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The latest update as of May 21, 2026

On-track action is already underway at Norwalk. It's a test-n-tune day for all the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos racers. On hand to capture all the images from this weekend's event is our ace lensman, BIG Bob Snyder. Stay tuned for photos and news from Summit Motorsports Park thoughout the weekend.

The latest update as of May 20, 2026

Fuel Altered Chaos - Eliminations - Round ONE - "A" field

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Fuel Altered Chaos - Eliminations - Round ONE - "B" field

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The latest update as of May 10, 2026

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR

The latest update as of May 9, 2026

While part of yesterday's final qualifying session was rained out, and more rain fell overnight, track drying is underway at Darana - National Trail Raceway before eliminations commence at the third event of the IHRA 2026 season: the Spring Nationals. All the pro classes have full 8-car fields, with a diverse mix of NHRA regulars, part-timers and up and coming racers. While there a few "off the pace" racers in some of the categories, most of the fields are closely bunched. A prime example is Top Alcohol Dragster with the 8 cars bunched between Joey Severance's 3.465 - 222.44 and the bump spot of 3.547 - 227.50, held down by Canada's Jeff Chatterson.

All of the 11 cars trying to qualify have run NHRA events on a regular basis, with Severance, Noonan, and Fricke leading the way in name recognition. The Top Alcohol Funny Car featured mostly NHRA regulars too, with Chip Beverett leading the field, followed closely by Phil Esz and A/Fuel aficionado Mick Steele. Top Fuel had 8 entries, while Nitro Funny Car had 12 drivers in the pits, but only 10 of them were able to record a time in either of the two qualifying sessions.

Top Fuel times ranged from Lee Callaway's 3.055 - 282.31 down to Lex Joon in the #6 spot with an early shutoff 3.405 - 176.61. The Funny Cars were even more tightly bunched, with Del Worsham on top at 3.291 - 272.23 and Jody Ausatin in #8 at 3.609 - 199.91. One shocker was Dale Creasy Jr., who won the first two events of the season, missing the show by two hundredths of a second with a decent 3.629 - 234.86 clocking. The Fuel Altered group saw 8 drivers going into eliminations, led by top qualifying Ryan Hill in the "Nitro Bandido" laying down a 3.732 - 214.69 pass.

As of this writing, 9:30 am PDT (12:30 EDT), there is still no video on the IHRA YouTube channel, but we expect the action to start shortly. It's dificult to guess whether eliminations will be completed today but tomorrow has been reserved as a "rain date". Stay tuned for further updates.

UPDATE: That didn't take long. Elimninations started at 9:50 PDT (12:50 EDT).

The latest update as of May 6, 2026

Besides my recent (and continuing) health problems, the website has experienced some display difficulties. The home page text has shrunk and changed to a different font (fixed now) than I had been using for the past quarter century, and I'm not sure how well this short paragraph will look when it's uploaded. Fingers crossed !

The latest update as of April 25, 2026

After two rounds of qualifying on Friday night, the 28-car field was whittled down to three 8-car fields for eliminations. We start our coverage with the "A" field, all qualified between Keith Zimmerer's track record 3.584 - 211.94 and #8 Shawn "Hillbilly" Murphy at a very good 3.813 - 197.05.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS -Saturday - Eliminations - Round ONE

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"B" field - 3.89 index

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"C" field - 4.11 index

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS -Saturday - Eliminations - Semi-Final

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"C" field - 4.11 index

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS -Saturday - Eliminations - FINAL Round

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"B" field - NO index

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The latest update as of April 24, 2026

We just received a raft of photos from the Funny Car Chaos season opener at Tulsa Raceway Park. We're starting our coverage with a couple of shots from Thursday's test session.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Thursday Test Session

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS -Friday - Qualifying Session #1

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS -Friday - Qualifying Session #2

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The latest update as of April 23, 2026

FUNNY CAR Qualifying - Session #3

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LEGACY NITRO FUNNY CAR Qualifying - Session #2

TOP FUEL Qualifying - Session #4 (FINAL)

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Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge - FINAL Round

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FUNNY CAR Qualifying - Session #4 (FINAL)

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Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge - FINAL Round

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LEGACY NITRO FUNNY CAR Qualifying - Eliminations Round ONE

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The latest update as of April 22, 2026

TOP FUEL Qualifying - Session #3

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Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge - 1st Round

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The latest update as of April 19, 2026

It's going to take a while to get all the photos posted from the NHRA Arizona Nationals and even longer for all the captions to be written. It's due to one of the side effects of a three week hospitalization as my hands and fingers start to shake when I try to do anything that requires even a mild amount of dexterity. Thar's why it's going to take quite a while to write all the pages of our coverage from the race. Bear with us as we work through it all. We're starting today with Top Sportsman eliminations as all 17 entrants went into the first round.

TOP SPORTSMAN Eliminations - Round ONE

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The latest update as of April 18, 2026

Looks like we'e got some work to do as the first batch of photos from our good friend Bob Snyder just arrived in the inbox. They're from the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals, held at Firebird Motorsports Park (Chandler, AZ), March 20th to 22nd. It's the first step on "Project Catch-Up" as we try to fill in the blanks from a missing month. While we start organizing and resizing the photos and working on the text to go with them, we'll take a look at an event that's happening much closer to home in mid-June.

It will be the biggest race in the history of Mission Raceway Park, spanning four days and combining two events in one. It's the RAD Torque Systems Canadian SPORTSnationals and NHRA Northwest Divisional race, plus a West Regional race for theTop Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars. It's going to be quite a weekend and we will be there to cover at least two days of the action.

There's a writeup about the event(s) on the NHRA website that gives more details on the event(s) and their impact on the track and the Northwest Division.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with the beginning of our coverage of the Arizona Nationals, starting with final qualifying on the Saturday. Stay tuned for that!

The latest update as of April 17, 2026

Hey, did I miss anything while I was "away"? I'm sure the answer is yes, ranging from a couple of NHRA events, two IHRA events, the March Meet, and the first two rounds of the Funny Car Chaos season. That's a lot to catch up on, but I', going to start picking away on it this weekend. Stay tuned for more - much more - over the next few days.

The latest update as of February 26, 2026

We're in Mexico until mid-March. Enjoy the next few weeks of drag racing!

The latest update as of February 20, 2026

Pre-Season testing at Gainesville Raceway

As we enter the fourth and final day of the PRO test session, a few things are starting to stand out clearly. There's a great number of cars, in both Top Fuel and Funny Car that have made very quick and very fast runs under incredibly good conditions at Gainesville. When the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals begins in two weeks time, the conditions could easily be much less conducive to such great performances. So, while we're all very impressed with the numbers being recorded this week, the ability to crank out those awesome timeslips will be tested when the pre-season ends and real competition begins.

The highlight for me at this point is the number of 340+ mph runs by the Top Fuel contingent that was easily the most ever, anywhere, with multiple drivers ringing up those numbers. The first to do so was Josh Hart, as the new driver at JFR pciked up right where Brittany Force left off in 2025, as the David Grubnic tuned monster cranked out back-to-back 340+ mph speeds, 340.47 and 340.22. Other drivers that broke into the 40's, were Justin Ashley, who cranked out a 3.727 - 340.82 yesterday and Doug Kalitta, who was quickest of the day at 3.659 coupled with a 340.47 mph speed.

Nearly joining them in the "40 club" was returning veteran Billy Torrence as he carded a best of 3.726 - 339.96, and Tony Stewart wasn't that far behind in the ex-Josh Hart (now Elite Performance) "R+L Carriers" car, with a 3.718 - 336.82 best. A host of other drivers made 3.80 passes as they worked on new parts and tuneups without stressing all-out performance.

Passing her first big test, newly minted Top Fuel driver Maddi Gordon earned her TF license with a best pass of 3.834 - 318.89, as the "Carlyle Tools" team slowly worked up the performance of the all-new car and driver. Another licensing driver was former (as in nearly 25 years ago!) Top Alcohol racer Jaren Mott who drove the Lary Dixon to a best of 3.95 - 256.06 as he worked through the licensing process.

The Funny Car contingent was led by World Champion Austin Prock in the Bob Tasca Motorcraft Ford, with a 3.878 - 329.91 best after working through some new car issues for the first two days of the test session. Prock's replacement at John Force Racing Jordan Vandergriff sailed through his crossover licensing process with a 3.886 - 332.75, while teammate Jack Beckman was just a tick behind at 3.887 - 323.89. The rest of the floppers were in the 3.90's and 4.00's, with Julie Nataas turning an impressive 4.005 - 320.43 in the Del Worsham car.

The latest update as of February 19, 2026

Pre-Season testing continues at Gainesville Raceway

The PRO (Professional Racers Organization) pre-season test session continued at Gainesville and the numbers igniting the scoreboards are getting more unreal by the hour. While the weather is ulta-conducive to HUGE numbers, and unfortunately won't likely be repeated at the Gatornationals, it's still mind-numbing to consider what lies ahead in the 2026 season. He started today's test with the quickest e.t. in history, at 3.621 and another huge speed with a 341.85 mph reading.

Later in the day, the Brian Husen-tuned monster came up to the line and despite dropping a cylinder momentarily at the start of the run, absolutely bombed the scoreboard with a 345.62 mph speed. The e.t. was "only" 3.695, but the "unicorn" air conditions allowed the Kalitta Air car to reset the highest marks ever for a piston-driven dragster. At that point the team decided that they had done enough "testing" and prepared to load up the car and wait until the week of the Gatornationals before running again.

The first report of Langdon's accomplshment came from Competition Plus, with webmaster/editor Bobby Bennett headling it as LANGDON'S 3.621 QUICKENED THE SPORT -- OFFICIAL OR NOT, IT'S THE QUICKEST TOP FUEL RUN IN HISTORY.

But the article that followed quickly went down a rabbit hole after the first few words, veering off in directions that had nothing to do with the magnitude of the run, and simply rehashed some old arguments from the 2025 season. Details that had absolutely nothing to do with today's accomplishment. Bennett even dragged up a disqualification of the Langdon-Kalitta team from the 2024 season. At the very end of the article, Bennett did get back to the real topic - the 3.621 run and finished on a brighter note, but not before hundreds of words that did not need to be written.

The latest update as of February 18, 2026

Pre-Season testing underway at Gainesville Raceway

There were a total of 65 runs made by the fuel racers at Gainesville Raceway yesterday, and the quickest two passes were carded by the 2025 World Champion Doug Kalitta. He opened the day with a 3.691 - 315.65 early shutoff run, then lit up the scoreboard with a 3.699 - 337.07 later in the day. Teammate Shawn Langdon was the only other racer to break into the 3.60's, ringing up a 3.699 best.

Making her debut in a Top Fuel car was Maddi Gordon in the Ron Capps-owned "Carlyle Tools" entry and she laid down a couple of 660' passes that stopped the clocks in the mid 4-second zone. They're not out to rotate the earth with her behind the wheel, but work up to the full track passes before her first competition race at the Gatornationals next month.

Leading the Funny Car contingent was J.R. Todd as the Kalitta Motorsports team tuned him to an excellent 3.861 - 338.00 for a career best speed, as they hope to rebound from a so-so season in 2025. They're certainly off to a good start with that pass.

If you thought Tuesday testing was great.... read this!

Earlier today, Shawn Langdon laid down the quickest and fastest pass of the two-day test session at Gainesville, absolutely bombing the scoreboard with a 3.640 - 342.11 pass. Neither number is better than the current national records set at the U.S. Nationals last year, when Brittany Force obliterated the previous bests with an incredible 3.623 - 343.51 blast. Langdon's performance were career bests for e.t. and speed, and bodes well for the coming season.

Changes and Updates

Yesterday's update referenced the current situation - ie., not racing - for Jasmine Salinas and Julie Nataas. This morning the news broke that Salinas will indeed be driving the family race car, the Valley Services - Scrappers Racing entry in at least ten NHRA national events in 2026. Although there isn't an entry filed yet, she reported that the team will start their campaign at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. With veteran crew chief Todd Okuhara leading the team, Salinas expects some very positive results, similar to what she experienced in the first quarter of the 2025 season. When she parked the car after the fifth race of the season, the team was sitting #5 in the points standings. Interestingly, one addition item from her announcement, that NHRA did not report on their website, was the addition of "some IHRA races" in addition to their NHRA schedule. No surprise there!

Another racer that didn't appear to be ready to compete, Julie Nataas is already entered for the Gatornationals in the "Hedingers" Nitro Funny Car. The car is owned and tuned by Del Worsham who has worked with Nataas in the past. As this report is being written, they are testing in Gainesville.

In other NItro Funny Car news, we've not yet mentioned the new driver of the Jim Dunn. It's been more than a decade since Alberta's (Canada) Todd Lesenko drove for Dunn, but with the departure of Buddy Hull, Todd climbed back into the "hot" seat. He's certainly looking forward to driving a car that isn't an odds-on favourite to blow the body off, as they did several times in the three seasons he drove for Dunn between 2011 - 2013. The car has been fairly consistent in recent times, not really quick enough to worry the competition, but gets down the track more often than not.

Another item just landed in the Northern Thunder inbox, courtesy of Competition Plus. Long-time NHRA Top Fuel racer Doug Foley is stepping out of the cockpit, replacing himself with up-and-coming Gary Pritchett. He's also added Ron Douglas, ex-crew chief for Josh Hart to assist with Foley's Doug Kuch. The move for Foley was, at least in part, precipitated by his "less than perfect" driving at the last few races of the 2025 season. That, and the desire to concentrate more on the management of the team, dictated the change in drivers. Pritchett has experience driving a variety of cars, including the Mike Salinas second car at the final event of the 2024 season. His first competition pass saw him rack up a 3.750 - 333.00 timeslip, and he thumped Steve Torrence in the first round of eliminations before dropping a very close quarter-final to Tony Stewart.

The latest update as of February 17, 2026

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division 7 - National Open - West Regional

It's a potpourri of drag racing coming up this weekend at Firebird Motorsports Park, as it's a Division Seven Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series race, combined with a Pacific Division National Open, and a West Regional Top Alcohol event. It starts with a test 'n tune on Wednesday, more time trials and qualifying on Thursday, eliminations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The alcohol cars test on Friday, qualify on Saturday, and race on Sunday. All in, it's five days of pedal to the metal drag racing in sunny Arizona. We haven't got confirmation that our photographer, Bob Snyder, is credentialed for the event, but if he is, we'll have lots of photos and reports over the weekend.

The final round of the three race Drag Illustrated Winter Series is slated for next weekend at Bardenton Motorsports Park (all three races at the same South Florida facility). The purse is $150,000 to win - winner take all - for this one, as the ante has been upped each time from the $50K at the Snowbirds and $75 at the U.S. Street Nationals. This time they've added a secondary purse of $25,000 with $15K to the winner, $5K to the runner-up, and $2500 each to the semifinalists. This "bonus" purse will be awarded at the end of a 32-car Wild Card Shootout for the first 32 alternates, ie., 33 - 64 on the Pro Mod qualifying list.

While we won't have anyone shooting for us at this race, as Larry Pfister is sitting out (most of?) this season after his "tour de force" last year, we will be following the race on the streaming outlets. It should be another can't miss show after the incredible performances at the Street Nationals. The 32-car bump spot was an insance 3.596, and the first five alternates also ran 3.59. Going all the way down the list to the #64 spot shows a 3.656 e.t., with the next three racers below that still in the 3.60's. Incredible! And with double the purse on offer for this final race of the 2025-2026 series, it could get even crazier. Expect 70++ cars in the pits.

This year marks the 68th edition of the Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet at Famoso Dragway. It's been on the drag racing calendar so long that the first one was possibly etched on a stone tablet. Over the years it's gone through a number of iterations, from the 100+-car (we're not kidding!) fields of Top Fuelers in the mid 60's, to the 8-car fields of the early 1980's, when it appeared that the race was on it's last legs. But it kept going and in the 1990's started growing in popularity as the California Hot Rod Reunion sprang to life. The two races, bookending the racing season, has greatly helped the resurgence of the March Meet, to the point that it's become a "can't miss" proposition for fans and racers alike.

We've been fortunate enough to be able to cover the race numerous times over the last two decades, and our fingers are crossed hoping that our photographer, Dale Fackler, will be on the media roster for this year's race. In recent years, the track has severely curtailed the number of photographers allowed trackside, and we're hoping that this year Northern Thunder will be among the chosen few. After seven consecutive years (2018-2024) of covering the race, we waited until the last minute to apply for credentials in 2025, and subsequently missed the "cut".

Check out our coverage of previous events by clicking: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

A few Quick Hits

Biggest news this week - so far - is yet another racetrack acquisition by Darryl Cuttell and the IHRA. This time it's Virginia Motorsports Park, soon to be known as another Darana-branded facility. You can read the official announcement on the Drag Illustrated A HREF=https://dragillustrated.com/virginia-motorsports-park-joins-ihra-collection-of-tracks/" target=_blank">website. We're not sure what effect this latest move will have on their 2026 Outlaw Nitro Series schedule, but Virginia is ready to host any size event that IHRA wishes to run. Could there possibly be a change of venue for one of the "Triple Crown" races? More news as it develops.

P.S. to IHRA: instead of the lame "new website coming soon" message that's been displayed for nearly two months, hire somebody to completely reorganize the site. It's a mess, and the "search engine " (don't make me laugh) is worse than useless. Considering all the money that Cuttell has been throwing at his IHRA project, one of the first orders of business should have been to construct a useful, informative, up-to-date website... and keep it updated. Example: the latest "news" is datelined January 31. There is no schedule posted (except a couple of incomplete ones on Facebook), no list of tracks, nothing that is really useful at this point. IHRA, you can - and must - do better.

The entry lists for the first three NHRA national events are already posted on the NHRA website, with some names on them already and presumably, many more to come. One prominent name from the past 17 years that is missing this year is four-time (consecutively) Top Fuel World Champion Steve Torrence in Top Fuel. He's been replaced in the seat of the CAPCO entry this season by his father, Billy. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him make at least one cameo appearance before the year is out. The other consistent Top Tenner to drop out this season is Brittany Force who has retired, at least temporarily, to start a family. Based on the fact that her sisters Ashley and Courtney never came back to race, Brittany might be joining them on the sidelines permanently.

There's been a few more crew chief changes in the past few weeks, and a few small surprises. The latest sees Jon Oberhofer joining his brother Jim and Nicky Boninfante to tune the Rick Ware Racing dragsters driven by Tony Schumacher and Clay Millian. That could be quite a formidable combination with the well-funded driver and lots of experience in and out of the seat(s). After leaving the Paul Lee team, John Medlen has joined Antron Brown's AB Motorsports team as a consultant. On a related note, after stating that he was stepping back from regular competition this year due to business constraints, Paul Lee is on the entry list for two of the first three events of the season.

A few weeks back (sorry, but we're just catching up now), the John Force Racing team announced their crew chief lineup for the 2026 season and it includes a few changes, especially with the ex-Austin Prock ride, that's now in the hands of "rookie" Jordan Vandergriff. He'll be tuned by Chris Cunningham, who was the co-crew chief on Jack Beckman's car last year, and newcomer Jason Bunker the ex-Cruz Pedregon crew chief. Alexis DeJoria brought her crew chief from last year, Mike Neff back to JFR, where he'll be joined with ex-Paul Lee crew chief Jonnie Lindberg for the new season.

On the down side, we've still yet to see any sign that neither Jasmine Salinas,or Julie Nataas are any closer to competing this season, as their respective sponsor hunts continue. One driver that appeared to be on the sidelines to start the season, Ida Zetterstrom, is going to share the driving duties with Shawn Reed as he needs to spend more time operating his business and won't be able to run full-time. There's no word yet on just what the breakdown of races for each driver will be.

One announcement that caught everyone off guard came out yesterday, as Jacob McNeal and Jeff Diehl made a joint announcement that McNeal would be driving the "Surfer's" car at all eight IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series events this season. Diehl will pilot the car at the Triple Crown races and select NHRA national events. McNeal has been successful driving a Pro Mod car for the last two years, but is back into a nitro car again. After a long stint in Top Dragster and a Randy Meyer A/Fuel Dragster race at the end of the 2022 season, McNeal drove Scott Palmer's Top Fuel car at four events in 2023. Then he made a big announcement that he was purchasing Buddy Hull's Top Fuel operation, with plans to compete at eight events in 2024.

That idea vanished into thin air shortly after a test session at the Texas Motorplex in January, and his planned debut as a team owner at the Gatornationals never happened. He resurfaced in a Pro Mod '71 Cuda in 2025, running the MWDRS (Mid-West Drag Racing Series), finishing second in the points standings, and ran a pair of IHRA races before licensing in Diehl's Funny Car at the end of the season. He's competed at the first two Winter Series events, and is on the entry list for next week's World Series of Pro Mod. After that, his schedule shows him driving Diehl's car at all the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series races this season, in addition to the Pro Mod car at all seven MWDRS races in 2026. Quite an ambitious target, and it will be interesting to see if he can make it happen. Stay tuned on that one!

That's all for today, but we'll be back tomorrow with some news about events closer to home. Here's a teaser:

The latest update as of January 26, 2026

Monday Morning Musings

I'm still processing some of my feelings about the U.S. Street Nationals that took place over the weekend at Bradenton Motosports Park in Florida. There was an overflow attendance of 70 Pro Mod cars that headlined the event, all vying for the "winner take all" $75,000. Oddly enough, in my estimation, is that the turnout was less than the 80 cars that attended the Snowbird Nationals in early December. One reason that could factor into the lower number of racers was the dire weather that swept through most of the U.S. over the past week. Watching the race with people wearing shorts and t-shirts, while blizzards raged in much of the country seemed a little bizarre and made it difficult to comprehend what lay not that many miles north and west from Bradenton.

While I'm not a big fan of giving the entire purse to the winner, and nothing to anyone else at an event is somewhat foreign to me, it does have an attraction to the gambler that lurks within most of us. However, when the "buy-in" (aka: entry fee) is $2,000 and the possible payout is $75,000, with odds of 70-1 against taking the big prize, it leaves me wondering why so many racers paid a total of $140K in entry fees, while the promoter was only paying out $75K. Oddly enough, the payouts to the racers in the other categories were more than the entry fees collected.

The disparity in "return on investment" was even more pronounced at the Snowbirds, as 80 Pro Mod racers paid a total of $160,000 in entry fees for a chance at a $50,000 (winner take all) purse. And the other classes received more in return, albeit mostly to the winner, than was contributed in entry fees. With the same entry fees being charged at the World Series of Pro Mod next month, but a winner's purse of $150,000, the math will be closer to being balanced.

Judging by the light attendance on Sunday for the bulk of eliminations, and the relatively small size of the grandstands, it looks like the racers, Pro Mod especially, are financing the event(s). While the professional quality broadcast, with Brian Lohnes as the lead announcer, was well produced and obviously not inexpensive to produce, I'm left wondering why the major drawing cards are footing much of the cost of the races. There was a GIANT carrot dangled in front of the racers in the form of the Elite Motorsports Million, that was available to one racer it they could win all three events of the DI Winter Series.

That possibility evaporated in the second pairing of the first round of eliminations, as the Snowbird Nationals winner, Jason Harris lost. If he had been able to sweep the series, the total payout to him would have been $1,275,000. That was a very serious incentive, but the odds of winning it were so slim that it was somewhat akin to a lottery where almost everyone loses, and in this case, everyone did lose the big prize.

The latest update as of January 25, 2026

U.S. Street Nationals - Sunday report

The final day of eliminations at the U.S. Street Nationals dawned just like Saturday, with heavy cloud cover and fog. By the time the Pro Mods lined up for the second of eliminations, the clouds were clearing and the sun was starting to shine on the track. The rapidly changing conditions must have thrown crew chiefs and drivers alike into panic mode to adjust for the increased track and air temperatures. As was done for the first round yesterday, a chip draw was used to determine the pairings. Lane choice was awarded in the traditional way though, based on the previous round's elapsed times.

PRO MOD Eliminations - Round TWO

The round opened with a close race between John Doc and Kye Kelley. Doc took the winlight with a very quick 3.562 - 210.37 over Kelley's close 3.602 - 208.71 effort. The next pair saw Montana's Derek Menholt nearly match Doc's e.t. with a winning 3.565 - 211.39 over a tire shaking Jason Harris. That ended Harris's bid for the Elite Performance Million (dollar) bonus. Next up was Canada's Spencer Hyde, who cut a perfect .000 light and rang up a 3.572 - 209.36 winning time to advance to the third round. The next two pairs racked up slower times as Kallee Mills got a lucky win when her opponent redlighted and Peter Norton took out fan favourite Lyle Barnett.<

Bradenton track owner Victor Alvarez "got up on the tire" a little too hard in the next pair, redlighting by just .001, giving the automatic win to Eric Gustafson, who turned low e.t. of the meet with a crushing 3.544 - 210.37. The competition stayed intense with the final two pairs featuring side-by-side 3.50's, as Randy Weatherford, with a 3.566 - 210.47, and Stevie "Fast" Jackson, with a 3.583 - 210.11, as both advanced to the quarter-final round. Jackson was outrun by two thousandths of a second on his pass, but Brylon Holder's -.010 redlight cost him the chance to advance.

PRO MOD Eliminations - Round THREE

With the intensity ramping up as each round progressed, the teams tried to put down maximum performances under less than ideal conditions as the mid-afternoon sun brought up track and air temps enough to make it a tricky equation of power and traction for the racers. Stevie Jackson opened with low e.t. of the round, a 3.771 - 202.39, as Spencer Hyde slowed to a losing 3.902 clocking. The next match was a pedalfest as Peter Norton outlasted Kaylee Mills with a 4.304 winning time. Then it was back to a side-by-side 3-second race between Derek Menholt, who took the win with a decent for the conditions 3.774 - 204.63 over John Doc's fading 3.963 effort. The rounded ended with another 4-second battle, with Eric Gustafason turning on the winlight with a 4.064 - 199.43 over Randy Weatherford.

PRO MOD Eliminations - Round FOUR (Semifinal)

In the late afternoon, with the track cooling, the racers were able to put as much power as they could muster to the track. The first pair saw Stevie Jackson putting a serious holeshot (.026 to .080) on opponent Eric Gustafson, and hold on for the win with a 3.602 - 209.43, over Gustafson's quicker, but losing, 3.591 - 209.07 effort. The final pair of the round matched Peter Norton with Derek Menholt. They were almost identical on reaction time (.017 - .018) but at the finish line, Menholt's 3.588 - 210.97 was just enough to hold off Norton's very close 3.604 - 209.79 clocking.

PRO MOD Eliminations - Round FIVE (FINAL)

With all the marbles on the table, and $75,000 awaiting the winner, the tension on both racers must have been incredible. They were both ready - and in one case, more than ready - for the green light, as Derek Menholt redlighted by .006 of a second, while Stevie Jackson left on a .011 green. Jackson won automatically, and turned a quicker e.t. with an excellent 3.566 - 210.80, while Menholt's scoreboard read an almost equally impressive 3.570 -211.36. A heartbreaking finish for Menholt, but a redemption for Jackson, who's battled through some tough times over the last few seasons.

The latest update as of January 24, 2026

U.S. Street Nationals - Saturday report

The second day of qualifying at Bradenton was completed yesterday afternoon. With three sessions completed and just one more on tap for this morning, it's down to crunch time for the non-qualifed and barely qualified drivers. There's already a record sub 3.60 bump spot, and the first 31 alternates under 3.70. It was a foggy morning in Florida, and the cooler conditions should produce some serious horsepower making, similar to the early session yesterday. However, that second qualifying session saw a lot of tire shake and/or wheelstands for the first half of the session, before conditions "normalized". While quite a few cars stepped up early in the session, once the air and track temps warmed up, only a few cars recorded better times that they did on Thursday night.

PRO MOD Qualifying - Session #4 (FINAL)

Starting an hour late due to the fog, the first pair out of the lanes, both veterans of the Street Outlaws scene, lit up the scoreboards with by far their best runs of the weekend. Shawn "Murder Nova" Ellington blasted his way into the field with a 3.588 - 222.22 pass (second highest mph of the meet) to bust into the field in a big way, going all the way from #70 to #22, and lowering the bump spot to a 3.596. In the other lane, Scott Taylor came close, improving dramatically to a 3.608 - 208.20 and gained 32 positions on the ladder, but missed qualifying by a little more than one hundredth of second. What a start to the session!

In the next pair, Ed Thornton failed to qualify but upped Ellington's second best speed with a 222.88 speed that showed the BIG horsepower that the turbo entries were capable of. As the round continued, the sun started breaking through the light cloud cover, and while some racers improved, but not enough to get close to qualifying, the number of "busted" runs, with tire shake, wheelstands, and out-of-shape cars increased. It took until the 10th pair of the session before anyone came close to breaking into the field, that being Joel Wensley with a very good - but not good enough - 3.605 - 208.81 that ultimately left him in the #40 spot on the ladder.

Three pairs later, Kyle Dvorak laid down the second 3.50 pass of the round, clocking a 3.598 - 209.92 to come close to qualifying, in the 34th spot temporarily before falling to #36 at the end of qualifying. More low 3.60 runs kept showing up on the scoreboard before Mike Bowman became the second racer of the session to break into the field with a 3.596 at a booming 218.41 mph. That put him in the #31 spot before ultimately dropping to the final bump spot when Erica Enders, in the next pairing, laid down a 3.595 - 209.46 to grab the #30 spot and become the last driver to move into a qualified position. Her running mate on that pass, Aaron Stanfield fell just short of joining her with a solid 3.600 - 208.49 that left him in the #37 slot at the end of qualifying.

As the qualifying session wound down, more 3.50-zone numbers started showing up on the scoreboards, with five pairs of side-by-side 3.50's notched up. Not many drivers moved up in the field, but Melanie Salemi, with a 3.574 - 209.36 jumped five spots before dropping back one to end up at #15. An almost as strong 3.577 - 210.01 elevated Brylon Holder six positions, leaving him #17 in the final order. As the last few pairs made their runs it was Stevie "Fast" Jackson that turned low e.t. of the round, a 3.572 - 211.16, before that clocking was eclipsed just one pair later, when Randy Weatherford pounded out a 3.563 - 211.03 to solidify his hold on the #3 position.

Qualifying ended with the top two qualifiers matched up and #1 Jimmy Taylor held on to the position despite a tire shaking early shutoff run. Failing to overtake him on the qualifying sheet was the Snowbird Nationals champion Jason Harris, who was hoping to go for the Jerry Bickel Clean Sweep Challenge prize by being low qualifier at all three Winter Series races. He fell two hundredths short on his final qualifying run, with a 3.574 - 211.20 clocking. He ran just one thousandth slower than Taylor during Thursday evening's first qualifying session and was never able to better his e.t. in the following rounds of qualifying.

With qualifying completed, and the first round of eliminations scheduled for early evening, the only remaining task for the racers was the "chip draw" to determine the pairings for the first round. Normally, the eliminations ladder would be set up with #1 vs #32, and so on down to #16 facing #17 in the opening round. However, with a field so tightly bunched by just four hundredths of a second, there will certainly be many matchups that come down to reaction times to determine the winners.

PRO MOD Eliminations - Round ONE

The first pair out of the lanes gave the fans a taste of what was to come as both drivers laid down 3.50 passes, with Spencer Hyde prevailing with his 3.575 - 210.14 taking out a close 3.599 - 208.55 pass by Steve King. The beat kept going with another side-by-side pair of "50's" as Victor Alvarez lit up the scoreboard with his 3.585 - 211.33 to hold off the thundering turbo car of Mike Bowman, who stopped the clocks with a 3.594 e.t. coupled with a huge 220.91 speed. After a pedalfest between Peter Norton and Canada's Justin Bond, that saw Norton prevail with a 4.566 clocking, things got back to "normal" with another pair of 3.50 runs. Brazil's Sidnei Frigo took the win in a close race as his 3.596 - 211.49 was just enough to hold off Jay Cox's not quite quick enough 3.601 - 209.46.

The latest update as of January 23, 2026

U.S. Street Nationals - Friday report

PRO MOD Qualifying - Session #2

The second qualifying session has been completed at Bradenton, and the incredible bump spot set yesterday has fallen even further. The session started at 9:00 am EST and the cool, dense air was perfect for some great elapsed times. The first pair out of the lanes proved that, with Canadian Kenny Lang blasting his way into the field with a very strong 3.608 - 208.01 to jump from the #68 spot on the list, all the way to #24, but not quite safely qualified. The beat went on as the next four pairs of cars saw only one of each pair lay down a competititve run, but those runs quickly whittled the bump spot down to 3.618. Quickest among them was Randy Weatherford's 3.558 - 211.16 pass, initiated with an incredible .890 60' foot time.

Then things changed with the sixth pair both putting a qualifying time on the scoreboards, as the cutoff line moved down to a 3.616 e.t. Following a pair of non competitive runs, the bumping continued with Pro Stock star Erica Enders joining the party as he pounded out a 3.607 - 208.10 to grab a very tentative 31st spot in the field. That only held until the next car crossed the finish line as a 3.592 byRobert Costa dropped her to the 33rd spot, with Jay Cox - who was still in the staging lanes - on the bubble. Then things settle down as the following nine pairs ran mostly competitive runs, but mid 3.60's weren't even close to getting in the show and the bump with 29 of the 32 qualifiers - to that point - in the 3.50-zone.

Closest to making the field was former Pro Stock racer Bo Butner (aka Bob Utner), as he just missed with a 3.611 - 208.97 that was only good enough for the #34 spot on the list. After him there were all the qualified cars from Thursday, with ten of them already on the outside, looking in. The first pair of that pack featured Pro Stock World Champion Dallas Glenn in a split-window '63 'Vette and he bumped his way back into the field with a solid 3.605 - 206.99. Running alongside him was Lyle Barnett, who cranked out an even better 3.581 - 211.76 number. Glenn barely made into the qualified field, sitting in the 31st spot, with a large group of strong runners waiting in the wings.

Two pairs later, Jim Halsey and Jay Cox cranked out side-by-side 3.50's, with Cox's 3.583 - 210.44 getting him back into the top 32, going all the way to the #18 spot, while Halsey grabbed the #28 rung on the ladder. That moved the bump spot down to a 3.603, with Glenn's great already outside the field and just two 3.60-zone qualifiers, with two dozen racers waiting to change that. And the next car down the track, Pro Stock racer Aaron Stanfield tightened things up just a little more, with his 3.598 - 208.14 moving the bubble to Kurt Steding's 3.603 - 207.59. The last few pairs of cars didn't move the needle any further, leaving 31 cars in the 3.50-zone and incredibly, 29 in the 3.60's. Can you believe that a 3.689 - 210.54 pass would only be good enough for the 28th alternate spot?

The third qualifying session is on tap for later this afternoon and the final session tomorrow afternoon, with the first round of eliminations scheduled for Saturday evening. It's possible that the field could get even tighter, and almost certainly will end up with a bump spot in the 3.50's. It's been quite a show through the first two sessions, and with much more to come, it's a race to be remembered for a long time. Let's not forget that the World Series of Pro Mod will be happening at this same track at the end of February, with a $150,000 winner take all purse. That is double the $75K on the line for the winner of this weekend's event.

Finally, if one racer can win all three races in the Drag Illustrated series (Snowbird Nationals, U.S. Street Nationals, and the World Series of Pro Mod), they will take home the "Elite Motorsports Million" dollar bonus purse. Jason Harris won the Snowbird Nationals and is well positioned near the top of the field this weekend to keep his chances alive for the biggest prise ever offered in drag racing. There's also a "Jerry Bickel Race Cars Clean Sweep Challenge" that will be awarded if a racer top qualifies at all three races. The prize is a brand-new Pro Mod rolling chassis. That's quite a lineup of prizes for the Pro Mod racers.

PRO MOD Qualifying - Session #3

The latest update as of January 22, 2026

U.S. Street Nationals - Thursday report

After the first qualifying session at Bradenton Motorsports Park, the Drag Illustrated Winter Series U.S. Street Nationals has an absolutely unreal bump spot of 3.632 for the 32-car field. Almost as crazy is the fact that the first 15 alternates are in the 3.60's and the qualifying sheet shows that 69 racers made at least one qualifying attempt. There's quite a few big names on the list, with three top ten Pro Stockers (Dallas Glenn, Aaron Stanfield, and Erica Enders) entered, plus Top Fuel racer Scott Palmer and Nitro Funny Car driver Spencer Hyde.

And there's quite a few of the Street Outlaws alumni, with Kye Kelley, Scott Taylor, and Shawn "Murder Nova" Ellington. Plus there's too many NHRA Pro Mod regulars to list, at least a dozen in addition to a big bunch of PDRA Pro Boost runners. It looks like the only thing missing from last year's event is good friend and ace lensman Larry Pfister, who produced so many great images of that magical event.

PRO MOD Qualifying - Session #1

The latest update as of January 21, 2026

Tasca - Prock: The rest of the story

Yesterday, the other "shoe(s)" in the Prock team going from JFR (John Force Racing) to Bob Tasca's team for the 2026 season. The story of how the change came about, from Austin Prock himself, first broke on the NHRA.com website, then was picked up and reposted, with a few changes and some embellishments, on the Competition Plus site.

While the NHRA story was more matter of fact with the headline being Austin Prock and team preparing for the next chapter of their story, the Comp Plus header was PROCK EMBRACES HEEL ROLE AS NEW ERA BEGINS WITH TASCA AND FORD. It came across with a pro wrestling analogy, with Prock being the "heel", and bragging about starting the season with a "drop the door and run .84" at the season opening event, the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Making a brash statement like that could seriously backfire on Prock if he can't make it happen, but the odds are that they will be very competitive after some pre-season testing to work out any bugs in the new operation. One constant for Prock is that the entire team that was at JFR, all 13 of them, are on board at Tasca Racing.

Another announcement in the Funny Car "wars" is the return of Canadian Todd Lesenko to the Jim Dunn team. He drove for Dunn at the last three races of the 2011 season, and all of the 2012 campaign. He didn't experience much success then, with some major breakages, culminating with blowing the body off and crashing at the season ending World Finals. Concurrent with Lesenko being named as driver, the Dunn team has formed an alliance with AB (Antron Brown) Motorsports, and will pit next to them and share information and provide parts and tuning assistance to the Dunn team. That should at least make them a competitive car this season.

We almost forgot to mention that there's been another departure from John Force's camp. Long-time crewman for JFR, Jon Schaffer has gone to the Paul Lee team, taking over the position of crew chief for the team. That news seems to contradict Lee's earlier statement that he would only be running a partial schedule in 2025, which appeared to be at least part of the reason for his former crew chief, Jonnie Lindberg leaving the Lee camp. Lindberg has landed a co-crew chief job at JFR, tuning Alexis DeJoria's car.

Another crew chief change sees ex-Cruz Pedregon tuner Jason Bunker working with Jordan Vandergriff, the new pilot for the ex-Austin Prock ride at John Force Racing.

The latest update as of January 15, 2026

Tasca OUT... Prock IN

We certainly didn't foresee that happening. For the past two months it's been rumoured and all but confirmed that the Prock "triumvirate" (Austin, Jimmy, Thomas) were going to be joining Tasca Racing for the 2026 season. But I don't think anyone thought it was going to be a single car team, with Austin Prock driving, and Bob Tasca III vacating the seat of his car. The media release, which just landed a few minutes ago (4:45 PDT), also mentioned that the entire Prock family racing team was going to be on board at Tasca Racing. Presumably that means the entire crew that worked on Austin's car at JFR (John Force Racing) last year.

With nothing new from the IHRA in the last few days, today's announcement is easily the biggest news of the week. It certainly overshadows the addition of a second Top Fuel team to the SCAG Motorsports group, with Will Smith driving the "BlueBird Turf" dragster. Or anything coming out of the IHRA since their BIG "splash of cash" purse announcements last week.

In Northern Thunder news, we've been working hard on updating some of the Feature events of the past season, including the season-ending NHRA Nevada Nationals, and several Funny Car Chaos races from earlier in the 2025 season. There's still quite a few blanks to be filled in on our feature coverage over the past decade, but that will always remain a "work in progress". Stay tuned for more updates on that work as it happens.

The latest update as of January 11, 2026

Where do we start?

With so much going on besides actual drag racing, it's difficult to list everything without missing something. But let's give it a try and see how many blanks we can fill in.

IHRA made quite a splash yesterday with the release of an 8-race Outlaw Nitro Series schedule, PLUS a three race "Triple Crown" series for the professional classes. In addition, a season championship points fund was announced. The total dollar value of all these elements was a possible $13,653,900. That is some serious outlay for an association that has no sponsors, other than the owner, of Cuttell Motorsports LLC, Darryl Cuttell. The only other income is through racer entry fees and gate admissions, which so far haven't amounted to very much.

Other large expenditures by IHRA recently include a $10,000,000 charitable donation to the world renowned St. Jude's Children's Hospital earlier in the month. And the purchases of major drag racing facilities continues, with Heartland Park Topeka, Maple Grove Raceway, and Memphis International Raceway. This is all in addition to taking over WDRA (World Drag Racing Association), IHRA Australia, F-1 Powerboat Racing Association, IHRA OffShore Power Boating series, an alliance with two tractor pulling associations, the IHRA Stock Car Series, and the launching of an IHRA Pro Watercraft Racing Series.

The next task for the IHRA should be a complete revamping of their website, which hasn't been updated for more than two weeks, doesn't have a directory of member tracks, doesn't have a working event search engine, among many other shortcomings. All of their recent announcements have been via their Facebook page, but that appears disjointed at times. And don't get me started on the track names - Darana this, Darana that, and from one FB posting to the next, changes of the names, back and forth from their original titles to Darana-ized versions, then back again.

It remains to be seen if the posted purses and championship bonuses for the 2026 IHRA season will actually happen... or if the whole structure will collapse into bankruptcy. I'd like to see it work, especially for the lower-funded racers that could use an alternative to NHRA. We're eagerly awaiting the start of the IHRA season at Darana Motorsports Park (formerly Galot Motorsports Park) in North Carolina on March 19th. That's just nine weeks from now, and believe me, it will be here almost before we know it.

Here are the schedules, purses and cahmpionship bonuses that IHRA is posting for the 2026 season. Click on the graphics to see larger versions.