MAROCCO SUES CITY OF BANNING

In the seemingly never-ending soap opera that is the Banning, California, drag strip project known as Drag City, the latest installment is the news that former developer of the project, Andy Marocco, is now suing the city of Banning.

The Agent continues to be amazed at the twists and turns this story takes. Here is a link to the story in the local newspaper
http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_B_blawsuit
16.4368009.html  (DRO file photo) [5/15/2008]

HECKEL RETURNS TO COMP CLASS

NHRA Pro Stock rookie Shane Heckel will return to his sportsman racing roots as he will once again wheel his family’s B/Dragster in Competition Eliminator for this weekend’s Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at his home track, Houston Raceway Park. Heckel will be running the same TRE Racing Engines power plant that he ran while driving Mark Buehring’s Pro Stocker at the Houston national event.

“I’m a Comp racer and I always will be,” said Heckel. “Mark is going to eventually handle most of the driving in the Pro Stock car. I’m just helping the team get up to speed. Right now we’re doing some more R&D to get competitive with the front-runners in Pro Stock. We plan to get the Pro Stocker out soon and do some more testing.

“From the day the Pro Stock program started with Mark, I never had any intentions of leaving Comp,” Heckel continued. “This weekend Mark is letting us borrow his motor since we hurt our motor on the dyno trying to find more power for the Pro Stocker. We ran pretty fast with our motor last year, and this motor is a good bit stronger than that motor was, so we’re pretty excited about getting back out there in the dragster.” [5/15/2008]

CALLAWAY HOPES TO WIN, BUT THERE’S ALWAYS THE BAND

Former NHRA Division 4 Champion Lee Callaway and his Royce Homes/Pepper Express Racing-backed Top Alcohol Funny Car team will be looking to work some hometown magic during this weekend’s Division 4 LODRS event. Callaway enters the event tied for second in Division 4 standings.

“It’s been a lot of work getting ready for this weekend,” said Callaway. “If it wasn’t for the hours that my dad Dickie, Stacy McLemore and Terry Sanders all put in at the shop, there’s no way we would be ready. We hurt one motor at the Houston national event, then hurt another motor at the Dallas divisional. I have to thank the guys out at Brad Anderson Enterprises for working hard to get me a block back in time to race this weekend. There are some parts back-ordered for my other block, so we’ll just have to race in ‘Barney Fife’ mode again this weekend: one bullet.

“We won’t have a blower until Friday,” Callaway continued. “Kevin Cantrell worked real hard to get our blower turned around quick. We are looking forward to seeing what his work with the blower will do. I know he’s worked on a lot of the fast guys’ blowers, so hopefully it will step us up.”

As always with the Callaway, Thompson & Stidham team, regardless of the work, the team plans to have a good time doing it. Along with entertaining local family and friends at the track, the team has booked in local rock band Soul Junkies to play Saturday evening after qualifying.

“We go racing to win and have a good time doing it,” Callaway explained. “It’s too much money and too much work not to.” [5/15/2008]