NHRA
All-Canadian effort heads to Atlanta for next round of NHRA drag racing
Courtesy: Tim Miller
TOTTENHAM, ONTARIO (May 9, 2011) – In a truly Canadian effort, Top Fuel driver Ike Maier will compete in the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals May 13-15 in Georgia.
This event will be round six of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Race Series, held at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.
Maier hails from Southern Ontario, and will be driving the Paris, Ontario-based Paton Racing Top Fuel Dragster in the upcoming race. He is receiving support from Lenron Inc., a Nova Scotia transportation company, Kelsey Trail Trucking from Saskatchewan, and Crosbie Industrial from Newfoundland.
And, the team continues to receive support from that iconic Canadian coffee enterprise, Tim Hortons.
WORSHAM, AREND, NOBILE, HINES, REINHART ON WFORADIO
Courtesy of WFO
HOLLYWOOD, FL – O’Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals winners Del Worsham, Jeff Arend, Vincent Nobile, and Andrew Hines join Joe Castello along with the NHRA’s Alan Reinhart, on WFO Radio NHRA Tuesday. To listen, go to
WFORadio.com.
Del Worsham, coming off his third victory of the season, discusses his first one on one battle against teammate and reigning champion Larry Dixon and the team’s celebration following the win at Royal Purple Raceway.
Jeff Arend of Kalitta Racing, winner in the Funny Car eliminator, drove to the team’s first victory of the season. Jeff discusses driving for legend Connie Kalitta, his round by round races, winning for sponsor DHL, and his final round victory over Mike Neff.
Mike Coughlin opens 2011 with an Indy victory
Courtesy of Jegs
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Mike Coughlin took his first steps towards a third NHRA North Central Division Top Sportsman championship after guiding his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt to victory Sunday in the season-opening event at Lucas Oil
Raceway in Indianapolis.
For Coughlin, the win was his fourth at the historic venue including his two Pro Stock Truck victories at the prestigious U.S. Nationals. He also won the Top Sportsman class at the 2008 Indy Lucas Oil Series event. More importantly, the victory was first since recovering from hip and knee surgery that kept him sidelined for most of the 2010 season.
“I didn’t get a chance to race much last year and I really missed it,” said Coughlin. “It is good to be back. I really enjoy racing and I’ve gotten a lot of support from my family and all my fellow racers. I didn’t feel any pain at all today. My knee has never been better and my hip is almost perfect. My wife, Kriss, and our sons, Jack and Clay, were here with me this weekend and it couldn’t have been any better.”
Coughlin’s driving was solid throughout all five rounds but he was especially impressive in the final where he had a nearly-perfect .001 reaction time and ran a 6.76 on his 6.75 dial-in to defeat opponent Billy Thoman, who broke out at the finish. Ironically, Coughlin also had a .001 reaction time when he defeated Scott Perin for his first U.S. Nationals Pro Stock Truck win in 1999.
BARTONE VICTORIOUS IN BAYTOWN!
Courtesy of Rick Jackson Racing
Baytown, TX – Tony Bartone, and the Rick Jackson Racing Centre Pointe Collision Center Top Alcohol Funny Car team captured their third consecutive National Hot Rod Association National Event victory and extended their 
National Points lead with an event victory at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals contested this weekend at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas. The victory was also the second straight win in Texas for the Centre Pointe team after capturing the Lucas Oil Divisional Series Event a few weeks earlier at the Texas Motor-Plex in Ennis.
Heading into final eliminations at RHP, Bartone entered the field in the final qualifying position (number 13) after problems plagued the Santa Clarita, Calif. team in qualifying. Bartone lined up against second generation driver John Lombardo Jr., who qualified solidly in the number two position. In his 20 plus years of racing, Bartone had captured victories in 79 percent of his round one races, but based on the qualifying problems and an even 1-1 record against Lombardo Jr. in previous match-ups, this was anybody’s race.
FIRST ROUND EXIT PROVIDES INSPIRATION FOR JON CAPPS
Courtesy of Paul Smith Racing
Baytown, TX – A first round loss to NHRA Full Throttle Series veteran Tim Wilkerson may have ended the weekend racing festivities for Jon Capps and the Biesenbach Inc. / Paul Smith Racing Monte Carlo Funny Car, but for Capps,
who made his first National Hot Rod Association Professional Category start this season at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals held at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas, the weekend was nothing short of a winning effort.
The Las Vegas, Nev. resident and Admissions Councilor for WyoTech Automotive Transportation and Technical College (http://www.wyotech.edu), took the reins of legendary Independent Funny Car owner Paul Smith’s competitive Monte Carlo bodied Nitro Funny Car this weekend, with support from David Biesenbach and his company Biesenbach Inc. (http://www.biesenbach.com) and long-time friend Henry Gutierrez the owner of Bexar Waste. Capps entered eliminations qualified in the number 15 position and paired up against Springfield, Ill.’s Tim Wilkerson, the driver of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang.
Coughlin continues to progress in Pro Mod competition
Courtesy of Jegs
HOUSTON, TX – Although he’s running the smallest engine configuration in the Pro Mod class, JEGS.com racer Troy 
Coughlin successfully qualified for this weekend’s 24th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals and had a great chance of advancing out of Saturday evening’s opening round of eliminations. But this time it just wasn’t meant to be.
Coughlin qualified with a 6.097-second run at 245.58 mph Saturday morning, which pitted him against Danny Rowe in the first round of eliminations. When the money was on the line against Rowe, Coughlin pulled off his best pass of the weekend — a 6.060 at 246.39 mph — in arguably the worst conditions of the event, but Rowe was a tick better, sending Coughlin home by a few hundredths of a second.
JON CAPPS PLEASED WITH FIRST DAY EFFORT IN BAYTOWN
Courtesy Paul Smith
Baytown, Texas – After three year break from the highly competitive NHRA Nitro Funny Car contingent, versatile NHRA Nitro Pilot Jon Capps dusted off the cobwebs and ended the f
irst day of qualifying at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals provisionally qualified in the number 11 position, behind the wheel of Paul Smith’s owned and tuned Monte Carlo Funny Car.
For the Las Vegas, Nev. resident, the return to the NHRA Big Show was exactly what he expected and so much more.
“It was awesome to get back into Paul’s car today,” noted Capps, who returned to the NHRA Full Throttle Series and promptly laid down a solid 4.262 Elapsed Time in the first qualifying session of the day. “Heading into our first run, we planned to lay down a good base-line to prepare for the cooler conditions in Q-2. Before that pass I had not raced in the (new to me) 1,000’ format and to be honest, I kind of over thought what was going to happen.
Janis Ready for a Relaxed Weekend at the NHRA Spring Nationals
Elma, NY – While his fellow Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge competitors were competing earlier this 
month at the Vegas Strip, Mike Janis was back in Western New York tending to family health issues.
“Everyone seems to be OK right now but for a few weeks things got tense. I’m glad that things have stabilized right now and look forward to racing. Believe it or not the stress of racing will be relaxing this weekend,” said Janis.
In preparation for the O’Reilly Spring Nationals Janis and his Eaton Aeroquip team will head to Tulsa, OK to continue progress on their new torque converter set up. Brian Doan of BDR converters, Dave Flory of Probell Bellhousings and Mike Strasburg of B&J Transmissions have been very helpful with the conversion from clutch to converter.
Dewayne Custer added as Driver of Second Roy Hill Cobra Jet in Houston
Courtesy of Roy Hill Racing
Written by: Mike Carpenter
Photo: Jesse Kiser
BAYTOWN, TX – After qualifying eighth and advancing one round before falling to eventual winner Dan Fletcher at the recently completed NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, Roy Hill is looking for more at this weekend’s 24th annual O’Reilly
Auto Parts Spring Nationals in Baytown, TX.
Doubling your chances for a win is a great way to start.
Two Roy Hill / Phoenix Racing Super Stock Ford Cobra Jets owned by James Finch will hit Royal Purple Raceway this weekend; Hill will pilot the solid red Coca-Cola / Alsco entry he debuted in Charlotte, while Baytown native and longtime sportsman racer Dewayne Custer will drive the red, white, and blue Cobra Jet that carried Hill to the US Nationals winner’s circle last year.
The 36-year-old Custer is the shop foreman at Lastor Race Cars and has a lifetime of chassis building, tuning, and sportsman racing under his belt. He’s currently in the process of building a Super Stock Cobra Jet for Paul Candies, which sparked the multi-faceted partnership between Hill and Custer.
Team JEGS Ready for NHRA Division 3 Lucas Race
Courtesy of Jegs
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – For more than 30 years, the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Lucas Oil Raceway in 
Indianapolis has signified the beginning of a busy summer of racing in the NHRA’s North Central Division. It also marks the time when Team JEGS racers shift into high gear.
Two-time Division 3 champion Mike Coughlin, his nephew Troy Jr., and future sister-in-law Samantha Kenny, will represent the yellow and black at this weekend’s event with designs on going rounds and contending for trophies
After spending much of the 2010 season recovering from hip and knee surgery, Mike Coughlin is ready to make another run at the Dart Top Sportsman championship. Mike has won two of the last five titles in the class and is eager to find the winner’s circle again with his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt.
“We brought the car out earlier this year for the JEGS Cajun SPORTSnationals in Belle Rose and it ran pretty well,” Mike said. “Now, were really looking forward to Indy. It has always been one of my favorite races.
