Team Press Releases

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13) -- Despite sitting idle for a year, Melanie Troxel has shown no rust in her return to the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. On Saturday, Troxel guided her In-N-Out Burger Dodge Charger Funny Car into the 13th spot on the ladder for Sunday’s eliminations at the 50th annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Speedway. It was a great welcome back for Troxel, as well as In-N-Out Burger, which sponsored her in the late 1990s. "When we put this together and we knew it was only going to be 30 days to make this thing happen before this race, we had very high hopes," Troxel said. "But Roger (Burgess, team owner) wrote a letter he put out to the team that talked about our objectives and our...

Pomona, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2010) – The 2010 NHRA Pro Stock Mopar® Dodge Avenger just keeps getting better for Allen Johnson in its competition debut at the 50th Annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals. The J&J Racing team owner and driver jumped to No. 4 in the final qualifying session today at Auto Club Dragway at Pomona, Calif., posting the second quickest pass of the session and earning two bonus points in the NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock standings. Johnson smoked the tires in his first qualifying run today. He rebounded nicely in the fourth and final qualifying session of the event, which was pushed back a bit due to on-track delays. The Greeneville, Tenn., native recorded a 6.595/207.34 pass in his Mopar HEMI®-powered Dodge...

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13) -- FireIce racer Jay Payne began the 2010 NHRA season by earning the No. 3 spot in the elimination field of the 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. Payne followed up his solid qualifying performance with a Round 1 victory Saturday night and enters Sunday's final day of racing needing just three more round wins to secure a big win. Payne, competing in his 305th national event, the most of any driver in the class, kicked off qualifying Thursday with a lot of tire shake, but his excellent effort in Friday's second time trial resulted in a clean 5.599-second pass at 260 mph pass that held as the third best in the class heading into eliminations. Once eliminations...

[coverattach=1]DeMotte, IN (Dec. 19, 2009) – With quiet determination and a cool demeanor, Jason Hamstra has repeatedly shown drag racing fans that he is accustomed to setting records. But when at just 22-years-old he became the youngest recipient to win the National Guard ADRL Rookie of the Year award in December of 2009, his exuberant smile while accepting suggested this time he may have even surprised himself. “Hamstra, hands down!” said National Guard ADRL Director of Marketing Brian Evans regarding the organization’s decision to honor Hamstra. “He blew everyone away this season. He’s got real talent.” Hamstra’s 3.71 ET @ 205 mph at the ADRL event in Rockingham, North Carolina, in September 2009 was the second fastest Pro...

[coverattach=1](2-12-09) DOHA, Qatar – With two wins under their belt in the 2009-10 Arabian Drag Racing League series and five-straight final round appearances, Von Smith and the Barwa Racing Pro Extreme team will roll into the final round of the seven-race series with the points lead after a strong semi-final round finish during Round 6 of the Arabian Drag Racing League series today at the Qatar Race Club. After qualifying third amongst the best race teams the Arabian Gulf Region has to offer with a 3.773-second, 205.13mph effort, Von Smith and the Barwa Racing ’68 Chevy Camaro, tuned by Howard Moon, rolled into competition well-knowing they were in for a gunfight from start to finish. Given a bye-run in the opening round, Smith...

[coverattach=1](2-12-09) DOHA, Qatar – Just when the devoted Qatar race fans thought things couldn’t get any more exciting, a final round match up between Sheikh Khalid Al Thani in the Al-Anabi Racing Pro Extreme ’68 Camaro and Alex Hossler’s 1970.5 Camaro during Round 6 of the Arabian Drag Racing League introduced a new contender for the 2009-10 Pro Extreme world championship. Seemingly in another universe all weekend, Sheikh Khalid dominated qualifying, taking the top spot with a 3.689-second, 209.17mph pass in the fourth and final round, setting up a bye-run for the rookie driver in the opening round of eliminations on Friday. After essentially a test-pass in the first round, KH met fellow Arabian Gulf Region driver Bader Ahli...

[coverattach=1]Pomona, Calif. – Vince Lombardi was fond of saying, “Being number one does not happen often, but when it occurs, you must capitalize the opportunity.” The inspirational words of the legendary football coach, which have become a source of inspiration of the Rick Jackson Racing Centre Pointe Collision Center / FireIce.com Top Alcohol Funny Car for the past few seasons, came to fruition today in Pomona. The Santa Clarita, Calif. based team captured the number one qualified position heading into final eliminations of the 50th Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals, the first event of the 2010 NHRA season. The Centre Pointe / FireIce.com TAFC team’s initial 5.570 second elapsed time recorded in the first qualifying...

Jason Line and the Summit Racing team rebounded nicely from a mechanical failure suffered on their opening attempt on Thursday, posting the eighth quickest time and second fastest top speed of the second qualifying session at the 50th annual O’Reilly Kragen Winternationals in Pomona, CA. Despite being one of the first of the 23 cars to make an attempt, Line tripped the finish line timers in 6.640-seconds with a top speed of 209.79 mph to place 10th midway through the qualifying procedure. Although pleased to have made progress, the 2006 Pro Stock champion realized further improvement would be necessary by the KB Racing crew in order to place themselves in a good position to successfully defend their win at this event a year ago...

After shaking the tires on their first attempt on Thursday, Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team came into the second session of the 50th annual O’Reilly Kragen Winternationals at a bit of a disadvantage. Not only would they be the first car down the less-preferred right hand lane, but the increased temperatures at the Auto Club Raceway on Friday were also not as conducive to quick times by the normally-aspirated Pro Stock contingent. Seemingly undeterred, Anderson posted one of the quickest times of the round at 6.623-seconds with a top speed of 209.62 mph to move into the field in the eighth position. Even so, the four-time Winternationals winner felt his team still had work to do before final eliminations, as they tried...