- Hagan Captures 50th NHRA Career Win in TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Funny Car at NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte
- Ashley, Hagan, Anderson and Herrera take Wins at Charlotte Four-Wide
- TOUGH FINAL ROUND PUTS DAMPER ON WEEKEND FOR JOHN FORCE IN CHARLOTTE NHRA 4-WIDE NATIONALS
- BO BUTNER WINS JHG MOUNTAIN MOTOR PRO STOCK SEASON OPENER
- AARON STANFIELD RUNNER-UP AT NHRA FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS AT ZMAX DRAGWAY
- JUSTIN ASHLEY WINS NHRA FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS AT ZMAX DRAGWAY
- Tony Schumacher Out Early After Jam-Packed Four-Wide Weekend in Charlotte
Team Mopar® Driver Allen Johnson on the Verge of Securing Top Spot in NHRA Countdown Playoffs at U.S. Nationals
Courtesy of Mopar
Auburn Hills, MI — The equation is pretty simple for Team Mopar® NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson. Just qualify for the 16-car field in the regular season finale, the 58th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, and
the Team Mopar driver will be locked into the No. 1 position to open the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs. The Mac Tools U.S. Nationals take place at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. 29–Sept. 3.
Johnson, leader of the Pro Stock standings, heads to Indy fresh off his sixth final round appearance of the season in the most recent NHRA event in Brainerd, Minn., on Aug. 19. The driver of the Mopar Dodge Avenger is tied for the Pro Stock lead with four victories this season and has a class-best nine No. 1 Qualifier awards, as he gears up for the six-race Countdown.
“We always look forward to going to Indy for the U.S. Nationals,” said Johnson. “It’s a long weekend, and a little bit different of one than a normal event, but we always have fun there. The U.S. Nationals rank right up there, prestige-wise and money-wise, as one of the biggest events of the year. It would certainly mean a lot to win it.”
Top Alcohol Teams Headed For Late-Season Showdowns
Written by Will Hanna and Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo by David Smith
Bowling Green, KY – As the first year of regional competition for Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car teams winds down, championship battles in most regions are only intensifying. The West and Central divisions still have multiple events remaining, but in
the East, which wrapped up competition last weekend in Cecil County, Md., and the North Central, which concludes this weekend in Bowling Green, Ky., the situation is growing clearer.
Top Alcohol Dragster in the North Central Region remains the domain of five-time world champ Bill Reichert, who has won his last three regional starts – Maple Grove, Chicago, and Columbus. The only driver with even a remote chance to break his stranglehold is Ken Perry, who won the Norwalk event and has been to just four regionals this year. Odds dictate otherwise, but with a three-race win skein like the one Reichert put together this summer, the Canadian driver could end the season with four wins and a runner-up.
Wins, Records Come For Haas Race Cars During the 2012 ADRL Season
Courtesy of ADRL
O’FALLON, MO – Always among the premier names in the Pro Stock world, it’s been business as usual for Jerry Haas Race Cars in the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) during its 2012 season.
Jerry Haas Race Cars (JHRC) have claimed victories in all but two of the events in Extreme Pro Stock in 2012, giving the famed chassis builder five wins and making him very happy in the process.
“It’s been very exciting and it’s always thrilling to have that kind of success,” Haas said. “We have a good product and I think it speaks for itself.
“The points leader (Cary Goforth) is one of our cars and the car we’re hauling in my trailer (Richie Stevens Jr.) is No. 2 in points. It’s our deal to lose, and Richie and Cary are right there fighting for the championship.”
In fact, five of the top six drivers in the Extreme Pro Stock standings are driving cars built by JHRC.
NITRO ADDED TO CANADIAN FUNNY CAR CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR LABOUR DAY WEEKEND
Courtesy of NDRA
Cayuga, ON – The tradition of going to the drag races on Labour Day Weekend is a storied one in Ontario, and the Canadian Funny Car Championships at Toronto Motorsports Park won’t disappoint this year with the addition of nitro methane burning machines to the 
program, one that already includes the exciting NDRA Alcohol Funny Car Series presented by Ohsweken Speedway.
Headlining the nitro contingent on-hand will be the Nitro Harley Davidson motorcycles of local racers, Rob Brown, who hails from Waterloo and Joe McLeod of Kitchener. Brown’s BLM Transportation Group Nitro Harley has more than 1000 horsepower, covering the quarter-mile in sub-seven second times.
McLeod will be riding his Ontario Protective Coatings Nitro Harley, giving fans a thrill as he rockets down the quarter-mile on only two wheels. New York native Gary Kraus and his 3000 horsepower Pony Up Ford Mustang Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car will also take to the track during Saturday’s show on the weekend. Sponsored by Ohsweken Speedway, Kraus puts on a crowd pleasing show that includes halftrack burnouts and run’s in excess of 200 miles per hour.
28 qualified for the Performance Improvements TNT Super Series Race of Champions!
Courtesy of TNT
CAYUGA, ON – Since the Joe’s Transmission TNT Super Series was created in 2006, there have been sixty-five events with twenty-eight different winners. As TNTSS event winners, all twenty-eight are qualified for the upcoming Performance Improvements TNTSS Race of 
Champions where they will battle for overall bragging rights as the best of the best.
Saturday September 1st at Cayuga Dragway will see these drivers compete in a no entry fee, no qualifying session, winner/runner-up take-all shootout as part of the Canadian Funny Car Championships. This year’s winner will receive a certificate for Performance Improvements valued at $1200 and the runner-up $600.
Troy Coughlin Jr. hoping to uphold family tradition in Bowling Green
Courtesy of Jegs
BOWLING GREEN, KY – For nearly four decades, the Coughlin family has been an integral part of the landscape at historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Ky.
The familiar yellow and black colors of the JEGS Mail Order team have graced the Beech Bend winner’s circle often, beginning with family patriarch Jeg Coughlin Sr., who won the Pro Comp title at the track in 1975. Jeg Sr.’s sons — John, Troy, Mike and Jeg Jr. — have all carried on the family tradition with Bowling Green wins and now third-generation racer Troy Coughlin Jr. is hoping to add to the family legacy as he brings his JEGS.com Super Comp and Super Gas entries into this weekend’s annual North Central Division Lucas Oil Series event.
“I’ve been coming to this track ever since I was a little kid and we have always enjoyed racing here,” Troy Jr. said. “I’m very familiar with the success that my grandfather, my dad, and my uncles have at this place and I can’t wait to bring home a Bowling Green trophy of my own.”
Hard Work Leading To Successful 2012 Season For Sonny’s Racing Engines
Courtesy of ADRL
O’FALLON, MO – The hard work has certainly proven to be worth it in what has been a successful 2012 American Drag Racing League (ADRL) season for ADRL sponsor Sonny’s Racing Engines.
Of the last six winners in the ADRL’s highly-competitive Extreme Pro Stock class, five have used powerful Sonny’s Racing Engines to end up in the winner’s circle, while countless others have racked up impressive performances in what has already been a banner year for Sonny’s Racing Engines and its owner, Sonny Leonard.
“This year has probably been one of my best years of performance in the ADRL and we are very excited about that,” Leonard said. “We’ve done a lot of research and development work, developing engine components and a lot of other stuff, and it’s paid off.
“Of the 18 employees here, 10 have been here more than 20 years. We have a lot of good guys and a lot of good customers who believe in us.”
Photos From the NDRA at Grand Bend August 10 – 12 2012
Courtesy of NDRA
Grand Bend, ON – NDRA Alcohol Funny Car Drag Racing Series Photo Gallery from Event 3 at Grand Bend Motorplex is now online.
Thanks again go out to NDRA photographers Ian Sprague, Stacee Kenington and Andrew Cruickshank for another job well done!
Click here to view photos: http://ndra.ca/photovideo/photo-gallery/photos-event-3/
FIRST OUTING WITH CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS IS A MEMORABLE ONE FOR MARK MARTINO
Courtesy of Mark Martino Racing
Stoney Creek, ON – It didn’t take Mark Martino and his Charter Communications Pontiac GXP long to shake off the rust, from a nearly
summer long absence from the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, this past weekend at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota. In the process of logging his second round win of the season he also recorded a career best qualifying position, all of which was overshadowed by a minor rules violation during final eliminations on Sunday.
Following a second round victory against Larry Morgan, that would have put Martino into his first semi-final round ever in NHRA competition, he was notified that the team had been disqualified for a weight violation and that Morgan would be reinstated. “After beating Larry, going across the scales we came up five pounds light,” said a still confused Martino. “All weekend it weighed at least five pounds heavy so it was a big surprise to us when they told us we were under.”
Bourke, Veney win Eastern Regional at Cecil County
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo by David Smith
Rising Sun, MD – At historic Cecil County Dragway at the final Eastern Regional event of the year, Richard Bourke parlayed qualifying success at recent events into his first victory of the season in Top Alcohol Dragster and Todd Veney won Top Alcohol Funny Car for
the second time this year.
“The car’s been running great in qualifying all year,” said Bourke, who paced the field at three of the four Eastern Regional events he entered this season, sometimes by as much as seven-hundredths of a second. “We’ve had a few problems in eliminations, but this time everything went right.”
Bourke was No. 1 after the first session with the only run in the 5.30s (5.38), was overtaken by Canadian Dan Mercier’s 5.37 in the last-shot session, and reclaimed the lead one pair later with a 5.36. Sixteen drivers attempted to qualify, and the bump was Frank Schuster’s 5.48.
