Inside the world of drag racing.

HD Partners Acquisition Corporation and the National Hot Rod Association, the world’s preeminent drag racing organization, announced Wednesday the signing of a definitive agreement under which HD Partners will acquire all of NHRA’s professional racing assets, including the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing series, together with a broad set of rights to commercialize the NHRA brand. Upon consummation of the transaction, the acquired assets will be held in a wholly owned subsidiary of HD Partners named NHRA Pro Racing. The NHRA, which will remain a non-profit 501(c)(6) corporation, will retain all its non-professional racing, safety and educational activities and continue to be the sanctioning body for all NHRA racing activities, including the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

Labels: National Hot Rod Association, NHRA, NHRA Sold

Jack Muldowney dies; ex-husband helped launch Shirley's career

Jack Muldowney, who not only shared his last name with one of drag racing's greatest legends, three-time NHRA Top Fuel world champ Shirley Muldowney, but more importantly helped launch her career, passed away May 24 of cancer. He was 70.

Shirley married Muldowney, an amateur hot rodder, at age 17, and it was his love of fast cars that ultimately gave Shirley her start on the quarter-mile, first in a variety of street cars and then an injected gas dragster. The duo racked up more than 200 wins in their early days.

Muldowney, a longtime member of Schenectady N.Y.'s Road Kings Car Club, hand-built that first dragster in which Shirley earned her dragster license in 1965 and the couple match raced in the East and Midwest. That injected car was followed by a pair of blown gas dragsters, the second being a twin-engine monster with which she competed at the 1969 and 1970 U.S. Nationals and at Division 1 events.

Labels: Heart Like a Wheel, Jack Muldowney, Jack Muldowney dies, NHRA Nitro Funny Cars, Shirley Muldowney

Nostalgia Drag Racing at it's finest. American Nostalgia Racing Association is holding its 2007 Summer Nationals at the famous Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Ca June 23rd. Gates open Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. so bring your family and friends to see the best nostalgia drag racing in Southern California and Show & Shine Car Show.

See everything from early Gassers to Front Engine Dragsters, Altereds, Funny Cars and more.
BE THERE!

Labels: Front Engine Dragster, Fuel Altereds, NHRA Nitro Funny Cars, Nostalgia Drag Racing

Nat'l Hot Rod Reunion legends to attend

The Legends Are Coming: Ivo, Garlits Set for Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion

It's "TV Tommy" Ivo and "Big Daddy" Don Garlits at National Trail Raceway June 15-17

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- (May 9, 2007) -- In the golden years of drag racing two of the most notable names were "TV Tommy" Ivo and "Big Daddy" Don Garlits. Those two legends in the sport will join together at the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion, presented by SoffSeal -- and they're bringing their cars to the three-day fanfest, June 15-17 at National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio.
"Garlits and Ivo match raced hundreds of times in the 1960s and '70s," said Tony Thacker, executive director of the Parks Museum, "often racing at one track, then towing 500 miles overnight to get to the next. "We're very pleased that they've chosen to come and bring their cars to the event so that their fans old and new can see them 'up close and personal.'"