Capps won’t deliver ‘Male’ at March Meet

Due to a scheduling conflict, Winternationals funny car Champ Ron Capps will not be in the seat of Nicky Boninfante’s “US Male” Mustang nitro Funny Car at the 51st March Meet.  

With NHRA’s recent testing limitation for Pro Cars, Capps confirmed today, “We’ve now got to be in West Palm for testing on the Monday after the March Meet and so does Nicky. There’s just no way for us to get all the way to Florida after racing on Sunday in Bakersfield. I hope we can bring the ‘US Male’ Funny Car out for the California Hot Rod Reunion in the fall; it’s beautiful, I can’t wait to drive it.”  

Capps added, “Because of the testing limitations, our NAPA Funny Car team will probably be making more runs in one day than any other previous test session Ace (Ed McCulloch) and the team have attended. [2/19/2009]

Division 7  event location changed

The Agent has heard from multiple sources that it is now confirmed that the Division 7  event to be held at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana originally scheduled for April 24-26 is being moved to the Strip at Las Vegas.  According to Chris Blair, the Divisional race will now be held on April 10-12, the weekend following the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals. The new Vegas Divisional schedule shows a Super Gas/Super Comp Shootout on Thursday, April 9, and the Alcohol classes will qualify on Friday with Saturday eliminations. Sportsman class eliminations will conclude on Sunday, April 12.

This move should be a money saver for Pacific Division racers because, according to Vegas track manager Blair, they’ll be able to park rigs free after the Summit backed NHRA National event and return for the Divisional event a few days later.  

Blair added, “We are also making accommodations for any Sportsman racers who need a place to park their race rigs between the Fontana Jeg’s SportsNationals (April 16-19) and the Boise NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor NHRA Division 6 event on May 1-3 to make it easier on travel.” [2/19/2009]

McMillen T/F team will run selected major market races

After his first complete season as Top Fuel team owner and driver, Terry McMillen has decided to run a split NHRA/IHRA achedule for 2009. McMillen's NHRA season will begin at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida March 13-16

"We've worked harder and spent more money this off-season than we ever have before," McMillen said from his Indiana race shop. "We've never been more prepared to begin a season than we are right now."

McMillen made a significant off-season acquisition in veteran tuner Doug Kuch. Kuch, who stepped in mid-season last year as consultant, will tune the Amalie Oil entry during the 2009 campaign. McMillen also added Glen Camp as car chief to his already strong team.

The Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team has also put together one of the more unique motorsports marketing plans. Instead of racing for a championship, McMillen will target specific markets for partners to give them a maximum return on their investment.

"Let's face it," McMillen said. "This is a tough economy and we're extremely blessed to have Amalie Oil as a primary sponsor on our dragster. This season we'll race more races, but in markets that make the most sense for our partners."  (Ron Lewis photo)[2/19/2009]