Compiled by SEMA Editors
Sealed Stock All-Star Showdown Added to 9th Annual NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals in Commerce, Georgia
NMRA and NMCA have announced the second annual Sealed Stock All-Star Showdown—a special race between select Coyote Stock and Chevrolet Performance Stock competitors at the Commerce, Georgia, event at Atlanta Dragway, April 6–9, 2017. Billed as the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals, it’s one of only two races where fans can witness the spectacle of both NMRA and NMCA racing the same weekend. The Sealed Stock All-Star Showdown teams will be selected according to the following: Top three in points combined from the 2016 season and 2017 first event, and one wildcard racer whose name will be drawn during a driver’s meeting before the first qualifying round. Racers will compete for major bragging rights, $1,000 cash, a Manufacturer’s Cup, and a trip to the Aerospace Components Winners Circle.
John Force Racing Strengthens Organization for 2017 NHRA Season
John Force Racing (JFR) is strengthening its racing operations in preparation for multiple championship runs for the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. Sixteen-time Funny Car champion John Force will reunite with crew chief Jimmy Prock, who won the 2013 title with Force, and co-crew chief Chris Cunningham will also join the PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS. Prock worked at JFR for 14 years before serving as crew chief for Jack Beckman the last 2 seasons. Mike Neff returns as crew chief on Robert Hight’s Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, with Jon Schaffer and Jason McCulloch joining that team as co-crew chiefs. JFR also has added Austin Prock to its driver development program. Prock, the son of Jimmy Prock and grandson of past Funny Car driver Tom Prock, has raced Sprint Cars and Midgets in his young career.
 Eileen Daniels |
Eileen Daniels to Receive 2017 Patricia Garlits Memorial Award
Eileen Daniels—one of drag racing’s most beloved individuals—has been named by Don Garlits as the recipient of the Patricia Garlits Memorial Award for 2017. She will be honored at the 27th annual International Drag Racing Hall of Fame Banquet presented by Lucas Oil Products, to be held Thursday, March 16, 2017, in Gainesville, Florida, at the Wyndham Garden Hotel Gainesville. The award—honoring Garlits’ late wife Pat—specifically honors a woman involved with drag racing who has exhibited a lifetime of selfless devotion to the growth and betterment of the sport. Daniels is the fourth woman to be honored with this award, which was established in 2013. Dale Aldo, MOPAR Performance motorsports manager, will present the award—which is sponsored by MOPAR—to Daniels, who has been an active participant in the growth of drag racing since she married her late husband Bob at the age of 18. She has received numerous awards and honors throughout her lifetime, including a Wally, being an International Drag Racing Hall of Fame inductee, named a Kentucky Colonel (the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s highest individual honor) in 2011, and given the title of “International Ambassador” by the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.