the data Bowler has received from his two runs today, Bowler is confident of his chances to step up in the qualifying order tomorrow. "The field here doesn't appear to be quite as thick as it was in Pomona," stated Bowler. "Although Baca blistered the track today with two 274 mph runs. So, we know there's a way to make some power out here. If the car can stay together, we feel that we can run 5.30's. We feel like if we wouldn't have hurt that rearend today, we would have run a .30. We know it's there, we just have to find it."

The final qualifying session for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters will be at 10 a.m. First round of eliminations will be at 12:30 p.m. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the racing action from Phoenix.

Hi Bob; just wondering if you still need a lift from the airport. I still haven't got the email from the other day. If you still need a hand and a lift, please let me know. Hoping to hear from you soon.

Hi Bob. About 12 weeks ago you e-mailed me. I thank you for your kind words. Now you probably have forgotten what you wrote; that's OK. It's great to see you haven't forgotten how to update your site (DIG). I do hope your plans for your trip are going well as there always seems to be another bill (TAX) to pay. This does seem to put a damper on things sometimes; at least it does with me.

Will you be updating from OZ? How soon will you be making a pass in your new car? Well, it isn't travelling halfway around the world, but I'm planning a pilgrimage of sorts. In three weeks I should be in Bakersfield for the March Meet. My confirmed I-5 co-pilot will be Gonz. I'm surprised that you haven't run into him as he still is in North Van and working right next door to your old shop on Crown Street.

Hello! Caught you typing! Thought you were burned out. Hope not! In a time when technology is taking over our lives, it's refreshing to surf in for some non-political, up to date, killer Canadian stuff and we missed you/your site and look forward to anything that you can feed us admitted addicts. Thanks again.

Sir, will you please quote for the undermentioned items applicable to Michigan Loader Model L480:

Just making sure you're still alive. I thought that maybe you had gone to Australia ready, but Larry (Pfister) tells me you're still at home. We miss you.

After running career best times two weeks ago at the AutoZone Winternationals, Federal-Mogul Dragster driver and team owner Duane Shields is excited about this weekend's upcoming Checker/ Schuck's/ Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway, just outside of Phoenix.

Shields, 38, of Las Vegas, qualified No. 3 at that race with a then career best elapsed time of 5.380 at 261.17 mph, and improved on that mark in the first round with a 5.375 at 262.18 mph in the first round, to make him the second quickest Blown Alcohol Dragster in the world. Valvetrain failure then caused him to fall off in the second round, which ultimately lead to his defeat in that round. Now, with his car solidly in the 5.30's at over 260 mph, Shields looks to be a serious player this weekend.

"Our focus is to be real aggressive right out of the box," said Shields. "We want to run a good number right from the start. We really have to strive for consistency this weekend, so what happened last weekend won't happen again. We want to go a few more rounds, and be a heavy hitter this weekend. I'm really looking forward to going after it."

"For the most part, we are going to stay with our normal gameplan," continued Shields. "If we lose our focus on that, we could become a little too aggressive. I think if we just concentrate on what we know the car can do, we can just do some solid drag racing".

Not only is Shields excited about this weekend, but the season as a whole with his new found performance. "The way the car ran at the last race certainly brightened us up a little bit," commented Shields. "I know in drag racing, it can humble you at any time. I know we have the potential to be a heavy hitter on any track. We're certainly not scared to go anywhere. So, it should be a little more fun this year."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters with qualifying sessions at 9:30 a.m., and noon. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates on the racing action from Phoenix.

As Jeff Foxworthy once said, "People who are real idiots should each have to carry a sign that says, 'I am an idiot. Humor me." Here's examples:

Idiot #1    This from a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control center: Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down, and at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she gave her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter into the Emergency room right away. Here's your sign lady. Wear it with pride.

Idiot #2    Seems that a year ago, some Boeing employees on the airfield decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plane and home. When they took it for a float on the river, a Coast Guard helicopter coming towards them surprised them. It turned out that the chopper was homing in on the emergency locator beacon which activated when the raft was inflated. They are no longer employed at Boeing. Here's your sign, guys. Don't get it wet, the paint might run.

Idiot #3    True story out of San Francisco: A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote "this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag." While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. He read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said "OK" and left. He was arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America. Don't bother with this guy's sign. He probably couldn't read it anyway.

Idiot #4    A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but he refused and said, "Because I don't believe you are over 21." The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he didn't believe him. At this point the robber took his driver's license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over, and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and he put the scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license. They arrested the robber two hours later. (Remind me to have more signs printed up. Give this guy his!)

Idiot #5    A pair of Michigan robbers entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers. The first one shouted, "Nobody move!" When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him. (This guy doesn't need a sign, he probably figured it out himself.)

Idiot #6    Arkansas: Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconcious. Seems the liquor store window was made of Plexiglass. The whole event was caught on videotape. (Oh, that smarts. Give him his sign!)

Idiot #7    Ann Arbor: The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 12:50 AM flashed a gun and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for Breakfast. The man just walked away.

Defending NHRA Division 5 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion Bruce Bowler will be returning to the place where he clinched the Division 5 Championship last year, Firebird Raceway, just outside of Phoenix for this weekend's Checker/ Schuck's/ Kragen Nationals. Bowler also posted his career best elapsed time and mph at this event last year with a 5.33 at 266 mph.

Bowler, who owns Phoenix Custom Apparel in Denver, qualified No. 4 two weeks ago at the AutoZone Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., with a great 5.399 at 265.38 mph, only to lose in the first round after dropping cylinders. Bowler feels that going back to a track he has won at before will give him a better shot at victory this weekend.

"In Pomona, we got the first race of the year out of the road," laughed Bowler. "Hopefully we got rid of the jitters that go along with that. What we did find out there, was that the car is going to work really well. We're going to Phoenix with some pretty high optimism in the team, so we just can't wait to get to the track and make some runs. We've enjoyed some good success in Phoenix, and we know the track really well. We're just going to try to pick up where we left off last time we were there."

Bowler feels given what he learned over the offseason and in Pomona, that he could possibly better the 5.33 he ran here last year, and maybe even dip into the 5.20's. "At the end of last year, when we were there for the points race [Division 7 FMDRS] we were still having a problem torching heads," stated Bowler. "On several of the runs we had going, at half track, we were really blistering the track until the motor let loose. We feel at this point in time that we have found the problem and cured it. If we can find some of the performance we had last year without having the heads go off the block, we should be able to do a lot better than what we've done in the past. That's what we're looking to do in Phoenix, put all that horsepower back in the motor and not have to worry about lifting heads."

"David Baca's 5.22 in Pomona convinced us that we are on the right track," Bowler continued. "It showed us that it can be done, it doesn't change what we plan to do, it just encourages us that what we're focusing on has the potential we thought it had."

Hi Bob. We hope all is well with you, and miss your presence in the world wide web. I thought I would ask if you are interested in coming to the shop this weekend (Sunday), to see the AA/FD we have. It is now finished, they started it on both alcohol, and nitro (last Sunday). Dave wants to start it up again this Sunday on nitro, just to get the hang of it. It ran very well, and sounds just great, first time running on nitro. They ran it on 75% nitro, with Gene Adams help (over the phone). Dave has learned a lot about all this. People who have been helping with the startups, Leo Grocock and Dave O'Hara, have been great teachers also.

We are leaving for Bakersfield March 6th for the March Meet. Can't wait to meet Gene Adams in person, and all the others who have helped us along the way. Anyway, I know you are busy, but if you need a break, and a whiff of nitro, please come by. We are in Mission (of course) in the industrial area. Call us if you're interested.

PS: We're only inviting a select few, and you are one of them. Hope you can make it!

Second year Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Joe Fuentes suffered a disappointing first round loss to No. 1 qualifier Shelly Howard during this past weekend's Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series opener at Houston Raceway Park.

Fuentes, who resides in Austin, Texas, struggled in qualifying and qualified No. 8 with an elapsed time of 6.274 at 256.60 mph on his first attempt. Fuentes then smoked the tires in his second qualifying session, then again in his first round matchup with Howard. Howard went on to take the win with a 5.455 at 255.59 mph to Fuentes' 7.021 at 247.02 mph.

"It's just part of the learning curve," said Fuentes. "We figured out how to run on a nice and warm racetrack, and now we have to go back to basics and learn how to run on a cold racetrack like this weekend. We had everything like it was in Pomona," continued Fuentes. "The air was a lot better, so the motor was making more power. Our tuner Ora Vasquez was unable to make it, and our inexperience just bit us. We just did not know how to adjust to a cold racetrack."

Even with the disappointing Houston loss, Fuentes and team look to improve at the next Division 4 race to be held at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas, in two weeks. "We're going to try some different things if the weather is cold again," stated Fuentes. "We will take the beadlocks off if it gets cold and try the inner liner tires, and just try to calm it down. We look to do a lot better in Dallas for sure."

For more information on the J&D Racing team, visit their award winning website, part of the RacerPage.com network.

Click here to read the "clickable" version.

New website partners: We are proud to report recent associations with Cindy Gibbs Portraits in Pencil, Quick Times Racing News -- yes, Becky White's finally on the web, and Anglia News. Check out their banners and all our other fine sponsors and partners at our Sponsors page.

Drag Racing Stories of The Day

February 12
Mullins' War Horse Ready to Gallop in 2001. Bruce Mullins checks in to bring us up to date on his Federal-Mogul Funny Car team.

Feburary 11
Where to Race a Beginner Dragster. Larry Heath offers advice on the best classes in which to enter your first dragster.

February 10
Southern Fried Funny Cars: The History of the Southern Fuel Coupes -- Plus the 2000 SFC Banquet. Robin Stambaugh catches us up on the history of the rockin' Southern Fuel Coupes.

February 9
Back to the Drags After 35 Years. Jon Price tells us what it was like to see the 2001 Winternationals after not being to the drags since 1965.

February 8
Inside Motorsports Ceases Publication. Farewell to IMS, and farewell to independent reporting in drag racing.

February 7
Back in the Show: Howard Haight's New Top Fuel Ride. Top Fuel veteran and DRL hero Howard Haight provides us with impressions of his weekend at the Winters.

February 6
An Unreal Way to Win a Drag Race. Saturday night, Western Australian announcer Stu Bond witnessed the weirdest route to the winner's circle he has seen in 30 years of drag racing.

Drag Racing Pictures of The Day

February 12
Remembering Dave Schultz. Chris Graves offers a beautiful tribute photo to Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Dave Schultz, who passed away yesterday.

February 11
Fuel Dragsters, 1962 Style. Steve Gibbs with rare photos and background on three more hitters from San Gabriel in 1962.

February 10
One Trick Pony - Robert Patrick's Ford Mustang Pro Stock. Ron Dilley captured NHRA Pro Stock's quickest Ford and slickest body style.

February 9
Pro Mod Hits the NHRA: Kirk Kuhns' Corvette. Robert Briggs grabbed a shot of the most talked-about sportsman car at the 2001 Winternationals. NHRA's first Pro Mod machine.

February 8
Old Blue '41 Willys. Ralph "Gonzo" Crosby felt a little blue (at the end of IMS?) and retouched one of his photos accordingly.

February 7
Sign Here Sonny... Pete Garramone grabbed a cute shot of a little biker getting hassled by the law.

February 6
Roadsters and Gassers and Dragsters, Oh My! Tom DeLello returns with some way cool drag racing drawings.

Drag Racing Movies of The Week

February 12
Anders Karling's Nitro Harley. Sharkman sent us this footage of fuel bike action from Europe.

February 11
Earthquake II Jet Semi Truck. Bob and Alice Howard provided this cool footage of their jet powered semi truck blasting down an airport runway.

In Drag Racing and Hot Rodding people are attracted to the cars with the most visual appeal. No where is this more prevalent than in the world of Pro Modified. Whether it's a '50 Merc, a flamed Studebaker, a comic themed '57 Chevy, or a ghoulish '54 Corvette, the visual attraction captures fans attention. Well, Mike Janis Racing, Jan-Cen Automotive, and Weber's Mustard have teamed up for the chance to give you the fans the opportunity to choose your next visual favorite.

Mike Janis will be running a new paint scheme for the 2001 season on his Jan-Cen powered, Weber's Mustard backed, '63 Corvette and they are letting you pick the colors. Mike Janis Racing, Jan-Cen Automotive and Weber's Mustard will run a "Fan Favorite" contest.

The contest will run from February 13, 2001 to February 18, 2001 with the winner being announced on February 28, 2001. All entries are to be sent to Mike Janis Racing.

The way the contest works: You, the fans, pick the new scheme colors. Out of the six attached pictures, pick your favorite. The schemes will be labeled one through six. For those of you feeling artistic try your hands on the blank template labeled number seven. The scheme with the most entries will be Mike's new scheme for 2001. Out of all the entries for the winning scheme, one person's name will be randomly drawn as a winner.

That winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to Jan-Cen Automotive of Elma, New York. The gift certificate can also be used at the Jan-Cen website. Weber's Mustard will also donate a six pack of their products to the winner. Dynabrade, Inc., manufacturer of industrial power tools, accessories & abrasives of Clarence, New York, has agreed to donate a Dynabrade polo shirt to the winner.

Federal Mogul Dragster driver Shelly Howard qualified No. 1 and made it all the way to the final round before rain postponed this past weekend's Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series opener at Houston Raceway Park. Howard will face fellow Division 4 racer Troy Buff when the race is resumed in two weeks at the Dallas Division 4 race.

After Friday night's qualifying session was rained out, the Federal-Mogul Dragsters only had two qualifying sessions remaining. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, based driver was not qualified going into the final qualifying session, and ran an elapsed time of 5.443 at 252.90 mph to put her to the top of the field in the No. 1 spot. Howard used consistent 5.40's to make her way through eliminations with e.t.'s of 5.455 at 255.29 mph to put away Fuentes in round one, and a 5.470 at 254.47 mph to put away last year's Division 2 Champion Michael Gunderson in the semifinals.

Persistent showers and cold weather then forced the race to be postponed. The FMD final round will be rerun in the final qualifying session of the upcoming Dallas Division 4 race in two weeks. Howard will have lane choice over Buff.

"It was a good weekend," said Howard. "We were really pleased with the way the car ran. I just wish we could have run the final, because we really had the momentum and things going our way. We'll just have to go up to Dallas and see what happens."

In addition to being focused on getting the Houston win, Howard plans to try hard to win the Dallas event as well. "As long as the car can stay consistent, I'll be happy," commented Howard. "It's going to be a different track and different weather, so who knows what's going to happen. The air in Dallas will probably not be as good as it was in Houston. We just want to stay consistent, and not tear up any parts. Not only do we have to worry about finishing the Houston race, but we have to have our focus on doing well for the Dallas race. You really can't concentrate on one more than another at that point. The Buff's will have the same situation to deal with as we do, so we will just see what happens and try to stay consistent."

"This race definitely got us off to a fresh start," continued Howard. "It turned out to be a good start to this point. We'll just have to see what happens from here."

For more information on the Howard Racing Team, visit their award winning website.

Hi Fellow Rodder, here's what new at HotRodder.com:
The dictionary defines a hotrod as an automobile that has been modified to increase its speed and performance. Since HotRodder.com is based on hotrodding, we're also striving to improve our site's performance and looks. We've created a survey with the hopes that the feedback we get from our members and visitors would help us attain our goal of making HotRodder.com one of the best hotrodding sites on the net. We'd very much appreciate it if you could take the time to answer a few questions at survey.

As I was cleaning out files this weekend, I happened upon a paper that I had printed of a log file of our website traffic from January of 1998. It showed the January 19th weekly statistics for number of page views was 5133. Do you know what the page views for last week were? 105,829! Our growth has been phenomenal and we're very excited about our future and moving into the new millennium.

Newsletter Archive:   If you're a new member or you've just recently signed up for our newsletter, we want to remind you that our past newsletters are posted online at newsletters. Check them out for past updates on our website as well as some valuable links to some really slick sites.

Live Chatrooms:   We had some great special guests in our chatrooms last month and now the transcripts are posted on a webpage. You can find them at rodderchat. Unfortunately, our chat transcript with Scott Abbott of Rabbit's Classy Glass was lost in a major chat server crash last week and we apologize to those who weren't able to make that chat and were waiting for that one to be posted. We were able to get the chats with Jeff Georges of Thunder Performance on wiring and Todd Silvey of Drag News magazine transcribed for our visitors, however.

Our live chatrooms are open 24/7, but usually people start congregating around 8:00 or 8:30 pm central time. The Street Rodding room has been pretty quiet and we've had a request by a fellow rodder to establish a regular time for street rodders to meet and swap tales. So if you're in the neighborhood on Tuesday evenings, we'd invite you to stop in! Just go to rodderchat and sign in the box that says "Street Rodding" and hit the Connect button.

Events:   Our events calendar is starting to fill up fast at events. If your club, racetrack, or community is having a motorsport event or show, please contact us soon by going to the events page and locating the link to submit an event so we can add it to page. Coming up this weekend is the famous Portland Rod & Custom Show. Then February 23-25 is the Detroit Autorama. See our Events page for more details.

Make plans now to attend the U.S. Class Nationals in Byron, Illinois July 20-22. HotRodder.com is putting up $100 for the Best Appearing Crew award. Find info at the Nats website.

HotRodder.com Members of the Week:   Check out the website of Bill Naves, driver of the "Shooting Star" pro alcohol burning Funny Car. Pro Nova is the link to get you to Tom & Linda Chilcote's blown & nitrous injected '72 Chevrolet Pro Street Nova.

Special Membership Offer For Newsletter Subscribers:
If you've been thinking about getting your own website here at HotRodder.com, now is the time to sign up. We'll set you up with your own 10 mb directory totally free. No $10 setup charge from now until the end of March. Sign up for the Super Membership package. You're responsible for doing your own webpages though, but you do get FTP access to your own directory on our server. Just fill out the form, go to the payment form and fill that out as well, only choose payment by Money Order.... but don't send any money. We'll then set up your membership and contact you right away.

Hi, my name is Vern Scholz, and I have been involved in racing for a while now and I currently hold a FM/FC license. I'm pondering going into a wheelstander and have a line on one, so I'm trying to find out what the interest is to book a car like this on the coast. Do you have any e-mail addresses you could send me to contact the tracks. The car is a very unique wheelstander and would be a crowd draw, and the current owner will licence me, which would be no problem (the car is a NHRA legal car). Thank you!

Federal-Mogul Funny Car racer Lyle Greenberg is hoping to duplicate his stellar 1999 performance at the Checker/ Shuck's/ Kragen Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona. The NHRA national event will be held February 15-18 and will draw a field of the west's fastest cars to compete for the event crown. At this same event in 1999, Greenberg stunned the crowd with a career best elapsed time of 5.84 seconds at a top speed of over 242 mph to qualify in the top half of the field.

Towards the latter part of 2000, Greenberg regained some of his 1999 form with a solid performance at the NHRA Division 7 event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "We put on one of the MSD 44 amp magnetos," said Greenberg. "That really picked up our performance. Of course, this year we have to contend with the new NHRA mandated supercharger restrictions that will cause us to revamp our fuel system and other parts of the engine combination. Because we haven't had the opportunity to do any winter testing, we will just have to do the best we can to find a combination that works well."

After spending much of last year on the match race trail, Greenberg intends to focus more on the NHRA National and Divisional points events. "We really don't have the budget to seriously chase any points championships," noted Greenberg. "But we will attend as many events as we can and hope to show respectable performance."

For the 2001 season, synthetic oil manufactuer AMSOIL has increased their support of the Greenberg team. The sponsorship is a cooperative venture between Albuquerque, New Mexico dealers Paul and Nancy Greenberg and the AMSOIL company. Also renewing their sponsorship for 2001 is Albuqerque, New Mexico-based SunMar Builders and Sundance Equipment Incorporated. SunMar owners Mike and Sandra Martinez noted that they "have enjoyed their multi-year relationship with the team." The President of Sundance Equipment, Paul Baron commented that "we are extremely pleased to be able to extend our partnership with the Greenberg team."

Greenberg also hopes to attract additional sponsorship at selected events. For several years he has offered an innovative "single event sponsorship" program that allows companies or individuals to support the team at specific races. The cost of the single event sponsorship is considerably lower than a full season sponsorship and allows marketing that is targeted specifically for the city that is hosting the event.

Hi, Bob. Drop me a line and let me know how you are doing.

My name is Greg Preast and I have been intrigued by the Human Fly (a.k.a. Rick Rojatt) for a while now. I remember when the comics first came out, but the kicker came when I turned around and saw an interview with him from the 1970's on ABC Wide World of Sports. I spoke with Ky Michaelson a couple of times by phone, but he has several other projects going on and was unable to tell me what ever became of Mr. Rojatt. Do you know, or know of anyone who might could tell me whatever became of Mr. Rojatt. Do you know, or know of anyone who might could put me on the right track? Many thanks in advance. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Come on Bob, we need to hear from you; winter's long enough. What's going on in Bobland? What's new, how's it going, ready for the trip??

Hi, Bob. I checked with the guy on this Hot Rod magazine ad and he sent me the attached message. They have slashed prices on it to the tune of $1929 for the ad. That means it would only cost ten of us $192 each, or we only need six folks at the previous $325 price. Two other webmasters have said they were interested -- that makes three of us. I want to get rolling on this, so please let me know what you think even if you are not interested. Of course, no hard feelings... but I want to know if I am close to making this work in time.

We would like for you to explore the possibilities that Cosgrove Graphics offer. We create graphics for the popular racing series IROC, The International Race of Champions. For over 30 years now Cos, owner and founder of Allsigns by Cos, our Nazareth, Pennsylvania headquarters, has been creating graphics for very common known names in racing. We have lettered, and created graphics for many circuits and series like the popular series DIRT, ARCA, NASCAR Modified Series, Featherlite Modified Series, various other series and drivers as well.

The Cosgrove name is very well known, but it is up to you to determine whether our work would be beneficial to your team. We offer various types of services, like in-shop services in the Tri-State area and we can also ship our decals and vinyl graphics to you with application instructions. Our website is located at Cosgrove Graphics. Thank you for your interest and we hope that we can help you in the future.

Hope you are feeling better; haven't seen any movement in a while on your site, you are probably in "thunder land". Hope all is well? Miss your site.

Evening Bob, What's new in Northern Thunder land? When are you off to Oz? What is your free time consisting of lately? Next issue is out in March for the car show. Then the end of April for the first FMDRS meet at Mission Raceway. Give me a ring.

Hi gang. I've got a proposal for you. I received this advertising offer a few days ago. The company is placing a laminated advertisement in the middle of Hot Rod magazine. The pull out ad will have URL's of websites along with titles and descriptions. As you know, Hot Rod is a hot commodity. I've been dying to get something in there for years, but the price has been way too high. The prive of five bucks per thousand sounded great. But when I went to their website, I found that Hot Rod has 643,000 subscribers! Even at $5 per thousand, that's $3215 for a place on the laminated ad. I would kill for this exposure, but I just can't afford that now and I declined. Then I got to thinking, what if I could get some of the best independent sites together and go in on this?

Here's how: I have registered the domain "edrags.com" but I've never done anything with it. Eventually, I plan to build and host customer sites there. But for now, it's not doing anything. Here's my proposal: I can't afford $3215, but I sure can afford $325 to get my website in front of 643,000 Hot Rod readers. What I propose is putting up the www.edrags.com site on that ad with a title of "the Best Drag Racing Sites on the Internet." All the edrags.com page will consist of is banner-type links to ten of our sites. That's all that will be on the front page. A title and our banners.

I intend to fill the front page with the banners, and I will make the banners as big as they can be and ALL be seen clearly on a 640 x 480 screen. I intend to rotate the position of the banners once a month, so that everyone gets a chance to be seen at the top. For the initial screen placement, I figure we can do it by chance, say by guessing the closing numbers for the US stock market at a given date or something like that. Oh yeah, in the description area of the pull out ad, I will mention the sites by name as much as possible. I think they provide 40 words.

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking. This would give us access to 643,000 Hot Rod readers in a removeable laminated sheet that can be placed by their computers. Our site names will be mentioned on the ad, and when they enter "edrags.com" our sites will all be available for clicking. Two clicks away from 643,000 readers for $325 is amazing. Beyond the Hot Rod thing, I will give edrags.com the same promotional push that I give the DRL - submission to about 450 search engines and promotion elsewhere, too. This will be an ongoing thing... I would collect the money and pay the setup... but I would need at least nine others to participate with me (AND to get me the money relatively quickly so I didn't have to float this thing and then play bill collector...)

What do you think? Fire away. Maybe some of you have the money to do this thing by yourself and already plan to be in the deal. Or maybe you don't think the Hot Rod thing will work. Or should we shoot for 20 website at $165 apiece instead? Give me some feedback and let me know. We need to get rolling because it's the June 2001 issue. That's undoubtedly going into production soon. I think this a terrific opportunity to get our sites some outstanding exposure. Talk to you soon!

I'm a fan of Bizarro... first thing I turn to in the daily paper. Last week's (February 4th) was the funniest one yet. Although there's a German name for it: schadenfreude! I have it framed. I was hoping I would see it tonight as I prowled the net. No luck. I would love to have my son see it -- he shares my sense of humour, but lives in Copenhagen.

Where can I find out more about the creator of Bizarro, Dan Piraro? His wit, perception and drawing ability is amazing. Just had to tell you. And ask about him.

Click here to read the clickable version.

Drag Racing Stories of The Day

February 5
Russell, Sarver, Johnson and Daniels Win AutoZone Winternationals at Pomona Raceway. nhra.com provides final results and point standings from the first national event of the year.

February 4
Scelzi Wins Budweiser Shootout; Kalitta and Johnson Jr. Enter Eliminations at No. 1. nhra.com reports that Gary Scelzi picks up where he left off in 2000, plus more final qualifying results.

February 3
Johnson, Kalitta, Allen Among Qualifying Leaders at AutoZone Winternationals. Friday qualifying results from Pomona by nhra.com.

February 2
Racing Season is BACK! Early qualifying from the 2001 NHRA Winternationals. nhra.com provides Thursday's qualifying from the annual drag racing kickoff.

February 1
Personal Fireproof Driver. Pat Foster checks in and tells us why he always signs off on all his stories with "Sit Low."

January 31
Mike Preslar Ready for Action in 2001. Mike and Jerami Preslar have resigned their sponsors and are ready to hit the NHRA, IHRA, and match race trail with their 2001 Corvette Funny Car.

January 30
Teen Engineering and Royal Triton Libe. Harold Bettes checks in with a funny story of young experimentation (and patient fellow crew members).

Drag Racing Pictures of The Day

February 5
Nostalgia Flames at Night. Mark Hovsepian caught this AA/Fuel Dragster with butterflies open and header flames soaring.

February 4
Hot Cross Chevy! Howard Cross's '38 Chevy Pro Mod. Photographer and webmaster extraordinaire Jim Sorenson checks in with a great burnout shot of the Northwest Pro Mod hitter.

February 3
KingFish 'Cuda at the 1967 Super Stock Nationals. Joel Naprstek provides a photo and some good historical info on the '67 Super Stock Nats.

February 2
Gate Job! Pete Gates' Comet Funny Car. Daryl Huffman joins our intrepid staff of volunteer photographers with an outstanding shot of a car he owns - the Gate Job Comet Funny Car.

February 1
Altered in the Shadows. James Morgan captured an altered on a wild, early morning pass.

January 31
When The Tomato Had Doors - Scotty Cannon's Corvette Pro Mod. Ernie Broughton checks in with a nice starting line shot of Scotty Cannon's ZR-1 Corvette.

January 30
California Stud! Dave Bowman's Rear-Engined Vega Funny Car. Bob Plumer provides a shot of one of the most unique funny cars ever.

Drag Racing Movies of The Week

February 5
Earthquake II Jet Semi-Truck. Bob and Alice Howard provided this cool footage of their jet powered semi truck blasting down an airport runway.

February 4
JP's Toy! Jim Pace's Blown Gasser. Dawn Mazi grabbed this footage of Jim Pace's blown gasser doing a burnout and a run at the 1999 California Hot Rod Reunion.

Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Joe Fuentes ran a career best elapsed time of 5.441 at 257.04 mph to defeat Brandon Bernstein's A/Fuel Dragster in round one of this weekend's NHRA AutoZone Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.

The Austin, Texas, native qualified No. 10 with a then career best 5.450 at 256.26 in the quickest field in Federal-Mogul Dragster history. Fuentes posted a stellar .432 reaction time and drove away from there to victory. The win marked only his second in competition. "It feels real good to win and run this good," said Fuentes. "I really expected the car to run this well with Ora Vasquez tuning this weekend. I'm happy that I'm getting some good seat time, and with my .432 reaction time. We're really looking forward to tomorrow."

Fuentes will run four time Winston World Champion Rick Santos in round two. Santos ran a best e.t. of 5.367 at 261.17, but slowed off his pace to a 5.472 at 256.26, giving Fuentes lane choice. Fuentes is optimistic about his chances against the World Champ. "We are just going to leave the car alone for the most part," stated Fuentes. "We're going to stick to our guns and make him beat us. I know that's easier said than done, but we're confident."

In addition to his successes on the track this weekend, the J&D Racing crew was named "Best Appearing Crew" by NHRA. The award will be presented at 10 am today. Final elminations will begin at noon for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the action from Pomona.

Federal-Mogul Dragster driver and team owner Duane Shields became the second quickest blown alcohol dragster in the world after defeating Steve Federlin with an elapsed time of 5.375 at 262.18 mph in the opening round of the NHRA AutoZone Winternationals in Pomona, California.

Shields, of Las Vegas, Nevada, qualified No. 3 with a then career best of 5.38 before improving on that time in round one. With his newfound performance, Shields feels confident of his chances for victory tomorrow. "We just think it is really awesome the way the car is running," said Shields. "We're really excited with these e.t.'s. The car has been really consistent, so we are trying to pay attention to even the smallest details on the car to make sure something little doesn't jump up and bite us."

Tomorrow, Shields will face former U.S. Nationals champion Darren Nicholson in round two. Nicholson qualified No. 6 with a 5.416 at 258.42. Shields hopes to stay consistent in the high 5.30's through Sunday's eliminations. "We certainly aren't going to take Darren lightly," commented Shields. "He is one of the best leavers in the class, and Jerry Maddern (car owner) knows how to tune that car. They ran a 5.41 in the first session, so they can really step up. We just want to stay consistent and keep running what we have been."

Sheilds' teammante Dale Carlson qualified for Federal-Mogul Dragster's quickest field in history on the bump spot with a 5.542 at 254.71 mph, but fell to No. 1 qualifier and the quickest A/Fuel Dragster in the world, David Baca. Carlson took a slight starting line advantage, but could not contend with Baca's low elapsed time 5.32 at 261.27 mph. Carlson clicked it off early to a 5.636 at 223.69.

Final eliminations will begin at noon for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the action from Pomona.

This year's Australian Nationals, the country's biggest and most prestigious drag racing event, will go ahead next month in Melbourne after intervention by the sport's governing body. The meeting attracts up to 500 teams from across the country and showcases the full range of Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) championship classes, including the awesome 480 kilometre per hour Top Fuel dragsters and world class Top Doorslammers.

Despite the continued success of the event over many years and attendances in excess of 50,000, owners of Calder Park Raceway, home to the three-day spectacular since 1992, withdrew from promotion of all events at the venue last month. After negotiations with the track management over the past two weeks, ANDRA announced today that it would be organising and promoting this year's Nationals.

"Since doubts arose over the March dates, we've been overwhelmed with inquires from competitors and spectators, some from overseas, wishing to finalise their arrangements," said ANDRA CEO Tony Thornton. "Taking on the organisation and promotion of this event is a major step for the Association. Because we have a policy of keeping administration costs to the tracks and the racers to a minimum, the challenge of funding the Nationals at such short notice is a big one. I'm pleased to say that a number of people and businesses within drag racing have already pledged financial support, and we'll be inviting others to make an investment," he said.

A management team has been assembled in Melbourne to oversee preparations, and an office will be set up there to handle inquiries and arrangements. Entry information will be circulated nationally in the next week and sponsorship and hospitality arrangements have already commenced. The 2001 Australian Drag Racing Nationals will open on Thursday, March 15th at Calder Park Raceway, 30 kilometres northwest of Melbourne. Qualifying for all categories will be held on Thursday and Friday, with racing on Saturday, March 17th.

For further information, contact ANDRA by phone at (08) 8271-5355 or by email.

Anyone home? Please answer the phone or the email.

Some time back I sent you an email thanking you for having such an excellent source site. I was doing a college project at the time. This time, I would like to thank you again for maintaining and updating your site for a more personal reason.

The suggestions and tips that you offer have proven extremely valuable in my quest to secure sponsorship for an intermediate level motocross team. I am the primary rider at present (as well as mechanic, driver, etc.) but the information you have provided has helped me to secure several "associate" sponsors (the dollar amounts are very small in motocross compared to drag racing).

The majority of these sponsors are business owners involved in the motorcycle industry, and their help consists of mostly (1) providing parts at wholesale dealer prices, (2) discounts on mechanical work that is beyond what I can do, and (3) some cash contingencies for wins at selected events. With the help of these enthusiastic businessmen, the coming year is looking like it will involve more racing than the past three years combined.

Once again, thank you for providing such an outstanding information source.