May 15, 2010

FORCE HOOD No. 1 AT ATLANTA; HIGHT CHARGING AT No. 2

COMMERCE, GA — Ashley Force Hood held onto the No. 1 qualifying spot, the 10th of her career, at Atlanta Dragway as temperatures soared today. While she will go into eliminations at the 30th annual Summit Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals as the performance leader it might be teammate and No. 2 qualifier Robert Hight who is considered the favorite. Hight made the second quickest run of the morning session and just missed a monster run in the final session according to the 2009 Full Throttle Funny Car champion. Read More

Ashley Force Hood is our video of the day for today! In this video from Full Throttle TV Ashley discusses her goals for 2010 and much more. Take a look below!

ATLANTA (May 14) — GEICO Powersports rider Karen Stoffer hopes an encouraging Saturday at Atlanta Dragway has finally put her team’s recent struggles behind her for good. Stoffer zipped down a hot and tricky quarter mile in 6.972 seconds at 190.38 mph on her powerful Suzuki to place herself squarely in the “favorites” column heading into Sunday’s elimination action.

Meanwhile, Stoffer’s stablemate on the GEICO Powersports team, defending race winner Morgan Lucas, is looking strong in Top Fuel after earning the No. 7 position on a fairly quick nitro ladder.
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If there is one thing that can be said about life it is that you only get to make a first impression once.

For Cherissa Smallwood that first impression, made in front of thousands of screaming North Carolina fans at the Spring Nitro Jam earlier this month, was certainly one that will not soon be forgotten.

Making her Nitro Jam debut behind the wheel of the Innovative Chassis Pro Fuel Dragster, Smallwood won three of four rounds during the two-day event at Rockingham Dragway, but it was her quick thinking and swift actions that she will certainly be remembered for the most.
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NORWALK, Ohio (April 2, 2010) – Nitro Jam’s roster of decorated racers continues to grow as Pro Fuel star Cherissa Smallwood has announced her intention to run the rest of the season with the Nitro Jam series.

Smallwood, a fulltime racer and mother of two, has spent the past 17 years racing various sportsman classes with the NHRA and is excited to make her debut with the brand new Pro Fuel class on the Nitro Jam circuit beginning at Rockingham Dragway’s Spring Nitro Jam May 1-2.

“As a racer you work so hard to gain recognition and as a driver of Pro Fuel this will allow our team to be in the spotlight of thousands,” Smallwood said. “We were drawn to the IHRA because it has shown so much appreciation and professionalism to the sport of drag racing. I can’t wait to get out there and meet the fans.”

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CONCORD, NC — After a nearly 24 hour rain delay it only took 4.036 seconds for John Force to win the Inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord. Severe storms and rain forced the postponement of the final round of the historic event to Monday but that did not dampen the enthusiasm for Force as he hoisted the Wally trophy in the winner’s circle.

“I’d like to personally thank Bruton Smith and his son Marcus because they took money in this economy and they spent it. He deserves that reward. For me to be able to win this first race is big. The hardest part was racing Ron Capps. He is always tough. He is killer on that tree. Racing (Matt) Hagan now that John Medlen is over there will put the fear in you, too and through all of that racing my own daughter. That is the hardest thing. I have to be honest she told me that when she pulls up beside me she doesn’t leave anything on the table. I had to get that attitude,” said Force in the media center.

“Her mother was proud. I joke about her mom beating me up but she even said to me not bad for an old guy. Your daughter was right out the window. I am just really proud of Ashley because she is learning the game and I know the pressure. My old knees were knocking and I have been doing this for 33 years.”

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Driver Melanie Troxel and the R2B2 Dodge Charger Funny Car are in a frustrating spot coming out of the inaugural NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway.

During Sunday’s eliminations, Troxel had her best reaction time of the season (.084 seconds) and the car ran a 4.129-second pass at 305.49 mph — the team’s second best elapsed time of the season. But despite car and driver doing everything right, it still wasn’t enough to advance to the second round.

“We can’t be overly disappointed but we wanted to win that round,” Troxel said. “We need to improve a little if we’re going to be competitive out there.”

Out of Troxel’s foursome, Ron Capps, who ran a 4.032 at 313.80 mph, and Gainesville winner Tim Wilkerson, who went 4.079 at 299.40 mph, were the two drivers to advance.

Even after bowing out earlier than they had hoped, Troxel said her Roger Burgess-owned team remains hopeful and spirits are high in the pit. They are at the point where they are dissecting their laps tying to find a fraction of a second here or there to be able to make passes in the range of a 4.09 seconds or quicker.

“We’re making progress, so we’re not going to beat ourselves up too much right now,” Troxel said. “We’re still a nickel away from really being in the hunt. As a team we’re going to have to knuckle down and find that little bit of performance that’s holding us back.”

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The boys weren’t paying nice with Angie McBride on Sunday.

McBride has been a strong player of late, most recently scoring a semi-final finish at the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Texas.

Those kinds of performances will make the competition take notice.

In her first round match against Steve Johnson, the two-time 2008 winner rolled in and lit both bulbs. He sat and even stared over McBride. She never wavered in her routine. Neither did she stage.

Once he backed out of the second bulb, shortly thereafter McBride rolled in and lit her top bulb. Johnson fouled.

McBride let it be known from the start that she knew what Johnson was doing and wasn’t going to fall for it.

“Today, we are going to run my race,” McBride added.

She met up with Andrew Hines in the quarters and the two engaged in a lengthy staging battle. Hines eventually broke the :58 second battle of determination and staged first. He also red-lighted.

This marked the second time in as many races that she’s beaten Hines in the early rounds.

Her tactics of beating the competition at their game led Hines to utter the telltale phrase at the end of the track as he quipped, “You don’t give a damn about anybody.”

She responded, “I just do what I am told.”

McBride made her way into the semi-finals for the second consecutive week, but her raceday however would soon come to an end as Craig Treble, eventual race winner beat her in round three.

“The last few weeks have been amazing,” said McBride.  “I knew I had to just focus on the job at hand and whatever happens would just happen.  I was going to give it all I could and hopefully things would turn out in my favor, and they did.  We have taken out some big hitters the last few weeks and it is the greatest feeling ever.  To sit with Andrew in a staging battle that long and come out on top is just the greatest feeling ever.  I am so excited and I can’t wait for Vegas.”

New colors, new sponsorship, new partnership, new race track

Under the colors of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Hillary Will, driving KB Racing’s Top Fuel dragster, will give the car its inaugural appearance at this weekend’s NHRA event at Charlotte, NC.

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About a week ago, Erica Ortiz e-mailed me to let me know that she picked me as one of her top 5 favorite blogs for Blog Day 2008. I was honored and thanked her for reading my blog.