Hot and humid conditions couldn’t sap the performances at the JEGS Super Quick Series held at Beech Bend Raceway Park.

After two qualifying sessions Jeremiah Hall of Evansville, IN, placed his dragster at the top of the sheet posting a 4.504 elapsed time on the 4.50 index. The top six rounded out with Scott Carman, James Monroe, Ashley Marie Bach, James Shown and Darren Keener all running 4.51X. Thirty-nine racers tried to make the field with the number thirty-two bump being a 4.701.

The finals were set after a brutal day of drag racing. Kentuckians Dylan Winters (far lane) and Greg Coffman were ready to do battle with only four hundredths of a second difference in dial-ins; they would be looking at each other all the way down the track. Winters left first with an 0.045 reaction time, but that didn’t matter as Coffman turned it red by -0.006. Shutting off down track Winters ran a 4.877 at only 110.06 mph while Coffman kept the pedal down in his dragster running 4.481/154.44. This is Winters’ second NHRA JEGS Super Quick Series win in his career.

The series will make its next stop at Kil-Kare Raceway in Xenia, OH, on July 27-28 for a double header.  (Alex Owens photo)  [05/30/19]

The Supercharged AA/Gassers of America opened their 2019 season over the Memorial Day weekend at Ohio’s Dragway 42 at the Summit Sportsman Spectacular.

Seven cars were in competition with “AA Al” Niespondzinski Jr. driving “Caged Heat” getting the final-round win with a 5.10 at 136 mph over Brian Spotts’ 5.16/138 in “It’s Crazy II”.

The group will be taking part in the Gasser Reunion held May 31-June 1 at Thompson Raceway Park. [05/30/19]

Don Schumacher Racing’s ongoing partnership with Okuma, a leading machine tool manufacturer, has expanded to include a primary sponsorship of Leah Pritchett’s Top Fuel dragster at three NHRA events in 2019, and associate support of Tommy Johnson Jr.’s Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car.

Pritchett will banner the Okuma brand at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, IL, the NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, and at the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway during the NHRA Countdown to the Championship.

“The team has been working hard at a couple of key ‘hot racetrack setup’ elements since Richmond, including during testing,” said Pritchett, “which has given us an extra boost of confidence for the results we want and know we can deliver for Okuma.”  [05/30/19]

When you have a winning combination, don’t change it. (Not that anybody’s superstitious.) Ron Capps will continue to run the NAPA Brakes colors on his Funny Car in Joliet.

“It was only supposed to be one race in Atlanta, and we won there, and then they let us run it again in Richmond, and we won there too. After talking to the folks at NAPA, they let us decide if we wanted to continue to run it so, we let the fans choose on social media if they wanted us to go back to the blue-and-gold car or give it another shot with the NAPA Brakes car. The response was overwhelming; a huge thank you to our NAPA Nation NHRA fans for weighing-in. Ultimately, the general consensus was that they wanted us to bring the NAPA Brakes black-and-gold car out, so we’ll see if we can get it in the winner’s circle again and keep the streak alive.

“Obviously, we couldn’t be happier with where we are at this point in the season. We’ve made a big jump in the Mello Yello points and we’re going to keep chugging away and making up ground toward the teams that are ranked ahead of us.”

This event starts four weeks straight with Joliet followed by Topeka, Bristol and Norwalk.  (Ron Lewis photo) [05/30/19]

Tim Wilkerson’s first national event win in a nitro Funny Car came at Route 66 Raceway in 1999, when he defeated John Force. He’s feeling confident with his new Ford Mustang Funny Car body that debuted at the Virginia Nationals.

"I'm feeling pretty good about our new Ford Mustang Funny Car body. We were almost as fast as anybody out there in Virginia, so I think we're doing pretty good with it, and I'd like to see us put it in the winner's circle before too long for Ford, LRS, Summit Racing, and all those folks who are out there supporting us week in and week out,” said the independent racer from Springfield, IL.

“It would be really cool to do something good this weekend in Chicago – we're racing just a couple of hours away from home, and we'll have a ton of people out there on Saturday from Levi, Ray and Shoup, plus friends and family and all kinds of folks, so it'll be a real neat deal. I'm pretty optimistic about this new car and what we can do with it. It's solid. We'll see; the big thing is that we have to keep our heads on straight. If we can do that and make it go again, I think we'll be in good shape." [05/30/19]

Three more teams have qualified for the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow 2019 Dual National Championship to be held at the SEMA Show and the PRI Show.

Qualifying at Utah Valley University in Orem, UT, on May 18 were: Bonneville High School Team 1, Hunter High School Team 1, Tulia High School Team 1 and Box Elder High School Team 1. Qualifying at Lane Automotive in Watervilet, MI, on May 25 were: Elkhart Area Career Center Teams 1 and 2, and Lakeshore High School Team 2.

That brings to 38 the number of teams qualified for the two competitions at the end of the year.  [05/30/19]

NOS Dry Nitrous Plate Systems sandwich between the top plate and bottom base plate and deliver nitrous through .125-inch passages to eight precision-machined openings. Created just for Sniper Race LS EFI Intake Manifolds, they spray directly into the center of each cylinder for optimum distribution and max power. Systems come with your choice of a silver or black finish with 10-pound, 15-pound or carbon fiber bottles or as plate-only kits (no bottle). Complete kits have every component you need to step up to a nitrous system: the plate itself, bottle, jet holders, solenoids, solenoid brackets, stainless steel hoses, and jetting for up to 250 additional horsepower. [05/30/19]