The final events for the 2018 PDRA season will be Oct. 4-6 at Darlington Dragway and Oct. 18-20 at Virginia Motorsports Park. The class with the tightest championship points battle is Pro Boost, where Pro Modified veteran Tommy D’Aprile (shown) holds a 15-point lead over Pro Boost rookie and former 10.5 racer Chuck Ulsch.  (Tara Bowker photo)

The eighth-mile Professional Drag Racers Association has eight events on their 2019 schedule including a new stop at Ohio’s Dragway 42.

2019 PDRA Schedule

April 5-6: GALOT Motorsports Park

May 3-4:  Virginia Motorsports Park

May 31-June 1: Maryland International Raceway

June 28-29: South Georgia Motorsports Park

July 19-20: Dragway 42

Sept. 6-7: GALOT Motorsports Park

Oct. 4-5: Darlington Dragway

Oct. 25-27: Virginia Motorsports Park   [10/04/18]

Rockingham Dragway regular Tommy Plott used a perfect .000 reaction time and .008 package to draw first blood Wednesday in the SFG Super Bowl of Drag Racing which culminates with $100,000 to win races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Plott, a former Hoosier Tires Carolina Coalition champion, waded through a first day field of 251 to reach the final where he beat T.G. Paschal of McLeansville, NC, to claim the initial $10,000 winner’s share of the purse.   [10/04/18]

Drag racing legend “Jet Car Bob” Smith died in Simpsonville, SC, on Sept. 25 at age 80.

Born in Iowa, after a stint in the U.S. Air Force, Smith settle in San Jose, CA, in the late 1950’s where he discovered the drag racing scene. He got his first ride in the Master & Richter gasser and later drove dragsters for owners Sid Waterman, Tom Prufer and Romeo Palamides.

Palamides was a pioneer in the use of jet engines and he offered Smith the seat in his “Untouchable” jet dragster (above at left) in 1962. On Jan. 13, 1963, Smith drove the dragster to a pass of 287.704 mph at Kingdon Dragstrip in Lodi, CA. It held the Guinness Book of World Records for 13 years.

Smith purchased his own Top Gas dragster in 1967 but in September of the following year he suffered life-threatening burns after a top-end explosion and crash. He recovered and finished his racing career at the wheel of the Aumack Brothers’ “Mustard Gasser” Top Gas dragster.

Smith is survived by his wife of 51 years, Cora Margherita Smith, and daughter Claudia Hennigan Simica. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, at the Dolly Cooper VA Cemetery, 140 Inway Dr., Anderson, SC 29621. “Jet Car Bob” will also be remembered at the upcoming California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, CA.     [10/04/18]

Maximum Motorsports has developed an inexpensive brake-line kit that simplifies swapping the Mustang Cobra independent rear suspension into most Fox Mustangs. Precision-formed hard lines eliminate any bending, cutting, or flaring. Fittings are perfectly positioned to attach the original Fox rear hard line to either the stock Cobra IRS brake hoses or to a braided-stainless-steel IRS hose kit also available from Maximum Motorsports. This easily installed kit bolts into 1986-93 V8 Mustangs originally fitted with the 8.8-inch, solid-axle rear end. Additionally, the lines are easily adapted to all 1979-85 models and non-V8 1986-93 Mustangs with minor rerouting of the stock rear hard line and a short hard-line extension. The package comes complete with two pre-bent hard lines with cushion clamps, a T-fitting with mounting bracket, installation hardware, and detailed directions.  [10/04/18]