And she was so pretty, too!  (Ron Lewis photo)

Tim Wilkerson debuted his brand-new Ford Mustang Funny Car body this season at the Virginia Nationals in Richmond, but he will not be running it in Topeka this weekend as it was damaged at last week’s Route 66 Nationals when he came into contact with the guard wall during eliminations.

"We caused a little bit of damage to our new Ford Mustang body out there in Chicago, so we're getting that looked at and fixed up, but for now we're back to one of our older bodies. This will give us a chance to narrow things down and see if our issues have been part of the new equation,” Wilkerson explained.

“We had a really good car in Chicago, and it was aggravating to [damage it]. Anyhow, we're excited to get to Topeka and get set up and going. We've done well there in the past, and we always have a pretty big contingent of support there."   [06/07/19]

With heavy rain forecast to fall on the already flood-threatened St. Louis area, NHDRO is postponing this weekend’s Motorcycle Madness Nationals to October 19-20. The event will take place at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, IL.

“The rescheduled October dates should provide us with some nice, Indian Summer, record-capable weather,” said NHDRO’s Brian Welch, who didn’t want racers to travel to St. Louis only to have the weather turn bad.

Next on the NHDRO schedule will be at Ohio Valley Dragway just outside of Louisville, KY, on July 5-7.

Undaunted, however, the track, located just across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, has added an open Test & Tune session on Saturday, June 8, beginning at 11 a.m.  [06/07/19]

Brian Fischle opened the 2019 K&N 890 Series presented by Blaster by going to both finals of the doubleheader weekend at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, CA, including one win. He will be looking to add to his 110 points this Saturday and Sunday as the series holds it third and fourth races of the season.

Chasing Fischle for the lead is Kevin Motter, 22 points behind, and race-two winner Rian Diosdado with 80 points.

A Summit ET Series race will also be held both days.  (Bob Johnson photo)   [06/07/19]

Aaron Glaser adds some pyrotechnics to his graffiti-inspired paint scheme last year against Danny Rowe. (Joe McHugh photo)

The third annual DRAG ILLUSTRATED World Series of Pro Mod takes place Aug. 9-10 at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, again awarding a $100,000 payout to the winner.

The invitation-only race will feature 24 of the top Pro Mod drivers in the world. But for the first time in WSOPM history, the race will now include a 16-car qualified field. That means the scoreboards will be turned on for qualifying.

In addition to the 16-car qualifying field, the eight drivers who don’t qualify will run in a second-chance race, also on Saturday.   [06/07/19]

We just had to share this photo from the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, IL. No, it’s not Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues from the Blues Brothers. In the near lane is Chris “The Greek” Karamesines with Luigi Novelli, both Chicago natives. And the photo was taken by our own Chicago Jon, who else?  [06/07/19]

The 25th annual HOT ROD Power Tour kicks off Saturday, June 8, in Concord, NC, at zMAX Dragway and rolls through seven cities in seven days. Other locations on the 2019 Long Haul tour are Martinsville, VA (June 9); Bristol, TN (June 10); Sparta, KY (June 11); Indianapolis, IN (June 12); Fort Wayne, IN (June 13) and Norwalk, OH (June 14).

Maybe some of the participants will stay in Kentucky for the Holley’s Hot Rod Reunion at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green on June 13-15.  [06/07/19]

The Agent has been keeping you aware of television ratings for NHRA and NASCAR, but got to wondering about some other sports.

The absence of superstar ratings magnet LeBron James and the virtual elimination of an entire U.S. media market has put a damper on the TV turnout for the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, ABC’s two Finals broadcasts averaged 13.6 million viewers and an 8.0 household rating, which marks a 24 percent and 22 percent decline, respectively, compared to the first two sets of last year’s Warriors-Cavaliers sweep (18 million/10.2).

The Agent must admit to being invested in the Stanley Cup playoffs since the St. Louis Blues are competing for the first time. Game 3 (where the Blues came back to win over the Boston Bruins) led the Saturday, June 1, ratings with 2.930 million viewers and a .90 rating. Sunday’s Game 4 (which the Blues also won) was NBC’s third-most watched Stanley Cup Game 4 on record with an audience of 5.249 million. (Update: the Blues now lead the series 3-2.)  [06/07/19]