Car FYI

On December 14th 1947, a meeting inside Daytona Beach’s Streamline Hotel would formally establish the basis of what we know as NASCAR was formally established as a motorsport sanctioning body. It would be absurd to believe that Bill France Sr. and the other members of the gathering would fully fathom the greatness their creation would achieve over the period of over 75 years. As the technology, the athleticism of drivers and crews and finances were difficult to predict from the beginning, the journey to what NASCAR is in 2023 involved in a number of interesting tangents.  Originally assembled with a Modified division and later the Strictly Stock series (evolving into what now is the current Cup Series), NASCAR rapidly expanded their reach with a slew of stock car series for regional as well as national racing. The opening decades of NASCAR also involved experiments into many unusual forms of auto racing competition; Some of those featured stock car auto racing.  In honour of t...

Photo Credit: Richard H Shute/Auto Imagery Inc. untitled At the NHRA Midwest Nationals, three of the top four classes of NHRA drag racing competed at World Wide Technology Raceway as the latest round in the series championship Countdown. Pro Stock Motorcycles received a planned break after an emotionally difficult outing at zMax Dragway in Charlotte leaving Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock cars of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series to entertain the crowd in St. Louis, Missouri. The Top Fuel class eliminations resulted in an interesting semi-finals with Leah Pruett matched against Mike Salinas and Steve Torrence racing against John Hart. Taking the top spot in qualifying, Salinas and his Scrappers Racing car was triumphant against Pruett while Torrence’s CAPCO Racing machine earned his latest berth into a 2021 finals defeating Hart. In the finals Steve Torrence leaped off the line with an awful 0.142-second reaction time but proved victorious in the late sta...

Photo Credit: Richard H Shute/Auto Imagery Inc./Stellantis While there was plenty of action at this weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals among several classes at Brainard International Raceway, the major drag racing sanctioning body’s elite categories were represented only by Top Fuel and Funny Car. The Top Fuel contest was decided by what would be fantastically close final round elimination between Steve Torrence and Clay Millican that lasted less than four seconds. Millican secured his second consecutive final round appearance by beating Brittany Force in what was a rematch and reversal of last weekend’s match at Heartland Motorsports Park . Torrance entered Brainard as the point leader in the Top Fuel class but had missed the finals in the previous two events. The two determined competitors launched their dragster’s away from the Christmas tree at almost identical reaction times and maintained a tight side-by-side battle until the finish line where...

Photo Credit: Richard H Shute/Auto Imagery Inc./Stellantis untitled It could be said it was a forceful Sunday at the Heartland Motorsports Park drag strip located in Topeka, Kansas. The Menards NHRA National Presented by PetArmor for the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series featured two members of the three prominent categories participating in the weekend with victory in the finals. In Funny Car, 72-year-old drag racing great John Force captured his 154 th career final round victory as his Peak Performance Chevrolet Camaro SS beat J.R. Todd’s DHL Toyota machine. Despite Todd’s superior 0.058 reaction time, Force assembled a stronger run with a 4.015-second ET compared to a 4.453 ET. At the top of the NHRA Funny Car points standings, Force briefly celebrated his win before turning his attention back to track as his daughter lined up in Top Fuel in a final round match with Clay Millican. The fastest in qualifying, Brittany Force defeated Steve Torrance in the...

Photo Credit: Gruppe C Photography/Mercedes-Benz AG untitled   NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series: NHRA Sonoma Nationals The first of two race weekends in the state of California, the elite categories of the NHRA arrived at Sonoma Raceway. The NHRA Sonoma Nationals Top Fuel category was decided through a very quick, narrow duel between Leah Pruett and Steve Torrance. After a nearly equal fight down the drag strip, Torrance’s 3.757 ET and 327.98-mile per hour top speed beat Pruett’s 3.768 and 323.04-mile per hour effort. Through first round of eliminations in the Funny Car category, the Tim Wilkerson versus Jim Campbell match literally had an explosive outcome. Wilkerson’s Ford Mustang pulled ahead of Campbell but suffered a spectacular engine failure crossing the finish line. Despite the flaming explosion from under the Mustang’s body, Wilkerson was able to make his second round appearance but was eliminated by Alexis Dejoria. In th...

For 16-time Funny Car category champion John Force, the conclusion of the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series' season concluded two long running relationships. First came the end of a 29-year run with motor oil Castrol as a team and vehicle sponsor. The 2014 season was also the final year of John Force Racing's relationship with the Ford Motor Company. Since 1997, the funny car team sailed down the quarter-mile distances with Ford Mustang funny car bodies. Affecting not only John Force's famous funny car entry, the loss of Ford and Castrol for 2015 has resulted in a complete reshaping of the John Force Racing team's four machines. While Peak Antifreeze and Lucas Oil was announced late last year as signing on to fill the void left by Castrol, the supporting vehicle manufacturer was kept quiet until last week.    After speculation mentioning Toyota and Dodge, Chevro...