Subaru Driver David Higgins Wins 2011 Rally America National Championship Subaru of America Inc.'s Subaru Rally Team USA driver David Higgins has won the 2011 Rally America National Championship with a 2nd overall finish at the season finale—the New England Forest Rally—this past weekend. In a hotly contested season, Higgins and his co-driver Craig Drew piloted their BFGoodrich Tires-shod ’11 Subaru Impreza WRX STI
rally car to three victories and two 2nd overall finishes in the
six-event Rally America National Championship. The 2011 driver’s title
is the third for Higgins in the USA having won the SCCA ProRally Championship in 2002 and 2003. Higgins also won the British Rally Championship in 2004.
NEWS NUGGETS
NEFF GIVES FORD ITS 200TH FUNNY CAR VICTORY: Funny Car points leader
Mike Neff raced to victory Sunday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66
NHRA Nationals, claiming his fourth victory of the season. In the
process, the driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang gave Ford its
milestone 200th Funny Car victory. With the win, Neff increased his
series lead to 172 points over second place Jack Beckman with five races
remaining in the 16-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Regular
Season. Other winners at Route 66 Raceway included Del Worsham (Top
Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and LE Tonglet (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
Cooper Grabs Third 2011 Playboy MX-5 Cup Win At Mazda Raceway
After holding off an early battle, Mike Cooper, from Syosset, New York,
ran away with his third SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup win of
2011 on Saturday morning at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Jason Saini, of
Ft. Worth, Texas, and Jeff Mosing, of Austin, Texas, joined Cooper on
the podium.
DEFENDING EVENT WINNERS HOPING FOR ADDITIONAL SEASON WINS WHILE ONE
LOOKS FOR FIRST AS NHRA FULL THROTTLE SERIES HEADS TO CHICAGO: For
Top Fuel pilot Larry Dixon, Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards and Pro Stock
Motorcycle rider LE Tonglet, the path down the 2011 season hasn’t been
what they had hoped. As the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series heads
to its 11th stop of the season, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA
Nationals at Route 66 Raceway just outside of Chicago, these defending
event winners hope that a return to a track that brought them so much
success just one year ago might be the push they need in the point
standings with just five races left until the Countdown to the
Championship playoffs. After all, it was here that the road to success
for two of those drivers began last year; Dixon and Tonglet went on to
win world championships at season’s end.
NHRA Unleashed and NMCA to Join Forces
The NMCA Flowmaster Muscle Car Nationals series has announced that the Aerospace Components NHRA Unleashed program will combine forces with the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA)
to deliver fun and close side-by-side racing for fans and competitors
alike. The NHRA Unleashed program, which was formed in 2010, will be
featured at five NMCA Flowmaster Muscle Car Nationals events for the
remainder of the 2011 season.
CAREER-CHANGING SEASONS COULD BRING FIRST FULL THROTTLE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR FIRST-PLACE DRIVERS: When
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing driver Del Worsham got the news from
Al-Anabi team manger Alan Johnson that he would be adding a second
Al-Anabi dragster to the stable and that he wanted the long-time Funny
Car racer to pilot that dragster, Worsham could never have imagined the
change that this move would bring to his life. But 10 races into the
2011 NHRA Full Throttle season, that change has resulted in four race
wins in five final-round appearances as well as the points lead in Top
Fuel.
Rockstar Energy Drink Driver Tanner Foust in European Championship Contention After Round 4
Rockstar Energy Drink Driver Tanner Foust once again put on a spectacular show for fans of the European Rallycross Championship
at Round 4 in Hell, Norway. The American driver set top times and was
the fastest in the third qualifying heat to best hometown favorite—and
defending champion—Sverre Isachsen. The series visited a new track for
this round, Lånkebanen at Hell, near Trondheim. Featuring huge elevation
changes and a turn similar to Laguna Seca's famed "Corkscrew," the
pressure was on for strong, technical driving. But during the A-Main
final race, Foust's throttle stuck open and a bump by another competitor
sent him flying into the wall at 60 mph. Although he was largely
uninjured, the vehicle was damaged and he was unable to finish the race.
He scored sixth-place points for the event.
NEWS NUGGETS
BRISTOL WINNERS READY FOR SUMMER STRETCH OF NHRA FULL THROTTLE SERIES:
At the end of a long day of racing Sunday at the Ford NHRA Thunder
Valley Nationals presented by Tri-Cities Area Ford Dealers, three
drivers stood in the winner’s circle, reflecting on their wins and the
constantly changing weather conditions that they and their teams battled
all weekend. As Top Fuel pilot Larry Dixon, Funny Car driver Robert
Hight and Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards spoke with the media following
the race, one statement was loud and clear—their teams are ready for
summer racing in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
The NMRA and NMCA will produce the first West Coast Shootout event at
Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, the weekend of July 8–10,
2011. This event will feature all the cars and all the stars from the
West Coast drag-racing scene. PSCA class rules for this event will be
followed. The Racers Against Street Racing (RASR) True Street Challenge
class, which will run on Saturday, July 9, will feature street-type
racers, media and manufacturers all mixing it up on the quarter-mile for
fun, prizes and a great cause. True Street racers will win cash, awards
and bonus prizes from NMRA and NMCA sponsors. Take a look at the prize
list below. There is upwards of $10,000 in bonus prizes with more to
come.
NEWS NUGGETS
SCHUMACHER AND FORCE STILL LOOKING FOR FIRST WINS OF 2011: As the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series heads to Bristol Dragway this week
for the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Tri-Cities Area
Ford Dealers, many drivers are riding a wave of race victories. Top
Fuel points leader Del Worsham has three event wins in his first full
season behind the wheel of the Al-Anabi dragster. Second-place Spencer
Massey is coming off of consecutive wins in Topeka, Kansas, and
Englishtown, New Jersey. In Funny Car, Mike Neff has raced to two wins
and is enjoying a run of four consecutive final-round appearances, and
teammate Robert Hight has three wins already. And yet while so many
drivers are experiencing strong success in 2011, some of the biggest
names and former NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series world champions
have yet to earn their first wins of the season. One is seven-time Top
Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher.