Summit named title sponsor of inaugural IHRA Mardi Gras Nationals

IHRA has announced that Summit Racing Equipment has signed on as the title sponsor for the Inaugural IHRA Summit Mardi Gras Nationals brought to you by Wolverine Boots and Academy Sports & Outdoors March 6-8 at State Capitol Raceway in Baton Rouge.
Summit Racing Equipment already has a longstanding history with the IHRA through sponsorship of the Summit Pro-Am Tour, Summit All-Star Race and Summit Super Series and this latest partnership simply furthers Summit’s commitment to the IHRA and to the drag racing community.
“Summit Racing is excited to further strengthen our commitment to IHRA sportsman racers by sponsoring the Inaugural Summit Racing Equipment Mardi Gras Nationals in Baton Rouge,” said Summit Motor Sports Event Manager Jim Greenleaf. “This event is a great way to kick off the 2009 IHRA Nitro Jam season and an excellent opportunity to support racers and race fans in the southern United States.”
The inaugural event will mark the first time in several years that professional drag racing has visited Louisiana and both the IHRA and Summit are excited to be bringing big league drag racing back to the area.
“We are thrilled that Summit Racing Equipment will be a part of our season opening race,” said IHRA national sales director Tommy Dupree. “Summit has been a long time partner with IHRA and we couldn’t ask for a better company to be a part of our brand new event.”
The Summit Mardi Gras Nationals brought to you by Wolverine Boots and Academy Sports & Outdoors will be the first of 10 races on the 2009 Nitro Jam tour. It will feature three professional classes of racing including Top Fuel, Pro Modified and Pro Stock and hundreds of sportsman competitors capped off by the “Night of Fire” Saturday night.
Summit Racing Equipment, headquartered in Tallmadge, Ohio, is the nation’s largest mail order performance parts supplier. [2/25/2009]

Sportsman report?
What sportsman?

A quick check with the NHRA PR Dept. confirms that they are no longer writing a sportsman round-by-round report (known in the business as agate) for release to the media. Only the final round sportsman results are tacked on at the end of the professional race summary.

DRO will have to dig a little deeper to get the results, but we plan to bring you the sportsman results from the NHRA national events we cover this year (sorry, that won’t be all 23 of them).

Our Sportsman report from the NHRA event with great photos will be up tomorrow. (James Drew photo) [2/25/2009]

Infineon’s Wednesday Night Drags Program begins Mar. 4

California’s Infineon Raceway popular Wednesday Night Drags program will kick off its 21st consecutive year on March 4.

The Wednesday Night Drags program gives people, from teen-agers to working professionals, a safe, legal and controlled environment in which to race their vehicles, as opposed to using city streets or back-county roads. Anyone with a driver’s license and a car that passes a simple technical inspection is invited to race on the world-famous Sonoma Valley drag strip.

Infineon Raceway will also once again partner with several Bay Area law enforcement agencies when the Top the Cops™ program returns in April. The Top the Cops™ program allows high school students the opportunity to drag race against law enforcement officers on the quarter-mile drag strip.

The Wednesday Night Drags program will run most every Wednesday evening from March 4-Nov. 11. For more information on the Wednesday Night Drags program visit www.infineonraceway.com or call 800-870-RACE. [2/25/2009]