DAVE JOHNSON IN AS GM OF IHRA'S RED RIVER RACEWAY
Dave Johnson has been named the new General Manager of Red River Raceway near Shreveport, La. Johnson, 29, was most recently the GM of Darlington (S.C.) International Dragway. He first worked in the sport as a marketing specialist at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond. He then was General Manager at Montgomery (Ala.) Motorsports Park before moving to Darlington in 1997.

DARLINGTON OUT OF IHRA SCHEDULE FOR 2001
After hosting the season-opening IHRA Winter Nationals for the past 30 years, Darlington (S.C.) International Dragway will not return as part of the 2001 Summit Drag Racing Series national event schedule. No replacement track has yet been announced.

CRITCHLEY STEERS "IRONHORSE" TO CANADIAN WIN
Troy Critchley drove Johnny Rocca's USA Racing team entry to victory at the second event of the five-race Canadian Drag Racing Series (CDRS) held at Earlston-Temiskaming Motorsports Dragway, near Cobalt, Ontario. It was the team's first major win of the 2000 season and it propelled them to the top of the CDRS point standings.

In the finals, Australian-born Critchley, 28, drove around his sooner-leaving opponent, K.C. Jensen, running a weekend best at 6.455 at 221 mph for the win.

Ed. Note: For a discussion of the changes just made by IHRA to the Pro Mod rules for supercharged cars and racers' reactions, see "A Different Perspective on the News" a new column which will take an in-depth look at drag racing issues.

L.A. AREA TO GET NEW DRAGSTRIP AT IRWINDALE
Joe Williams, CEO of Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway has announced that they will build an eighth-mile dragstrip on the grounds that contain the half-mile Irwindale oval track facility. They haven't broken ground yet, but the board only approved the measure last week. A press release says that the track will get an NHRA sanction and will have only street racing and jr dragster and won't run any pro or sportsman NHRA classes. However, Agent 1320 noticed that the track will have a concrete pad which street-tired cars probably don't need but high horsepower cars do. Maybe future plans?

NHRA ADDS THIRD NATIONAL EVENT AT POMONA IN 2001!
NHRA, Fairplex Park and the city of LaVerne have reached an agreement to limit events at Pomona Raceway to just seven in the year 2001.Three will be NHRA National Events, with a newly added date for sometime in the summer of 2001.The other four race dates are to be restricted to street-legal events only which means the end of the GoodGuys fuel race and maybe even the Super Chevy event which includes the nitro burning Fuel Coupes. The restricted number of dates makes the Agent wonder if eventually NHRA won't be allowed to stage their National events at the Fairplex.

TEAM DRO RACERS MAKE NEWS

In the past several weeks several racers, who don't care how their reputation is affected by attaching a Drag Racing Online decal to their race car, did the denizens of DRO proud at the drag strip.

Resident columnist, beer taster on loan from AB, and drag racer extraordinaire Jok Nicholson took his trusty '67 Dart to the IHRA National Event at Cordova Dragway and entered the Hot Rod class. Nicholson, who is currently third in IHRA Division 5 points, solidified his points position by going a couple of rounds before losing to semi-finalist Tracy Cochran in his '85 S-10. Nicholson was later quoted as saying, "The pickup pounded me!"