ANOTHER BRUTON SMITH UPDATE

The Agent saw a note in the dean of motorsports editors, Chris Economacki's column in the highly respected racing tabloid National Speed Sport News. Economacki mentioned that in a recent conversation with Bruton Smith he was given a couple of interesting bits of info. First was that the NHRA previously had been shopping the sanctioning body around for sale and, second, that the reason the sanctioning body wasn't for sale now was that a couple of highly paid executives were against the sale.

The Agent thinks that these days most of the high salaried execs at NHRA want no part of Smith and his organization taking over, figuring (and probably correctly) that Smith would "clean house" should he buy the sanctioning body. [6-7-2005]

MORE NHRA SPORTSNATIONALS COMING IN 2006/2007

One of the Agent's more reliable NHRA sources says that NHRA is planning at least three SportsNationals events for the 2006 season and as many as seven for the 2007 season. Sounds a little like an NHRA version of NASCAR's Busch Series doesn't it? One interesting note is that according to the Agent's source the headliners for those National Events for Sportsmen racers would be the Pro Mod professional doorslammer class. If true, that information should cause some veteran Alky Funny and Dragster teams more than a little heartburn as they would be replaced as the headliners for NHRA's sportsman division.

One more thing, the Agent hears that the AMS/TLR folks might not be too keen on sponsoring the NHRA Pro Mod series again next year. That would probably mean that NHRA would be looking for a sponsor for Pro Mods for 2006-2007. [6-7-2005]

FASSL IMPROVES

Ron Fassl, 61, who was injured May 22 in an accident at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, is expected to be discharged from the hospital on June 9 and return to his home in Scottsdale, AZ to continue recuperating. [6-7-2005]

POST-TOPEKA STATS

Here are a few NHRA stats through Topeka from DRO statistician Jim Hawkins.

TOP FUEL: Tony Schumacher and Dave Grubnic are both 8-1 in the first round; Dave Baca and Scott Weis both 1-8 in the first round; Doug Kalitta is 4-0 in redlight win/loss and 6-0 in second round; Larry Dixon, Doug Kalitta and Morgan Lucas have qualified in the top half of the field of every race.

FUNNY CAR: Robert Hight, Gary Scelzi and Eric Medlen own the best first round records at 7-2; Tony Bartone has only won once in the first round, but went all the way to final at the Vegas race; Gary Scelzi owns a 0-4 record in holeshots, which are half of all of the Funny Car's 8 holeshots; John Force, Robert Hight and Gary Scelzi have qualified in the top half of the field at all races this year; John Force has yet to be out-run this year...he's won 12 times with both cars under full power...his 5 losses were all on aborted runs.

PRO STOCK: W.J. is 9-0 in the first round; surprise (not) Dave Connolly is 3-0 in holeshots; W.J. is 5-0 in redlight wins, while Mike Edwards is 0-3, but Mike leads the class in top half of the field in qualifying with 8; Jim Yates continues to fight the lights with a 1-4 holeshot record.

PRO STOCK BIKE: GT Tonglet is perfect in the first round at 4-0; after 4 events, there is pretty good parity in the class and nothing much else stands out. [6-7-2005]

'MONSTER' CLARIFICATION

In a note on May 31, the Agent left the impression that Clear Channel owns all the monster trucks in their series. They have between 20 and 30 of their own trucks, out of 150-plus that run in their series overall. Now we know. [6-7-2005]