It has been a long time since I have written here.  Thee were a lot of issuse with the NHRA and my blog.  I am in the process of revamping it for the coming year so what i would like is your input on the format and content of the blog.

 Just shoot me an email or comment on this post and we will move forward to the best blog on drag racing.

We are trying to put together a team for next season, we will keep ypu osted as to the car, team and progress as we move along.

Tim Wilkerson may not have won the POWERade world championship, but if there were a people’s champ, he’d surely wear the crown.

Tim Wilkerson came into the 2008 NHRA season with five victories and left the season with 11. He entered the campaign having just come off a 15th-place finish in 2007 but finished the 2008 season in second place after a storybook run. To all who were witnessing this remarkable “arrival,” the Levi, Ray & Shoup driver seemed fully capable of turning everything around, including the startling ability to erase the memory of seven DNQs from the year before by recording absolutely none in 2008. He also improved his round record from a pedestrian 14-16 in 2007 to an astounding 42-18 this year, a mark no other Funny Car driver could match. In the end, though, it was the final day and the ever-so-close but narrowly missed chance at a championship that far too many people remember.

Having spent most of the season leading the Funny Car points chase, Wilkerson entered the Countdown to the Championship knowing full well what the rules were and how they worked. By virtue of his first-place standing after the regular season, he began the Countdown at the top, but his lead was cut to 30 POWERade points, and the nine other drivers on his tail had once again picked up the scent. It was not going to be easy, especially for a driver who had never finished higher than seventh in the standings and had no experience with the breathtaking pressure of a real championship run, but as Wilkerson saw it, nothing is ever easy in one of the world’s most challenging sports, and there’s no reason to look back with any regrets.

“It’s all hard, every day against every team,” Wilkerson said. “You don’t get any free passes, and no one takes it easy on you. We’ve seen the hardest of the hard times, just trying to qualify, or sometimes even trying to break a streak of multiple DNQs, but we came into the year thinking we were better. It turns out, we were better, and we had a great year. I’m not going to waste a minute of my time wishing anything different. It would’ve been a dream come true to win it, but we didn’t, so now the dream is still there.

“But like I said, it’s a dogfight out there every week. If you want to know how tough it is, just look at our first two races this year, where we had a fast car and qualified at the top in both Pomona and

Phoenix, but we lost in the first round at each race. It almost didn’t matter where you qualified this year because all 16 cars in the field could win.”

Wilkerson and his team won six times in 2008, captured four No. 1 qualifying spots, and led the points battle for 15 races.

Wilkerson headed to

Gainesville, the third race on the trail, with every possible qualifying point in the bank, thanks to the pair of No. 1 spots, but his 0-2 record left him far down the overall list. A semifinal finish in Gainesville got him on a roll, and his first win of the year soon followed in

Las Vegas. Two races later, in front of a throng of Levi, Ray & Shoup supporters in

Madison, he won again. By the season’s final race, six new Wally trophies were on the mantel, but Wilkerson had slipped one round behind the red-hot Cruz Pedregon, and the 10-month battle was coming to a head. No one was more disappointed, and certainly no one felt more reponsible than Wilkerson after his first-round foul knocked him out of contention. Through 24 races and 10 long months, it had all come down to the last day, and this time the underdog missed the bone.”Was it the lowest point in the year? I guess you have to say that Sunday in

Pomona was the lowest point, but only because we had been so high for so long,” the LRS driver said. “We were living in rare air all season, breaking new ground just about every week, so losing in the first round, and losing like that, felt pretty awful. Looking back over my career, a first-round loss has always been disappointing, at anytime and especially with a red-light, but it was just the circumstances that made it worse this time. But let’s face it, you have to have done an awful lot of things right for a long time to even be a part of a lap that means as much as that one did. Whatever sport you’re talking about, you can’t lose in the final game of the playoffs without playing great to get there, and you can’t forget that you played great to be in that spot.

“I’m just taking the time to remember why it was so important, not how it ended up. It was that important because so many people pitched in and made it the season it was. From the crew guys to my family, from Dick Levi to all the people at Levi, Ray & Shoup, who followed us and supported us all year, this was a group effort. As a group, we had a heck of a year, and I bet a lot of other teams would trade places with us if they could. You can’t dwell on that one last lap; you have to remember it all, and it was a great experience. It didn’t end up like we wanted, but it sure gave us all a taste for it, and we want to try it again.”

In today’s Funny Car landscape, it’s hard to imagine that any driver will ever again embark on the sort of dominating juggernaut that John Force put on display throughout the 1990s, when he won nine of the 10 possible crowns. Today’s class is far more evenly competitive, and the weekly challenge of simply getting qualified often seems as daunting as round-wins did a few years ago. That high-performance parity makes the points chase a huge undertaking, but confidence nearly always has to be a part of the tune-up.

“We had all kinds of reasons to not be confident after 2007, when we finished 15th and missed seven shows,” Wilkerson said. “But we knew we were finally getting a handle on it at the end of the year when we went to three semifinals in the last stretch of the season. We weren’t stumbling around like we had been earlier, so that gave us some confidence. We carried a lot of that over to this year, but losing in the first round at those first two races tested us again. You have to get that first round in the bank before you can ever win a race, and it’s not easy. Once you get through that and start knowing that you have a fast car and can do some damage, the confidence goes up.

“We all talk about how these cars can’t feel anything and shouldn’t react to things like confidence, but man, they sure act like they know what’s going on. Once you get on a little bit of a roll and start throwing some good numbers on the board, you get more willing to press it a little, and the car seems to cooperate while at the same time the guys in the other lane know you’ve been running well, and maybe they lean on it a little too hard. For whole stretches of the season, that can build up, and the rounds just start piling up. It’s pretty interesting how that works. It’s like winning is contagious, and we know from experience that losing is too. You just have to believe in what you’re doing.”

That belief was the foundation for Wilkerson’s success all season. As the owner, driver, and tuner for the LRS car, he bore an extremely large percentage of the weight, knowing his responsibilities were enormous while some other drivers simply signed autographs, packed the parachutes, and waited for the next lap. When you’re multitasking at Wilkerson’s level, you have to believe in your judgment and the people around you.

“You have to surround yourself with competent and trustworthy people, and you have to rely on them to put things together right and make sure things aren’t falling off the car,” Wilkerson said. “We have a really good team right now, and they not only have great chemistry, they do the work right too. If you look back over just about any team’s season, you’ll see rounds handed away by mechanical stuff that shouldn’t happen. We’ve all lived through it, and we’ve seen it happen to the very best. This team kept that sort of thing to the bare minimum, though, so when we lost, we usually just flat got beat. We rarely beat ourselves.”

In retrospect, it was a season of incredible highs, sustained performance, and terrific accomplishment, but the period on the end of the sentence left the story incomplete. Wilkerson and his team earned multiple stripes and sincere accolades for months on end and put themselves through the process of learning how to compete and win at the highest level with the most on the line. It didn’t end as they wished, but they are far better off for having been to the summit, and Wilkerson is sure the lessons learned are important.

“I guess I have an even greater appreciation for the guys who have won the championship because the demands and the changes that happen to you are real, and it’s hard to deal with it all,” he said. “As it gets down to the wire, the tension changes your sleep patterns, and you have to really work at being sharp. When you’re in the hunt, more people want more of your time, and that’s understandable because you’re part of the big story, but my time has always been pretty hard to come by anyway, so that was something I had to learn to deal with. I guess you can tell people ‘It’s just another race and we’re going about it the same way’ all you want, but I learned that the truth is it’s really different, and you have to adjust. I think we’ll all be better making the adjustments next time, if we’re lucky enough to have a next time. At least we’ve been down this path once now.

“We didn’t win the championship, and that not only hurts inside all of us, it really hurts in the bank account too, but we’re going to come out firing again in 2009, and I think we’ll be a better team because of all of this. Don’t get me wrong, there are about 16 other Funny Car teams that all think, and really believe, that they’ll come out strong and can win the championship next year. I think they’re right to think that way, too, because look at what we did. I don’t have a clue who will win this thing next year, or any year after that, but I know we’ll be doing our best to win every round we enter. If we’re as good as we can be, we’ll be right there. That’s kind of the beauty of it, really, because you just have to go out there and do it. At least now we’ve been right in it and gotten close, so I think we’ll have that in our pocket next time.”

It’s true that you have to go out there and do it, but the LRS team knows that the final missed step was only there because hundreds of others had been successfully negotiated. It is truly a long climb to the mountaintop, but Wilkerson has now blazed one trail and is already busy preparing to make another ascent.

Tasca and Wilkerson form two-car alliance for 2009

Tim Wilkerson

Bob Tasca III

Current NHRA Funny Car points leader Tim Wilkerson and rookie of the year nominee Bob Tasca III will bring their two respective race teams together to form a two-car alliance for the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season. Teammates in every sense of the word, the two will pit together, share information and resources, and utilize all-new equipment, including clutch and blower dynamometers that will be housed in the new Tasca Racing shop in

Concord, N.C. The only differentiating factor between the operations will be that each team owner will continue to manage their own teams individually and Wilkerson will continue to maintain his race shop in

Springfield, Ill.

“I’ve always been determined to create a championship-caliber program, that’s what I’ve been focused on from day one and what I committed to for Ford Motor Company,” said Tasca. “Certainly since we’ve come through this first year, it’s become very apparent that a two-car team is a huge advantage. These alliances aren’t taken lightly. There is a lot of thought and a lot of planning that goes into something like this.”

“It’s something that we’ve thought through, we’ve strategized, we looked at the pros and cons of, and I can just tell you that the two teams coming together in ever sense of the word, makes me proud to stand behind Tim Wilkerson and I really feel that we’re creating our own little mini empire here and it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with next year.”

“First I just want to say that I’m really excited about bringing mine and Bob’s team together next season,” said Wilkerson. “Getting at-track information really seems to be the problem for single-car teams, which really is based on just the timeframe that you have to run your car at the track and the amount of people you have to compare data with. It just seems like you can’t get enough data out here. We know that the multi-car teams really have us with our backs against the wall in that aspect, so the discussions we’ve had through the year with Bob had us thinking it might be a possibility that we could get together for next season.”

“We talked about why would I want to do this with him, and why would he want to do this deal with me, and we talked about it in great length numerous times,” said the Funny Car points leader. “Bob has a lot to bring to the table on the business side, because he has a lot of contacts and a great business sense, and he’s going to be a huge asset to be involved with from my point of view. He’s got a great selling point to me that way, and of course my selling point to him is that I’m a veteran racer.”

The alliance between the two teams will also include Wilkerson running a Ford Mustang body next season, as well as using a Ford Flex as his team’s tow vehicle

“We’re very happy Tim has decided to run a Ford Mustang next year and partner with Tasca Racing,” said Brian Wolfe, director Ford Racing Technology. “It says a lot when someone the caliber of Tim decides to switch over to our product.  We believe this alliance between Tim’s and Bob’s operations will help both teams be better, and we believe it will help make our Ford presence in NHRA even stronger.”

Wilkerson, who is also the crew chief on his Funny Car, will work together with Tasca Racing’s current crew chief, Chris Cunningham, as well as Marc Denner, who joins the team in 2009 as assistant crew chief on Tasca’s Shelby Mustang.

“I think it’s a great plan,” said Chris Cunningham, Tasca Racing crew chief. “I look forward to having another car and another guy to bounce ideas off of. I’m so used to having two cars to work with, so to have another set of eyes to look at something when you might not be confident, can do nothing but enhance both programs. I think it’s great that Bob will have someone to talk to as far as driving tips, because Tim has been out here for a long time and does a great job driving and an excellent job tuning. I view it as us being blessed to have something like this go down.”

Tasca currently sits two spots outside of the top 10 heading into this weekend, while Wilkerson has captured the most wins this season and leads the point standings. 

Tasca Racing and Tim Wilkerson Racing quotes

Tim Wilkerson, Team owner, driver, Tim Wilkerson Racing — Levi, Ray, Shoup Ford Mustang:

Can you talk about how this alliance with Tasca Racing came about, and your plans going into next season?
Well, Bob and I had some discussions throughout the year on how our two teams can compete with the larger teams out here. Getting at-track information really seems to be the problem for single-car teams, which really is based on just the timeframe that you have to run your car at the track and the amount of people you have to compare data with. It just seems like you can’t get enough data out here. We know that the multi-car teams really have us with our backs against the wall in that aspect, so the discussions we’ve had through the year with Bob had us thinking it might be a possibility that we could get together for next season, so we started talking to see if it might be something that I’d be interested in and that he would be interested in doing. And also, that would be a good deal for both teams. And I think that we’ve hit on all of the high points and of course we talked about any downside that there could be, and we really couldn’t think of any. We just decided, you know what, let’s put together this deal and go on in the future and hope that it can bring some really big things for both of us.

“We talked about why would I want to do this with him, and why would he want to do this deal with me, and we talked about it in great length numerous times. Bob has a lot to bring to the table on the business side, because he has a lot of contacts and a great business sense, and he’s going to be a huge asset to be involved with from my point of view. Just the way he handles himself, is amazing, especially for as young as he is. First off, I don’t have a lot of the time to do the stuff that Bob can get done, and I don’t have the contacts either. He’s got a great selling point to me that way, and of course my selling point to him is that I’m a veteran racer. I think that he has put together a team that in my opinion can vie for the championship in 2009. He put together his program this past year quickly, and whenever you do that, there are a lot of growing pains. And I think he’s through those growing pains and he understands more, and I know that he would have liked to have two cars the day he started, but sometimes you’ve got to do a little bit of crawling before you can get up and walk. And hopefully, we can help get him off the walking mode and into the full stride next season.

This arrangement is a true alliance, and not one team coming in and taking over the other.
“I think it’s important to get out there that this is a true alliance, because we talked about that. We had conversations about it not being my responsibility or position to undermine or to convince his team that they might be doing something wrong, or the other way around. Heck, they might be doing everything right that my team is doing wrong, you never know. And we’re going into this with that attitude.”

Bob Tasca, Team owner, driver, Tasca Racing,

Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby

Mustang:
“I’ve always been determined to create a championship-caliber program, that’s what I’ve been focused on from day one and what I committed to for Ford Motor Company. Certainly since we’ve come through this first year, it’s become very apparent that a two-car team is a huge advantage. These alliances aren’t taken lightly. It’s not like over coffee you shake hands and decide to do a deal. There is a lot of thought and a lot of planning that goes into something like this. And I can tell you that Tim and I have been talking for months now, and you have to make sure that its right. At the end of the day, money is certainly important and you need to have the resources to run these cars, but more importantly is the people side of it. And for me, to know that you go to battle every weekend with Tim Wilkerson and his program, and then couple that with Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner, and my program for next year, I mean that is a powerful group of people. Forget the money, forget the people; just look at the brain trust that we’ve been able to pull together. And I’m elated to be associated with Tim. He’s proven this year is one of the more remarkable championship runs, and may go down as ‘the’ most remarkable championship runs as a single-car team in the day and age of these multi-car empires. So it’s something that we’ve thought through, we’ve strategized, we looked at the pros and cons of, and I can just tell you that the two teams coming together in ever sense of the word, makes me proud to stand behind Tim Wilkerson and I really feel that we’re creating our own little mini empire here and it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with next year.”

Both you and Tim have mentioned that the relationship both of you have with Chris Cunningham was a major factor in this decision.
“The chemistry and the culture out here is so critical, that I was told that everyone needs to be going in the same direction. And when Tim and I started talking about this and kind of reflecting a little bit, we looked at the both of us and we have similar backgrounds as far as our family being in and around the sport. He’s got a son that is getting into racing, and I grew up in the business, so I think right away that we clicked. I think we clicked all the back to

Phoenix testing before the season. He was always supportive and would come up to me and give me his advice as a veteran driver, and we kid of started a relationship early on in the season. And then certainly as that unfolded, and certainly his relationship with Chris and Marc over the years, Tim just knew that as important as it was for Tim to work with me, it might be more important to work with Chris and Marc. They just have had such a healthy relationship over the years that Tim knew bringing this team together was going to be a big step for both of us. We kind of joked about what could go wrong with this deal, and we really couldn’t come up with anything. When we put everything down on paper and looked at how our resources coupled with his resources, this really takes both programs up several notches. This is not a baby step in either program. This is a big leap forward for Wilkerson Racing and Tasca Racing on a performance level, and we’re both looking forward to reaping the rewards of it next year. I’m looking forward to going to battle next year with Tim by my side.

Chris Cunningham, Crew Chief, Tasca Racing:

You’ve spent many of your time in the series working within a multi-car operation. Can you talk about your adding a second car to the program next season?
“I think it’s a great plan. I look forward to having another car and another guy to bounce ideas off of. I’m so used to having two cars to work with, so to have another set of eyes to look at something when you might not be confident, can do nothing but enhance both programs. Tim is having a phenomenal year, but doing it as a single-car team is almost unheard of. This alliance will do nothing but pick both programs up and make everyone better. I think that it’s great that Bob will have someone to talk to as far as driving tips, because Tim has been out here for a long time and does a great job driving and an excellent job tuning. I view it as us being blessed to have something like this go down.”

Tim mentioned that a part of this decision was the fact that the two of you have developed a good relationship over the years.
“For Tim to say that I was any part of the reason that he’s doing something really is an honor. He and I share a lot of the same views on how to run the car. I guess you could say that we’ve had more casual conversations than we’ve had technical conversations, but you can just tell the personalities mix and he shares a lot of the same ideas as we do.”

Leading rookies Neff, Tasca reflect on their first Funny Car seasons

Mike Neff, driver of the Old Spice Ford Mustang, and Bob Tasca III, driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang, are two of the five nominees for Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future award as the season’s top rookie. With only two races remaining in their first seasons, Neff and Tasca talked with This Week in Ford Racing about the challenges they’ve faced this season and what each of them has learned.

Q: Mike, tell us about your thoughts on being under consideration for rookie of the year.
Neff: I would be very honored and proud to accomplish that. That’s a great award. Robert [Hight] has won it and Ashley [Force] has won it. I just think it’s a neat accomplishment if that would be something that we could do. I look at it that it’s a team effort, so it’s not just about me but it’s about the team. I feel like the team has as much to do with it as I do, really. A lot of it is based off of performance, and that’s what makes you look good and get good results. So, I would be really honored and happy for all of us if we were able to accomplish that.

Q: During that first year, is there a point when you stop considering yourself a rookie?
Neff: “I’m definitely pretty comfortable now in the car in a lot of areas, as far as being able to have a good vision of where I’m going. For a long time it seemed like one big blur, you know? So, things have kind of slowed down. I’ve been able to get a better visual of the groove and feel like, as far as knowing where the car’s at in the groove, I feel a lot better about that. There were times in the beginning where I’d hit the gas and it would go down there and I’d lift and wouldn’t be able to tell you if I was in the middle of the groove or if I was on the inside of it or the outside of it. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you where I was at. It just happened so fast and was just a blur to me, so I feel good about getting comfortable with that. But I do kind of feel like I’ve been doing this long enough that I don’t really consider myself a rookie.

I’ve made enough races, and now it’s time that I need to be concentrating on being a better driver – having better reaction times, and just fine-tuning to be smooth and start concentrating on those areas, when in the beginning I wasn’t worried about reaction times. All of my thoughts were when I hit the gas I need to make sure I can keep this thing straight and be ready for what’s going to happen. I’ve experienced enough stuff – a fire, a cylinder out, smoking the tires, shaking – now that I’ve experienced enough things, I’m more comfortable, not up there wondering what’s going to happen.”

Q: With all of the plusses and minuses, can you put this season into perspective? You made the Countdown.
A: Yeah, I am happy with making the Countdown. That’s definitely an accomplishment. There were a lot of good cars that were out there last year that didn’t make it this year. So, I’m definitely pleased with that – making the Countdown. Although, I must tell you, at the beginning of the year, with the team and John Medlen and everybody, I would’ve expected us to. It’s not like I’m shocked that we made it, I kind of always had high expectations for us, so I honestly thought that we should be able to do that. I’m not trying to be arrogant; if you look at the past history of John Medlen and Eric [Medlen] and Robert, even though these guys were first-year drivers, they all did really well here at John Force Racing. So, I expected us to do good.

My disappointments? I’m disappointed we don’t have that first win. I really felt like, one, in particular,

Bristol, that should’ve been a win right there, our first win. So, that really hurts, the fact that we let that one slip by, because I don’t like carrying that monkey around on your back, you know, ‘When are you going to get your first win?’ You know, we should’ve already had it. That would’ve been a big thing for us, if we would’ve been able to do that then. So, I really want to get that first win. I think that’s a really major focus right now at this point, is getting that over with.”

Q: You had another very good qualifying effort in Virginia, tying for the fastest 1,000-foot time ever. Is there a difference between running of Fridays and running on Sundays?
Neff: Yes. Honestly, there is. Fridays are very important – every day, every run is important now, but things have changed over these last few years that Friday, you get that night run or that late session, well, that sets that top 12, you definitely want to try to be in that. Friday, the first run, you want to make sure you go down the race track and get something to look at it, in a perfect world, you make a good, solid run. Okay, now everything looks good, now we can be a little more aggressive and try to run good. What happens if you don’t make a good run, that first one, now you’re a little on the defense for Friday night. You can’t get too carried away because you need to make sure you go down the track. That puts you at a disadvantage to qualify up in the top of the pack, somewhat.

Saturday’s turned into if you’re not in that top 12, you’re trying to outdo the rest of the guys who are trying to get those spots, and usually, at that point, you end up having to race a top-qualifying car, so you’re just at a disadvantage all weekend, and that makes Sunday real tough. So, Fridays have become really important, especially with this. They always have, with that night run, but now especially now with the way they’re structured it, it’s critical.”

Q: You’re in the middle of a couple of weekends off before the season closes. has it been a long year for you? Are you welcoming the break right now?
Neff: I’m really glad to have some time off. It has been busy, and we’ve been gone a lot. You get to this point of the year and everybody wears down, the crew is tired. So, it’s nice being able to be at home and be with the kids and family and just take a little breather and catch up on some home-life stuff that you’ve been missing out on and get a second wind. This is my favorite time of the year, going to Vegas and then going to

Pomona, these are my two favorite races of the year, knowing that you’re just winding the season down and everything is at stake. I love Vegas, that’s a great track, and being that I’m from

California, it’s always nice to go there and see my friends and my family there. So, I’m really looking forward to these last two weeks.”

Q: You mentioned getting that first win. Is that the 100-percent focus for the final two races of the year?
Neff: Yes, definitely. We want to win one of those things and get that over with. We’ve been close a few times and haven’t gotten it. The car has run good all year. We’ve been a little hit-and-miss, a little inconsistent at times, but the performance is there and John Medlen had the thing really running last weekend, and that Ford BOSS 500 motor, that thing is looking fantastic. The power that it makes is better than what we had before. That thing has been a real nice thing to have. With all of that, if we get a little consistency, and I think we’ve got a good shot at doing it, to be honest with you.”

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Q: Bob, You’re almost at the end of your rookie season, and two of the top candidates for rookie-of-the-year are ford drivers with you and Mike Neff.
Tasca: The good news is that a Ford driver is going to win Rookie of the Year. Obviously, Mike and I come from two very different perspectives. I’m extremely proud of my team and the whole program because November 1 of last year we didn’t have an employee and we didn’t own a part. It was something that we started from scratch. And for that, when you reflect on that and the business plan that we built around this 300-mile-per-hour billboard, is pretty phenomenal.

With the training of Quick Lane dealers on the advantages of Motorcraft parts and different selling techniques, along with the awards-based contest that we’ve put together for Motorcraft distributors and vendors and dealers, and then couple that with the great charitable program we did this season with the JDRF and juvenile diabetes, and then with the midway. We’ve not only connected with fans out on the race track, we’ve connected with them in the pit with the Motorcraft Hole Shot Challenge, the Quick Lane pit crew challenge and the Custom Accessories display area, along with the business program that compliments this race car. It’s an awful lot to take in. You look back and it’s a blur, literally, for me.

But certainly we’re focused on closing this year out. We have two races and we’re still searching for our first win, both me and Mike. Hopefully, one of us grabs a couple of wins here before the end of the season for Ford and for our Rookie-of-the-Year bio; it’d be nice to have a win in it for sure. And then it’s about looking at next year. As a rookie, my off-season is going to really be dynamically different this season as it was last season. We’re going to be testing. We test three days after

Pomona, so talk about having a leg up on the 2009 season. We’ve got a big test session planned in Vegas on the way back from the West Coast, and a lot of moves that we’ve made approaching this off season here. We’ve got Marc Denner joining our team [as assistant crew chief], and we’ve got some good things coming out this season. From a planning and strategy point, we’re already planning for the 2009 year.

It’s been a great year for us. It’s been a huge learning curve in multiple areas from the chassis that was thrown at us, the no testing ban that was put on, a new driver – I’ve got experience in an alcohol car, but it’s completely different when you compare the two for driving characteristics. They’re similar in some ways, but they’re polar opposite in a lot of ways. So it’s been challenging. I think that’s probably a word that can sum up our year. It’s been challenging. We’ve had a lot of highs, we’ve had some lows. But it’s been a great year to build a foundation under our program. And when you compare our success as a first-year team starting from scratch, we’ve done an amazing job. I mean you can go back a couple years and not find a team that has performed as well as our team has, through the course of a season, starting with nothing on Nov. 1. So for that, I’m proud of the guys [on the team], led by Chris Cunningham, for the race car that they give us.

From a business standpoint, I’m a little biased, but I don’t think there is a program on the whole circuit that rivals our business activation plan. And that’s a tremendous thing to accomplish in your first year. It’s been an exciting year; it’s almost been a blur. I can tell you that I’m really, really looking forward to 2009. We’ve got a little work to do here in 2008, and we’re going to strive for our first win. But I think it’s been a great year to spring off into 2009.

Q: You’ve talked about your rookie season before, saying that you wouldn’t want to relive your first 50 trips down the track with what you’ve been able to learn this season.
Tasca:There is no question about it. It’s almost scary, and I’m not afraid to admit it, but it’s almost scary to think the first 50 hits of the throttle. I mean how do you prepare yourself for getting into one of these cars? I mean, an Alcohol Funny Car is the closest thing that you can do, but it’s nothing after you cross half-track to what this fuel car can do. I think I’m a long way off from being a veteran, but I’m certainly well on my way of really dialing myself in as a driver in this race car, and to look back and just remember things that happened in the car versus when I’m in the car now, it’s amazing how the human mind can speed up and everything slows down. I mean, from rolling into the beam, to hitting the throttle, to feeling the race car go through critical points of the track where it can smoke the tires, it can shake the tires, where it can start to put a hole out and move around, to when you have to get the chutes out. And even being able to tell if one chute hit late, one chute didn’t come out; it’s just amazing how much you can gather in in such a short period of time. And it’s because of seat time.

You gotta get in one of these cars to get good at it and you just have to do it over and over and over again. That’s why a lot of those three-in-a-row stretches, I look forward to. You get time; you get no weekend. This is a two-weekend-off deal for us, and I haven’t done this all year. The last time we had two weekends off, I tested in

Valdosta, so the next time in the car is two weeks off, and that’s a lot of time out of it. The more seat time I can get, the better I’ll become as a driver. And truthfully, the better our team will become, because as much as I learn, Chris learns in the car.

I really feel that that testing ban, on a single-car team with a rookie driver, has really put us at a disadvantage, more so than anything else out there, because you tell a guy that you can’t practice. That’s the worst thing that you can tell a rookie driver with a new team. So what we’ve done is that it’s forced us to practice a little bit here the last couple of races. And fortunately, you learn a lot even if the car doesn’t go down the race track, because we’re gathering data from the hit of the throttle to when I step off of it. But it takes time to come up with our strategy to get one of these cars to go from A to B down the race track.

So, it’s been very challenging, it’s been very rewarding. At the end of the day, I just think that we have a solid team; we’ve got all the key guys coming back for next year and we’re rolling into ‘09 light years ahead of where we were last year.

I want to take a moment to thank all the readers of ou blog for being so patient over the past couple of weeks.

We sustained a lot of damage due to hurricane Ike and are just starting to get back to normal or a reasonable fascimilie of normal.

We will be following our friend Tim Wilkerson’s charge for the NHRA world championship.  It is an honor to know Tim.  One of Tim’s close associates is actually our Team mate and you will be seeing some great things come in he 2009 season from Nitro Dogs Racing.

Nitro Dogs racing is teaming up with Sal Ramos ” Freakin Rican” Nitro Funny car team for the 2009 Season. 

We will be unveiling our cars for next season in the near future.

Please keep coming back to see what new and exciting things we have in-store for the new season.

We will have more in-depth news and insider information in the coming weeks.

We will also be chronicling the racing of both my daughter Amber and my wife Juanette as they step into an 11 second Chevy Nova for the first time.  We will have photos and interviews of what it is like for a first time driver.  I cant’s wait for them to experience the thrill of drag racing for the first time as a driver.

Nitro Dogs is also working on a race to be run at Houston Raceway Park in the coming months.

Again thanks for being patient and we are sorry for the past few weeks we just could not get our minds off of the terrible loses we saw due to the hurricane and the losses we also sustained.

So now lets go racing…..

Nancy Matter Racing Debuts a New Look Heading Into Topeka

 

“Everything has come together so quickly” notes Matter.

Topeka, Ks. — After a seven week break to relocate their racing shop and music studio, the Top Alcohol Funny Car Team of Nancy Matter is ready to get back into action this weekend at Topeka’s Heartland Park Division 5Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Event.

Many changes have happened and Matter’s team is very proud to announce that her team has a brand new look. Matter, who is always thinking outside the box for alternative marketing, is extremely proud to introduce two new companies to their team and to NHRA Championship Drag Racing. Lamb’s Tire & Automotive Center of Austin and Precision Hail Experts of Lewisville are combined together with Applied Tool & Supply of Austin and TigerFlow of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“Everything has come together so quickly” notes Matter, “when we were contacted by Ron Meredith of Lamb’s Tire and Automotive last week, we had no idea that we were going to be fortunate enough to completely redesign the car, wrap it and receive all fresh parts so we can compete for the remainder of the 2008 Racing season and beyond.”

“I would like to especially thank Tommy and Vincent Strader from 360 Wraps of Arlington for all of their last minute artistic design and application to help us with getting an amazing look for the future. We have a lot more that is still in development stage, and for the next few weeks, we have only one goal in mind, qualify and take each pass one at a time, hopefully everything combined together will produce positive results.”

Ron Meredith adds “Nancy’s team brings a complete new approach to our business plan and development forecast, we are very proud to have them represent our company and look forward to a long term partnership.”

Lamb’s Tire & Automotive Center is a dynamic leader in the complete automotive service business. We are a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for automotive service and sales. We are building a business in which high standards permeate all aspects of our company. Customer Service and Quality is a state of mind at Lamb’s Tire & Automotive Centers.

TIGERFLOW Systems, Inc., was founded to provide aggressive solutions to difficult problems facing the construction industry. TIGERFLOW will seek solutions through design expertise, technical know-how and sales support to meet the needs of the next generation of commercial building. Today, TIGERFLOW has an international depth with major commercial, military, process, fire protection, municipal, and industrial site installations world-wide.

IRS raids office of Torco Racing

Fuels’ Evan Knoll

DECATUR, Mich. - Internal Revenue Service agents raided the business office of Evan Knoll, president and chief executive of Torco Racing Fuels Inc. and one of drag racing’s biggest names.IRS spokesman Stephen Moore said the agents executed a search warrant Thursday at the office in downtown Decatur, about 150 miles west of Detroit.

Agents also had a search warrant for a residence in the southwestern Michigan village, but Moore declined to say whose home it was or what the agents were seeking.

Telephone calls seeking comment were made to Knoll’s office and to his Decatur home, but there was no answer at either location. A phone message was left at the Ada office of his lawyer, Larry Wilson.

About 20 federal agents and deputies from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the operation, Moore told the Kalamazoo Gazette for an online story.

Undersheriff Paul Edwards said federal agents had an 8 a.m. briefing at the sheriff’s office in nearby Paw Paw before heading to Knoll’s business office.

Edwards said the IRS contacted his department Wednesday and asked the agency to provide a “uniformed presence” during the search. The federal agents did not tell local authorities what they hoped to confiscate or why, he said.

Knoll and his businesses have been hit with three federal lawsuits since April 2007 that allege contract breaches and seek millions of dollars.

Knoll Gas Motorsports announced in January, less than a month before the season began, that it was withdrawing millions of dollars of sponsorships from a number of drag racing teams.

Knoll recently stopped construction of a $2 million home in Decatur and several contractors have filed liens against the property for unpaid invoices, the newspaper reported.

He has remained out of the public spotlight for a number of months, citing lingering health issues related to a 2004 car crash and a related head injury.

It’s crunch time again for Grubnic, who hopes to avoid repeating playoff miss

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The upcoming Mac Tools

U.S. Nationals is the 18th and final race of the Countdown to the Championship regular season. In Top Fuel, where eight of the 10 playoff berths have been clinched, only 10 points separate the three drivers, Dave Grubnic, Doug Kalitta, and Morgan Lucas, competing for the final two playoff berths.

Last year, Grubnic, driver of Kalitta Motorsports’ DHL dragster, was bumped from the Countdown playoffs by a mere three points by Doug Herbert’s dramatic win at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals. Grubnic is looking to offer a different story line in 2008. Entering the regular-season finale next weekend, Grubnic is in ninth place with 736 points, just four points clear of teammate Kalitta and 10 points ahead of Lucas. “Here we go again,” he groaned.

“We went through this last year and got bumped out by three points, and to make matters worse, we had a rain delay, and that race never got finished until Wednesday. So for two days I was sitting there stressing out on what was going to happen,” recalled Grubnic, who qualified a fine fourth and won Sunday’s first round before action was called. When racing resumed Monday, he lost in the second round to Lucas.

“But it is what it is. We’ve got knocked out, and here we are looking down the barrel, fighting for our position again, but we’re definitely not going to let it go, that’s for sure.”

After reaching the final round in

Phoenix, the second event of the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, which catapulted him to third in points, Grubnic hasn’t made it past the second round, including 10 first-round losses. Those early outs are tempered somewhat by his car’s potential, as evidenced by his No. 1 qualifying position in

Madison. His James Riola-tuned DHL digger has consistently been a top-half qualifier.

“Our attitude stays the same,” he insisted. “We get asked a lot, ‘Are you going to do anything different? Will the pressure affect you or whatever?’ But we go to each event with the same goal. And obviously our goal is to be the No. 1 qualifier and to win the event. So nothing really changes there.

“So we’re going to go back into Indy with that goal as well. So, you know, hopefully, if we can achieve that, it will keep us locked into the Countdown. But I know how it is. Morgan’s going to go in there with the same attitude, and so is my teammate Doug Kalitta.

“And we’ll just have to wait until Indy and see how all this plays out. But it definitely makes it an exciting event, that’s for sure.”

A win in Indy for Mac Tools, a team sponsor and main backer of Kalitta’s team car, would be great salve for a tough season for Connie Kalitta’s operation, which suffered the loss of Scott Kalitta in Englishtown and save for Hillary Will’s breakthrough win in Topeka has been devoid of many highlights, but the team will remained focused on its primary goal of making the playoffs.

“Considering the year that Kalitta Motorsports has had, there are a lot of other things that we look at as well when it comes to winning the

U.S. Nationals,” he said. That has to be set aside. We go out there like facing one round at a time. You know, we’ve obviously got to win that round. In qualifying, we’ve got to run well. But that’s my attitude, exactly. Sort of like well, we’ve got to be in the Countdown, we’ve got to win the

U.S. Nationals. There are so many things that sort of weigh up, and you’ve got to set it all aside and take it one round at a time. That’s my attitude.”

Except for a semifinal finish in 2005, the U.S. Nationals has not been especially kind to Grubnic, who has reached the second round only once in five other tries, but he keeps hoping that his moment will come on drag racing’s greatest stage under the intense spotlight of the Countdown.

“The butterflies are bigger, obviously,” he admitted. “It’s especially in my case with everything that’s going on. But again, you have to kind of like keep it in the back of your mind. You can’t let it affect you, if that makes sense. You go up there, and you worry about it, and you do this and that. But once the helmet goes on, it’s like, ‘Okay, you have to become a machine and do your job.’ “

Koretsky fielding four Nitro Fish teams at home track in Reading

Kenny Koretsky

A Nitro Fish gathering is slated for Maple Grove Raceway near

Reading this weekend, and the king fish will be there, too.

Kenny Koretsky, owner of Nitro Fish apparel and the Nitro Fish/Indicom Electric Pro Stock Pontiac GXP driven by Richie Stevens Jr., also has sponsored entries in Top Fuel, Pro Stock Motorcycle, and Super Comp for the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at his home track.

Clay Millican returns to Top Fuel in the Nitro Fish/Hope4Sudan entry of MPE Motorsports LLC with new team owner Mark Pickens. Defending NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Matt Smith will be seeking his second consecutive 2008 victory on the Nitro Fish Wear Buell and to regain the points lead. 

Kyle Koretsky, Kenny’s youngest son, will make his second national event appearance at the controls of the Nitro Fish Super Comp dragster.

“I’m excited about watching the Nitro Fish cars race at Maple Grove,” said Koretsky, who began his racing career at the track more than 30 years ago. “And I’m excited about Matt’s win at Brainerd on Sunday. That was my third Wally from Matt this year.”

Stevens also had a good weekend in Brainerd, turning in four consistent qualifying runs and qualifying ninth. He had a mechanical problem in the first round.

“We left Brainerd on a positive note,” said Stevens. “We want to run well this weekend because it is Kenny’s home track. Eddie [Guarnaccia, Koretsky’s longtime friend and crew chief] knows the

Reading track probably better than anybody. It’s our goal to qualify in the top half of the field and go some rounds on Sunday.”

“I’m looking forward to this race,” said Guarnaccia. “We’ll have a lot of family and friends watching. We’ll be able to use the motor we ran at Brainerd, and we have good data from that race. That’s four more rounds than we had before the race.”

The Brainerd outing was the team’s first series appearance in a month.

Smith’s track-record blast tops bikes; three of four Friday leaders keep spots

Three of the four professional low qualifiers from Friday’s preliminary rounds maintained their leads as qualifying concluded Saturday at the 27th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd Int’l Raceway. Tony Schumacher, Ashley Force, and Greg Anderson stayed atop their respective Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock fields while reigning POWERade champ Matt Smith (pictured) broke the track record with a 6.958 to claim the top sport in Pro Stock Motorcycle.Schumacher’s 3.864 held up as the quickest pass in Top Fuel while Force’s 4.110, was challenged but not exceeded as she claimed the second-consecutive low qualifier award of her career.

Anderson’s 6.679 from Friday was also not bettered in Pro Stock while Smith, who was riding in pain after being diagnosed with a kidney stone, grabbed the top spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle from Chris Rivas with a 6.958 on his new Nitro Fish Buell.

Tony Schumacher

Schumacher, who is seeking to win his fourth consecutive race and ninth overall in 2008, backed up Friday’s 3.864 with a best of 3.871 on Saturday. He has now qualified in the top spot five times this season and 52 times in his career, tying him with Hall of Famer Don “the Snake” Prudhomme. After running a best of 3.869 on Friday, Steve Torrence and his Vis Viva team elected to sit out both of Saturday’s qualifying runs in order to prepare for Sunday’s opening round. Cory McClenathan (3.877), Larry Dixon (3.899), and Doug Herbert (3.901) are also seeded into the top half of the field.“This is a great spot to be in but more importantly, my car is running great,” said Schumacher. “We have a single in the first round tomorrow but that doesn’t matter; we still have to go four rounds. The key is to let the past be the past. We have to focus on the round and forget about winning four in a row or five races in a row. If we win the race, you can tell us about all the hoopla then.”

With 15 Top Fuel cars on the grounds, Schumacher will receive a round one bye during tomorrow’s opening round. Torrence will be paired with No. 15 qualifier Hillary Will, who never made a full pass and qualified with a 4.546 best.

Morgan Lucas and Bob Vandergriff, who are currently ranked 11th and 12th in the POWERade standings and are trying to qualify for the Countdown to One, will have their work cut out for them in Brainerd. Lucas is paired with No. 7 qualifier and four-time Brainerd winner Antron Brown while Vandergriff will face off against No. 6 qualifier Dave Grubnic.

Ashley Force

Force qualified in the top spot in Funny Car for the second consecutive event as her 4.110 from Friday remained the quickest elapsed time of the weekend. Force’s teammates are all qualified in the top half of the field as her father, John, is second with a 4.112, followed by Robert Hight (4.119) and Mike Neff, who is fifth with a 4.176. Del Worsham prevented a clean sweep of the top spots by putting his Check Schuck’s Kragen Impala into the No. 4 spot with a 4.152. Force will be paired with No. 16 qualifier Ron Capps in tomorrow’s opening round. ”This is great but we really hope to win some rounds tomorrow,” said Force. “We’ve struggled at the last few races even though we’ve been qualifying well. We just haven’t had any luck. I’m happy about being No. 1 but I’m trying not to get too excited. This is the best qualifying performance we’ve had at John Force Racing in a while. We’re all in the top half of the field so hopefully we won’t run each other until the late rounds.”

“Someone asked me if I was going to the Zoo [the infamous Brainerd campground] tonight but, no, I’m more concerned with winning the race tomorrow. However, I would encourage all of my competitors to go there tonight.”

In the final qualifying session, Tommy Johnson Jr. drove the Monster Dodge to a 4.39 to bump his wife, Melanie Troxel from the field. Troxel returned the favor one pair later, running a 4.276 in Roger Burgess’ ProCare RX entry to knock Johnson from the field.

In addition to Johnson,

Seattle winner Tony Bartone and Bob Bode also did not qualify.

Greg Anderson

Anderson remained atop the Pro Stock field with Friday’s 6.679 blast from his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac and has secured the top spot for the 66th time in his career but fellow

Minnesota natives Kurt and Warren Johnson are nipping at his heels with runs of 6.681 and 6.684, respectively, during Saturday’s morning qualifying run. Allen Johnson also improved his performance with a 6.688 in his Mopar Stratus. Jason Line, who began the day as the No. 2 seed, was bumped to No. 5 while Justin Humphreys (6.703), Ron Krisher (6.704), and

Sonoma champ Dave Connolly (6.708) round out the top eight.“We didn’t set the world on fire with our two runs today but we did learn a few things,” said

Anderson. “Maybe we lulled our competitors into a false sense of security. We knew the sun would be out today and we planned on the track going away and it didn’t, at least not on the first round. Later it did go away a bit and we didn’t plan for it. Still, I have full confidence that when I pull up there for the first round tomorrow, I’ll have the baddest hot rod on the planet. I can’t wait to get at it. Unfortunately, the way the ladder worked out Jason and I could run in the semi’s but at least we can get one car into the final. That’s our plan anyway.”Former IHRA series champ Steve Spiess, competing in just his sixth NHRA Pro Stock race, qualified on the bump with a 6.744 in his Spiess Construction Cobalt and will be paired with

Anderson in tomorrow’s opening round. Former Super Stock champ Greg Stanfield was among the surprise non qualifiers, as his 6.749 best was not among the quick 16. Stanfield had qualified for every event since last year’s

Dallas race, a string of 18 consecutive starts. Johnny Gray, Danny Gruninger, and Mark Hogan were also non-qualifiers.

Matt Smith

Smith, debuting a new Nitro Fish Buell that was completed just days before the start of the event, broke the BIR track record with a 6.958 on Saturday, knocking Chris Rivas to the No. 2 spot. Although he was suffering from the painful effects of a kidney stone, Smith managed to claim the top spot for the third time this season. Rivas improved his performance by a couple of thousandths and finished second with a 6.977 while Angelle Sampey joined the short list of six-second qualifiers with a 6.984.

Norwalk champ Hector Arana (7.019), and Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson teammates Eddie Krawiec (7.021) and Andrew Hines (7.022) round out the top six.“I’m in a bit of pain right now with this kidney stone but I’ll be okay,” said Smith. “I’m going to the hospital tonight and hopefully, they’ll be able to break it up and I’ll be good to go tomorrow. One way or another, I’ll be here.“As for this new bike, it was built in-house by Kelly Campbell and it’s obviously a good bike,” Smith said. “We tried something on our last pass and obviously it didn’t work but that doesn’t tell the story. My old bike was fast, but it was just wore out. I was the third Buell ever built and it had a lot of runs on it. I think I lost about five races because that bike wouldn’t shift and the only thing we could figure was that the chassis was flexing too much. We shouldn’t have that problem with this new bike.”

Jim Underdahl, the son of former rider and current Karen Stoffer crew member Greg Underdahl, bumped his way into the field with a 7.274 and will be a part of final eliminations on Sunday for the first time in his career. Joe DeSantis actually matched Underdahl’s elapsed time to the thousandth of a second late in the final qualifying round, but the second-generation rider claimed the No. 16 spot based on his faster speed, 185.10 to 184.83.

Just my observation but what about Tommy Johnson jr.?  Will he have a ride next year?  What is the deal?  Is it the competition? 

Tony Bartone, what happened?  Wins his first in Nitro now 2 DNQ’s…

Just my thoughts, what about yours.

Nitro Dogs will be finally updating our web site, we have just not had the talent to do what we needed so keep on the look out for the new launch. 

Also we will be unvailing our new race program in the near future so stay tuned…