Next season “Zippy” will be pointing his finger at Tony Schumacher.  (Richard Muir photo)

The rivalry between Don Schumacher Racing and John Force Racing continues with the announcement that Mike “Zippy” Neff has left JFR for the Schumacher camp. He will be crew chief on the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster of Tony Schumacher.

Neff worked with DSR previously, from 2001-2007, before moving to the Force team.

Tony Schumacher’s crew chief, Mike Green, will remain at DSR working with all seven teams.

In other changes at DSR, Mark Oswald and Brad Mason will be tuning Antron Brown’s Top Fueler and Dustin Heim will become Rahn Tobler’s assistant crew chief for the Funny Car driven by Ron Capps.

All of the DSR teams will be testing at Phoenix beginning on Jan. 31.   [11/28/17]

On Friday afternoon at the Street Car Super Nationals in Las Vegas, Eric Dillard drove the “El General” turbocharged Outlaw Pro Mod to the #1 spot at a scorching 5.44 seconds. During the semifinals Dillard’s quiet but fast turbo car recorded a Street Car association World Record of 275.45 mph. Dillard went on to win the class and $20K.

See all the results at here.   [11/28/17]

It hasn’t been made public yet, but DRO contacted NHRA VP of technical services Glen Gray to verify that the NHRA was going to allow a 12-amp MSD magneto as ignition for NHRA's 2018 Heritage Nitro Funny Car series.

Gray also noted that at least one other company is modifying MSD 12-amp mags so there will be at least a couple of sources for these magnetos.

Gray also told DRO that a rule change coming for the 2018 Heritage Series FC's will be to require a receiver for the mandatory Leahy device be added. Right now the rules allow the Leahy device to be activated by a burst blowout panel.   [11/28/17]

As the crew chief musical chairs continue, Bob Tasca has named Eric Lane, former assistant to Ron Capps’ crew chief Rahn Tobler, as crew chief on Tasca’s Ford Funny Car.   [11/28/17]

Clay Millican will get a new dragster chassis from Don Schumacher Racing for next season. It will replace the Brad Hadman chassis that almost got him to the championship this year.  [11/28/17]

DRO leaders Jeff and Kay Burk (aka The Burkster and She Who Must Be Obeyed!) will be attending the PRI Show in Indianapolis on Dec. 7-9. Schmoozing and walking and walking and walking….  [11/28/17]

Joey Gladstone has announced that Yellow Corn, a Japanese clothing company that specializes in motorcycle apparel, will be the primary sponsor for his second season in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle competition.  [11/28/17]

Eric McKinney has been the king of PDRA’s Pro Extreme Motorcycle class, but his three-year reign ended this season when Travis Davis moved into the top spot. And there may be an heir apparent as son Brayden Davis won the Top Junior Dragster championship, making them the first father and son to win PDRA championships in the same season. 2017 PDRA World Titles were also won by Tommy Franklin (Pro Nitrous) and his daughter, Amber, (Pro Junior Dragster).

It was certainly a good year for the Davis family, one that will go down in the history books. While this is not Davis’s first bike championship, making history with his son makes this one that much more memorable. That wasn’t the only significant marker for Davis this year, however. Davis made some pretty incredible runs en route to his championship, including a first-ever sub four second side-by-side pass with Eric McKinney.

The PDRA recently announced major rule changes for PXM, including opening the category to turbo powered applications. Davis is excited for the changes coming. He owns the current turbo bike quarter-mile ET record and is also the fastest unofficial turbo bike in the eighth mile.

“I started professional drag bike racing back in ‘99. I mostly raced what we are fixing to see now - injected turbo bikes. Then I changed up to Pro Mod bikes when the ADRL started,” Davis said. “I’ve been racing Pro Mod and turbo bikes ever since then.

“The turbo bike that we run is competitive with the Pro Mods. My dad might ride it at a few of the races next year. I really think turbos coming in there is a good thing to get the bike count up. I’ve been to car races where there’s turbo, nitrous, blower cars all in the same class. It really gets the people on their feet with the diversity. I hope it plays out the same way with the motorcycles. There’s a lot of those old bikes around and I think they’re going to come out and race with us.”

With three generations racing, there is no telling what next year holds for the Davis family.  (Gary Rowe/RaceWorks.com photo)  [11/28/17]

For the second straight year, motorcycle drag racing fabrication powerhouse DME Racing partnered with Dave and Jason Dunigan’s Dunigan Racing, and Chris Connelly and his Pro Stock Inc., to put on the DME Racing All-Star Pro Street Shootout. This $10,000-to-win event for the world’s quickest streetbikes was run on November 16-17, immediately preceding the 2017 Manufacturers Cup World Finals at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta.

Mark Paquette didn’t win the first Shootout last year, but he did have the quickest bike and nearly the sport’s first 6.60-something pass with a 6.70. After parking the bike for a full year, Paquette was right back in the Georgia groove, qualifying number one this year. However, he lost to Rodney Williford in the semi.

Williford has been the performance leader at Pro Street races around the country all year, and he entered the Shootout final round between 700 horsepower, street legal, turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusas with lane choice against Jeremy Teasley. It was a great race, with Williford taking the tree by .014 and running 6.73 at 221.85 mph against Teasley’s 6.76 at 216.

Williford capped off his dream season with the $3000 Man Cup race win and the $1000 bonus that goes with it, netting him a cool $14,000 for four days of racing.

“It was an awesome event and I am just happy to be able to compete and run these crazy times and speeds we are running now,” said Williford. “I see the competition closing in so we have to try to find that next step in performance.”  (Tim Hailey photo)    [11/28/17]

Holley/MSD has expanded its line of EFI Hi-Ram intake manifolds to include 351W Ford engines. Compatible with both 95mm and 105 mm throttle bodies, they feature a tapered cross-section design and runner lengths ideal for a wide range of engine combinations. The water crossover passage has been redesigned to allow extra room for distributor phasing. Both manifold kits come complete with billet fuel rails set up to use -8AN O-ring fittings with passages large enough to accommodate high fuel flows and dampen pressure pulsation in the fuel system.

Holley has also developed a low-profile 351W dual-phase distributor specifically for this combination (part number 565-111). This compact, all-new distributor is designed to allow for proper spark plug wire clearance under the intake and is also compatible with coil-on-plug applications. It includes dual Hall Effect sensors for crank and cam signals, can be used as just a crank speed input, and provides a cam-sync signal for sequential fueling operation. A billet blank Holley EFI cap is also available for coil-on-plug applications (part number 566-103).

For detailed product information on the 95mm version, click here. For the 105mm throttle body, click here. And for the distributor, click here.   [11/28/17]