Agent 1320 has learned that veteran drag bike builder Jerry Cooper and Russ Collins Jr. have teamed up to bring Collins’ father’s famous Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, triple engine Honda Top Fuel bike back to life.

“The Triple” as it is sometimes affectionately known is a fuel injected, nitromethane burning Top Fuel Honda motorcycle with three vintage 1970-ish highly modified 750cc SOHC Honda motors, hot-rodded to the max at about 1000cc’s each.

On October 10, 1975, Russ Sr. stunned the drag racing world with an official NHRA record of 7.86, bringing the Top Fuel motorcycles into the 7’s. He was also honored with the coveted NHRA “Best Engineering Award” for this motorcycle.

Hopefully, we will hear this bike speak -- all 12 cylinders of it -- later in this season. The bike is currently in final assembly at Jerry Cooper’s shop in Byron, GA.  (Tom McCarthy photo)  [06/25/19]

The two Top Alcohol classes were the only sportsman classes to run at Norwalk with Troy Coughlin Jr. and Sean Bellemeur reaching the winner’s circle.

(Rick Shute photo)

Troy Coughlin Jr. realized a lifelong dream Sunday by earning his first Top Alcohol Dragster NHRA national event victory in his home state of Ohio. Coughlin parlayed a dominating No. 1 qualifying effort into his seventh national-level Wally.

Coughlin, the reigning North Central Region champion, eliminated Jasmine Salinas, Mike Bucher and Josh Hart before meeting first-time finalist Will Smith. Coughlin’s 5.266 took the win over Smith’s 5.564.

Smith defeated Mick Steele, Jackie Fricke and Duane Shields. There were 16 entries in the TAD class.

Bellemeur was also the winner at Topeka.  (Rick Shute photo)

In TAFC Sean Bellemeur drove his Camaro to a 5.476/270.92 defeat of Ray Drew’s Mustang (5.600/262.79). It was his third win of the year.

Bellemeur dominated the class, which had 13 entries, setting Low ET at 5.413 seconds and Top Speed of 272.23 mph. He began with a bye run, but then went on to win over Chip Everett and Tyler Scott. Drew got past Bill Naves and Kris Hool with a bye in the second round.   [06/25/19]

At the Norwalk Factory Stock Showdown, Drew Skillman got the win over his father, Bill, with a 7.921 at 173.34 mph to dad’s 7.931/173.25. (Adam Cranmer file photo)

News coming out of the Norwalk NHRA event is that the Factory Stock Showdown will have a 32-car field at this year’s U.S. Nationals. This competition has proved to be very popular with racers and fans alike.  [06/25/19]

The New family changed the format a bit for this year’s Fox Hunt at Firebird Raceway, bringing in the Northwest BB/FC group, the Blown Alcohol Thunder series, and the Pro Comp Series.

That’s Kenny Welch’s wild Pro Comp car shown above. To see all the results from the event go to here.  (Brian Losness photo)

Billy Morris, 2018 Legends of Nitro Rookie of the Year driving Eddie Knox’s “Problem Child” Camaro, set low elapsed time on the first of three qualifiers during the Spring Nitro Nationals. Morris ran a 5.703 elapsed time, setting the standard of the Good Vibrations United Nitro Funny Car Series event held at Spokane County Raceway over the weekend.

In the final round under the lights, Morris (near lane) met 2018 UNFC Champion and #2 qualifier Bobby Cottrell, driving the Austin & O’Brien “Northwest Hitter” Camaro. With Cottrell grabbing a starting line advantage, Morris held a slight lead to almost half-track, but a fuel system failure gave Morris the hot seat in a top end ball of flames in his first nitro funny car final.

Cottrell won the final with his 5.789 ET at 242.65 mph over Morris’ 5.944 at 209.74 as Cottrell took the Good Vibrations UNFC Series points lead with a slim one round advantage over Tucson winner Ryan Hodgson. Morris now sits in third place going into the second of a UNFC double header this weekend at Pacific Raceways’ Summer Nitro Challenge, where a dozen nitro funny cars are expected.  (Darr Hawthorne photos) [06/25/19]

Del Worsham and Dom Lagana (shown) will be among the pro drivers’ lineup at the 66th annual World Series of Drag Racing, Aug. 23-25, at Cordova International Raceway.

Worsham will bring two Funny Cars and Jack Wyatt will also be on hand. Lagana and Bruce Litton will be driving their Top Fuel dragsters.

Nostalgia fans will have several classes to enjoy: Funny Cars, Pro Stock, Gassers, Fuel Altereds, and Front-Engine Dragsters. Pro Mods and a bracket series will round out the racing action. (Ron Lewis photo)  [06/25/19]

The venerable Pennsylvania track may be for sale, but some changes are already in the works. A press release tells the Agent that the facility is the new location for the I-105 Fallfest music concert. The 28th annual country music festival will be held on Sunday, Oct. 13, a month after the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals.   [06/25/19]

Summit Racing Equipment Pro Stock drivers Greg Anderson and Jason Line joined Summit’s Jim Greenleaf (far right) and Don Lower (far left) along with NHRA Division Director William Tharpe for the prerace ceremonies drawing.  (NHRA photo)

In a special drawing for the NHRA Summit Racing Series National Championship, four NHRA divisions were selected to send an extra racer to compete for the national championship at the season ending Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Division 3 was drawn for Super Pro, Division 6 for Pro, the Division 7 for Sportsman, and the Division 4 for Motorcycle. Each will bring the eighth driver that will complete the 8-car field.

The first seven racers in each class are made up of the NHRA Summit Racing Series Division Finals champions in each of the NHRA Divisions 1 through 5, Divisions 6 and 7 send their Race of Champions winner to the national championship competition.   [06/25/19]