Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Making Car of Tomorrow With Robotics of Today
For all the technology that goes into stock-car racing, Nascar remains a labor-intensive competition, as each race car chassis is welded together by hand. That will change this year when Evernham Motorsports becomes the first Nextel Cup team to use robotics to aid in building racecars.
Hoping That X Games Can Turn White Into Green
Born in backcountry mountain terrain a decade ago, snowmobile freestyle, the newest event in the Winter X Games, made its prime-time debut Thursday on ESPN. Is there a chiropractor in the house?
A Mechanic’s Laptop Makes Manuals All but Obsolete
Today's mechanics are losing the big auto manuals and are turning to laptops and the Internet to keep up with modern automotive technology.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

TV show back on track after jet dragster accident
As Top Gear swaggers back tonight, Nicholas Rufford looks at the show that put a rocket up genteel TV driving programmes.
Top 10 Exasperating Driver Types in Southern California
The author came up with a list of 10 Southern California driver types that will be familiar to anyone who lives there (or lives in any other major metropolitan area these days).

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Carter into Andersen Racing seat
Things can move very quickly off-track as well as on-track in drag racing. Two weeks ago Eurodragster.com revealed UK Top Fuel racer Andy Carter's major new sponsorship deal with Lucas Oil, and then this past Monday broke the shock news that 2006 FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Håkan Nilsson has retired from drag racing. Another announcement this morning brought the two stories together: Andy Carter is now to drive Per and Karsten Andersen's Top Fueller, which Håkan shoed to last year's title, whilst Andy's own dragster will again be used as a show car. You can read the full story on Eurodragster.com.
Park, He Said
A road test of the self-parking device on the new Lexus LS 460 L.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Ashley Force records career best 4.729 in Castrol GTX Ford
After making slow and steady progress in the first three days of testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, second generation Funny Car driver Ashley Force made the most of her final opportunity by pushing her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang through the timers in a career best 4.729 seconds on Tuesday.
A new Force in Funny Car
Ashley Force figures girls just want to have fun, so what better place than inside a Funny Car?
Checkered Flag, or Red Flag?
After years of expanding its presence in the United States and beyond, the Toyota Motor Company of Japan recently issued a 2007 forecast that would make it first in global sales. And now, Toyota is about to begin competing with its American counterparts on yet another level: Nascar’s premier circuit, the Nextel Cup.
Unique Cobra Brings $5.5M at Car Auction
An 800-horsepower Shelby Cobra, once the personal car of the racing veteran who developed the iconic vehicle, has sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car.
Hot rod babes not afraid to keep motors running all by themselves
Rachelle is the sort of girl who doesn't mind picking up a wrench and getting her hands dirty. Then she'll clean up, put on a dress, heels, some red lipstick and pin curls in her hair, and head out with her boyfriend to Lost Weekend in Alameda to do the Western swing to a smokin' rockabilly band.
Ford Shows a Hybrid Car With 2 Modes: Electric or Electric
Move over, gas-electric hybrid. Ford has a new entry, the electric-electric hybrid.
A mere tinge of green
General Motors -- the bad-daddy patriarch of Detroit, the strangler of electric cars, the 800-pound plaintiff against air-quality rules from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento — reached out and hugged a tree last week.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

NASCAR Scoring Changes Gives Edge to Race Winners
Three seasons into their much ballyhooed postseason Chase for the Nextel Cup, NASCAR officials announced yesterday that they'll tweak their formula for crowning stock-car racing's champion yet again, awarding drivers more points for winning races rather than simply finishing well.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Brittany Force hospitalized after NHRA accident in Las Vegas
Brittany Force, daughter of 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, was being observed at a Las Vegas hospital Saturday after hitting the wall during preseason testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Hondaddy's TD3 Racing
A sport compact driver with a message to his fellow tuners and a ton of videos of sport compact drag racing.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007


Carter unveils Lucas Oil sponsorship
The latest drag racer to benefit from the Lucas Oil largesse is UK Top Fuel Dragster racer and twice FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Andy Carter who unveiled his new sponsorship deal at the Autosport International motorsport industry show last weekend. The week before the show, Andy invited Eurodragster.com to his workshop to get a sneak preview of his dragster in its new colours and to talk about the new deal with Lucas Oil.
Autosport International
The NEC in Birmingham, England, hosted the annual Autosport International motorsport industry show this past weekend. Eurodragster.com went along to the NEC to report on the drag racing interest at the prestigious show.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Veteran Mopar star "Dandy Dick" Landy dies
Dick Landy, the popular cigar-chomping engine builder and driver who campaigned successful Dodge factory race cars in a variety of classes including Pro Stock throughout the 1960s and early '70s, died Jan. 11 of kidney failure. He was 69.
ADRL Announces Major Changes for 10.5 Class
O'FALLON, Mo. - After several weeks of trying to create a set of rules that would result in a level playing field for its newest professional class, Pro 10.5, the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League competition committee announced a major twist to its version of the ultra-popular 10.5 cars. Beginning with the first event of 2007, there will be no performance or minimum weight restrictions on the 10.5 cars that run in the ADRL.

The 10.5 cars will continue to be required to meet all of the ADRL's safety and appearance requirements. In addition, all 10.5 cars running in the ADRL must have working headlights and tail lights, mufflers, and working suspension. A complete set of rules will be available in the rules section at www.adrl.us in the coming days.

"The ADRL was founded on one simple philosophy: make the cars as safe as possible and then let them 'run what they brung and hope they brung enough,' " explained ADRL 10.5 series director Quick Vandiver. "Our competition committee felt that it was vital that we applied that same philosophy while creating the foundation of our 10.5 series.

"The 2007 ADRL rule book was scheduled to be released on Jan. 1 and the issues surrounding the 10.5 rules have delayed that a bit. With the outcome of today's meetings and the decisions that were made we will have the final version of our 2007 rules to SFI for review by this Friday and the final version available to our racers by Wednesday of next week at the latest."

In addition to the drastic rules changes the class also got a new name. Effective immediately, the ADRL's 10.5 class will be known as Extreme 10.5.

"'Pro 10.5' just does not do the ADRL's new version of 10.5 racing justice," said ADRL President Kenny Nowling. "Our version is going to be just what the new name says: extreme. I have to give credit where credit is due, though: it was actually ADRL 10.5 racer and defending Dragstock champion Steve Kirk Jr.'s idea. When I called him to inform him of our new direction he said, 'You are going to see some extreme 10.5 racing come Montgomery. As a matter of fact, you should rename the class Extreme 10.5,' so that's exactly what I did."

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Big Three Look Back to Past Glories and Dream of Muscle
As Detroit automakers try to find a winning game plan to reverse their sliding market share, it is clear from the cars on display at the North American International Auto Show that they are trying to play up a distinct advantage over their Asian and European competitors — nobody, after all, can design the look of the American muscle car quite like American car companies.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Corvette Challenge Drag Racing Series
Seven years ago, Brian Miller had a novel idea. His vision was to provide a setting in which Corvette owners-and only Corvette owners-could compete with each other at the dragstrip.
Racing Runs in Huffman Clan
Donnie Huffman has won five national drag racing championships on Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the last three years, two of them in the 2006 season.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The Drag Racing Blog
Man, this is a great looking blog. A few months out of date, but worth a look just for the sheer beauty of it.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Australian Top Fuel Champion Owns the Night Fire
Reigning Australian Top Fuel Champion Phil Read made a serious points purchase towards back-to-back crowns in the kings of the sport of Drag Racing, after securing a strong win at the New Year's 'Night Fire' event at Queensland's Willowbank Raceway.
Owosso resident runs down 15-year-old dream by drag racing
Bill Reichert finally caught up to his dream this past summer and fall. In his next-to-last race of the season at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals in Richmond, Va. Reichert clinched the national title by reaching the semifinals.
Guam: Racing for the fun of it
Drag racing is not for everyone. It takes a certain kind of person with a knowledge of automobiles, driving skill, and a lot of dedication. For A.J. Blas of Barrigada, drag racing his truck on Friday nights just comes naturally.
Boland lives the racing life - at full throttle
Bruce Boland intends to step up in Pro Mod for 2007 -- by stuffing a late model Hemi under the hood of his Corvette.
NASCAR Driver Bobby Hamilton Dies at 49
A throwback to NASCAR's good old days, Bobby Hamilton paid his early bills driving a wrecker, got his NASCAR break driving a car used in 'Days of Thunder' and won the 2004 Craftsman Truck championship in his own truck.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

NHRA National Event Entry Statistics
Here's an interesting site that you can follow this year to see how many cars NHRA gets for each event. Note that there are quotas for how many cars can enter each event, even pros.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Capps Does Atlantic City Meet & Greet on January 12
Ron Capps, driver of the Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, will greet fans and sign autographs at the Motorsports 2007 Presented by VP Racing Fuels Race Car show at Atlantic City¹s Convention Center on Jan. 12.
Local racer thinks drag strip would benefit area
Tucson resident wants to take youthful drag racers off the streets and give them a legal venue in which to speed.
DragTimes.com Expands to Include Dynamometer Data, Features Muscle Cars and Launches Syndication Scripts
Draglist.com partner DragTimes.com has expanded its drag racing database to include dynamometer data, launches syndication scripts to distribute live information to automotive website developers and features select classic and modern day muscle cars.
Jeg Coughlin Sr.’s legacy looms large
Drag-racing fans will quickly recognize the name Jeg Coughlin Jr., the former NHRA Pro Stock champion. However, the current “Jeg” is actually the son of the original Jeg Coughlin, a former racer and automotive aftermarket pioneer.
Legendary female driver reaching out to younger generation
Lyn St. James puts on a racing school/seminar that even drag racing youngsters are attending.
Drag Racing’s Best & Worst of 2006
Norm Froscher offers his insights into to the 2006 NHRA season.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Mickey Thompson's murderer convicted
An auto racing promoter was convicted Thursday in the slayings of racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife, who were shot to death in 1988 while leaving their gated home for work.
Bitter ex-partner guilty of killing racing legend
Michael Goodwin, once a high-living motorsports promoter, was convicted of two counts of murder Thursday in the 1988 ambush killings of Mickey Thompson and the racing legend's wife.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Drag List of the Week: All time quickest cars, regardless of class!
We are kicking off a new feature here at draglist.com, and we need your help! Each week, we'll feature the Drag List of the Week. What that means is, we will sort the drag lists into whatever configuration YOU decide! Do you want to see the quickest Chevy fuelers? Do you want to see a list of ALL fuel cars, sorted by speed? Do you want to see a list of the quickest Ford Pintos throughout history, regardless of class? It's up to your imagination! Drop us an email at draglist@hotmail.com and we'll get your list up here! For this week, we tossed in everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink and listed every car on our lists (for which we had an ET). The list is sorted by ET from quickest to slowest, regardless of year or class. As always, if you see something missing, either add it, edit it, or tell us about it! bp
Top fuel stars are up for 'Challenge' this week
Morgan Lucas and J.R. Todd, two of NHRA's rising young Top Fuel stars, have proven quite capable of handling any quarter-mile challenge they've encountered on asphalt, but neither expected to be driving a bobsled in Lake Placid.
Protecting Internet Democracy
Cable and telephone companies are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet with a fast lane and a slow lane. Companies that pay hefty fees would have their Web pages delivered to Internet users in the current speedy fashion. Companies and individuals that do not would be relegated to the slow lane. The fight in Congress will be early this year.
Gasser Madness Gets Mad Ink
Check out this awesome Hemmings Motor News piece about Byron Stack's outstanding "Gasser Madness" website.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Microsoft Office Accounting Express... for Free
PC Magazine says: "This isn't the first time Microsoft has given a good product away. But in my recollection, this is the first time Microsoft has donated one that's worth so much to small businesses."

Monday, January 01, 2007

Local sports writer looks back at one year, ahead to another
Columbus sportswriter says his educational trip to NHRA Las Vegas was an unexpected best assignment of the year, but he can't figure out the justification for the move from Columbus to Norwalk for the nationals.
2007 Infineon schedule released
A full and diverse schedule has been announced for the upcoming 2007 Big O Tires Racing Season at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.