THE NEXT BLACK MARIAH?

In the late 1980’s and early ‘90s Pro Mod legend Jim Oddy campaigned a series of unpainted, black-primered supercharged Corvettes dubbed “Black Mariah” by Bret Kepner. Now comes the news that at this week's 21st annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals John Force will run an all-black carbon fiber bodied Mustang with minimal Castrol identification. 

Evidently, with all of the new safety measures on the car and a new chassis spec, Force (and probably most other cars) are having trouble meeting the minimum Funny Car weight. And we all know that lighter cars are quicker and faster than heavy cars – oh, and heavy cars are harder to stop. [7/24/2008]

PSCA RETURNS TO FONTANA

This weekend the Pacific Street Car Association returns to Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, CA, to hold the Accufab Racing "West Coast Shootout" Presented by Si Valves on July 25–27. A full drag racing program, including the Hughes Performance Pro Street class will headline with their mid-six-second passes.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSyiyYRvla8&eurl=http://www.accufabracing.com

We received this video from the PSCA “Spring Break Shootout” also held at Fontana in March where 2007 Pro Street Champion John Mihovetz beat the competition in the Pro Street class winning the event with a 6.37 ET at 218 miles per hour pass in his twin turbo Mercury Cougar sporting a 4.6L Modular Ford engine, that’s a 283 cubic inch monster.  Tighten those belts! [7/24/2008]

NO TF OR FC AT FONTANA HOT ROD HERITAGE RACE

NHRA announced that due to local sound ordinances this year’s NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series’ Southern California Shootout at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, Calif., scheduled for Sept. 12-14, will not include Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny Car. NHRA expects to have all of its Heritage Series categories competing at the event in 2009 as California Speedway is currently working through the California CEQUA process to modify the use permit sound standards to make it more consistent with the industrial use of the area in which the track is located.

“We are disappointed that Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny Car will not be able to participate at the race in Fontana this year, but we understand the situation and look forward to having those cars there next year,” said Steve Gibbs.

Due to this change the Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny categories will have four points events instead of the planned five. The two categories will be run at two remaining events: the Pepsi Nightfire Nationals at Firebird Raceway in Boise, Idaho, Aug 7-10, and the California Hot Rod Reunion presented by AAA at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., Oct. 10-12. [7/24/2008]

IT’S OFFICIAL: FUEL CARS WILL RACE 1000-FT TRACKS FOR THE REST OF 2008!

The NHRA made it official on their own Web site just a few days ago that the NHRA’s Top Fuel and Funny Car divisions will race on tracks of 1,000 feet in distance for the rest of the 2008 season. [7/24/2008]