Scott Palmer’s Top Fuel team that, thanks to sponsorship from Tommy Thompson’s Cat Spot kitty litter company ran all 18 of the NHRA’s races leading up to the Countdown to the Championship, is not on the entry list for Reading and is going part time according to published reports.

After being eliminated from the championship by the part-time mega-funded Billy Torrance team (who ran a limited number of the NHRA events but either won or went deep into eliminations at almost every event including the U.S. Nationals) eliminated Palmer and his Cat Spot team, who finished in 12th place. Immediately after being eliminated Palmer announced that his team wouldn’t be at all of the NHRA six-race Championship.

Agent 1320 wonders if it wouldn’t be in the NHRA and drag racing’s best interests to extend the field for the playoffs to 16 teams next year so that the six Countdown races would be guaranteed full fields and reward major sponsors like Amalie Oil, Snap-on and Cat Spot litter for their financial support of the NHRA as a company and the professional teams they sponsor.  (Ron Lewis photo) [09/06/19]

This weekend sees the culmination of the European Drag Racing Championships on two and four wheels at Santa Pod Raceway, England. Sportsman qualifying got underway on Thursday with the professional classes kicking off Friday for two days of qualifying prior to eliminations on Sunday.

You can follow all the action through the track's free hi def webTV https://www.facebook.com/santapodraceway/. DRO’s European correspondents Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes will have all the results for us coming soon.  (Ivan Sansom photo)  [09/06/19]

Sportsman racers are at Norwalk, OH, this Thursday and Friday to finish the washed-out Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals from last June. Rain before the original event left the grass sportsman pits a muddy mess and NHRA opted to cancel most of the sportsman racing.

Classes left to compete are Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Stock, Top Dragster, and Top Sportsman.  [09/06/19]

Davis Motorsports and driver Justin Ashley will make their NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series debut at the NTK NHRA Carolina Nationals on Oct. 11-13 with a new major sponsor and crew chief. Ashley is moving from a Top Alcohol Dragster to Top Fuel.

Strutmasters will be Davis Motorsports’ primary sponsor for three events this year and will move to a major associate sponsorship in 2020. Aaron Brooks will be crew chief on the dragster. He worked on the Funny Car owned and driven by Mike Ashley, Justin’s father. [09/06/19]

Two special low-mileage Dodge Vipers will be on the block at the Las Vegas Barrett-Jackson auction on Oct. 3-5. These were built in 2017, the final year of production for the beautiful and powerful cars. These cars will both be sold at No Reserve! [09/06/19]

A quickly growing trend in high-powered drag racing and street machines has been to remove the distributor and/or magneto-based ignition systems in favor of high-energy ignition coils. Hyperaktive Performance Solutions makes that swap easy with its IGN1A coil bracket kit, creating a clean and efficient mounting solution for ignition coils. Each IGN1A coil bracket holds up to four ignition coils that are mounted in-line for an organized appearance and it enables users to remove one coil at a time. Two IGN1A coil brackets are required for applications that utilize eight ignition coils. Hyperaktive Performance Solutions includes mounting hardware and the coil brackets are available in aluminum finish or black anodized.  [09/06/19]