(Steve Gruenwald photo)

Hector Arana Jr. made history Friday evening breaking the 200-mph barrier on his Pro Stock Motorcycle at the 49th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, FL.

He became the first rider to enter the DENSO Spark Plugs 200 MPH Club and received a $10,000 prize. His pass during the second qualifying session eclipsed his record of 199.88 set at Charlotte 1 in 2015.

“I would’ve never thought that was a run to go 200 (mph),” Arana Jr. stated. “At the beginning of today, we didn’t have our front fairings, front exhaust pipes and we weren’t ready at all. I don’t even know what the tune-up is on the bike. It’s honestly really incredible we did that.”  [03/20/18]

Two views of John Force’s explosion.  (Scott Bessee photo)     and  (Steve Gruenwald photo)

There was carnage aplenty at this year’s Gatornationals, starting on Friday with John Force as an under-hood explosion demolished yet another body on his Camaro SS Funny Car. Force had an intense explosion at the Winternationals and a major crash at the Arizona Nationals, so this marks the third car damage in a row for the 16-time champion. He was uninjured at Gainesville.

“All the crew chiefs from Jimmy Prock to Brian Corradi to Daniel Hood right down to Jon Schaffer and Jason McCulloch, Alan Johnson, everybody had input into this race car to try and figure out what happened in Pomona and then again in Phoenix,” Force explained. “I really thought we had it. I thought we were there. In the first round we drove it 500 feet and shut it off. It looked great. We ran it again that run and I was only going to drive it 800 feet even if we didn’t make The Show.”

Force made two early shutoff passes on Saturday and qualified for the field on the basis of his first run on Friday. He lost in his first-round match with

“I am banking on the experience of the people around me,” said John Force, the eight-time Gatornationals Funny Car winner. “I am the kind of guy that, when it is qualifying day, I run it to the edge. I run it even if I know it will hurt itself. I am rethinking all that. What I am looking is the long haul. To go out here and say I have to win this race or I have to qualify low after as much stuff as we have put on the ground in Pomona and Phoenix and then to come here and do it again is bad. Jimmy (Prock) was up all night and so was (Brian) Corradi. (Jon) Schaffer and (Jason) McCulloch were up all night too. We want to fix this problem and move on.”  [03/20/18]

JFR teammate Robert Hight also had problems during the quarter finals against Matt Hagan, when both cars blew the bodies off and Hagan crossed the finish line with a 4.027/291.26 win.

“It kicked two rods out when it blacked the bearings in the crank and then it hit the valves which blew it up. The car gave me no indication at all before it exploded,” said Hight.

“We have a lot of work to do before Vegas. We have a lot of things to figure out but we have the best people over here. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”  (Adam Cranmer photos) [03/20/18]

Did you miss us yesterday? We were thrown for a double strike-out on Monday when both our Managing Editor and Web Guy were missing in action. Managing Editor, Kay Burk, had a very bad cold and the Web Guy had oral surgery. Both are recuperating and are back at work today. (You didn’t think the Agent did this all by himself, did you?) [03/20/18]

Bristol Motor Speedway will present a meet and greet opportunity at the Bass Pro Shops at The Pinnacle, 1 Bass Pro Dr., Bristol, TN 37620 on Wednesday, March 21.

Joining Jerry Caldwell, executive VP and GM for the Speedway, at the Season Preview will be DSR drivers Tony Schumacher, Leah Pritchett, Matt Hagan and Alex Laughlin, who will be competing at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals on June 15-17.

In addition, Richard Childress, chairman and CEO of Richard Childress Racing will be at the event along with his grandsons, NASCAR drivers Austin and Ty Dillon.

The BMS Season Preview show is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. and will include Q&A panel sessions and exciting news announcements. The event will end with Team NASCAR vs. Team NHRA in “Feuding Families Bristol Edition”. Fox Sports’ Jamie Little will be co-host of the evening. [03/20/18]

(Steve Gruenwald photos)

NHRA officials announced that for the second consecutive season, the Saturday qualifying session at the AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals featured a sellout crowd. The historic event is the traditional East Coast opener and fans from across the region began streaming into the facility early in the morning.

This is the second NHRA event this season to have a sellout, as the Arizona Nationals was sold out on Sunday.

The Agent wonders if the Saturday sellout had anything to do with John Force’s explosion on Friday?   [03/20/18]

The two highest bidders in an online charity auction became the first drivers to traverse Santa Pod Raceway’s brand new, all-concrete racetrack on Saturday. The auction, hosted on ebay, raised funds to benefit two regional air ambulance organizations, The Air Ambulance Service (East Midlands) and Magpas Air Ambulance (East Anglia).

Each of the dragstrip’s two lanes comprised a separate auction lot, and members of the public were invited to post bids for either lane. Car enthusiast Jordan Bradford was the highest bidder for the right, Autoglym-sponsored lane and drove his immaculate Mitsubishi Evo 8 all the way from Sevenoaks in Kent, with his mother in the passenger seat. “I wasn’t going to let this weather beat me,” he said, as an icy overnight front revived mid-winter conditions across the country.

The identity of the winning bidder for the left, Coldfire-sponsored lane surprised everyone. After six months spent steering construction of the new track from design to completion, Santa Pod’s own project manager, Neale Saunders, was quietly determined to finish the job in style and, telling no one his plans, purchased the rights to run in the left-hand lane.

With snow flurries continually moisturizing the track surface, normal restrictions were suspended for this unique moment and the two drivers were allowed to take the green light and motor gingerly to the finish line to fulfil their ceremonial duty. Each was presented with a framed certificate to mark the occasion.

The public track day event – known as a ‘Run What Ya Brung’ – had been planned as a low-key inauguration of the new track, but the bitter cold and wet prevented all but a handful of runs later in the day.

Santa Pod’s new concrete dragstrip is the product of a major building project. Construction began in November and involved a complete excavation beneath the Second World War runway that had underpinned several asphalt resurfacings carried out since the racetrack opened in 1966. Airfield historians will be pleased that the runway material has been recycled as hardcore supporting the new track. Laid with laser-measured precision, the surface will be the equal of the finest in America.

The new track will be subjected to its first heavy-duty, competitive action at Easter, when the Festival Of Power hosts the opening round of 2018’s national drag racing championships for cars and motorcycles, together with the spectacular Jet Car Shootout. Along with some 250 teams in national competition, a trio of 300mph Top Fuel Dragsters is scheduled to limber up for the FIA European Championship’s Round 1 in May. Information is available and tickets may be booked online at www.santapod.com.  (photo courtesy www.eurodragster.com)    [03/20/18]

Not only did Jack Beckman get to finally achieve his goal of winning ‘the Gators,’ but Sunday’s victory was also a sentimental one for the driver of Terry and Doug Chandler’s Infinite Hero Foundation Funny Car.

“I flew in a day earlier, and on Thursday I went to the Hall of Fame [dinner]. I got to present Johnny Gray with the Pat Garlits award in honor of Terry Chandler, whose name is still on the side of our car and is the one who made all of this possible. There are 21 of us who have jobs today because of Terry Chandler and how big her heart was, and now her husband, Doug, wants to carry it on. He’s loving it because he knows Terry is looking down and saying, ‘Alright -- my boys did it.’”   [03/20/18]

Royal Purple Raceway will host the second NHRA South Central Division race of the 2018 season on March 23-25 with the NHRA Texas Sportsman Challenge. The event is one of 44 scheduled across the country where drivers earn points leading to divisional and national championships as well as a chance at a share of the year-end purse of more than $519,000.

Categories include Comp Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street. The NHRA Sportsman Motorcycle Series will run in conjunction with the event along with the Division’s SDPC Raceshop Top Sportsman and Top Dragster classes.   [03/20/18]

Drag racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits helped NHRA announce the launch of the celebration leading up to the 50th year of Gatornationals in 2019. The NHRA Legends Tour will feature some of NHRA’s most beloved figures from the early days of drag racing including Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Kenny Bernstein, Tom “Mongoose” McEwen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Joe Amato, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch, “The Bounty Hunter” Connie Kalitta, and “Big” Jim Dunn, as well as a host of local drag racing heroes.

At each stop on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series circuit, the NHRA Legends Tour will provide fans with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interact with a few of the most renowned names in drag racing at meet-and-greets, autograph sessions and a variety of other activities. The tour wraps up next year in Gainesville, Florida, as all of the biggest stars in drag racing come together for one colossal blowout to celebrate the 50th annual Gatornationals scheduled for March 14-17, 2019.  [03/20/18]

Papa John’s International, Inc., the world’s third largest pizza delivery company, has extended its sponsorship agreement to be the Official Pizza sponsor of the National Hot Rod Association for the 2018 drag racing season.

The brand will continue its sponsorship of Leah Pritchett’s Top Fuel dragster in 2018. Pritchett will also continue to participate in the Charity Challenge racing series to raise money for returning military heroes and their families.

“Last year, we were able to donate $100,000 to the Infinite Hero Foundation by racing my original 1971 Camaro Z28 that I had to sell years ago that led to opening the first Papa John’s,” said “Papa” John Schnatter, Founder and Chairman of Papa John’s. “We love this cause, we love racing, and can’t wait to get on the track again in 2018 to support our heroes who have served in the armed forces.”

Infinite Hero Foundation (www.infinitehero.org) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides resources to help the mental and physical issues that returning military heroes and their families may face. A portion of the funds donated to Infinite Hero Foundation will benefit Overcome Academy, a non-profit organization which focuses on specific leadership training for wounded warriors.

This year, Charity Challenge races will have increased competition as Leah’s DSR teammate and three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown will be racing against “Papa” John in select markets.

In addition to participating in the Charity Challenge races, Leah will be on-site at select Papa John’s locations throughout the year making pizzas for NHRA fans that visit the restaurants. The events will be broadcast on Facebook Live.  (Steve Gruenwald photo)   [03/20/18]

With Mooresville, NC, now the home for several drag racing teams, we thought they or other teams might be interested in this item.

Gordon Brothers, the global advisory, restructuring, and investment firm, announced that it has been engaged by Triad Racing Technologies to sell the assets associated with its race engine shop located in Mooresville, NC. TRT builds NASCAR race engines and body parts and is a primary vendor for Toyota Racing Development. Its engines have raced in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series.

The assets for sale include all machinery and equipment associated with its engine building and R&D programs including full CNC capabilities, complete 800+ HP race engines, a large stock of engine parts inventory, and other miscellaneous equipment. While TRT has made the strategic decision to exit its engine building business, it will continue to operate its other divisions focused on body parts and NASCAR racing.

For inquiries regarding the sale, contact Jim Burke at Gordon Brothers jburke@gordonbrothers.com or call 617-422-6232.  [03/20/18]