(Jeff DeGrandis)

Please join us to celebrate photographer Tim Marshall’s life on Saturday, March 3, during the March Meet at Auto Club Famoso in Bakersfield, CA.

The gathering will be at “the wall” at the starting line where Tim shot over many years. The service will be held right after the last car goes down the track for the day. Matt Miller, the track’s chaplain, will officiate and musician Joe Walla will play a special song he has dedicated to Tim.

Feel free to join us and share your memories and stories of Tim.  [02/07/18]

Top Dragster drivers Matt and Zach Sackman have signed a primary sponsorship extension with Hangsterfer’s Laboratories, a New Jersey-based company specializing in the research, development and manufacturing of metalworking lubricants.

This season, Zach, a fabricator and chassis builder, will run approximately 10 races, beginning at this weekend’s NHRA Winternationals. Matt, who serves as the cylinder head specialist on the Antron Brown-driven Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster, will take over the driver’s seat in the Hangsterfer’s Top Dragster for eight races.

In addition to sponsoring the Sackman Boyz Racing Top Dragster, Hangsterfer’s Metalworking Lubricants is a major associate sponsor of Don Schumacher Racing drivers Antron Brown and Tommy Johnson Jr. The company also supports the Midwest Jr. Super Series and Brown’s son, Anson, and daughter, Arianna, who race Jr. Dragsters within the series.  (Nate Van Wagnen photo)  [02/07/18]

With only 14 competitors in Top Fuel, Mike Salinas is sure to make the field.  (Ron Lewis photo)

A quick perusal of the entry lists for this week’s NHRA Winternationals shows just 14 Top Fuel dragsters, 20 Funny Cars and 17 Pro Stocks. [02/07/18]

Texas Motorplex General Manager Andy Carter has hired public-address announcer Al Tucci (left) to call the action Mar. 2-3, at the Mid-West Pro Mod Series’ Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet North vs. South Frankenstein Pro Mod Shootout. Additionally, renowned track prep specialist Tyler Crossnoe will be on-site throughout pre-race testing, qualifying and elimination rounds for the first MWPMS event ever to be held at the state-of-the-art facility near Dallas.

In addition to staging its annual NHRA national event, the Texas Motorplex hosts several other sanctioning bodies and holds major Pro Mod races each year, but so far hasn’t developed a strong reputation as a drag radial destination. Carter said he expects that to change with the all-eighth-mile Mid-West Pro Mod Series as it also brings Radial vs. the World and two other drag radial classes to the track, as well as 5.0 and 7.0 index classes.

“It’s not easy to prep a track for the big-tire Pro Mods and drag radials at the same event, so that’s why we’re bringing in Tyler (Crossnoe), because he’s known for prepping a track just like that. We know we have a fast track here; it just has to be made ready for the different kinds of tires,” Carter said.

“It all comes down to run order. Once we get that nailed down I can go to work on making the prep changes as quick as possible and making the track as fast as possible for everybody,” Crossnoe explained.  [02/07/18]

(Mark Rebilas photo)

Steve Torrence has been sporting a new look recently, but it is only because he has been busy with his job at his family-owned sponsor, Capco Contractors.

“We’ve been so busy that I just haven’t had a chance to get a haircut,” Torrence said. “No, really, that’s all it is.”

Coming off a disappointing 2017 season, where he dominated the event wins, but lost the championship, Torrence returns to the track for this weekend’s NHRA Winternationals.

Torrence tested last week at Phoenix in his Morgan Lucas Racing-built replica of the dragster in which he won eight times last season before crashing at the Texas Motorplex and finishing the year in a back-up.  (Ron Lewis photo)

He’ll start the new year with the same crew as last year with Richard Hogan making the tuning decisions with help from Bobby Lagana Jr.   [02/07/18]