Recent $10K win sets Ledford up for strong finish

A recent $10,000 win on the bracket racing level has set up former IHRA Top Dragster World Champion Jeff Ledford and his Rislone Engine Treatment-backed team for a strong finish to the 2008 season. Ledford scored the win during the Friday $10,000 to win race at the $50,000 event held at his home track, Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Mich., two weeks ago.

“I’ve been able to do very well here lately,” said Ledford of the track owned by his family. “I didn’t get the big win on Saturday for $50,000, but it was a very good weekend for us nonetheless.  They had a race on Thursday and I went to the quarterfinals and lost by only .0001.  I lost in the fifth round on Saturday and the fourth on Sunday.  It’s always fun to do well, but it makes it a little better when you do it at your home track.”

“The win helped turn an alright year to a pretty decent year,” added Ledford. “We have a few more races we are going to run in Top Dragster trim before we switch gears and go back to bracket racing at the winter series races down south. I’m building a new alcohol motor to make those races, so I’ll be testing that before long.” [8/26/2008]

IHRA Pro Mod field a bit short

The Agent couldn’t help but notice that it was only a 12-car Pro Mod field for the IHRA race at Tulsa last weekend, producing a semi-final bye run for Mike Castellana. Meanwhile, the ADRL race in Norwalk, Ohio, on Friday and Saturday had a total of 59 Pro Mods in attendance (25 for the 16-car Pro Extreme field and 34 for the 16-car Pro Nitrous field). The Agent suggests the two sanctioning bodies might coordinate dates for 2009, so the racers won’t have to choose either/or. Or is that heresy? [8/26/2008]

Brogdon delays Pro Stock return until Dallas

Rodger Brogdon won’t be in the seat of a Pro Stock car this week at the U.S. Nationals. Instead, the Kent Services and Trucking Pro Stock Pontiac GXP will debut at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals Sept. 18-21 in Ennis, Texas.

With a new Jerry Haas car at the team’s newly constructed race shop, race season demand for some key components affected delivery schedules and rather than rush to have the new Pro Stock ride completed in time, the team will focus instead this weekend on the Comp Eliminator category, where Brogdon’s current standing in the points allows him the opportunity to focus on a potential world championship.
 
“The team will still be in Indy this weekend,” Brogdon said, “and we will be finalizing needed arrangements for the Pro Stock car and studying the rest of the field, but with the Comp championship still on the table we will direct all our attention on the Comp car and see what we can do during eliminations. Indy always brings out the best the category has to offer, and it sure would be nice to close out the Comp history for this team with an Indy win and Top Ten finish in the world.”  (DRO file photo) [8/26/2008]

The Olympics are over; let the Indy marathon begin

Jack Beckman on the upcoming U.S. Nationals: "It's like a marathon. You're there for what seems like a month. Every other race we go to, with the exception of Pomona, is a three-day race, and at Indy we're racing for four days, but we're there for six days. It almost becomes a survival of the fittest, especially if it is hot and humid."  (Rich Singer photo) [8/26/2008]

Make a wish, or looks can be deceiving

Proving that depth of field and camera angle can sometimes be very important in photography, the Agent can’t help but ask if that’s Budweiser flowing in the Bob Daniels fountain at Indianapolis. Ah, would that it were during the hot, humid days to come!  (Mark Westfall photo) [8/26/2008]