Gilby selects first interns: After wading through nearly 4,000 applications for his nitro intern program, Funny Car driver Bob Gilbertson and his crew have picked the winners for the first six races of the 2004 NHRA POWERade season.

The winners are: Pomona, Michelle Reed of Creston, Calif.; Phoenix, Brandon Halliburton, a 19-year-old auto/diesel student at Universal Technical Institute; Gainesville, Robert Juarbe, a firefighter from Ocala, Fla.; Las Vegas, Gregory Goldstein, son of Funny Car driver Leroy Goldstein, the first Funny Car driver in the six-second range; Houston, David Pace, who drove the Carroll Brothers AA/FD in the early-80s and was runner-up at Indy in 1981; Bristol, Michael Lovell, a schoolteacher from Charlotte, N.C.

"We received some amazing letters and read each one and narrowed it down to a reasonable number of candidates for each race," said Gilbertson. "I got together with my crew last weekend at our open house and we went through them and picked someone who thought would be the right fit. I wish we could have picked everyone as there were so many people who applied who are as passionate about drag racing as me and my team are."

Vote for us!: The NHRA is well represented in the fifth annual Dot.com awards on CompetitionPlus.com. The 16 awards up for grabs are completely decided by drag racing fans that visit the site and vote for their favorites.

National DRAGSTER magazine and NHRA.com are on the ballots for "Printed Publication of the Year" and "Internet Site of the Year," respectively. Longtime National DRAGSTER editor Phil Burgess and NHRA.com writer Rob Geiger have both been nominated for "Journalist of the Year."

Staff photographers Richard Brady and Ken Sklute are in the running for "Photographer of the Year." Brady has been with National DRAGSTER for many years while Sklute joined the NHRA.com family in 2003.

Fans are encouraged to visit CompetitionPlus.com and vote. Click here for a quick link to the ballot.

Lamplough dies at 46: Decorated drag racer Steven Lamplough, the driver of "The Beast" Top Alcohol Dragster, passed away Monday evening at the age of 46. He is survived by his wife Shelley, daughters Melody, Dreamer, and Brooke, as well as six grandchildren.

Division 1 racer Steven Lamplough hikes the wheels of 'The Beast' Top Alcohol Dragster during a 2002 race in Englishtown, N.J.

Lamplough started his drag racing career in an 11-second '69 Chevrolet Camaro, which he successfully raced at his local strip, Capital Raceway in Crofton, Md. Eventually, he moved into a dragster, which he dubbed "Split Decision," before ultimately climbing the ranks into a Top Alcohol rail.

The Division 1 racer, who hailed from Severna Park, Md., first campaigned "The Marylander" TAD, so named to honor his home state. It was the world's fastest wedge.

One year later, Citgo Superguard joined Lamplough as a sponsor. The additional funding helped him win the TAD title at the 1999 NHRA divisional event at Numidia Raceway in Pennsylvania. Later, he claimed runner-up honors at Atco Raceway in New Jersey during the 2002 divisional race.

"I'll never forget when he won he won in the Division 1 race at Cecil County [Dragway in Maryland] in 1992," daughter Dreamer Henson said. "I graduated from high school on the same day he won. He came to my graduation and as soon as he saw me walk across stage he left to go to the races. Thank God our last name didn't begin with a 'Z' or he might not have made it. We all had a lot of fun with drag racing. We all will miss him."

Johnson loves a parade: Pro Stock Bike rider Steve Johnson and his entire race rig and Suzuki race bike won second-place out of 39 entrees in Saturday's Birmingham Christmas Parade, an annual event in the Alabama city near Johnson's home and shop. Johnson joined Santa Claus and Miss Alabama Catherine Crosby as featured guests in the event.

"Once again, we really enjoyed ourselves at the parade," Johnson said. "We gave out tons of candy to the kids along the way and I pretty much waved my arm off. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Hundreds of them flocked around the bike and asked how fast it went. We told them 0-60 mph in a second and 0-190 mph in a seven-second quarter-mile. That blew them all away."

         
Steve Johnson shines in the Birmingham Christmas Parade (click for larger images).

Sosenka readies Funny Car: Don Sosenka and wife Lana have teamed with Flying Dutchman Motorsports to start a new race team named Team Caribbean Soul. The team hopes to be ready to roll out their Funny Car by February's K&N Filters Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

The team will receive support from Auto Trader, Valvoline, Petron Plus, Autolite, Fram, Taylor Cable, Mr. Gasket, Mac Tools, Permatex, and Kendrick Performance Automotive.

"Our new Team Caribbean Soul Funny Car will have exciting and spectacular new graphics and want all our fans to share in our charged-up anticipation," Sosenka said. "Who knows, we may even pull off some upsets. So come share in all the positive nitro energy and remember that we race to raise awareness about dystonia, which is a neurological movement disorder."

Collis leaves Star Racing: Pro Stock Bike rider "Fast Freddie" Collis has ended his five-year affiliation with Star Racing, giving up his ride and job at the Frank Hawley/Star Racing Pro Stock Bike School.

"It was a very hard decision," Collis said. "The folks at Star Racing are great people and have helped me achieve some of my goals and dreams. The last five years have been great. However, at this time, it was just best I went my own way."

Collis began racing for Star in 1999 and won the AMA/ProStar Pro Stock Bike championship in his first year, which helped him earn Rookie of the Year. Collis repeated his championship drive in 2000 before taking a short hiatus from racing.

This year, Collis fulfilled a dream by competing on the POWERade Drag Racing Series aboard a Star-powered Suzuki TL-1000, finishing a respectable eighth in the points with one win. Collis also posted the third quickest E.T. ever with a 7.059.

"We had a lot of success together," Collis said. "I will always remember and appreciate that. I am still considering my options for the future. It could be a number of things."

Resumes piling up for Gilbertson: It's been one week since Funny Car driver Bob Gilbertson announced his crewmember intern program for the 2004 NHRA POWERade season and over 2,000 die-hard drag racing fans already have applied for the position.

"We never imagined we would get this kind of response," Gilbertson said. "I'm amazed there are so many fans out there that want to take advantage of our offer to become an entry-level crew member for a weekend on my nitro Funny Car team.

"We've received entries from both male and female fans, 16 to 72 years old, and even a guy from Australia e-mailed me and is willing to fly over to the U.S. to have the opportunity to work for free just to be a part of the Trick Tank team.

"We're going to spend the next 10 days or so going through the entries and due to the volume of applications, we're going to concentrate on picking the winners for the first quarter of the season and announce them Dec. 15 so those chosen can start making arrangements to attend the race of their choice. This will give us some time to go through the rest of the entries for the remainder of the season and give the last-minute respondents a little more time to apply.

"I'm really pleased this deal created such a buzz and I look forward to making the lucky fans we pick have a dream weekend at the drags."

The deadline to enter this program is Monday, Dec. 8, and entries should be emailed to: aa-fc@earthlink.net or via the regular mail to: Racing Intern, c/o Trick Tank, 2250 Toomey Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203.