On Day 3 of the Fall Fling 500K, down to five cars in round eight and, for possibly the first time in big time bracket racing, the door cars outnumbered the dragsters for $30,000-to-win. First up, “Nasty Nick” Hastings and another “nasty” racer, Peeps Pennington with his dragster. It was over before it got started when Hastings turned on the red light while Pennington cut a perfect 0.000 RT which earned him the bye in the semifinals to move directly to another Fling final round. Steve Law and Leon Robertson faced off with the dragster of Law getting the win, while Ernie Humes took his bye run to move directly into the semifinals where he faced off with Law.

The semifinals weren’t kind to door cars as the last remaining door car of Humes turned on the red light to advance Law and his dragster to face off with Pennington.

Two cars left for $30K and it was over rather quickly as Law turned it red by -0.003 to award Pennington another Fling trophy, his second this year after his earlier win at the Vegas Million.

Still left to be decided was the Hoosier Tires King of the Fling. In all, there were 37 previous winners who made the first round. With some of the best racers in possibly the world, the final came down to Tommy Cable and Kevin Thorp with Thorp taking the win despite Cable’s two perfect Reaction Times in the semis and final.   [09/20/19]

By defeating points leader Aaron Wells in the semi-finals, then going on to score his first Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro Mod Series event win Sep. 14, Justin Jones did everything possible at Memphis International Raceway to keep his 2019 championship hopes alive.

In a battle of screw-blown Corvettes in the Pro Mod final, Jones steered his Weatherford, TX-based C7 entry to a 3.86-second pass at 200.14 mph over a traction-challenged 4.11 at 194.07 by fellow Texan Frankie Taylor.

Also scoring wins on the Memphis eighth mile were Dan Phelps in Race Star Wheels Top Dragster, Mark Pickens in Race Star Top Sportsman, Randy Matlock in X275 drag radial, and Todd Martin over MWPMS owner and promoter Keith Haney in the unique Pro Mod Slammers class for non-qualifiers and first-round runners up.

Martin in a screw-blown '68 Mustang Cobra, and Haney, who debuted his brand-new, nitrous-fed "Black Mamba" 2019 Camaro at the Memphis event, both fell in the opening round of racing and were relegated to the consolation rounds.

Aaron Wells has a 69-point lead over Justin Jones going into the final event of the MWPMS regular season.  (MWPMS/Cole Thomas photos)

Qualifying was marred in the fourth and final session by a serious accident involving Kevin Maddux of Nixa, MO, and Alabama's Jason Collins. About a hundred feet out, Maddux's blown '63 Corvette lost traction in the left lane and made a sudden right turn that tossed it sideways on its two left wheels while crossing the centerline and clipping the left front corner of Collins' supercharged '68 Camaro.

Collins minimized the danger with a remarkable job of keeping his car under control as Maddux's car righted itself just before striking the right guardwall near the eighth-mile line. It then crossed the track and sideswiped the left wall before crossing over one last time and slamming the right wall again well into the shutdown area. Remarkably, both drivers avoided serious injury, with Collins still able to make round one of eliminations, though Maddux was sidelined by major damage for the remainder of the season.

Following the official season-ending Tulsa event on Oct. 11-12, the Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro Mod Series will continue on to the Texas Motorplex for a special, 16-car, invitation-only MWPMS race Oct. 18-20, in conjunction with the NHRA AAA FallNationals.  [09/20/19]

It’s been 20 years since Italian automobile designer Horacio Pagani revealed his first hypercar to the world. The ground-breaking Zonda sent pulses racing as quickly as it set lap records. It still has the ability to stop traffic and is setting new records as a collectible asset, with individual cars valued as high as $18 million.

Although the Pagani Zonda was never sold to the USA, it became the benchmark for all hypercars that followed. Hypercars are concept cars that have ultra-light construction with an aerodynamic body and hybrid drive.

From November 1-8, the Zonda Collection can be viewed by members of the public visiting or passing through Vanderbilt Hall within Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Visitors and guests will be able to view the collection of five iconic Zondas: Zonda 001, Zonda F, Zonda R, Zonda Cinque, and Zonda HP Barchetta. For more information go to www.pagani.com.

There will also be a number of innovative public and private micro events throughout the week organized for invited VIP guests, the media as well as official Pagani dealers and their clients.   [09/20/19]