Agent 1320 has heard that there are some serious changes in the personnel at NHRA coming soon. While there is nothing yet official, the Agent has been told the following. The tech department will undergo a drastic change in personnel and reporting procedure. As reported in other magazines veteran fuel car owner, racer, and tuner Ray Alley will handle all matters concerning tech, rules changes and rules enforcement for Top Fuel and Funny Car and will report directly to NHRA President Tom Compton. The remainder of the classes from Pro Stock down will fall under Danny Gracia's overview and control regarding all technical aspects.

VP Carl Olson will take on other duties in the organization probably in the legal department and will no longer have the title of VP Technical Administrator.

Graham Light will devote his time exclusively to being race director for National Events and probably won't be involved in the Tech department.

Agent 1320 also hears that Cary Menard will have much more responsibility and input into the direction NHRA takes in the coming year . Remember, as this information goes to press it is just rumor!! Agent 1320 has been unable to get official acknowledgment of these changes from the sanctioning body. He was told however by a usually reliable source that a press release regarding these individuals and maybe a couple of more should be forthcoming from NHRA in the very near future.

A THIRD NATIONAL EVENT FOR POMONA?

Agent 1320 has been told that NHRA is trying to put together a program that would eliminate a lot of the non-national event programs at its Pomona County Fairgrounds facility in order to add a third National Event. Supposedly in order to do that they would have to give up their weekly street car program, Jr dragster program, and probably the Goodguys Nostalgia Drags. The event might be staged in the middle of the year around June or July and would include fuel cars under the lights. Very interesting, considering the heat NHRA already gets when they violate the curfew at the current events.

EVANS TO FIELD MERCURY COUGAR IN NHRA PRO STOCK COMPETITION FOR Y2K!!!

DRO has learned that the Stu Evans IHRA Pro Stock World Championship team will not only return to IHRA competition with the Jon Kaase-powered Probe that they raced in '99, but will also field a Wedge-powered Cougar in NHRA Pro Stock competition. The car will be built in the Fenton, MO shop of Jerry Haas. Jon Kaase has been signed to an exclusive contract to develop a wedge engine program for the team. The Evans team is also working with former NHRA Pro Stock competitor Jack Roush with the Cougar body. In fact, one of the team's new Cougars is reported to be at Roush's shop where builder Jerry Haas works on it at least once a week. Don't look for the Cougar to debut at Pomona but sometime later in the NHRA season after testing and development, but the IHRA Cougar may debut at the IHRA season opener at Darlington in March.

AND EVANS' HOLBROOK CARDS A 6.57!!!!

During a test session in Houston Raceway Park on Wednesday, January 26, driver Chris Holbrook drove the team's Kaase-powered IHRA Pro Stock to a 6.577 which is the quickest ever for an IHRA Pro Stocker.

ACTION PERFORMANCE SIGNS TWO-YEAR SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH SHIRLEY MULDOWNEY

Action Performance Companies, Inc. today announced that its subsidiary, goracing.com, will be the primary sponsor for four-time International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) race champion Shirley Muldowney through the 2001 season.

With a racing career spanning 40 years and still going strong, Muldowney is the most accomplished woman competing in professional motorsports. Her 4.69-second elapsed time at 312.50 mph run during qualifying at the Northern Nationals in 1998 was the quickest and fastest Top Fuel run ever recorded in the history of IHRA competition at the time. She was honored by the United States Sports Academy's 25th anniversary CNN/USA Today balloting for "Top Athletes of the past 25 years" and also named one of "Thirty Women of Distinction" by the New York State Senate, alongside other distinctive women including Susan B. Anthony, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

SUMMIT TO SPONSOR LAS VEGAS RACE

Summit Racing Equipment Company, which has made serious commitments to drag racing with recent major new programs in both NHRA and IHRA, has made yet another commitment to the sport by becoming the title rights sponsor for the inaugural NHRA event at Bruton Smith's new Las Vegas drag racing venue.

NEW FUEL TIRE FROM GOODYEAR?

Evidently in a effort to prevent some the tire problems that fuel racers have been experiencing, Goodyear has produced a new tire. The new tire is a little wider than the old tire, the tire's edges are rounded instead of a square and it is supposed to be a little heavier.

NITRO NEWS

Joe Amato took delivery of two new Brad Hadman chassis for this year's run at the championship. John Force is reportedly finally changing his car over to a five-disc clutch after running a four-disc all of last year. McMullen Argus, the performance car publishing

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