NHRA NEWSMAKERS: Jan. 12, 2006
NHRA Newsmakers Your inside glimpse at the world's fastest motorsport NEWS NUGGETS * CONNOLLY SUFFERS TESTING SETBACK: Dave Connolly's preseason test session came to an abrupt conclusion early this week when the Skull Gear Pro Stock Chevrolet Cobalt made a hard left-hand turn into the concrete barrier at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta. The incident came at a time when the car was beginning to respond to crew chief Terry Adams' tune-up changes, something it hadn't done often since its first race in April. According to Adams, Connolly was doing a burnout when the right tire grabbed. "It was just one of those things," said Adams. "When the tire grabbed it sent him into the wall at about a 45-degree angle. The impact tore up the front end pretty good. We hadn't made a full pass on the car yet. We were just working on the car." The first priority, Adams stressed, is to repair the car as quickly as possible and get back to the track to continue preparations for the NHRA POWERade Series season opener, Feb. 9-12, at Pomona, Calif. * NHRA SPONSOR RENEWALS: Three NHRA POWERade Series events received sponsor renewals, NHRA officials announced this week. Among the races that were renewed included the O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park; the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway; and the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. In addition, it was announced that O'Reilly Auto Parts was named title sponsor of the NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis. * PRE-SEASON TESTING RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER: NHRA POWERade Series teams will be able to prepare for the 2006 season at one of several upcoming test sessions, with the first one kicking-off next weekend in Las Vegas. - Nitro Blast Off, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jan. 20-23 - National Time Trials, Firebird International Raceway, Phoenix, Jan. 28-30 - Last Chance Test Session, The Strip at LVMS, Feb. 3-5 - 14th annual Pontiac Pro Stock Showdown, The Strip at LVMS, Feb. 4 - 14th annual Pro Stock SuperBowl, Houston Raceway Park, Feb. 4 The 2006 NHRA POWERade Series season opens Feb. 9-12 with the CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The 23-race, $50-million series will be televised on ESPN2. INSIDE THE NUMBERS * NHRA WOMEN WINNERS: In 2006, three women who have earned NHRA national event victories in the sportsman ranks - Melanie Troxel (Top Fuel); Hillary Will (Top Fuel) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock) - have a great chance of joining the growing list of female professional category winners in the NHRA POWERade Series. In NHRA history, 39 women have earned national event victories. Of those 39, seven have earned professional category victories. Those women include: Angelle Sampey, 37, Pro Stock Motorcycle; Shirley Muldowney, 18, Top Fuel; Shelly Anderson, 4, Top Fuel; Lori Johns, 4, Top Fuel; Karen Stoffer, 2, Pro Stock Motorcycle; Lucille Lee, 1, Top Fuel; and Cristen Powell, 1, Top Fuel. HE SAID, SHE SAID * FAST MOM READY FOR RETURN: Rhonda Hartman-Smith, who left the cockpit of her Top Fuel dragster in 2004 to focus on her family, is itching to get back into her 320 mph machine and compete once again. With children Megan, 4, and Dylan, 4 months, keeping her busy these days, she's hoping to find sponsorship so she can return to Top Fuel and compete alongside two other fast women - Melanie Troxel and Hillary Will. "It's definitely been on my mind," Hartman-Smith told Rob Geiger of nhra.com, "although the kids are pretty good at keeping me busy. Even so, I really do want to race again and the search for sponsors never stopped, even when I was pregnant. But you get some strange looks when you're eight months along and you're talking about strapping yourself in a racecar. As we all know, this is a tough business and you make it harder on yourself when you take time away. But family is No. 1 to me and it's a decision we didn't take lightly. It was hard getting funding after Megan. It will probably be even harder now." WHO'S HOT! * ANDERSON GOES FOR FOUR IN A ROW: Greg Anderson, winner of the last three NHRA POWERade Pro Stock world championship titles is ready to add title number four to his resume in 2006. Anderson says the secret to his success during his incredible run the last three seasons, where he set many single-season records and has amassed tons of victories and No. 1 qualifying performances, is a consistent combination. "We haven't won the last two or three years because we had a better engine and that's all we had, or we had a better car than anybody had, or we had a better driver," Anderson explained. "We won because we had all of it working together. We had a crew that was just about flawless in making the car happy on each track we went to. That's what winning is all about." DRIVERS TELL ALL * WORSHAM READY FOR INTENSE '06 CAMPAIGN: Veteran Funny Car driver Del Worsham, who will return to action in 2006 in his Checker Schuck's Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo alongside teammate Phil Burkart, is expecting another extremely intense season as more than 15 ultra-competitive Funny Cars will chase the POWERade Series world championship title. "I don't think you'll hear too many drivers bragging about how they're going to win it all in 2006," said Worsham, the defending winner of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals and Skoal Showdown. "I know you won't hear it from me. The level of competition is awesome, and it's going to take a supreme effort just to be a Top 10 team this year. All I know is that we're not scared. We're respectful of all the teams out there, and we know how good they are. But, we believe in ourselves and we have CSK and a long list of other partners believing in us too. We're confident we can be there, right in the middle of what should be a great fight for the championship." -30- For more information, contact NHRA Media Relations at (626) 914-4761. To access the latest NHRA news, statistics and photos, please visit http://media.nhra.com <http://media.nhra.com/>