MICHELIN VS GOODYEAR
The Agent hears that the sudden announcement that Goodyear tires would be the exclusive supplier for NHRA nitro class cars and others, which was puzzling since Goodyear for the most part has been the prime supplier for years, was brought about by the fact that Michelin tire was getting ready to start making a Top Fuel/Fuel Funny car tire for NHRA cars. Seems that Michelin wants to go heads up in racing against Goodyear wherever and whenever they can.

CANNON, PITTMAN SPLIT
According to Alan Pittman he and Scotty Cannon have decided to go their own ways and dissolve the Cannon/Pittman chassis partnership. Pittman will continue to build race cars, although we haven't found out what the official company name will be. The Cannon/Pittman shop was one of the first in the states to build a lot of race cars with the Murray Anderson-designed "swing arm" rear suspension.

IHRA PROS TO RETURN TO GAINESVILLE
The Agent hears from a reliable source that that at least five and maybe six of the Pro Mod racers that qualified for the field at Gainesville will be returning to the rescheduled conclusion. Names like Rickie Smith, Kirk Kuhns, and several others were mentioned. We also heard that some of the racers were thinking about trying to qualify Friday at the IHRA race in Virginia then make the 700 mile drive to Gainesville, run the race and then drive back to Virginia for Sunday's eliminations. That reminds the Agent of the glory days of Funny cars in the late sixties and guys like Jungle Jim Liberman and the Chi-Town Hustler.

IHRA FUEL TEAMS ALSO RETURNING TO GAINESVILLE
After the Helen Hofmann fiasco of last year concerning who owned the qualifying spot in a professional category, NHRA has made a rule that will allow team owners to send a team and driver to a race that they are qualified for but can't attend because of conflicting race dates. It is kind of complicated but the rule will allow IHRA teams such as Peter Lehman's, Bruce Litton's and Paul Romine's to send teams with alternate drivers. Look for Don Lampus, for one, to be at the wheel of a fuel car at Gainesville.

SHAMELESS PLUG FOR OUR PUBLISHER, RACING NETSOURCE
Pages from this magazine and our sister publication, www.circleracingonline.com were used to illustrate an article on e-commerce in the April issue of Performance Racing Industry, the bible of the performance automotive business. Our Editor and Publisher, Jeff Burk, was a source for information and was quoted in the article written by Nick Gagala.

GOOD PR FOR NHRA
Graham Light, NHRA VP of Racing Operations, wrote a personal letter to the Pro Mod racers after Gainesville thanking them for their efforts and asking them to come back to Gainesville if at all possible. From what the Agent heard from racers at Rockingham, that little bit of racer respect shown by NHRA went a long way with the Pro Mod teams that attended.

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