Please help. Looking for a rotary valve solution for my 95 VW Golf 2.0. Coates Engine does have a rotary valve design that has been tested on a Ford V8, but the current direction of the corporation is with industrial generators. Any suggestions or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Go to the Team Mission newsletter page and get information regarding the NHRA Division 6 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event at Mission Raceway on May 4-6.

Bob, I wanted to thank you for adding my link on your "Other Racers" page. It looks pretty cool.

Former Division 5 Federal-Mogul Dragster Champion David Wells overcame a near-disaster situation to pick up his first win of the year during this past weekend's NHRA Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event at Route 66 Raceway, just outside of Chicago.

In his first round race with Keith Stark, at about 900' into the race, an a-frame and front wheel of his Blue Bunny Ice Cream "Plain Vanilla" dragster came off. Wells wrestled the car back under control, while managing to win the round, and eventually the race.

Wells, who helps run the family ice cream business in LeMars, Iowa, qualified his Tom Conway tuned Blown Alcohol entry fourth with an elapsed time of 5.528 seconds at 256.45 mph. After taking out Stark in round one with a 5.640 at 236.13 mph, he then defeated Dave Hirata in the semifinals with a 5.873 at 237.63 mph.

In the finals, he faced off with past Division 3 Champion Shawn Bowen's A/Fuel Dragster. Wells took the jump off the line, and maintained that lead the duration of the race, winning with a 5.537 at 258.07 mph to Bowen's right-there 5.572 at 260.81 mph.

"It came out shaking pretty hard in the first round," said Wells. "I shifted it into high gear, and it started smoking the left front tire, and I was wondering what the heck was going on. Then all of a sudden the a-frame breaks and the wheel and tire comes flying off. It was getting pretty close to the finish line when it let go, so I figure I was going about 240 mph. I got it straightened out, and got it stopped without hurting anything. Jeff Wilson let us borrow some a-frames and wheels and tires, and we were able to keep on racing."

Wells' problems were not over in the first round either. A fuel system malfunction left him vulnerable against the always-tough Hirata. "In the second round, the barrel valve messed up, and put a hole out the whole way [dropped cylinder], and it only ran a 5.84," stated Wells. "Luckily, Hirata smoked the tires right off the line, and we won the round. Bowen had run a 5.52 in that round, so we made a few changes, and we ran a .53 to his .57."

With the win, Wells maintained his early Division 5 points lead. Last year's Division 5 Champion Bruce Bowler qualified No. 1, but smoked the tires in round one. Wells will take the momentum, and the points lead into next weekend's Division 5 opener at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.

"We had a couple more problems we were trying to fix this weekend," commented Wells. "Once we get all the problems out of this thing, we should be okay. Topeka is usually a little better track than Joliet is, so hopefully we can get this thing back down into the 5.40's, and maybe even a .30."

"We're just going to rely on our typical Topeka tune up," Wells continued. "We've made a lot of passes there, and it's usually a good track. We can probably use a more normal tune-up than what we had to use this weekend."

Click here to read the "clickable" version: http://www.draglist.com/notes.htm What's New at The Drag Racing List April 30, 2001 - Drag Racing Story of the Day: MIR Pro Challenge 2001 - Day Two Eliminations. I did the words and brother Tim Pratt did lots of photos. This race was a fun kickoff for the 2001 MIR Match Racing season. Drag Racing Picture of the Day: Don Garlits Wynnscharger Fuel Dragster. Bob Plumer with another amazing shot from the Drag Racing Memories collection. Drag Racing Movie of the Week: Top Fuel versus Funny Car, British Style. Sharkman grabbed this footage of a fueler racing a funny car at the Santa Pod Cannonball in April on 4/19. The DRL needs content! We are always searching for new stories of the day. If you have a drag racing memory you want to share with your fellow racers or drag fans, send it to draglist@msn.com. We are 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! Updated DRL Links. April 29, 2001 - Drag Racing Story of the Day: MIR Pro Challenge 2001 - Day One Qualifying and Notes. This one was on ME. I announced the race with old friend Lewis Bloom. Look for today's eliminations results (and some photos by Tim Pratt) in tomorrow's story of the day. Drag Racing Picture of the Day: Blown Ford Pickup with a ROVER Engine! Anni Valder presents another fine machine from Britain. Drag Racing Movie of the Week: Firestorm Jet Funny Car. The Fawcus Bros. provide cool footage of one of England's favorite jet funny cars at BIG speed. April 28, 2001 - Story of the Day and Picture of the Day delayed. Hi everyone. Denise was in a car accident this morning, so our story and picture of the day are a little late. Let's call them the story and picture of the AFTERNOON! Denise is OK, thankfully, but now we have to begin that happy little dance with the insurance companies as we try to replace our minivan! I'm off to Maryland International Raceway for the first big race of the season, the Pro Challenge. Should be lots of Pro Mods, Jet Cars, and other surprises. I'll try to have a story done for tomorrow... See ya. Bill Pratt Drag Racing Story of the Day: Nitro Dreams -- What it was Like to Drive a Fueler at Night. Don Ewald tells us about one of his most exciting passes in a top fuel dragster, or does he? Drag Racing Picture of the Day: Ricky Ruiz Still Rumbles in Fuel Altered. Mark Hovsepian caught AA/FA hero Ricky Ruiz smokin' the hides at the recent ADRA event in Fallon, Nevada. April 27, 2001 -- Drag Racing Story of the Day: How to Build a Bulletproof 7.50 Blown Alky Chevy. Brendan Murry wrote this highly informative article for nostalgiafunnycars.com. Jim Burke has kindly allowed us to reprint Brendan's generous sharing of information. Drag Racing Picture of the Day: Barrett's D/Gasser -- The Coolest Car on Earth? Greg and Candy Davis sent this photo/art of the neat Quarter Horse machine to cast their vote. April 26, 2001 -- Drag Racing Story of the Day: Badco, Ty, and the Kids Do IHRA Richmond. Bill Ott and friends took a four hour trip South to see how Bill Bader and the gang handled their first race in Richmond. Drag Racing Picture of the Day: You Don't See THESE at the Drags Every Week! How About an 11 Second Volvo Truck from Malta?. Agius Racing sent us some photos of their nitrous powered diesel semi cab from the tiny island of Malta. Unreal! April 25, 2001 -- Drag Racing Story of the Day: Fine Vintage Drag Racing in the Wine Country -- Goodguys Hosts the 13th Nitro Nationals. Goodguys supplies complete stats from their premiere race of the season. Drag Racing Picture of the Day: The Groundshakers Fuel Dragster. Tom West provides a beautiful photo of the team whose name derived just as much from the size of the owner and crew as it did from their on track performance! April 24, 2001 -- Drag Racing Story of the Day: Too Fast and Loving It -- Adam Sorokin's Adventures in CIFCA Land. Adam Sorokin fills us in on his latest race in Dave and Lynda Smith's alky funny car. Drag Racing Picture of the Day: Star Racing's Harley V-Twin Shootout Bike. Jerry Battle serves up a shot of a nearly street legal 163 mph Harley Davidson.

Now for the important news: We have some GOOD news and some BAD news... First the good news... HotRodder.com is packing 'em in. Standing room only. The number of hits to our website has increased dramatically over the last year and now we're exceeding the maximum allowable bandwidth for the type of web server we're on.

Apparently, we're using over 12 gigabytes of transfer per month and the allowable for our type of server is 10 gigs. According to our last week's web traffic stats, we got over 110,000 hits from April 22-28. That's averaging over 400,000 per month. Woooohoooo!

The price we pay for our popularity means we have to move all the files here at HotRodder.com to a more high-performance server that will be able to handle the number of hits we're getting.

What does this mean for you? Well, some features like our message board, classified ads and guestbook that use a cgi script to post messages to web pages might be down or acting goofy for a day or two while we move files and reset some programming configurations. To help you understand further what this means, we'll spell this out as simply as possible.

HotRodder.com's website is assigned a unique internet address (kind of like your own street address) called an IP (internet protocol) number, which basically means that when you type http://www.hotrodder.com into the address bar of your browser, your browser checks a DNS database to find hotrodder.com and it's corresponding IP number and then actually searches for that number to connect to the right address and display the website. Right now, that number is pointing to our website on the old server.

We ahve our new account space with it's own unique number set up on the new server right now too, but the internet can't find it yet. Once we get all the files copied to the new server, we'll notify our server company which goes to the DNS database to change that IP number to our new number so browsers will now go to our new server to find our files.

This process might take a couple of days while the new number replicates throughout the net. We will be moving files later this afternoon and evening. Please don't use features like any forms that you fill out to submit information to a webpage like the tech forum, classified ads, or survey until we notify you that the move has taken place.

It is our mission to provide our HotRodder.com members and visitors the best possible service and features. This move will make room for some serious growth to our website in the future. This larger bandwidth will allow our ever-increasing number of visitors better and faster access to our pages. We've also upgraded our amount of space on the server to 500 megabytes, in order to provide more space for more new members.

Thanks so much for your patience and patronage. You make HotRodder.com rock!

It looked as if Federal-Mogul Funny Car racer Marc White had everything going his way at this weekend's NHRA Division 3 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series opener at Route 66 Raceway, just outside of Chicago. He had qualified the Etterman Racing 2001 Firebird No. 1 with an elapsed time of 5.688 seconds at 250.69 mph at his hometown track, and looked to be the favorite to win on Sunday. However, changing weather and track conditions threw the team off, as their hopes for victory ended in the semifinals when eventual winner Kirk Williams narrowly edged White out for the round win.

White, from just down the road in Glendale Heights, Illinois, took out John Reikas in the first round with a 5.871 at 240.94 before squaring off with Williams in the semifinals. Right off the line, White launched into heavy tireshake. The tireshake was so severe that he was forced to get on and off the throttle to recover the run. That was the break Williams needed to pull off the upset, running a 5.880 at 248.66 to White's 5.908 at 244.12.

"We went out in the first round and shook the tires," said White. "Then we went out in the second round and shook the tires again, I had to pedal it, the other guy went out and made a better run than us, and that was all it took."

Defending Division 3 Champion and No. 2 qualifier Chuck Cheeseman also lost in the semifinals, leaving him in the points lead going into the next stop on the Division 3 series at the famed Indianapolis Raceway Park, May 18-20. White hopes to have the tireshake problem fixed for that race.

"We're just starting to go over all the data, and see if we can figure out what the problem was, and where the mistake was made," stated White. "I just think we missed the tune-up. The air changed today, and the air and track temperature went up, and I just think we missed for those conditions. The window is pretty narrow in one of these things, so if you miss it, it does what it did, and shakes."

"We're just going to go back and take a look at everything we have," White continued. "Put everything back together, and see if we can do a little better."

Stay tuned to Etterman Racing's website EttermanRacing.com for more updates from the team. EttermanRacing.com is a part of the RacerPage.com Network.

I've tried to get in to all your parts and stuff for sale area and have had no luck. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

G'Day Bob. Well, it's been a long time coming, but the latest update to Racer Phill's Drag Racing Oz Style is finally online. The reason the April update is so late is that my computer crashed a few weeks ago (a couple of hours before I was going to upload the updates) and I lost everything! Stupid me had not burned a backup, so I had to start again from scratch.

Anyway, there's 24 new photos (plus all the old photos in the archive), and a few other changes for you to check out. I hope you enjoy it. Unfortunately, I haven't got a new racer profile for this month, so I've answered all the requests for info about myself, by doing a profile on myself. Hey, it's my site, I can do what I want. LOL!

On the subject of racer profiles, I am working on a special surprise for you all in the enxt update, so stay tuned. Thank you to everyone who has supported my new site, especially those of you who have been kind enough to sign my guestbook, or email me. I really appreciate the encouragement.

One last thing, a big thank you to Steve "Supa-Rev" Wockner for letting me help out on his pit crew at the TinTop Titles, and to Graham "Zooman" Slapp, the Ratzilla handler, for his hospitality in the pits when I went to see his awesome car run.

Enough of my ramblings. Hope you are well and enjoy the site. C'Ya.

After returning home from a disappointing second round loss at last weekend's Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, Federal-Mogul Funny Car driver Marc White hopes to turn things around for the better at this weekend's NHRA Division 3 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series opener at Route 66 Raceway, just outside of Chicago. White was the '98 Division 3 Champion, and hopes to regain the crown this year.

White, from just down the road in Glendale Heights, Illinois, has been one of the hottest drivers this year. White has wheeled the Etterman Racing 2001 Firebird to a best of 5.67 earlier in the year, one of only four FM/FC's to do so this year. White hopes use his performance advantage to pick up the win this weekend.

"The gameplan is the same as always," said White. "We're just going to go out and run the car as hard as we can, and try to qualify well. We've been in contention to win just about every race we've been at this year, but we just haven't been able to pull off a victory yet. It's time we get the ship righted, and start going rounds."

With Route 66's reputation for being one of the best racetracks in the country, White feels that more 5.60's will be in store for this weekend. "Looking at the forecast, and if it stays the way it looks, I definitely think we should be able to get back into the 5.60's," stated White. "Joliet is one of the best racetracks in the country. It's always well prepared, and we have a pretty good amount of data from this racetrack too. I think we'll be in pretty good shape this weekend."

Qualifying begins at 4 p.m. on Friday, with two more qualifying sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to Etterman Racing's new website, EttermanRacing.com, for day by day updates of the action from Route 66.

Federal-Mogul Dragster driver David Wells will be looking to get a 'jump start' on this year's NHRA Division 5 season at this weekend's Division 3 opener at Route 66 Raceway just outside of Chicago. Wells hopes not only to get a run on points, but to carry some momentum into next weekend's Division 5 opener in Topeka, Kansas, in his Blue Bunny Ice Cream "Plain Vanilla" Blown Alcohol Dragster.

Wells, who helps run the family ice cream business in LeMars, Iowa, became the second B/AD to run in the 5.30's during his win at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals last year in Dallas. Wells and team have not been able to find that performance again at their first two outings of the year, but hope to get back into the 5.30's again this weekend.

"We've been working on the clutch problems we've had," said Wells. "We found some things while putting the clutch on the grinder, and hopefully that will help our problems. Hopefully that will turn the car around, and make it start to run again."

Route 66 Raceway is regarded as one of the best racetracks in the country, if not the best in some circles. Wells hopes to take a combination of a good track, a good weather forecast, and Tom Conway tuning to the winner's circle on Sunday. "We should be able to get right down there around a .38 or .39, if the weather is decent," commented Wells. "We may be able to go even a little quicker."

Qualifying begins at 4 p.m. on Friday, with two more qualifying sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the action from Joliet.

Sorry, but I just could not resist using that famous quote from the original Dennis the Menace TV show. (And I'm old enough to remember watching that show on a glorious black and white TV!)

My name is Dino, and I direct a group called Aero Events. I hope that you can find the time to consider our queries and maybe point us in the right direction. Further, If you feel that our answers may be best found elsewhere, please feel free to forward this message as necessary.

Simply put, our game is flying hang gliders upside down. Yes, this sort of thing has been going on for over 20 years, and we are working to bring it to the public's attention. Hopefully, our site, Aero Events will explain our activities a little better.

We are into our sixth year of producing the "Masters of Freestyle Hang Gliding Contest". This year we will hold the contest at the 36th annual San Diego Bayfair event on Sept. 14 -16. The event is also a host to the World Series of Power Boat Racing and is attended by over 200,000 people.

Certainly you have seen those "almost out of control" Drag Boats; they race at Bayfair along with ten other classes of boats. We have also performed freestyle flying exhibitions at several other events.

Our goals are to secure sponsorship for the Masters Contest and our exhibition flying. We are also working to expand our activities to include more appearances at other events. In your opinion, what steps do you suggest we take to achieve our goals? Should we contact an agency? All suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Take a look at our Ego Cars website and let us know what you think.

Aloha! I got so carried away with the "Lions" nostalgia yesterday that I forgot why I was here. (sorry about the darn spellcheck errors: doris/doors, pomona/pompano, etc.).

I wanted to ask you if you could list our proposed Kona Motorsport Park track. Since you have one that's gone (Lions), I figured maybe you could list one that's coming. I'd like to list your site on our "Friends" page next time we update, too. If that's cool. You've got a killer site!

Folks can even buy a pretty rare Hawaii Racing Association t-shirt on our website to help the cause. You probably won't run across THAT one at your local track or cruise night. Many thanx.

Quick-times.com is our new web address. Please check it out and send me some feedback. We will be updating this site two or three times per week. Initial offerings are the latest news, What's New, Classified link to e-groups, pictures, rumours, more links and more coming soon.

Check it out, and if possible, please add our link to your site. We have added yours as we like it a lot. Get back to me with a little critique if you would. Thanks Bob, for your help.

Sorry, but I had to pass this on. A friend of mine wrote it and I thought you might get a chuckle out of it.

I'm coming into a good deal of money in the very near future, oh about somewhere in the range of (confidential). My 13-year-old son and I work all during the race season in Division 6 for our good friend Kerry Moreira from Richfield, Idaho on his Federal-Mogul Funny Car.

We have searched far and wide for a Funny Car here in the U.S. and have not been able to find one, complete or rolling. If you could find one for us it would be helpful. Please send picture and price.

Our friend Kerry has an alcohol altered with everything but motor that he will sell us for $8000 and he says that an alcohol funny car body will fit on the frame. Would it be cheaper to buy this and buy a body and motor for it? We would like a 1999 or 2000 Dodge Avenger body, and a complete KB 536 cid motor which is what we are used to working on and setting up for competing.

Also, my son wanted me to ask about a Junior Dragster in the range of $4000 to $5000 here in Idaho. We would very much appreciate your help and input in these matters as soon as possible.

Aloha. I'm a rookie at this website biz, but found your site (very GOOD!) through Google and thought you may be interested in our track project here on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The web address is Hawaii Racing Association. Don't know if this is how we can get listed. Hope so!

Federal-Mogul Funny Car racer Marc White lost a tough round two matchup with Jay Payne during this past weekend's Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. Payne went on to win the event.

White, from Glendale Heights, Illinois, qualified the Etterman Racing 2001 Firebird No. 2 during the first running of the event in March with an elapsed time of 5.755 seconds at 251.72 mph. In round one, he defeated Mike Preslar with a 5.744 at 252.47 mph before the event was rained out. His second round matchup with Payne was the one of the closest of the day. Payne grabbed a slight holeshot off the line and held off White's quicker 5.755 at 249.49 mph with his own 5.768 at 245.00 mph.

"We hurt a motor on our test lap Friday," said White. "So, we had to back up just a little bit. We actually ran what we hoped to run, a mid 5.70. Unfortunately, Jay was a little bit quicker on the tree than I was, and we got beat. Jay made a good lap, and had a better reaction time, and that was all it took."

From Gainesville, the Etterman Racing Team will move to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, for the Division 3 opener. White won the '98 Division 3 Championship, and hopes to regain that crown this year.

"Obviously we are disappointed," stated White. "The car is running well enough to win races, and we just seem to find new ways to lose them. We'll keep our heads up and keep going forward. That's the only thing I know how to do, just keep trying. We're going to keep working at it, and sooner or later, good things will come."

Stay tuned to the Etterman team's new website for more news and information on the team.

Bob, you have gone very quiet.... should I worry?

The sport of drag racing can have it's highs and lows, and Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Shelly Howard experienced that lesson at this past weekend's NHRA Division 4 FMDRS event in Hallsville, Texas. Howard came into the event hot off a win in Memphis, and with the Division 4 points lead, but lost in the first round in Hallsville when she exploded the engine's burst panels during the burnout.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma racer qualified her Tom Conway tuned blown alcohol dragster No. 2 with an elapsed time of 5.600 seconds at 252.19 mph, just .001 of a second off the No. 1 spot. Her first round opponent, and eventual runner-up Karl Brounkowski ran a 6.27 at 204 on his single. Brounkowski also received a single run in the semi's when his opponent could not make the call.

"At Hallsville, you have to go downhill from the staging lanes to the burnout box," said Howard. "We think while we were sitting on that incline, waiting for Karl to start his A/Fuel car, it made an air pocket in the fuel system, which in turn caused an extreme lean fuel condition when I hit the throttle for the burnout. It exploded the burst panels and we were through."

Even with the first round loss, Howard maintained her points lead when Troy Buff, who is No. 2 in Division 4 points, lost to the 2000 champion Jay Meyer in the semifinals. Meyer went on to win the event, and Howard's points lead was reduced from 31 points to 20 following this event.

"We just have to put it behind us," commented Howard. "It is really disappointing any time you lose like that, especially since we would have had a bye to the final if we won. We still have the points lead, and if we can do well at two out of division races to make up for our two first round losses, we should be okay. With the points this close, it is definitely going to be close."

The next event for the Howard Racing Team will be the Division 5 opener at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas. Stay tuned to Howard's website for more news from the team.

Go to the Team Mission home page for the latest update on the newsletter page. There's some important news for those who plan on testing this coming weekend.

We have just published our main report from the Easter Thunderball race meeting at Santa Pod. You can still see the event photos and don't forget to join in the discussion on the fans forum. Thanks for your support.

I was wondering if you might be interested in adding a link to my Go Cindy website to your links page. I'm currently running the NMRA and Fun Ford circuits. I thank you.

Click here to read the "clickable" version.

DRL on Vacation: We shut down the DRL offices for seven days in April while we enjoyed a great vacation back home in Ohio. We pre-loaded our Stories of the Day, Pictures of the Day, and Movies of the Week from April 13 through April 21. Hope you enjoyed them. We are back now and everything will happen on a same-day basis.

It's our 5th Anniversary: The Drag Racing List went on the internet on April 10, 1996. From a simple one page advertisement for our printed booklet and videos, to our current 1100+ pages, it's been a fantastic ride and we look forward to more fun in the future. Thanks to everyone who helps to put the DRL together and thanks to all our readers for giving us the incentive to keep it up. You are all terrific. It's my privilege to know my fellow contributors and to produce the DRL for my fellow drag racing fans. We'll be here as long as you keep reading... See ya at the drags.

Drag Racing Stories of The Day:

April 23
NHRA Gainesville Final Results. The NHRA.com team puts together the final stats from the return to the Gatornationals.

April 22
Hot to Get Kids Interested in the Drags... Why Not Ask Them? Tom Morris has some common sense ideas about how to get kids interested in drag racing again.

April 21
The Strippers Car Club - Pete Garramone tells about the Denver car club that spawned a lot of mile high fuel stars.

April 20
Fearless Fred Forkner - Bill "Badco" Ott remembers the tough Eastern racer who sent home a lot of the touring stars.

April 19
Lyle's Wild Weekend in Vegas - Lyle Greenberg takes us behind the scenes on his successful trip to the NHRA race in Las Vegas.

April 18
The Bortherhood of Street Racers - Dan Roulston talks about Big Willie Robinson's crew and how the oldest "brother" went racing at Lions.

April 17
The Eastern Raider Top Fuelers - Al Hanna brings us up to speed on his Top Fuel entries and many of his rare funny car rides.

April 16
ADRA Forced to Move Second Event of 2001 Season to Cordova. Don Ewald explains that nostalgia racing's southern swing will have to hold off until adequate insurance can be found.

April 15
NHRA Unveils Owners Cup Program. NHRA.com discusses an idea that seems long overdue, but will it mean more driver shuffling?

April 14
Pro Nitro Series Ramping up for 2001. Jerry Hutchcroft spills the latest facts about his nostalgia drag racing series and its upcoming dates.

April 13
The Greek Gets a "Four". Ron Johnson takes us behind the scenes on Chris Karamesines' first four second run and how Don Garlits may be setting his sights on the same mark.

April 12
The War Horse is Ready for 2001. Bruce Mullins once again will carry draglist.com on the sides of the War Horse funny car. He fills us in on his plans for 2001.

April 11
Bernstein, Johnson, Coughlin, and Panella Strike it Rich at the Strip. NHRA.com provides full results from the Strip at Vegas.

April 10
What's Happened to the World of Wheels? Bill Schmitt wonders why there's a drop in participation on all fronts at the annual rod and custom car show.

Drag Racing Pictures of The Day:

April 23
Blown Chevys at San Gabe. Steve Gibbs shows off more great shots from the legendary California strip.

April 22
Super Gas Sunset - Dave Townsend's Mustang. Sharkman checks in with another beautiful shot from jolly old England.

April 21
Andrew Cowin's Top Fuel Dragster. Ron Dilley grabbed a great shot of the Aussie youngster putting out big heat waves (but is Ron putting out heat waves himself with his description of the run?)

April 20
Howard Anderson's '38 Chevy... Gasser? Robert Briggs caught Anderson's beautiful gasser in the pits at the March Meet, looking for all the world like a Funny Car.

April 19
Ex-Chi Town Hustler Goes BOOM! Rob Potter was in the right place for a shot when a bracket racer abused the clutch in the ex-Chi Town Hustler Charger.

April 18
Blown Dodge Dart Outlaw Street. Gonzo, AKA "He Who Watches Racing All Year", sent this photo of a cool supercharged street legal Mopar.

April 17
Scott Palmer Sets the Record at Ozark. Monte "Montrose" Rathburn was on hand when Scott Palmer set Missouri on fire with his alcohol funny car.

April 16
The Snowman Hasn't Melted Yet - Gene Snow's A/Fuel Dragster. Chris Graves grabbed this terrific shot of Gene's injected fuel dragster grabbing big traction.

April 15
Proud Papa - and his Magicar Nostalgia Fueler. Jim Hill was on hand at Bakersfield and caught a beaming Bill Pits with his Astro Magic Car digger resto.

April 14
Snake versus Mongoose - The Early Days. Fred Vosk shows a match race poster that proves the Snake and the Mongoose rivalry goes back before the Mattel days.

April 13
Jim Read's Top Fuel Dragster: Day and Night. John Baremans sent these great launch shots of Jim Read's Australian Top Fuel Dragster, one during the day and one at night.

April 12
The Story of the White's Lightning BB/FC. Flyin' Phil Elliott provides some photos and words about Wendell White's alcohol funny car.

April 11
Roadsters in Great Bend, Kansas, 1955. Pete Garramone took these fantastic shots of homebuilt drag cars in 1955.

April 10
The Michigan Madman's V8 Bike in 1965. Paul Hutchins has tons of great drag racing photos on his website. Here's EJ Potter's V8 powered motorcycle from the AHRA Winternationals in 1965.

Drag Racing Movies of the Week:

April 23
Fire Force Jet Funny Car. The Fawcus Brothers provide cool footage of England's favorite jet funny car at big speed.

April 16
The World's Quickest Small Block Doorslammer. Paul Rogers captured Grant O'Rourke's Holden Torana on a 7.0 second, 201 mph pass.

April 9
Jim Read Burns Something Up. Paul Rogers sent this clip of Aussie Top Fuel hero Jim Read on an expensive pass.

ATTENTION: We are in the process of revamping our photo gallery. It will include pictures of other racing teams as well as ours. We would like to invite you to send us your pictures with a good description of what and who is in the pic and who the photographer is (we want to give proper credit). So, if you race, juniors, sportsman, funny cars, karts, motorcycles, anything. Please send your pictures.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Sites of the Week:

Latest News from "660 Online"

What's New in "Links, Rings and Things"

Keep those letters coming. See ya at the track!

Tried to get in to the site, but had no luck. I have a Funny Car chassis I would like to sell or part trade for a Junior Dragster. I'm in Washington State. PS: Nice website.

After ten years of trying, Mike Janis has made his dreams come true. The 44-year old engine builder from Lancaster, New York, made history by winning Pro Mod at the inaugural IHRA AC-Delco Nationals.

"I can't explain what this feels like. It's a dream come true. It's taken me over ten years of Pro Mod racing to become an overnight sensation. I have so many people to thank: my wife Michelle, my kids Sean and Mike Jr., my Mom and Dad. There are so many others, all my brothers and the rest of the guys at the shop. All the people who have helped me over the years. The people at Weber's, Pautler Oil, Pennzoil and Nology.

"I need to say a special thanks to my crew. My crew chief Jerry Highway, and his wife Donna, my brother Joe, our team consultant and taskmaster Tom Anderson, John Barsh, and especially my son Mike, who's with me day and night at the shop, doing whatever needs to be done. I guess this will sink in later but right now it feels great. I proved myself and my team belong here. I hope this is just one of many," said the AC-Delco Nationals Pro Mod Champion.

Janis set the pace for the field Friday night when he laid down a personal best 6.205 - 227.54 pass. That pass was good enough to secure the number one position. In round one Janis faced the 16th qualifier Roy Wasko. Wasko's 6.334 - 218.48 pass secured him the 16th spot in the quickest Pro Mod field in history. Janis took the first round win with a 6.348 at 225.18 to Wasko's losing 9.531 at 92.21.

For the second round Janis gave up lane choice to nitrous stand out Quain Stott. Stott, in his '63 Corvette, defeated Ed Hoover in round one with a 6.310 - 220.07 pass. Janis took the reaction time advantage, cutting a .463 light to Stott's .475. That was all Janis needed as his Jan-Cen powered machine took the win with a 6.34 - 225.41 to Stott's slower 12.180 - 67.84.

As if one Stott wasn't enough, Mitch Stott, Quain's brother defeated Todd Patterson in round two, earning the right to face Janis and his Weber's Mustard Machine in the semi finals. Mitch left first, and then Janis got sideways out of the groove. It appeared to be over for Janis, but Stott was no match for the Jan-Cen/TAE (Tom Anderson Enterprises) combination. Janis motored to the win with a 6.364 - 224.10 pass to Stott's losing 6.688 - 217.11.

In the final, Janis faced Veteran Ronnie Hood. Hood defeated Paul Athey with a 6.419 - 221.67 in the semi's to earn the final round berth. Hood drilled the tree with a .411 RT making Janis' .492 light look lazy, but once again Janis' Weber's Mustard/Jan-Cen backed machine outpowered the opponent. Janis ran a 6.348 - 222.62 to Hoods slowing 9.494 - 87.79.

The combination of wining the event and being the number one qualifier was good enough for Janis to take the points lead. Alan Pittman held the lead after winning the season opener, but lost in the second round here at the AC-Delco Nationals.

" I know when I get back to the shop, the phone will be ringing. I guess this win proves that Jan-Cen Makes horsepower, huh? If anyone is looking for some horsepower, give us a call. All of our supercharged engines are available with TAE fuel systems. Tom and I would be more than happy to set you up," said an elated Janis.

For more team news visit the Mike Janis Racing website. This site will be updated regularly during all race weekends. And for other IHRA news visit their website.

As a lot of you might already be aware, we have been racing for quite some time at Warwick. Working out the kinks as we go and learning the ropes and procedures at every meet held. We've had a lot of feedback from racers, which has been 95% good. The biggest complaint to date was the rocks in the braking area due to not being able to afford to hotmix it straight up. This has been fixed and we now have a complete hotmix strip from the burnout area through to the end of the braking area. PLUS a full hotmix return road.

There are also plans to make a parking area at the loop (at the end of the braking area) to allow you to stop your car or bike off the track to make it safer when waiting for a tow.

The burnout pad is in place and will soon be fenced, which will add another feature to our venue. It's likely to commence at our next meeting on May 19th.

The feature list to date has quite a lot of caliber about it with the likes of the Bailey Brothers Nitro Funny Car, Graham Slapp's "Ratzilla" burnout car, Joe Edmonds Top Fuel Bike, Ron "MAD" Laycock on his V8 Bikes, the Downs Mini Club, Hotrod Clubs, The Original Wild Bunch, just to name a few. All of which have gone away with praise for our efforts and great comments about our facility.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite all of you to our track in May to either watch or partake in the racing, even if you have been to our track already. It has been said that we have the start of an A-Class 1/8th mile facility and the club members agree and plan to take the track to that stage.

Looking forward to seeing some of you soon. In the meantime, check out our Warwick Dragway website.

Hentges was out of the gate first and never looked back, as Hirata dropped a cylinder and blew out a head gasket. Hentges with his first national event win, but his fourth national event final this year. Second win is as many weeks as he won the divisional event last week in Boise and then towed 3000 miles back here.

Great Site!!! Would like to link ours and yours. Our address is Walsh Motorsports.

I need some help. My boss and good friend is building a Pro Mod car. It will have a KB engine with a high helix blower. Other than that, I'm not sure of the specs. Now I find out that he doesn't have anyone that knows anything about tuning this critter. Is there anywhere I can beg, borrow, or steal some tips? We have lots of engine building experience, but not on anything like this. Any help would be appreciated.

PS: I'm not asking for any "secrets". Just some do's and dont's that everyone but us know that will keep us out of trouble.

Lancaster, New York native Mike Janis staked claim to the number one qualifying position at this weekend's IHRA AC-Delco Nationals. Friday night's 6.205 at 227.54 vaulted Janis to the number one spot.

The weather got a little warmer and more humid on Saturday, causing the cars to slow a bit. During the third session, in the heat of the day, Janis ran a 6.276 - 226.58. This run was not good enough to improve on his 6.205 run, but did help the team to gather some data.

For the "Night of Fire" (the final qualifying session), Janis sat back watching the field to see if anyone posed a threat to his number one spot. Australian Troy Critchley came close with a 6.218 - 206.10, but Janis, holding the number one spot going into the final session, ran last. "Having the luxury to go last let us save some parts. We knew that when we went to the line that we were number one. There was no sense in us hurting parts, so we made a soft pass," said crew chief Jerry Highway.

"I am real happy with our performance. This is my first IHRA pole. I owe a lot of people for this. I hope they know how much their help means. I can't thank our team consultant, Tom Anderson, enough. He has helped us a great deal. My sponsors have been great: Nology, Jan-Cen, Weber's, Pautler and anyone I'm forgetting, sorry. Oh yeah, and by the way, if anyone out there is interested in sponsoring our team, contact us through our website, we could use the help," said team owner/driver Mike Janis.

Eliminations are scheduled for Sunday, starting at approximately 1:00 PM (EST). At that time, Janis will face the 16th qualifier, Roy Wasko. Wasko's 6.334 - 218.48 pass secured him the 16th spot in the quickest Pro Mod field in history. Janis holds more than a tenth of a second advantage over Wasko but is not looking lightly at his first round opponent. "This is racing, anything can happen. If you try and look past an opponent, they will beat you. I'll never underestimate any racer out there," said Janis.

For more team news, visit Mike Janis Racing. This website will be updated regularly during all race weekends.

Can you please add my link to your site? It is PsychoMagnet. It is under heavy construction at this time. We will be sponsoring a Harley drag bike and a Funny Car in the very near future. Thanks.

Here's the link to Australia's Quickest Top Doorslammer: Stude Racing.

Sorry to bother you, but do you know the phone number for SAE Enterprises in California?

The timing data and points standings from the 1st round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship are now posted on the ETMRA website. My apologies for not posting them real-time as I did last year. I've changed jobs and I haven't yet got my new laptop. Regards.

Enjoy.

After three qualifying runs, Mike Janis continues to hold the number one position. Friday night's 6.205 at 227.54 still holds the top spot after the third session.

The weather got a little warmer for the third attempt Saturday afternoon. This caused the cars to slow a little. Janis ran a 6.276 - 226.58 in the heat of the day. This run was not good enough to improve on his 6.205 run, but did help the team to gather some data.

Friday night was a little unnerving for the engine builder from Lancaster, new York, after speculation that the team was to be disqualified for using an automatic shifting transmission, as the team demonstrated crew chief Jerry Highway's new shift light mechanism. This new device allows Mike two shift points per gear, but Mike still has to shift manually. After that was cleared up, the team was then directed by IHRA officials to tear down the rearend of the car. The team passed the inspection with flying colors.

"I didn't sleep much last night. After the drive here, getting set up to race and then the tech teardown, I was beat. But when you're number one qualifier at an event of this level, you're so wired it's hard to sleep. I just hope we can do well on Sunday. My team and sponsors, and everyone that helps me deserves it," said Janis.

The fourth and final session will be held during the "Night of Fire" after 7 pm, with eliminations to be held on Sunday.

Hi! We have a link on your page and we wonder if you want to update it? The link is Magnus Larsson, Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car and the new web address is TM-Funnycar. Best regards.

Mike Janis continues to set personal records for himself. Running a 6.259 - 225.00 at the inaugural IHRA AC-DeIco Nationals in Dinwiddie, Virginia was a personal best for Mike Janis. The 6.259 elapsed time tied him with Paul Athey for the number one qualifying position, but Janis staked sole claim to the spot by virtue of his faster speed. (Athey's numbers were 6.259 - 220.91). After one session, the Weber's Mustard/Jan-Cen team sit on top of the 41 car field. The current bump at the 16th position is Tommy Mauney with a 6.469 - 216.31.

Mike Janis and his Weber's Mustard/Jan-Cen team will return for the second session of qualifying tonight (Friday, April 20) after 6 pm EST. The third session will be held Saturday about 2 pm, with the final session scheduled during the "Night of Fire" after 7 pm. Eliminations will be held on Sunday.

For more team news, visit Jan-Cen Racing. This site will be updated regularly during all race weekends.

Truck is serviced
Truck is full of fuel
Trailer is serviced
Trailer is organized
Car has a final checkout and is loaded in the trailer
Bag is packed
We leave at 5:00 am for Mackay

PS: How is the stuff coming? Bellhousing cover, hoses and the other stuff.

Following on from my good buddy Sharkman's update a couple of hours back, just a quick note to let you know that my Easter Thunderball pictures are now availalbe on Tog's Drag Racing page. Enjoy!

This weekend, Federal-Mogul Dragster pilot Shelly Howard will enter drag racing's equivalent of baseball's "seventh inning stretch" at the NHRA Division 4 FMDRS race five in Hallsville, Texas. Coming into this weekend's event, Howard holds a 31 point lead over division rival Troy Buff, and is second in national standings.

Howard, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, feels that her main focus this weekend is just to win the event, rather than worrying about the points chase. She believes concentrating on the points too much will take her focus away from the race at hand.

"We really just want to go out there and win the race," said Howard. "I really don't want to dwell too much on the points situation. I want to do the best that I can without adding too much pressure from the points situation. If we win the race, the points will take care of themself. We just want to get the car to run consistent, and for me to do the job driving," added Howard. "That's really all that we can do. We can't control what anybody else does."

Howard qualified No. 2 at this event last year with an elapsed time of 5.71 seconds. With Hallsville being one of the more marginal tracks on the tour, Howard feels conditions will be the key to whether they will be able to improve this year.

"There is no telling how we are going to run this weekend," stated Howard. "You change so much from year to year, and you have to change some for Hallsville, too, so it is difficult to predict what kind of times we can run there. We'll just have to see what the track can hold after cars start running."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters with two more sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will follow on Sunday. Stay tuned to the Howard team's website, for day by day updates of the team's progress from Hallsville.

Picked up the new convertor from Geoff's yesterday and put it in last night. Today we checked out the car and loaded it up for a trip to Willowbank for testing.

Just returned from the Wednesday night test-n-tune and made three passes. We did spin the tires on the second pass in the left lane but there was little track prep tonight and the waffle in the left lane at approximately the 50 foot mark caught me. I followed up with a pass in the right lane with just normal (tyre) slip problems. We ran 8.63 and 8.59 and I could feel the car slipping and grabbing, but still got down the track.

I'm back at the shop now; we have the car unloaded and want to tidy some things up and get ready for the trip to Mackay on Friday morning (early!). How do you like the picture of the convertor? Isn't that a hoot !?!

Just dropping a line to let you know we have a major web update at Awesome Burnouts. We have two new members pages up and running, including the Montana Dodge of Jamie and Lori Kemp, and the Joey's Place Racing, 1969 Corvette of Joey Steckler.

The IBAA (International Blown Alcohol Association) is gearing up for an exciting season of side by side funny car action, and has at least 14 bookings for the upcoming 2001 race season. Our group of 7.50 funny cars, with the inclusion of Joey's new car, is taking on a decidely nostalgic flavor, with six of our cars older than 1970. The remainder of our 14+ cars, are favorite body styles of the 70's and 80's.

Drop by our site and check us out!

Not too many drag racers can say that their first ride in a race car was an alcohol Funny Car. Of those few, even less can say that they went to the semifinals at their first national event. Rookie Federal-Mogul Funny Car pilot Steve Burck is one of those few, and hopes to make another impact in only his third race during this weekend's NHRA Division 4 FMDRS event in Hallsville, Texas.

Burck, a 50-year old business owner from Corpus Christi, Texas, first got into drag racing in the early '70's, working on Bill Rogers' "Traveling Texan" Nitro Funny Car. Now, over 25 years since he quit going racing, Burck is back into the funny car scene, this time Federal-Mogul style.

Out of sheer determination, and will to race, Burck loaded up and went to his first race in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, back in March, with no crew, and one run shy of his license. With the help of Warren Dauzat, Todd Simpson, and a few other racers, he finished his license on the Thursday before the event, but still had no crew.

That's when Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Lee Callaway sent his friend and former driver/tuner A.J. Seruntine Burck's way. Seruntine and his former crew, from Louisiana, had just come out to spectate and see old friends. Seruntine quickly found himself in the crew chief spot. They went out in the first round of that race, but the next race would be another story.

At their next event, the O'Reilly Nationals in Houston, Burck used a combination of luck and consistency to nearly pull off the win in only his second race. In round one, his opponent Richard Shave, the No. 2 qualifier, hit a finish line cone, giving Burck the win.

Due to the low car count, that gave Burck a bye into the semifinals. In that round, he had to run Division 4 heavy hitter Todd Simpson. Burck had Simpson beat to the 1000 foot mark when his burst panel exploded (a pressure relief device to prevent explosions), and Simpson just squeaked by to win.

To add insult to injury, Simpson's final round opponent, Kebin Kinsley, had to borrow Burck's transmission (Burck was the only car with a comparable ratio) to make the run. So, in essence, had Burck beat Simpson, he would have had a single run to his first national event win.

With that behind him, Burck heads into this weekend's race in Hallsville hungry for victory. He hopes that the marginal surface at Hallsville will level the playing field for his Profax Welding Tools sponsored '98 Avenger, which has a roots supercharged, older style Brad Anderson combination. He also hopes that the third time is the charm.

"We obviously hope to go out and qualify," said Burck. "From what we've heard about the track, we're not going to try to go out there and kill the world. Even though we enjoyed a reasonable amount of success in Houston, we still feel like we are working our way up the ladder. We're just going to try to go up there and run with them, and do the best we can."

Burck also feels with two races under his belt, he is more comfortable in the car, and may be able to improve his driving and performance this weekend. "Looking back, my philosophy has always been baby steps, and one step at a time," stated Burck. "That's the way we've approached this whole program. We've had a lot of good input from some of the people that have been around the sport for a while, which I value greatly. I feel very confident in the car, simply because of the way we have taken it slowly. I've made over 40 runs in the car just testing at a track back home. So now, with more experience under my belt, it helps to encourage us."

"I've never been to Hallsville," Burck continued. "From what I've heard about the track, I think that 5.90's to low 6.0's will get the job done. With what we learned in Houston, I don't think those are unattainable numbers for us. I think the car has it in it. We're at a slight disadvantage with the roots blower, but I think at this race, the track will be the equalizer."

The Federal-Mogul Funny Cars will have one qualifying run on Friday, with two more on Saturday. Final eliminations will be run on Sunday. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the action from Hallsville.

Wow, your car is only 2010, with a steel can? Is that with you and all of your "stuff"? How much lighter do you think the B-1 motor is compared to a hemi? If we took all of the weight off of Mark's (Hentges) car, we would probably be right around the 2010 to 2015 area with a titanium can and carbon fiber brakes, etc.

We have some weight on the front end to help keep it down, and have about 10 - 15 pounds at the rear because we were very, and I mean very, close to the 2020 minimum at Pomona. You never know with the scales, they are not exactly a precision piece of equipment, and I don't need to have a run thrown out due to being too light.

Just a few weeks ago at the o'Reilly Nationals in Houston, Federal-Mogul Funny Car racer Marc White looked unstoppable. He was No. 1 qualifer with an elapsed time of 5.67 seconds at over 253 mph, and appeared to have the race won when he hit a finish line cone in round two, disqualifying him. This weekend, at the resumption of the rain delayed Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, White hopes to beat the competition rather than beat himself.

White, from Glendale Heights, Illinois, qualified the Etterman Racing Firebird No. 2 with a 5.76 at 251 mph, and defeated Mike Preslar with a 5.75 in round one at the first running of the race. White and the team then put their Firebird down into the 5.60's the next weekend in Houston, becoming one of only four cars in the country to run in the 5.60's this year.

When eliminations resume on Saturday, White will face former Top Alcohol Dragster Champion Jay Payne's Valvoline Camaro, with White having lane choice. The winner of the round will have a bye run in the semifinals into the finals.

"We're going to take our two test runs on Friday and try some things we have been wanting to try," said White. "What better place to try them that at a track that's prepared for a national event? We'll try that, then we'll put in a combination for Jay that we think will get down the track and be pretty quick."

White also feels that if he can get by Payne in the second round, he will use the semifinal bye to further test. "IF we get a bye run," stated White. "The only thing I'm concerned with right now is Jay Payne. I'll put it this way: Whenever we get a bye run, we always try something. We feel we can put the car back at a combination that will get down the racetrack, so whenever we can test some new ideas, that's what we like to do. But all I'm worried about is Jay Payne."

If White does make it past Payne, he knows he has a good chance of running six time World Champion Frank Manzo, who has run as quick as 5.63 here in March, in the finals. White feels that by the finals, he may be ready for Manzo.

"I think we should be able to run .60's down there if the weather stays good," commented White. "If it's in the low 80's, and the track is in typical Gainesville form, I definitely think we can run some 5.60's down there. We'll just have to see what Frank has. He's just about the fastest in the country everywhere he goes, so that's who you compare your stuff to. We'll do our best."

The Federal-Mogul Funny Cars will receive two test runs on Friday, with eliminations resuming on Saturday. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates of the racing action in Gainesville.

Be sure to check out the new Etterman Racing website for more information on the team.

Just got back from Geoff's with the new convertor. Then the final assembly of trans and then install in the car. I'm buying pizza tonight, aren't I?

I just got a call from the hydraulic place on the motor for the hydraulic lift on the Chaparrall. I spent $177 with them six months ago to get the motor rebuilt. Now they say the motor has to rebuilt again -- I have to ask: what did I pay for the first time?

I have to call at 9:00 in the morning to see what they can do for me. Without the hydraulics operational, I can't unhook the truck from the trailer and there is nothing to keep the hydraulic ram up so I can go down the road.

Just more drama!!! At least the car will be ready tonight -- or else. I don't know what else but or else!!! Dodging and weaving....

Would you believe this was a new convertor three runs ago?
Would you believe this would actually pull the car down the track?
Would you believe this would stall at 5600 just before I took it out of the car?
Would you believe Geoff Dell is making me a new one as we speak and I will pick it up this afternoon?
Would you believe he is building it like he would for a Pro Stock engine?
Would you believe I'm wearing out the road to Brisbane?
Would you believe I'm testing tomorrow night at Willowbank?

Everyone has to have a plan (or they need one anyways). I would like to run Top Comp at the Winternationals, but the challenges ahead are large and time is short. I set a goal and work hard towards it. If the goal is not attained due to forces beyond my control, then I am disappointed but not devastated as I know I have done my best.

I can organize to the nth degree, but if time and money does not permit then it does not happen, does it? If you push yourself to a goal then the goal will be reached -- eventually.

The Winternationals? I don't know; it's a longshot, but I have to try, don't I? Either way, I'll be there for you.

NOTE: At the Tin Top Titles at Willowbank last weekend, Robin Judd broke a rod in the fifnal, but my fuel system (I stepped him up more than 1.5 gpm) was right there.

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. The dentist had his way with me yesterday, and I have been trying to catch back up with work. As for the dentist, there is nothing quite like the whine of the drill and the smell of burning teeth.

The race in Mission should be quite a barn-burner. The list of people who are scheduled to be there include: Hentges, Santos, Hough, Shields, Federlin, and Brandon Bernstein, as well as the local cars who would like to ruin everyone's day. I would also guess that Gregg Lawerence and Mitch Myers would show up. Both of those guys bought A/Fuel combinations from Jerry Darien, and with Jerry there with Bernstein, the other two would be likely to be there to get some "hands on" recommendations from Jerry. We all know what Jerry can do with an A/Fuel car.

"How the heck did the car run a 5.38?" in Gainesville, you ask. I would say a better question is how the heck did it run a 5.46 in Boise! In both instances, the combination of weather, track and tune-up just came together. Boise had great weather and the upgrades to the track helped.

As for what has been the reason for the increased performance, I can only speak for ourselves. The biggest difference for us over the winter was getting the weight off the car. With the new rules, we were able to take about 50 pounds off the car and we went from the 470 motor to the 450. We ran some good numbers last year with the big motor and a car that was heavier than most. Now we are running the same basic combination that most of the others are, and our tune-up really likes the changes we made.

l know that is not much of a "scoop" on the increased performance, but I really think it is a result of everyone refining their tune-ups and figuring out more about the Hoosier tires, gear ratios, clutch settings, etc.

On to your deal, I am sorry to hear that things did not go as well as you would liked during your last few runs. The closest thing I have ever raced, aside from a 15 second Camaro, was a dragster at Speedzone in California. The cars look like a Super Comp car with a small block motor, running on natural gas. There are six sitting side by side and you race a couple hundred feet and then the car stops by itself.

It has a powerglide transmission that you shift with a button on the steering wheel. I decided that I knew what I was doing and that I was going to "cut a light" and drive the wheels off the thing. All I remember was the lights flashing yellow and the next thing I remember was the car stopping. I had redlit and don't know if I ever shifted the transmission.

l imagine it takes a bit to get back into the swing of things. I do have to say that I liked the picture of you on Ken Lowe's website. The one with you in a dress because of your driving. You have to keep your sense of humor, otherwise these things will drive you into the ground.

Best of luck to you when you head back downunder. I will look for you at Mission. See you then.

The DRS car made over 30 passes at the school two weeks ago. After the school, when we shared the shed at Willowbank, we changed the convertor and trans back to the race unit. This was the new convertor we had just had fixed up. We put it in the car and it rained and we didn't get to use it that Saturday.

Last weekend is the first time we had a chance to use it and it made one good pass. After that it just kept smoking the tires after the big wheelstands. Disassembly today revealed the convertor was spitting out aluminium chunks and rattle like a bolt in a tin can.

Up early tomorrow morning and off to Brisbane to have it looked at (again), get it back in the car and test this Wednesday night at Willowbank and then off to Mackay on Friday morning (early).

The enclosed photo is how the DRS car looks most of the time here lately. We are getting pretty good about getting the trans in and out and in and out and in and out... you know what I mean.

Thanks for the congratulations. Yes, we do seem to be on a bit of a roll lately, and yes, the truck is headed East as we speak.

Hey Bob, why don't you show the entire article and photos with a proper credit for my photos as well. Also, check out my latest pics at HazeGray. I do mostly Navy ship photos now from everywhere that has a Navy. I live in Burnaby still... haven't seen you for a long time.

I was wondering if you had a schedule to the dates and places for the newest drag racing events?

After a career weekend at the IHRA season opener, Mike Janis feels that there is room for improvement for his racing team as they head to the AC-Delco Nationals. "Don't get me wrong. I was really happy with my team and our performance at the season opener in Rockingham, but we felt we had as good a shot as anyone to win the event. It just didn't happen that way."

"When the bad weather hit we were just getting ready to run first round. After a three and a half hour delay we took the first round win from Todd Howard. We thought we'd have the usual 45 minutes between rounds, but they rushed the program and we had less than 15 minutes to get back to the lanes. We had no time to do anything. The clutch was still hot from the first round when I staged the car. That caused a lot of slippage and made the data from that round useless for the semis."

ln the semis against Alan (Pittman) our clutch setup was off, causing the car to hook up violently about a third of the way down the track, ending our chances. So while we did great in our first outing of the year, we feel there is some room for improvement," said Janis.

Crew chief Jerry Highway echoed Janis' sentiments. "This was our first race with team consultant Tom Anderson. He was just getting to know our team and how we race and we were still getting adjusted to him. He brought a lot of confidence to our team. Tom has one thing on his mind and that's winning. That kind of attitude rubs off on the people around you and it sure rubbed off on our team. Once we got down to crunch time it helped us do our jobs and forget about what's going on around us. We are there to race and win. I just feel that once we get acclimated to our new setup, we will improve at each race and a win will come."

The AC-Delco Nationals will be held at Virginia Motorsports Park on April 20-22. This will mark the inaugural IHRA event at the Virginia track. This is also the second IHRA Summit Drag Racing Series national event of the season.

In other team news: This past Thursday, April 12th, Mike Janis was featured in the Buffalo News sports section. The article, written by veteran motorsports columnist Larry Ott, can be read here. The team also made the cover of the April edition of the Drag Racing News.

Mike Janis and his Weber's Mustard/Jan-Cen Racing Engines team would also like to announce that the team will have new t-shirts for sale starting at the Virginia event. These shirts are sure to catch your eye. The ten color design was done by well known motorsports artist Greg Ozubko of GOS Motorsports Graphics and printed by Vandergriff Motorsports Apparel.

In conjunction with the new t-shirts. The Weber's Mustard/Jan-Cen team are looking to "light up" the night-time qualifying sessions. This will be something to see. Make sure to get your t-shirt to commemorate these night-time sessions. Don't miss 'em.

Last night at Queensland's Willowbank Raceway Victor Bray drove his Castrol '57 Chevrolet to victory in the postponed final of the K&N Filters Australian Nationals and secured enough championship points to guarantee him a sixth consecutive Australian Top Doorslammer Championship. The race was run in conjunction with qualifying at Willowbank's round seven of the series after weather intervened and prevented the finals being run at Calder Park Raceway in March. Bray recorded a national record equaling 6.215 second elapsed time at 236.72 mph (380.8 kph) to defeat Melbourne's Peter Kapiris, winning his first "Australian Nationals" crown and top qualifying for the Willowbank event in the process.

The popular Queenslander looked to have that event in his grasp as well until a supercharger belt broke while he was leading Perth's Robin Judd in the semi final. Although the round was eventually won by Top Doorslammer rookie Kym Petterwood, Bray and his Castrol team had earned enough points to have an unbeatable lead going into the final round of the series at Willowbank Raceway's Konica Winternationals in June.

Speaking after the Nationals final. Bray said "We've had four weeks to think about this race since the semi final in Melbourne and it's been a pretty nervous time. All the way through the Test and Tune last night and qualifying this morning we've been struggling with the setup and Peter was looking pretty good. Luckily for us things clicked when it counted. The 6.21 actually felt pretty easy and we know there's more left in it yet. We've just got to work out how to get it."

Following the running of the delayed Nationals race. Bray benefitted from a first round bye as the top qualifier and found himself with an unbeatable championship lead when no other driver in the top five points positions progressed past the first round.

Bray was surprised by the early clinching of the title, commenting "We'd hoped to leave here with a good lead but never imagined we'd be able to wrap the championship up tonight. It was just a freak run of upsets. All the top guys went out first. Searly dropped a valve and couldn't make the first round. Peter (Kapiris) was beaten by Kym Petterwood who qualified at the bottom of the field, Brett (Stevens) broke against Aify Sorbello and then Gary Phillips went down to Robin Judd.

"We actually thought we had to win the semi final to be safe and when the blower belt broke I was pretty dark. Then the TV crew came up to me for an interview and said congratulations you've won the championship. All I could say was, 'Are you sure?' This is incredible. Three events ago we were back in fifth and since then we've won the Westernationals, the Nationals, and a sixth championship. I've got to thank Castrol and all our supporters but especially Marie, Ben and all the guys that have worked so hard on the crew. It's not getting any easier, that's for sure, but we'll start working towards number seven right now."

Championship points as at April 14, 2001 (subject to ANDRA confirmation)

0n the HotRodder.com homepage you've probably noticed we have a small java news ticker that's regularly updated which keeps our visitors infomed of happenings in the motorsports and hotrodding world. We also mention various other bits of news we think folks should be aware of. Most of this news has been sent to us as press releases or from friends in the industry who'd like to make us aware of important issues and events.

Most recently, we've mentioned the theft of a racing trailer, including the dragster and all the contents inside from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This tragedy has devastated this family. Just think how you would feel if your most treasured vehicle and all your tools were stolen? Not only has their trailer, car and equipment been taken from them, but all their precious memories and hopes and drams for their future in racing as well.

So we're calling on all our HotRodding friends to be on the lockout for this equipment. You'll find more info and phone numbers about this on our homepage at HotRodder.com.

This may not be a lone occurence either, as there is suspicion this may be part of a larger professional theft ring. It's been known that vehicles have been stripped and parts conveniently auctioned off on the internet. If you're an auction site or classified ads regular visitor, perhaps you can help them out by keeping an eye out for any new items that might be from this theft. If you leave your trailer in the pits or at a show overnight, (even if there are security guards!) make sure you have additional anti-theft devices protecting your prized possessions.

If your team has important news to report, like new sponsorship or whatever, or your automotive related business has a product that would be beneficial to our readers, or you've found a really good website that has interesting or useful technical information for our visitors here at our site, please drop us a line at HotRodder.com and we'll be happy to mention them. Our site is now getting over 300,000 hits (page views) per month, so you're certain to get some coverage.

Due to many requests from our readers and members, we've finally gotten around to getting our HotRodder.com t-shirts. Our new logo, designed by Nick Casale, our graphics artist, looks terrific on the pocket, no-pocket, and sleeveless tees taht come in white, red and black. An unscientific study has revealed that the looks of the wearer of our HotRodder.com apparel can be definitely improved by 55.5%. Order your shirt today by going to: Apparel.

Requests for our HotRodder.com decals are pouring in like crazy. In the first couple of weeks alone, we've mailed out over 200. We're getting requests from hotrodders all over the U.S., but what is really cool is that they're also being sent to Brazil, United Kingdom, Turkey and Australia, to just name a few of our international friends. We also want to assure you that we protect the privacy of all our customers. We don't give out names, addresses or email addresses to anyone. You can find the info on where to send your request for a decal by going to: Decals.

Since I've been such a slacker in getting the newsletter out this month, we'll only be featuring one member for the remaining part of April: Bing's Humber Pullman. Follow the build-up of a 1954 Humber Pullman found in a junkyard, to a V-12, airbagged, Carson-topped Street Rod.

Slick Sites:

Dennis Wiskow's Art Gallery: We really try to get this newsletter out sometime in the first week of the month, unfortunately we're running a little behind this month since yours truly, HotRodder.com webrnaster, has also been thrashing on getting another website designed. Check out the fantastic art prints from motorsport's most reknowned artists at Dennis' Art Gallery. Bookmark this site since many more new prints will be added in the future.

Coldfire of Wisconsin: I also had to take time away from the computer last weekend and get over to a World of Wheels show. Rad rods, slick cycles, and the tantalizing Texas Bikini Babes drew quite a crowd this year. I also happened upon a friend who had his booth set up to display information on cryogenics. Coldfire cryogenics is a computer-controlled process which cools objects down to -300 degrees (F) and slowly returns them to room temperature before heating them further. From golf clubs, to hand tools, to engine parts, this process, which noticeably extends their life, is rapidly gaining some real attention. Dan's new website will be up and running soon at Cold Fire Wisconsin. And do some research on the internet on your own to see how this process might be beneficial for some of your stuff.

Paint The Cow: Al Liebmann at Densham Motorsports emailed me the other day all excited about an artist that can design and paint a scale model of your vehicle. Ummm.... "Paint The Cow".... yep, that's their name folks, recently completed a 1/24 scale model of Al's '39 Ford Sedan and from the pictures on their website, they did a fantastic job. You'll want to check them out at Paint Me. And click the link to Densham Motorsports to see the work they did on Al's and Gary's cars. Unreal!

U.S. CLASS NATIONALS: This inaugural stock/super stock drag race is rapidly gaining a good head of steam as it rolls closer to its race date of July 20-22. Big name sponsors are jumping on board anxious to become a part of this historic event and HotRodder.com is very honored to be doing media coverage and be included with the likes of magazines such as Hot Rod, Drag Racing USA, IHRA's Drag Review, and Drag News. Other internet sites offering coverage of this race will be SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central, CornpetitionPlus.com, Sportsmanreport.com, and Draglist.com. Now if that isn't enough, they'll also be televised in "prime time" as a full feature on ESPN2 on "Inside Drag Racing" hosted by reknowned motorsports celebrities, Ted Jones and Bret Kepner. Maybe if I'm lucky, you'll get to see me jumping up and down, waving and yelling "Hi Mon". So be sure to keep up with all the exciting new news about the U.S. Class Nationals at their website.

lf you're out traveling the states this summer, whether it's for heading to a race, car show event, or just as a family vacation, you might want to sneak in a visit to a Winston Cup race team shop that's in the area. How do you find out if one is around? Well surf over to Raceshops.com to get all the info and even purchase a book listing all the shop addresses, phone numbers, and hours they're open to the public. Pretty cool, eh?

From our Survey form at HotRodder.com, we've learned that many of you are NASCAR fans. In order to develop a website and newsletter that is geared to the interests of our visitors and HotRodder.com members, we'd really appreciate it if you could take some time to fill out survey in order to give us some idea as to who's hanging out here. Not only does this help with building the content on our website, but also provides us with information to give to our advertisers who help support HotRodder.com.

0ne such advertiser is RaceHose.com. Aeroquip Performance Products over at Racehose. If you are 18 years of age or older you should hurry over to their site before May 1 or click this link, where you can enter your name in a giveaway which includes two tickets to the NASCAR Pepsi 400 in 2001 and $2000 for airfare, lodging, meals, etc.

Without our advertiser's monetary support, we'd be pretty hard-pressed to maintain the content and quality that is needed to keep up this site. Please go to the survey form right now and fill it out at Survey. Thanks so much.

Also, if you find the information in our newsletters helpful and interesting, please forward this to friends and encourage them to sign up as well by going to our homepage and finding the Newsletter Subscribe box at the bottom left of the page. Presently, over 1700 readers find us in their inbox monthly.

l have a set of Brooks 88 rods. The box has 210 - 88 - thd marked on it. The rod lengths are 7.062". The pin diameter is 1.094". They look new. Do you know anyone who would be interested in them? Thanks.

l bet you have a hydraulic catalogue. I have a suspicion that the -3 is considered automotive by them. This could be the reason the -3 fittings are not in the hydraulic catalogue. Ask for an automotive catalogue.

lf you want to sell the bellhousing to Brent, please let me know how much you want for it. Also, if you can come up with a freight cost, I'll forward this along. Remember, the pieces don't have to work or be legal.

Bob, just cheking out your website in search of a fuel flow bench. You get around a lot, so if you know of anyone wanting to sell a fuel flow bench. I am looking for something around 10 hp that is capable of flowing up to 25 gpm. Good luck turning those tunnel lights back on.

ln my opinion, you have the master list of all drag racing links Please add my website to your link page, under photo art. U B The One. Thanks.

Thanks, Bob. Yeah about a total of three. A not so proud record for little ole me.

Sad to see that your Canadian friend is closing down his website. Just another example of how much work goes into keeping one alive for little or no return.

C'ya soon.

You're a paid customer of Davenport. I had a thought last night: Call and ask him what he wants his fuel system to act like on your car.

What idle EGT does he want?
What stage EGT does he want?
What EGT does he want across the finish line?
How does he want you to balance the cylinder temps at stage?
(before the ports open)

If I dig up some more questions, I'll pass them along. How are things coming? Looking forward to your return. You realize it is only a few weeks away.

Hi Bob and welcome home. You are very right in your comments about the loss of the "Grapevine" and the very likely soon to be lost "Horsepower Heaven" website. Bill Evans did a great job on controversy and racer's issues and is missed.

But when it comes to overall content about drag racing here in the Northwest there is only one website and that is Horsepower Heaven. Larry has done a super job at covering all aspects of drag racing and I'm sure you will agree it will take a lot of time and effort to equal the quality of Larry's website.

However, I must admit any working stiff like yourself that is trying to run an alcohol racing show on the other side of the planet, as well as keep on top of a very entertaining and informative website that your Northern Thunder has evolved into just might pull it off.

I wish you nothing but the best of luck and if I may be of assistance I would be glad to try and help. It seems to me that to not have a local website to cover racing issues will be a loss to all racers.

I have been busily updating and adding to my website... hope you can all get in for a look and see my side of the drag racing world. Don't forget to sign the guestbook and let me know if you'd like a link exchange.

This is just Ken checking in. We're busy here; lots going on. How are things are on your end?

This weekend sees the first meeting of the season at Santa Pod Raceway. As we did at last year's European Finals, we will be bringing you updates after each day's action at the Easter Thunderball. Pictures and a brief report should be online by about 8 pm on this coming Sunday and Monday.

As you may have noticed, the site has had a facelift for the new season. This year we plan to bring you more event coverage, news and reviews than ever before. Don't forget to check out the new forums on the site and add your comments to the discussion. Thanks for your support. See you at the track.

Can we have Wayne County Speedway, in Orrville, Ohio, added to your links. Thank you very much.

Go to our Racers Forum at the Team Mission website in the Discussion forum, and read under the "SIB" headline, as he is back in hospital again, for the third time since the accident last Saturday.

You can even post a get well note to him, thanks. Keep checking back for updates on his condition.

Hey Bob, good to see that you made it out again. Sounds like it didn't exactly go per plan, but what the heck, a bad day at the race track is STILL better than a good day at work.

Can I add something for your classifieds? Here it is:
For Sale - '48 Fiat "Raising Hell" Topolino body, lengthened, chopped. Has full rear fenders, a totally enclosed roof, and a wing built into the body, rear tire carrier has been filled in. Escape hatch built into the roof panel, all interior panels.

Hand built one piece front end with fuel access door. Parachute mounts (aluminum), with polished aluminum firewall. One of the most awesome paint jobs you'll ever see on an altered. Nose section has some minor damage near the fuel door, some airbrushing could fix this up.

Will send pictures to serious buyers, or check it out at: Raising Hell. Will arrange shipping. Make a serious offer.

If you want to know, we have just about completed the transition from altered back to Funny Car. We've picked a name for the car (1971 Mach I Mustang). It's going to be called "NitroMare". Going in for paint this week; just about got everything else tidied up.

I'll let you know how we make out with the maiden voyage of this one. All the best.

Someone sent me some articles from your site, I think. I have them posted on my site, that I'm hoping to bring back up this weekend. Here are the two stories:
Tulsa 1973 - PRO Race
Apocalypse - The Chi-Town Hustler

I don't want to put these up unless you're okay with it. I will give credit to the writer and your site for letting me use them. Please check out the link to my website.

If this is an issue please let me know and I will make sure they don't go up. If you are fine with it, and know of any others, please let me know.

Any news?

It's available April 20th. Featuring all the action, including the Cruising, Go-Whoa, Burnouts, Show 'n' Shine and more cruising. The disc will have hundreds of professional images shot by Paul Beck -- one of Australia's leading automotive photographers.

All this can be yours for just $29.95 including postage and GST. Pre-order yours today. For more info on this and other discs on offer, check our website for regular updates.

This is a special message to let you know we now have free decals available with our new HotRodder.com logo. Check them out at: Decals and send for yours today.

By popular demand we're now offering HotRodder.com t-shirts as well. Shirt colors in white, black and red, pocket, no pocket and sleevelss tees. Sorry, these aren't free, but watch and read upcoming HotRodder.com monthly newsletters to find out how you might be eligible to win one of our shirts.

See them at: Shirts. Buy yours today and start making a real fashion statement. Soon to be added: HotRodder.com caps.

We have updated our newsletter page today at Team Mission with news of the racing this past weekend and Jim Sibley's injuries from his scooter accident at Mission Raceway.

Hi Bob, how's it going? Would you know anymore on the following news?

Four race officials charged over drag racing death

April 9, 2001 -- Sydney, Australia
Four track officials face manslaughter charges concerning February's death of one of Australia's leading drag racers. Todd Wilkes, known to drag racing fans as "Judge", died of multiple injuries and severe burns when his car hit a wall before bursting into flames at Eastern Creek Raceway in suburban Sydney on February 25.

Two officials from the Australian Racing Drivers Club and the Confederation of Australian Motor Sports were summoned Monday to appear in Blacktown Local Court on May 17, police said. Det. Sgt. Grant Gilbert said two other officials were to be issued with summonses on Tuesday. The names of the officials have not been released.

Wilkes, 29, of Brisbane, died when his limited edition Giocattolo crashed through barriers, became airborne and hit a wall before bursting into flames, police and witnesses said. Onlookers said Wilkes appeared to brake, but then lost control of his V8-powered vehicle, one of only 15 ever made. Police said he might have been traveling more than 120 mph before the crash.

Wilkes was taking part in a speed trial demonstration at a scheduled meeting of the Australian Racing Drivers Club when the accident occurred.

Hi, I'm Belinda Endress. We are currently working on a television show featuring three TransAm teams in twelve, one hour programs to be aired in the mainstream. Can you assist us with our sponsorship search?

IN THIS ISSUE:

Sites of the Week:

Latest News from "660 Online"

What's New in "Links, Rings and Things"

Keep those letters coming. See ya at the track!

Please list us on your site in the Trailers section. We're Streamliner Trailer & Coach. Thanks.

Click here to read the "clickable" version.

Updated DRL Lists. We have updated our lists through late March. Yes, I know it's nearly mid-April. We will have new updates before the end of the month. Drag News returns... on CD-ROM. The great drag racing newspaper is back. Every issue from 1955 to 1966 is now available on CD-ROM thanks to Dennis Holding, Lee Schelin, and the rest of the Standard 1320 Group. Visit The Drag Racing List to find out how to get your copy.

DRL Stages Real Comeback: I shave to brag about this a little bit. You all remember our hacker problems in early March that basically had us dead in the water and unreachable for ten whole days? Despite that, we got more hits in March than we ever have -- over 118,000. This totally, completely, blows my mind. We got more hits in 20 days than we did in 31 days in January, our previous best month ever. April should be even more amazing. Thank you, thank you, a million times, thank you. It means so much to us that folks are up here reading and enjoying The Drag Racing List.

Drag Racing Stories of The Day:

April 9
Funny Car & Doorslammer Chassis Evolution. Jim Hill talks about the changes that made funny cars and pro stocks safer and faster through the years.

April 8
2001 Washington World of Wheels. My brother Tim, and my kids, Jason and Emily joined me yesterday at the Washington, D.C. area's annual high performance car show. Tim took LOTS of photos.

April 7
Nitro Funnies and Autographs During a Rain Delay. Don McClanahan tells about a memorable visit to the drags.

April 6
Two Florida Kids Take on the Top Fuel Stars. Jim Hill retells the story of when he and Ed Kelly used low power on a bad track to go rounds at a Top Fuel race.

April 5
The Return of Drag News.. on CD-ROM. Dennis Holding of the Frantic Four has had every issue of Drag News from 1955 to 1966 copied to CD-ROM and it is now available. A new CD-ROM with 1967 to 1971 is underway.

April 4
Do You Have What it Takes to Drive a Dragster? Stan Weber came to a conclusion about whether he had what it takes to drive a drag car all out. What about you?

April 3
How Safe are You at Night? Super Gas racer and Fireman/EMT Wade Mahaffey offers some common sense suggestions for keeping your rig and yourself safe at the drags at night.

Drag Racing Pictures of The Day:

April 9
Sherm Gunn's Funny Car at Carlsbad. Mark Hovsepian caught Sherm Gunn at one of the last fuel races at the late, great Carlsbad Raceway.

April 8
Howard Haight Stops the Circuit Breaker. Jim Sorenson captured dozens of outstanding photos at the 2001 March Meet. Here's one of Chevy star Howard Haight on the big end.

April 7
Reher-Morrison in the Glory Days. James Morgan caught the former Pro Stock world champs in the pits at New England Dragway.

April 6
Night Fury! Cory Lee's Fuel Funny Car. Dennis Roetman checks in with an "arty" shot of Cory Lee laying down a long, smoky one.

April 5
Maid Service, Anyone? Lincoln Mark VII Funny Car. Wes Shuman and David Ray show the lovely lass in a French maid costume who livened up Indy Goodguys 2000.

April 4
Trackers Car Club at Bakersfield 1965. Daryl Huffman brings another one out of his treasure box with this pit shot of a great coupe.

April 3
Jim "Superman" Nicoll Flies -- in his Funny Car. Bob Strait caught the mighty one slamming his Revell Vega Funny Car through the traps at top speed in about 1974.

Drag Racing Movie of The Week:

April 9
Jim Read Burns Something Up. Paul Rogers sent this clip of Aussie Top Fuel hero Jim Read on an expensive pass.

It seemed as if Federal-Mogul Dragster racer Duane Shields had everything going his way this weekend, and then with a bang, literally his weekend was over at this weekend's SummitRacing.com Nationals at "The Strip" at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Shields was preparing for his second round matchup with Paul Jones, and just when he hit the throttle to perform his burnout, an engine burst panel exploded, killing his engine, and giving Jones a single.

Shields, a Las Vegas resident, was having the race of his life. In addition to qualifying No. 1 with a then track record elapsed time of 5.418 seconds at 253 mph, he had defeated eventual winner Brandon Bernstein, in the second round of qualifying, which served as the final of a rained out Tucson, Arizona, Division 7 race from February. Then, in Sunday's first round, he reset the track record with a strong 5.409 at 256.80 mph in defeating Darryl Hitchman. To add insult to injury, after he blew the burst panel (a pressure relief device to prevent blower explosions), his opponent Jones smoked the tires right off the starting line.

"We believe a valve hung open," said Shields. "When I hit the throttle, the manifold burst panel blew out, and that was the end of our weekend, and Paul Jones got the win. We just think it was an isolated incident," continued Shields. "There was no signal from the round before that there was any valve train problems."

Leaving the event with one event win in hand, the "Short Line Express Marekts" team's next event will be race two in the Division 6 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series in Mission, B.C., Canada. With top level racers such as Rick Santos, Mark Hentges, and Brian Hough expected to be in attendance, Division 6 looks like it may be one of the toughest to compete in this year.

"I think Division 6 is going to be a blood bath," stated Shields. "We will have probably the most competitive fields in the nation. It will make for some pretty exciting racing, and be a lot of fun."

Oh yeah: Santos got beat on a holeshot; can you believe it? Especially since his light was in the .500's.

I was contacted by a Brent Seaman of Calgary and he is restoring a Front Engine Top Fuel Dragster to be put in the Canadian Motorsport Museum in Toronto. The car was 392 Hemi powered and will never be run, but he needs a lot of 392 stuff: Bug Catcher injector, 6:71 blower, blower manifold, aluminum valve covers, gear drive, bellhousing, etc. If you can help, please let me know. Will buy parts or trade.

Our new Mageau Family Racing's "Prospector" web page is finally up and running. You can access it by clicking on www.dragracing.ca. I would like to hear any comments you may have.

You will find all kinds of interesting features, a photo album, updated race results for the team, links to all of our sponsors, live National racing news, and so on. The kids even have a section near the end of the page. (They have their own guest book, so leave them a message if you like).

The page is not finished, and probably will never be, as we plan to update it frequently. Be sure to check back often to find out what's happening with your favourite '57 Chevy Funny Car. Please update your bookmarks, as the old page will be closed soon.

Shields on top at hometown track in Las Vegas

Most drag racers will tell you that one of the hardest races you will ever race at is an event in your hometown. Sometimes the pressure to perform in front of your friends and family can be pretty intense. Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Duane Shields, however, has had the weekend of his career in front of his hometown fans at this weekend's SummitRacing.com Nationals at "The Strip" in Las Vegas. Shields qualified No. 1 with a track record elapsed time of 5.418 seconds at 252.33 mph.

In addition to taking the top qualifying spot for the first time at a national event in his career, Shields, a Las Vegas resident, won his matchup with the "Bud Prince" Brandon Bernstein Friday afternoon, which served as the final for the rained out Tucson, Arizona, Division 7 race. Shields ran a 5.479 at 257.73 mph, which put him No. 2 in the field. With improved conditions for Saturday morning's final qualifying session, the "Short Line Express Markets" team decided to step it up and go for the No. 1 spot. Along with the thrill of qualifying No. 1 in front of his hometown fans, the fact that he qualified .02 of a second in front of the defending four time Champion Rick Santos makes it that much sweeter for the Shields team.

"We're just having an awesome weekend," said Shields. "We came out and won the Tucson event in our second qualifying session, and that put us No. 2 after that run. This morning we decided to get a little more aggressive with the car, and really go for that No. 1 position. The conditions were a little better, and we were able to run that 5.41. The mph was only 253 because we broke a belt at the end of that run," Shields continued. "I think that run would have been a high 5.30 because the belt came off fairly early."

Rains moved into the Las Vegas area, causing a major delay in Saturday's program. The first round of eliminations, which is normally run Saturday afternoon, was pushed back to Sunday. Shields will face No. 16 qualifier Darryl Hitchman in round one today. "I think we're just going to stay aggressive and go for it," stated Shields. "Hitchman is always capable of popping off a great number. You always have to go all out in fields like this, and make sure you don't make any mistakes."

Final eliminations begin later today. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's "Drag Race Central" for round by round updates of the action from "The Strip" at Las Vegas.

Hey Mate: I live in Western Australia and saw Rachelle Splatt a couple of weeks ago when she was over racing the Greene Machine (nitro funny car) and over here we miss quite a bit of goss(ip). Like why isn't Valvoline her sponsor anymore and wasn't she retiring last time she was out here?

I was just wondering if you could send me some info on her to answer some of my questions and some other things I may have missed.

Hello mate, hope your flight back home was okay. I've just returned from Thailand after our (Kate and myself) honeymoon.

Bangkok: I didn't much care for it, but when you leave the city and go into Thailand's island resorts, mate, what a difference a one hour flight can make. The second day in Bangkok (36 C with 90% humidity - and you thought it gets sticky in Queensland), we leave our hotel and then on to Bangkok International Airport. Kate and I board our plane and then we take off to go to the island of Koh Samui.

Paradise is the only way to describe it: beautiful beaches, sunny weather - still humid - but when you walk out of your room and thirty seconds later you're in tropical waters, who cares? From Koh Samui then on to Phuket. A bit more developed than K.S., but there are a lot more people trying to sell you junk.

Our resort at Phuket was massive. There were golf carts to transfer you from the front desk to where you actually book in to your room. There were four pools to swim in. Six restaurants to choose from; this place was a little town in itself.

Now we're on to the fun part: unpacking and getting back to work. Yuk! When all the photos are done I can give the Northern Thunder followers more detail of where and what we did. Back to you soon.

Bob, good to hear you're back at in Canada. No more G'Days for a while yet, eh? The Chevy II (aptly named "2 MUCH") is awaiting the arrival of a few more components, like gears, axles, brake parts, etc. Yes, the program will be together very soon, and yes, running in the 7.50 classes in the IBAA and the NHREC group.

I'm working on a website for Quicktimes, which is being hosted by Superwebhost. It should be up and running in a week or so at www.quick-times.com. I've also started a group on Yahoo for guys to start posting cars/parts for sale. That's about all the news for now. I'll have to get you to follow up on the Thunder Downunder story; some decent pics would sure come in handy. Later...

What do you know? I've just updated the 3doubleU.ca website.

Normally when entering a race, your main goal is to win that event. Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Duane Shields enters this weekend's SummitRacing.com Nationals at "The Strip" in Las Vegas with the unique situation of having two races to win this weekend. One is this weekend's event, and the other is the finals of the rained out Tucson Division 7 race to be run during qualifying.

Shields, a Las Vegas resident, has been one of the quickest and fastest Blown Alcohol Dragsters in the category all year. Since dipping into the 5.30's at the season opener in Pomona, California, Shields' performance has been second to only defending four time Champion Rick Santos' blown dragster. At his last outing at the O'Reilly Nationals in Houston, Shields ran a career best elapsed time of 5.35 seconds at 261 mph, enroute to a semifinal finish, where he lost to Santos.

Shields also dominated the Tucson, Arizona, event to be concluded this weekend as well. He qualified his "Short Line Express Markets" entry No. 1 with a 5.49 at 259.21 mph, and will have lane choice over the "Bud Prince" Brandon Bernstein in the final.

"Since this is our home track, we're going to have a lot of local fans out here this weekend," said Shields. "We're going to come out pretty aggressive. We want to lay down a good number and prepare for our matchup with Bernstein. We just want to come out and do the best we can. We're hoping to run in the 5.40's. With the altitude, we think if we can run in the 5.40's, we can be one of the top qualifiers."

With the unique situation of running two races at the same event, Shields will have to "switch gears" so to speak. After he runs the Tucson final in the second qualifying session Friday afternoon, Shields will have to put all his focus on the event at hand in Las Vegas.

"We definitely want the win from the Tucson event," stated Shields. "That's why we want to be aggressive. We hope to have that first run down real well, so we have a baseline to tune from. It eliminates one of our experimental runs in qualifying, because you do have to have a raceday setup going into eliminations."

In addition to winning this weekend, Shields hopes to close the performance gap between him and the Champ Santos. Santos had a best of 5.32 in Houston, compared to Shields' 5.35. "We're within a couple of hundredths of Santos now," commented Shields. "We may have a little more left in it. Those guys are the champions. We're certainly going to try to step it up a little bit, but take baby steps. We're going to try not to hurt any parts. Right now, we're not hurting any parts."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters with sessions at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Stay tuned to SummitRacing.com's Drag Race Central for round by round updates from "The Strip" in Las Vegas.

We've just posted the latest LA Times update. Things as usual are not going to plan, but we will get there (eventually).

Hello. I'm trying to locate 1971 issues of SS&DI; specifically the ones on "Project Maverick". Do you have any ideas as to where I could start looking for past issues?

I was hoping that you might be able to help me and my friends out. We are all hoping to bring our cars to the 'run what you brung' this Sunday (April 8). Do you know what time the track opens and how much it costs? It's my friend's birthday, so we really want to surprise him and take him there so that he can have a go in his new car. I'd really appreciate your help. Thanks!!

I would really appreciate it if you would check out our new website www.SponsorAgent.com, a site where we are trying to get racers and sponsors together, and add a free listing if you would like. Also, please forward this to any race teams or race event managers you know so they can list too. There's no charge and nothing to lose. It's a "no-brainer."

We could use some pictures of race cars. If you want to get added exposure for your sponsor, send your JPEG pictures to us. They will appear on the site pages wrapped by our text or in a collage. If you want to limit their use, just let us know. Please let me know what you think.

Please consider adding my website as a link on your website. It's under Go Cindy and I'm a female drag racer who runs the NMRA and Fun Ford events. If you would like, I can send you more information on my car. I thank you for your time.

After a respectable qualifying performance at their first race of the year in Phoenix, the Lyle Greenberg Motorsports Federal-Mogul Funny Car team is looking forward to a higher level of performance at the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas. The NHRA national event will be held April 5 - 8. With a central location for many of the racers in the western United States, the Las Vegas event will draw a large field of Federal-Mogul Funny Cars.

"The Phoenix race was our first attempt at running with the new rule that limits the supercharger overdrive to 92%," said team owner and driver Lyle Greenberg. "We learned some things about what the car needs to perform well. In addition, we found a few mechanical glitches that we have fixed. If everything comes together and I drive the car well, we should be able to run 5.80's or 5.90's. We are really looking forward to running in Las Vegas. Not only is it an exciting city, but the facility at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is fabulous."

The Greenberg team will continue to banner sponsors AMSOIL, Sundance Equipment and SunMar Builders. Additional backing has been provided by Albuquerque, New Mexico based M&J Sign Company. For additional information on the Lyle Greenberg Motorsports team, visit their website.

People in the drag racing sport will tell you that consistency wins drag races. Federal-Mogul Dragster driver Shelly Howard must have had that in mind at this past weekend's NHRA Division 4 Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park, just outside of Memphis. Howard stayed in the mid-5.40's all weekend to win her second event of the year.

Howard, a registered nurse from Tulsa, Oklahoma, entered the event without one of her most vital crew members, her husband, Dr. Paul Howard. Paul, who normally assists with the clutch and various other departments of the team, was forced to stay home on call. It was the first race in several years that Howard raced without her husband being there.

"It was definitely tougher without Paul here," said Howard. "He was on pins and needles back home without us. The rest of the team pulled together, and picked up the space he left. We wish he could have been here for the win. My crew chief Mark Gardner, Shane Conway, Rick Meyer, Joe Monden, and Angie Fuller did a great job all weekend. And of course, Tom Conway's tuning is what brought us the win."

Howard qualified her Conway tuned Blown Alcohol Dragster third with an elapsed time of 5.495 seconds at 257.28 mph. In round one, she easily defeated Randy Meyer's A/Fuel Dragster with a consistent 5.489 at 257.78 mph. With that win, and Division 4 rival Troy Buff's win in round one, set the stage for a battle of the points leaders in the semifinals.

Buff entered the event 11 points ahead of Howard in Division 4 standings. The round lived up to it's billing, as Howard took a slight holeshot, and stayed ahead the duration of the run to win with a 5.464 at 259.71 mph, to Buff's right-there 5.475 at 254.09 mph. In the finals, she would square off against A/Fuel Dragster powerhouse Keith Stark. Stark was never in the race, as Howard pulled away to the win with her second straight 5.46, at 259.16 mph, to Stark's cylinder-dropping 8.46 at 107 mph.

"We had the car running fairly consistently," commented Howard. "We wish it could have run better, but we had bad tireshake every pass. We tried to get through that and down the track. Tom Conway did a great job of tuning, the team did great, and we won the race. Everything worked out well."

With the win, Howard leaves the event with 266 points in Division 4, followed by Buff's 235 points, a 31 point margin. While Howard hopes to maintain the lead for her first Division Championship, she knows the road ahead will be tough.

"We'd really like to win the Division Championship," stated Howard. "We've been doing this for several years, and have been stuck in third place for the last three years. We really hope to better that this year. There are some other really good teams out there in this Division, so I don't take it for granted. We just have to treat each race as a new race, and forget about the Championship. We know we still ahve a tough road ahead of us, but we're optimistic."

Highlights from the action in Memphis will air on this week's NHRA Heat, at 6 p.m. (EST) on ESPN2. For more information on the Howard team, visit their website.

Click here to read the "clickable" version.

Competition Plus, the internet magazine with NO LIMITS - have done a flattering story on our humble website. Please take a look at The Drag Racing List to read our story. Man, this is internet reporting the way it SHOULD be. I spoke with author Roger Richards on THURSDAY and the story was up by SUNDAY. Wow! That's a benchmark I would like to achieve one day with our drag racing stats. Thanks very much to Bobby, Roger, and crew for their generous coverage.

New lists and personal bests are on the way. Danny White and Steve Klemetti have sent us updated personal bests from both Gainesville and Houston. We will get those onto the site this week.

Stories of The Day:

April 2
What Does it Take to Drive a Dragster Well? Laurie "The Purple Girl" Watts offers her humble opinion on the topic.

April 1
Do Jet Cars Leave Residue that Mars Race Track Surfaces? Drag racing veteran Al Hanna checks in with a frank discussion about the effect jet cars have -- or don't have -- on racing surfaces.

March 31
Drag News Memories. Dan Roulstons, who edited almost every top drag mag back in the day, tells what it was like to put out Drag News before the days of faxes and emails.

March 30
Northeast Fuel Match Racing with Don Roberts. Top Fuel, Top Gas, and Funny Car veteran Don Roberts fills us in on all his rides.

March 29
What Fine Points Can You See at a Live Drag Race? Doug Dornbos sees things his friends can't and vice versa. What about you? Let us know and we'll print it.

March 28
NHRA Enjoys Historic Lunch. Dick Wells reports that NHRA brass and pals got together for a commemorative lunch at the same diner where the papers were signed to bring the organization into existence 50 years ago.

March 27
NHRA Houston O'Reilly Nationals Final Results and Points Standings. NHRA.com provides the full story from Baytown, Texas.

Pictures of The Day:

April 2
Jack Chrisman's '70 Mustang Funny Car. Bob Plumer provides a shot of Jack's ride from the Coca Cola Cavalcade of Stars.

April 1
Bo Nickens' Bad Day in Houston. Joe McHugh caught Bo Nickens' wild Pro Stock at NHRA Houston.

March 31
Smokin' Chevy Pickup! Anni Valder grabbed this shot of a sportsman pickup truck driver who's trying to fry all the rubber off his back tires.

March 30
The Rare Gold Coast Duster Funny Car. New contributor Bob Strait caught this shot of one of those cars often heard about, but rarely seen.

March 29
Zombie Heats the Meats. Brian Wood got this absolutely killer photo of an absolutely killer car -- the original Bruce family ZOMBIE.

March 28
When Fire Burnouts Go Wrong. Serves up a front engine fueler, hot and crispy after a fire burnout went awry.

March 27
Doorslammers at Speed. England's Sharkman sends along an absolutely wicked photo of a '70 Camaro doorslammer making big speed at the top end.

Movie of The Week:

April 2
Bug in Top End Trouble. The Type 3 Pro Mod team from Germany sent a video of their hot VW getting a little too hot to handle in a top end crash.

The Lyle Greenberg Motorsports website has been updated. The Albuquerque, New Mexico based Federal-Mogul Funny Car team will be competing at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas on April 5 - 8. Any of our friends and fans who are in attendance are encouraged to come by our trailer and say hello.

To go to the Lyle Greenberg Motorsports home page, click here. To go directly to the press release about the team's participation at the Las Vegas event, click here. For the latest information on our preparations for this event, go to our Shop Update page.

In what may be one of the surprises of the 2001 season, drag race publicist Will Hanna just got a lot of people on an April Fool's joke. Hope everything goes well for everyone, see you at the track.

Bob, I emailed Ken yesterday to order an injection book, but he said that you had just left for Canada. Would you have an extra copy you would sell me? Do you have any 392 parts left: blower manifold with port nozzles, hat nozzles, late Enderle (gas) barrel valve, 8mm pulleys, 3" belts, etc.?

Hello, my name is Jason and I'm an engineering student at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. My emphasis is on the internal combustion engine. I'm doing a group design project dealing with a Rotary Valve train that eliminates the traditional valvetrain, like the one shown on your webpage.

We are doing flow tests and some sealing design experiments and would like to get any information that you could provide me. We only have a few weeks and know that these problems will not be solved in this short time. We are planning to analyze this and show that our research is complete.

I hope that you can send me some information; please let me know if you don't want to send me anything.

Sorry to read that things did not go as well as you had planned. Like we say in Victoria: Queensland, perfect one day; still raining the next! See you at the Winters.

Mike Janis Sets Career Best at IHRA Season Opener

Coming into the first event of the year, there was an electric feeling in the Jan-Cen/Weber's Mustard camp. Mike Janis and his team had good feelings about the upcoming season and especially about the season opener. After some impressive times in testing, the team felt excited about racing their first Pro Mod race in over a year.

Mike Janis didn't let his team down. On the first pass out of the box, Janis laid down a 6.395 at 218.51 mph, good enough to place him in the top half of the field after one run. For his second pass, Janis unleashed a phenomenal 6.282 - 220.44 pass to vault him into the second position at the end of the first day of qualifying.

The second day of qualifying saw conditions change a bit, but Janis still ran a strong 6.325 - 221.18 on his third pass. On his fourth and final qualifying attempt, the team stepped up a bit, looking for that number one spot. Janis ran a 6.260 at 223.84 mph, missing the number one qualifying position by just .001 second.

For the first round of eliminations, Janis faced Todd Howard at the wheel of his '57 Chevy. After a three and a half hour rain delay, Janis and Howard were the first pair to hit the recently dried racing surface. Howard left first, with a .445 light to Janis' .449. Janis' Jan-Cen Automotive powered '63 Corvette was able to outpower the '57 BelAir of Howard to take the win. Janis ran a 6.310 - 223.76 to Howard's losing 6.341 - 218.94.

The first round win gave Janis lane choice over veteran IHRA racer "Tricky" Rickie Smith. Smith defeated Ed Hoover in the first round, running a 6.392. Once again, Janis' opponent left first, but was no match for the Jan-Cen power under the hood of Janis' Corvette. Janis took the win with a 6.295 - 223.39 run to Smith's slower 6.326 - 218.90 pass.

Janis gave up lane choice in the semifinals to Alan Pittman and his blown '41 Willys. Pittman defeated Ronnie Hood in the second round with a 6.279. Janis got out of the hole well, but just after the 300 foot mark, overpowered the track, causing the car to head violently for the guardrail. He did a great job of bringing the car under control after shooting towards the wall, then the centerline, and back towards the wall again. This wild ride ended Janis' stellar weekend.

"I am somewhat disappointed that we didn't do better, but I'm real happy about what our team did here this weekend. I know we turned a few heads. I just want everyone to know that this team is here for the long haul. We are going to do our best to make a run for the points title this year," said Janis. "I couldn't do this without help. I have some good people behind me. My crew, Jerry and Donna Highway, my wife Michelle, my sons, Mike Jr., and Sean, my brother Joe, and our team consultant Tom Anderson. There are many more than that at home and I just want them all to know I appreciate all their help and support," continued Janis.

Mike Janis and his team will return to Pro Mod competition at the upcoming AC-Delco Nationals, to be held at Virginia Motorsports Park, in Richmond, Virginia, April 20 - 22.