Strange Engineering is the presenting sponsor for the Gear Head Racing Series 2018 Moonshine Madness. The inaugural championship bracket race will be held at Mountain Park Dragway in Clay City, KY, on Nov. 23-25.

Four races will be held on the eighth mile, with $10,000 going to each winner. Go to www.ghrseries.com or contact Richardson.scotty@yahoo.com for more information.    [10/25/18]

Four teams spanning three generations of AA/Fuel drag racing are slated to run three special exhibition sessions and bring the fans a taste of Top Fuel, NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series-style. Members of the All-American Fuel Dragsters coalition will bring their 260-mph front-engine dragsters to the NHRA Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas.

AAFD President and Champion Speed Shop owner Bob McLennan has spearheaded the effort to bring Top Fuel drag racing heritage to Las Vegas. "The All-American Fuel Dragsters association has been making great strides with our Nostalgia Top Fuel class in 2018. We're honored to run AA/Fuel dragsters at an NHRA national series event and hope the fans enjoy some front-engine Top Fuel from the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series."

Adam Sorokin will drive the Champion Speed Shop small-block Chevrolet powered AA/Fuel dragster, Bret Williamson will strap into the Mike Fuller Motorsports Forever Young Hemi (shown), and young Tyler Hilton — backed by his father Robert Hilton and grandmother Alison Lee — will pilot the big-block Chevrolet powered Great Expectations III machine. California Hot Rod Reunion winner and 2018 NHRA Heritage Series Nostalgia Top Fuel champion Mendy Fry will drive the Tom Shelar-tuned High-Speed Motorsports Hemi-powered vehicle.  (Tim Marshall file photo)   [10/25/18]

Tanner Gray learned a great deal during his first Countdown to the Championship appearance during his rookie year in 2017 and he’s risen to the occasion during the biggest pressure moments of this year. He’s been to the final round at six of the past seven races, winning four of them, which leads Gray to believe there’s no reason to change anything heading into the final two races of the year.

“One of the things that’s helped for the success this year is everyone having the same mindset and same goal,” Gray said. “We’ve been able to click and for the most part it’s been a really smooth season for us. I’ve learned from all the mistakes I made last year and I knew what to expect going into the Countdown this year. I knew the mindset and approach I had to take. It’s made everything a lot smoother. I worked really hard in the off-season and it feels like everything is paying off.”

Multi-time champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. is just 130 points behind Gray with Vincent Nobile a mere six points behind Coughlin, both hoping to knock Gray out of the way.

“We’re enjoying the ride and I’ve been super thankful for this opportunity,” Gray said. “I’ve been able to work with the best group of guys I could ask for. It’s really been a lot of fun and I’ve had a blast. About mid-season or a little before, I really just sat back and starting trying to appreciate the time with the guys. There’s a lot things that could be worse and it’s about enjoying the moment and just having fun with it, and it’s been a blast.”  (Ron Lewis photo)    [10/25/18]

After struggling through the majority of the 2018 season, Brittany Force and her Monster Energy team seem to have turned a corner and, although it’s late in the year, it may be just in time for some redemption and a chance to end the year on a high note.

With only one win coming back in April at the SpringNationals in Houston, reigning Top Fuel champion Brittany Force is sitting sixth in the points standing coming into the penultimate NHRA Mello Yello series event.

“After an awesome weekend in Charlotte where we raced to the finals and we qualified No. 1 we are ready to get back to the races. We made some big improvements to our race car. You saw the improvements with our performance in Charlotte,” Force said. “We have been struggling but I think we have turned this team around in the Countdown.”

Last year Brittany turned on the red light in the final round at Vegas but went on to win the Top Fuel championship at Pomona, the final event of the season, robbing Steve Torrence of the championship.  (Ron Lewis photo)   [10/25/18]

Marc Gewertz (left) is presented with the first place award from contest coordinator Dave Wallace Jr.

Marc Gewertz finished first in the annual photography contest held during the NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion and named for his late predecessor as NHRA’s chief photographer, Leslie Lovett. The top three finishers were honored in a trackside ceremony just prior to final eliminations on Sunday, Oct. 21, at historic Auto Club Famoso Raceway.

Gewertz’s black-and-white image of a smoke-filled exhibition match during Sears Point International Raceway’s 1992 Jim Davis Memorial Meet is the first winning entry captured at a nostalgia drag event since the Leslie Lovett Memorial Photo Contest debuted in 1995. Pioneer Top Fuel racer Art Chrisman’s restored Hustler I Chrysler dragster is shown blasting to an early lead over Mike McClellan in the dual-Chevy Champion Speed Shop Special. (Marc Gewertz photo)

A panel of veteran journalists, editors and photographers voted second-place honors to Don Hale for a head-on burnout shot of “Kansas” John Wiebe’s fueler at NHRA’s 1969 World Finals in Dallas. (Don Hale photo)

The third-place trophy went to Steve Reyes for his mug shot of “TV” Tommy Ivo during the 1965 debut of the Videoliner, a classic example of drag racing’s short-lived Streamliner Era.  (Steve Reyes photo)  [10/25/18]