Racing News

Last weekend, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego featured a full night of SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks racing action with four divisions testing their skills on the dirt and asphalt course. Rob MacCachren, Dan Runte, Apdaly Lopez and Myles Cheek conquered the multiple challenges of the most difficult course this year to record wins in Round No. 4 of SST competition.

 MacCachren, driving the #21 Traxxas, made a last lap pass on leader Ricky Johnson en route to capturing his second SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks victory of the season.

GRUBNIC RETURNS TO SITE OF FIRST NHRA VICTORY: A win at Heartland Park Topeka one year ago ended a nearly six-year winless slump for veteran Top Fuel driver David Grubnic in the 8,000-hp Top Fuel category in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. This season, the driver of the Candlewood Suites Top Fuel dragster will try to claim his third victory at the Kansas multipurpose motorsports complex as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series pulls into the Midwest facility for the 25th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals, May 17–19. Jack Beckman (Funny Car) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) join Grubnic as the defending winners of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event in Topeka, the eighth of 24 events in the 2013 season, which will be televised on ESPN2HD.

Falken Tire took its first-ever desert win by finishing first in the Vintage 108-in. Wheelbase 4x4 Class in the NORRA Mexican 1000—the four-day on- and off-road "vintage-flavored" rally through Baja.

NHRA TEAMS RETURN TO ATLANTA DRAGWAY THIS WEEKEND FOR RAIN-DELAYED SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NHRA SOUTHERN NATIONALS: NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series teams will return to Atlanta Dragway this weekend for the completion of the rain-delayed Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals. The seventh round of the 2013 season was put on hold one week ago after heavy rains forced NHRA officials to postpone the race until this weekend, May 10–11. The two-day race weekend will resume with two qualifying sessions, Friday, May 10, at 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eliminations will begin at 11:00 a.m., Saturday May 11. Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) are the defending winners of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event that will be televised on ESPN2HD. More information can be found on NHRA.com. To purchase tickets, call 800-884-6472 or go to NHRATix.com.

Deegan Gains Overall Points Lead at LOORS
Rounds three and four found Brian Deegan back on top of the podiums in both the Pro Lite and Pro 2 classes at the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORS) this past weekend. Saturday's races started out with Deegan winning the Pro Lite class in his #38 Rockstar Energy Drink/Makita Power Tools Ford. In the late afternoon Pro 2 race, Deegan led the field after the first lap before crossing the finish line second. On Sunday Deegan was part of a pile-up after a restart in the Pro 2 race, suffering a flat tire that sent him back to the pits. After coming out of the pits and fighting to get back in the running, Deegan crossed the finish line in the ninth position. Closing out the weekend, Deegan finished with another first-place win, bringing him back in the game for the overall points lead.

In only its fourth race, the all-new Mazda6, powered by a production-based SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel engine, scored a win in the Rolex Grand-Am GX race at Road Atlanta. Joel Miller and Andrew Carbonell drove the #00 Visit Florida Racing Mazda6 to the win, with teammates Sylvain Tremblay and Tom Long finishing third in the similar #70 SpeedSource Mazda6 SKYACTIV-D. It was a three-way battle for most of the race with a Porsche Cayman splitting the two Mazdas.

ENDERS-STEVENS IN SEARCH OF HOMETOWN VICTORY IN HOUSTON: Erica Enders-Stevens is easily the most successful woman in NHRA Pro Stock history. After a stellar 2012 season behind the wheel of her GK Motorsports Chevy that produced four wins in seven final rounds and a fourth-place points finish, there is one thing that would make her even more proud: to win a Wally in front of her hometown crowd at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals presented by Super Start Batteries at Royal Purple Raceway.

Falken Tire has defended its Long Beach Formula Drift title for the fourth consecutive year when team veteran Daijiro “Dai” Yoshihara took the win over former teammate Vaughn Gittin Jr.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLES RETURN TO FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS: When the NHRA returns to zMAX Dragway for the Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals fueled by Full Throttle, April 19–21, fans will be treated to a four-wide assault from all four of the sport’s top categories, including Pro Stock Motorcycles, which haven’t raced four-wide since 2010. Pro Stock Motorcycles, which in recent years have only raced at "the Bellagio of dragstrips’ " traditional two-wide fall event, will take to the track with Pro Stock, Funny Car and Top Fuel dragsters. Matt Smith, who won the Four-Wide event in 2010, called it a great accomplishment for his team, which is based in nearby Winston-Salem, North Carolina.