Latest News

Eric Bowling Motorsports Starts 2012 with a Win at NHRA's Edgewater Sports Park

13 Apr 2012

It's about the Benjamins and winning for Eric Bowling and his green rolling ATM.

How is it even possible that Bloomington, Indiana bracket racer, Eric Bowling could ever be in the position of being the Rodney Dangerfield of drag racing? It is way past time to show this accomplished racer a little love and a lot of respect. Bowling and his team started out their 2012 season in Cleves, Ohio at NHRA's Edgewater Sports Park, where he debut his new ride, and Bowling drove his Blazer straight to the winners circle. Now had this been his first victory, perhaps we'd understand, however Bowling has quite literally been bowling down the competition for years.

In 2010 Bowling won 21 of 24 final round appearances and put over 600 passes on his 1969 Camaro. He followed that up in 2011 by winning 20 of 23 final round appearances in even fewer rounds than 2010. Yet, it took an article by Drag Race Central titled "Eric Who?" to make people sit up and take notice.

Bowling's late father started taking him to the track when he was still a kid, which led to him starting his own race career in 1998. Today Bowling still competes in the very same 1969 Camaro that his dad used to race. Bowling won his first points championship in 1999 and has since collected a total of 13 championships at three different race tracks in Indiana, including two IHRA Summit Super Series Points Championships, and most impressively three straight titles at Lyon's Raceway Park, the 2010 and 2011 Division 3 "NHRA "Track of the Year."

What's the back-story with your new ride and what how did you decide on the going with the Blazer?

Bowling fired-up his 2012 season by winning in Cleves, Ohio at NHRA's Edgewater Sports Park.

"I've always wanted a big tired car. This past fall my father-in-law Don called me and said 'I got your new race car.' I asked what it was and he said 'You'll just have to come see for yourself.' When I got there I saw this bright green Blazer sitting on his trailer. I asked him where in the world he found that thing and he said he followed a guy who had it on a trailer into a salvage yard and asked him if he was going to junk it. The guy said yup, and my father-in-law asked him what he'd take for it and the guy said $200. Don paid the man and the rest is history. I can't take much credit as I was always racing while Don was doing the building. I made its first debut last fall and won the first race we entered with it."

You got into drag racing through your dad, but did you have an interest in other types of racing too?

"Before drag racing I was into motocross. After many broken bones I decided to try drag racing. My dad was always into cars and racing and my first car that I drove to high school was my 1969 Camaro Z/28. My dad took me a few times when it still had the DZ302 and Muncie 4-speed in it. My father passed away in 1995, and since the car had been titled in my name since I was two months old, I figured the car is safer on the track than on the streets, so we made it into a racecar. After winning the first race I ever entered I was hooked. I have raced it every year since 1998 and have won 13 points titles and have over 200 event wins in it. That Camaro is like home to me, but she's tired and needs some major changes made. I've put over 5,000 passes on her and I need to give her some much needed much deserved TLC. This gave us yet another reason for building the Blazer."

Bowling estimates he's put over 5,000 passes on the trusty 1969 Camaro Z/28 that his dad gave him.

I like the Benjamins banner running around the bottom of the car, what was your thinking with that?

"The $100 bills on the Blazer started out being a way to cover a paint blemish. I didn't want just plain vinyl, and I had seen a helmet with $100 bills on it, so we got this idea and figured needed to put the money on the truck. Plus I was also thinking about how it could help me on the race track. For example at the race in Edgewater a couple weeks ago, some buddy's and me were standing back talking and someone in the background says, 'What kind of cocky SOB shows up at a track with $100 bills on their car?' I just laughed and thought to myself, I'm already in this guy's head and we haven't even pulled into staging yet. Trust me, it gets looks from just about everyone, whether that's good or bad I'll let you be the judge of that. We joke and call it 'The ATM Machine.'"

What race goals have you set for the 2012 season?

"This offseason was my best as far as getting support from new marketing partners. I was able to get Mickey Thompson Tires, Ohio Crankshaft, Cometic Gasket, Spy Optics, QA1, and then to be able to add K&N to this lineup was huge. I plan on running a few more big money events, the first being the Ohio Crankshaft No Box Nationals coming up in June which I won in 2008. I also plan to go over to support Luke Bogacki's deal in July. I have won three straight points titles at Lyons Raceway Park and I plan to race there quite a bit this season to possibly make it four in a row. But I'm not yet completely committed to that, as I will be doing a little more travelling than normal this year. I will also start dabbling in some top bulb stuff now that I have a car that I know will do well in the heat of the summer. The biggest thing going on for me in 2012, though, is my wife and I are expecting a new crew member to the team in late June. We are really excited for him to get here."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N's Dan Fletcher Mixes it Up in Las Vegas and Grabs 76th NHRA National Event Win

13 Apr 2012

Dan Fletcher masterfully drove his K&N Chevy Cobalt to his 76th NHRA National victory.

Not having too much time to enjoy reaching the tremendous landmark of seventy-five NHRA National event wins just a little over a month ago, K&N's juggernaut sportsman racer, Dan Fletcher won his third NHRA National event of the season in just four events. Like he started off the season in Pomona, this time Fletcher got the win in Competition Eliminator during the Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, all while also doing very well in a class we don't see him compete in all too often, Super Comp.

Although Fletcher has racked up an outstanding number of accolades over his racing career, the Churchville, New York racer has a few more he would like to add, including winning a NHRA National event in Super Comp. "I had my own Super Comp car a few years ago, but frankly I didn't do that well with it," he confessed. "Since I've been driving some other people's cars, I've driven much better in theirs than I ever did my own. This weekend, I borrowed Justin Lamb's really nice Racetech car, albeit not a super-fast car only running about 170 MPH. I had a great opportunity to win in Super Comp this weekend and I really want to check that one off my list, because when I do that would be wins in five classes."

For not running the longer cars much, Fletcher showed the pro that he is by going five tough rounds in a car and class he doesn't normally compete in. "I got down to six cars and would have had the bye into the final," he explained. "The car was going faster than it was supposed to in the quarter-finals and 'hurricane winds,' crosswind, tailwind, this-that-and-the-other and the car is supposed to be going three or four [hundredths] under and I kill my three or four. I'm .025 on the tree to his .042 and he's behind me and that's where he stayed. So, it's a double breakout with four-thou difference between us and I'm just on the wrong side."

I had my own Super Comp car a few years ago, but frankly I didn't do that well with it.

Even though it was Fletcher with the win at Pomona in his K&N Comp Eliminator car, he hadn't been really pleased with its performance out of the gate for 2012. "The car was a big pile of dirt at Pomona and we really didn't deserve to win," he said. "We went to Phoenix and it was still bad. So we had to go home and do some work. We had to go through the chassis and send the motor back and spend some money. We found some issues here, there and wherever and then we were off to Vegas. We weren't the fastest car there, but at least we were in the top half [qualified field] with a car that was capable of winning. I drove pretty well and the car ran well and at least we didn't embarrass ourselves. At Phoenix, frankly it was embarrassing."

On the way to successfully defending his Comp Eliminator title from the spring 2011 Las Vegas race, Fletcher qualified his K&N B/EA '08 Chevy Cobalt at number nine and thanks to the rare odd number of cars that made up the field, would position himself on the ladder to have a shot at a single in later rounds. Fletcher made a great pass in round one against Brian Fitzpatrick, with a .002 RT to Fitzpatrick's .056 and easily took the stripe al while being able to stay completely safe on his index.

Round two he faced Tom Mettler and again Fletcher nailed the tree with a .010 and took a whopping .080 starting line advantage. This was a very important round as the winner would earn themselves a bye in the next round. Fletcher made an easy race of it and took the stripe for the round win, although it cost him a CIC hit on his index that he would have to carry for the rest of the event.

Showing that he was certainly on his driving game, Fletcher posted a perfect .000 reaction time during his quarter-final bye and on to pair up with Clint Sallee. Both drivers came into the matchup carrying their own CIC, Fletcher with the slight disadvantage. Sallee, try as he may with the better reaction time, but this one was going to Fletcher by less than a blink of an eye at the stripe. Taking an even bigger CIC hit and running .552 under his 8.38 class index, Fletcher squeezed one out at the finish line staying just five inches ahead or .001 as he paved his way into the finals.

Whether Fletcher is behind the wheel of one of his more recognizable pair of K&N '69 Chevy Camaros or a friend's car, he only trusts his motors to the kind of protection that only K&N filters can provide.

Whether it was in Super Comp or Comp Eliminator, the immense wind, and its ever-changing direction over the course of the event, kept things interesting for Fletcher and his fellow racers. "The wind was pretty bad in both [cars]," he noted. "The run I lost in Super Comp, I'm in the left lane and I'm spun around looking at the guy the whole pass and as I'm staring at him backwards, I could just feel the car being buffeted left and right. It was a rather disconcerting feeling. The Comp car is a 2,000 pound car on a radial tire and the wind can really get to that car, but you know honestly, it really wasn't that bad. When you come out from past the stands there, with the crosswind that we had at times, you would get hit with a pretty big blast. The car just must be round and aerodynamic enough that it didn't really affect me too bad. You could feel it, but it was manageable."

Fletcher rolled into the Competition Eliminator final, his 115th final at a NHRA National and even though he was down by .02 in CIC compared to his competitor, he masterfully drove his K&N Chevy Cobalt to his 76th NHRA National victory. Fletcher made his quickest pass of eliminations right when he needed to with a 7.816 on his 8.33 index and just shy of .02 at the stripe over Doug Lambeck.

Whether Fletcher is behind the wheel of one of his more recognizable pair of K&N '69 Chevy Camaros or a friend's car, he only trusts his motors to the kind of protection that only K&N filters can provide. "We put more passes on our engines between freshen-ups than a lot of the racers out here," he pointed out. "When you are doing all this to put food on the table, you can't take a chance of trusting what is in essence your family's livelihood to anything that could be subpar, I just go with the best to start with and protect my investments with K&N. Our K&N oil filters and air filters are a big part of why we can safely get so many runs on our cars."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Jason Line Tightens Up Top Spot in 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge

13 Apr 2012

If it wasn't for K&N and the K&N low qualifier award, we would have come out of Vegas empty handed.

With now just seven events remaining to gain points and position for the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge, Jason Line earned his second NHRA Pro Stock pole of the season, his seventh since the points started over for the Challenge, during the most recent NHRA event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the 13th annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals. Line continues to hold down the top spot in the Challenge with a 115-point lead over K&N's Mike Edwards.

Since the commencement of the 2012 race season, Jason Line has been quite deadly during qualifying, taking not only fifty percent of the pole positions thus far, but for the two he didn't, still going into race day no less that second on the ladder and in the process, earning a whopping 680 points for the K&N Horsepower Challenge out of the 700 maximum. Second highest points earner for the first four races of the season goes to K&N's Mike Edwards with 650, who earned a number one at Phoenix and third to Allen Johnson with 610, picking up the remaining pole so far this season at Gainesville.

During Las Vegas, Line was flat unbeatable in qualifying as he was number one out of the gate during Friday's first session and never looked back. He not only held on to the number one spot over the course of qualifying, he outran the field, making the quickest run of each of the four sessions.

Wind played a fairly big factor for all teams competing during the Las Vegas event. "That place is kinda crazy," said the current K&N Horsepower Challenge point leader. "You never know which way the wind is blow. One minute its blowing one direction and the next it's another. It's always kind of a tough place to race because of that. We came out of the box good and that's always a great way to start because then you can kinda chip away at it. A lot of times you get behind the eight ball, but this was a good qualifying event for us. My car has been really good, actually phenomenal."

A lot of times you get behind the eight ball, but this was a good qualifying event for us. My car has been really good, actually phenomenal.

"If it wasn't for K&N and the K&N low qualifier award, we would have come out of Vegas empty handed," he confessed. "We have a great race car and were number one qualifier, but the driver just needs to get a little more intense on race day. I gotta say though, I really like hanging those K&N plaques on my wall and the bonus they provide is fantastic."

Over the course of qualifying, Line first laid down a 6.679, tying Allen Johnson in E.T., but holding the all-important tie breaker with his faster 206.99 MPH for the number one position. He then came back and made his best run of all the sessions during the afternoon shot, when he found another whole two hundredths of a second and a nice 6.659. That number would remain the top spot even though both sessions on Saturday. Although Line has a nice lead over Mike Edwards for the top spot in the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge, he's far from comfortable with it. "We don't have a stranglehold on it, because we definitely don't," he commented on his position in the standings. "You know, I say it every year, but I want to win that thing one of these years and we just seem to keep coming up short."

The K&N Horsepower Challenge is unique in that it provides eight elite NHRA Pro Stock teams a shot to run off in just three short rounds for a substantial payday. The last person standing will earn, not only some of the biggest bragging rights in all of drag racing, but also the largest single race payout in all of NHRA Pro Stock with its $50,000 check.

"If things keep going the way they are, obviously the worst case scenario is that we start that race with a great starting position," he said of the upcoming Challenge race to be held in early July at Norwalk. "Best case is that we start with the best spot and that's number one. It's really quite a battle right now between Mike [Edwards] and myself. We seem to be the two teams who have the most consistent cars during qualifying. I think it's really going to come down to the last race right before the shootout. We'll see, hopefully we can hang on."

The teams have Easter weekend to grab some quick rest and time with their families before it's right back to business for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, April 13-15 at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Aleksandr Grinchuk Three-Time Ukrainian Drift Racing Champion Readies for 2012

13 Apr 2012

Supporting Aleksandr Grinchuk's efforts for a fourth consecutive Ukraine title is his new title sponsor.

You don't become the three-time Ukrainian Drift Racing Champion by resting on your laurels or taking a single minuscule detail for granted. On the increasingly popular Ukrainian Drift Racing scene, Grinchuk is the man with the bounty on his head everyone else is looking to cash in on, yet this season Grinchuk is more determined than ever not to allow that happen.

Grinchuk won the Ukrainian title in 2009, 2010, and in 2011, he was awarded with the ultimate title of being the Absolute Drift Champion of Ukraine. To claim that highly coveted prize a driver must win all three of the Ukrainian drift championships, the TuningFest Drift Edition Championship, Vinnitza Grand Prix Championship and the most prestigious the Ukrainian Drift Championship (UDC). The possession of all three titles is the only way to be crowned king of the Ukraine drift scene, and Grinchuk has gone to extraordinary measures to not surrender that definitive designation.

Grinchuk and his reengineered car with the brand new paint scheme will debut next month in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

"In the beginning of 2012 my car and I made several big changes," said Grinchuk. "The first and biggest change is that we have a new big title sponsor for 2012. Also we have changed our tire supplier. All these changes forced us to completely modify to the new racing colors for our car."

"The new look of the car is not the only thing which was changed during the offseason," adds Grinchuk. "It took a lot of efforts to make the car lighter, faster and more powerful. That is why we put our car on a severe diet, during which a lot of metal details were removed from it. Then we assembled new engine with two larger turbochargers. And at last we made some changes in the transmission to produce more comfortable gear shifting with our new power."

In 2011 Grinchuk was crowned Absolute Drift Champion of Ukraine using K&N filters, and it's one of only things that remain the same on this year's 2012 championship car.

The Ukrainian drift racing season starts in early May with the first event being held in Kharkiv, the second largest city in the Ukraine. This race will signal the first stage of Ukrainian Drift Series (previously called the Drift Edition series). In the week following this event, the first stage of another series will get underway, the Ukrainian Drift Championship in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

"And one week after that we will start the first stage of the third Ukrainian Series which is called VFDD," explains Grinchuk. "I think May is going to be the most intense month of the season."

"In the middle of the summer my native city of Odessa is going to play host to two stages of two different European championships. King of Europe Drift series plans its fifth stage in July in Odessa. And the event of Eastern European Drifting Championship will take place in August. So I plan to take part in four stages of UDC series, five stages of UDS series, two stages of VFDD series, two events of international drift series in Ukraine and several projects with my new sponsors," continues Grinchuk.

"Last year we used K&N racing air filters and K&N high performance oil filters for all the season. We were very pleased with the results! This year we continue our partnership with the K&N brand and continue to use K&N products on the car to defend my title of the Absolute Drift Champion of Ukraine for the fourth time."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N's Don O'Neal Ready to Recruit NHRA Victories and More in 2012

13 Apr 2012

K&N's Don O'Neal shown here in the staging lanes in Indy, a track he looks to do well at in weeks to stay alive in the JEGS All-Stars.

Never one to let moss grow under his feet, NHRA Super Comp racer Don O'Neal has big plans and even higher expectations for his 2012 season and will be getting down to some serious business in weeks to come. After a successful 2011 with his Army Strong/K&N Mullis dragster, O'Neal has positioned himself with a good shot at representing NHRA Division 3 in this season's running of the JEGS All-Stars event and his game plan right out of the gate is to make getting into the elite shootout a done deal.

"We are four points out of first place," said the Chicago, Illinois resident. "We are behind Steve Mikus and after the year he had last year and his start this year, we have our work cut out for us. Getting qualified for the 2012 JEGS All-Stars is the biggest thing we are concentrating on for the beginning of the season. To get the job done, we need to do well during the first two Division 3 events of the season, Indy and Norwalk. Those are the final two events to gain points for the run-off this summer at Route 66. To be able to accomplish that would be such a huge deal and give us great momentum right at the start of the year."

"For the remainder of 2012, we will continue to chase the Lucas Oil series in Super Comp with the hopes of at least finishing in the top five," O'Neal continued. "I'm not saying that we don't normally do it, but this year we went through a little more of rebuild and freshen up and we did build just a little bit of a different combination, engine-wise, something that Todd and the guys at Huntsville came up with. We did so much from sending the rear-end back to Moser, had the carb gone through and more, because we wanted to make sure that when we rolled out of the trailer at Indy, that we weren't taking any chances of anything breaking. Obviously, you can always have some crazy thing happen, it's all mechanical and parts and anything can happen. You would like to be as prepared as possible and do everything you can to go into such an important couple of events as ready as you could possibly be, so you don't have that in the back of your mind and not worry about that kind of pressure."

Nothing but pure focus and determination in the eyes of Don O'Neal behind the wheel of his Army/K&N dragster.

O'Neal juggles a multitude of duties at and away from his extensive schedule of racing at NHRA tracks across the country. Up until 2010, O'Neal was a recruiter for the U.S. Army and while he may not be what he calls a 'regular recruiter,' he points out that his current responsibility is just as important and in some ways, even a little more gratifying. "I now recruit U.S. Army Medical," he explained. "So now I recruit doctors, nurses, surgeons, dentists just anything that has to do with hospitals or taking care of patients, that's what I focus on recruiting-wise out of Chicago. When you start thinking about you are trying to find individuals that have the experience and professionalism to take care of soldiers after they are hurt or their families while they are gone, then being able to see them take care of these all of these people by providing the Army the strength and ability to treat and heal, that just really just drives the nail home at that point."

Even with the large hurtles that the present economy continues to present many businesses, O'Neal is embracing new ways to promote the companies that support his racing effort and doing what seems to be even more, with less. "We are going to do a whole lot more along the lines of social media," he explained. "We have some huge, huge things planned for 2012 for our race operation for Facebook and Twitter that includes a contest later in the year. We are looking at raffling off one of my helmets to try to raise money for either a wounded warriors' foundation or some type of veterans' organization. So we are kind of developing these programs as we go, to try to bring the attention to all and everyone that we represent."

O'Neal, near lane, keeps a wheel and a close eye on his competitor as he streaks toward the finish line.

Anxious to get every aspect of his season underway, the former NHRA U.S. Nationals Super Comp finalist is quite pleased to be able to do so with many new parts from the various companies that he stands by with the same driven passion that he shows for the charities he supports. "Going in to do battle at these racing events, there is nothing like the good feeling of knowing that everything is fresh," he said. "Limited worries because there is nothing like the fact of not having to worry about your oil filter collapsing or losing oil pressure because of a filter, not when you are dealing with all K&N products. Just to go further, K&N's air intake system and air filters, talk about keeping my motor protected. No worries about rocks or whatever being able to get anywhere near anything important down in the motor. By using K&N products, you are decreasing the worries that you have in your head going to the starting line. You don't have to worry about your motor not being protected the best it can be and you can go on and just worry about racing your race."

Just before O'Neal gets to tending to the business of his JEGS All-Stars hopes, he will kick off the season with an event in St. Louis that will allow him to spread his wings a little from the Super Comp class. "I like running the NHRA National Opens, because it allows me to run several races in one weekend," he pointed out. "I don't race wide-open a lot like I will be able to during this race by entering the Super Quick class at that event and to start off the year and be able to get a lot of solid runs to break everything in and to make sure that everything is the way it needs to be, it's going to be just what we need. With the Open, we can run Super Quick, Super Comp and get into the bracket race, too. That will just help to knock the rust off and get us rolling for the season ahead by refreshing yourself and your racing and start building your confidence going forward."

Don O'Neal and his Army/K&N dragster will head out on their 2012 season opener for the above mentioned NHRA Open April 14-15 at the recently re-opened Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, Missouri.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Previous Page 1 ... 465 466 467 468 469 ... 1064 Next Page