The Drag Racing Association of Women will host its popular annual Florida golf tournament at Ironwood Golf Course in Gainesville Wednesday, March 7, prior to the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals. The tournament will include range balls, lunch, a beverage cart, greens fees, golf carts, and an awards ceremony. The cost is only $80 per golfer for a fun event that supports a worthwhile cause.
During the event, DRAW will hold two special contests: chip shot and $1,000 closest to the pin (within 12 inches). Sponsorship opportunities (goodie bag, hole, award, and more) are also available.
For more information, contact Beth Hyatt, 216-531-7252 or teh454@aol.com; Rosalee Noble, 217-345-6537 or rnoble@consolidated.net; or Tracy Winters, 321-632-6205 or tracyw@racewithjw.com. The sponsor and golfer registration forms are also available on DRAW’s website, www.drawfasthelp.org.
Former Division 5 Top Alcohol Dragster champion Tim Baxter, famous for his line of Jayhawker race cars, died Jan. 31 after a battle with cancer. He was 56.
Baxter, who won three consecutive division Top Alcohol Dragster championships (1989-91), was a force in the class in the late 1980s, racking up 14 divisional wins. He was Division 5’s rep in the JEGS Allstars race five times (1987, 1989-92) and won the event in 1987, the same year that he set the national record.
Baxter traveled with his father Don’s Top Fuel dragster, also known as the Jayhawker, from 1976 to 1982 before taking the driver's seat in Top Alcohol Dragster. Baxter competed on a regular basis through the mid-1990s and made a short comeback in the early 2000s before retiring from driving in 2001.
Baxter's outings always featured a significant family presence with his brother, Bob, serving as crew chief and his parents giving support. He also gave an early opportunity to friend Rob Wendland, who now serves as crew chief on the Service Central Funny Car driven by Johnny Gray.
NHRA Division 5 Director Rob Park called him “truly one of the best guys in drag racing you will ever meet.”
Survivors include his parents, Don and Norma Baxter; daughters, Lindsay and Lacey Baxter; brother, Robert A. "Bob" Baxter; and sister, Dawn Kristine "Kris" Wilson.
A celebration of life will be held Saturday, Feb. 4, at 4 p.m. at First Church of the Nazarene south of Lawrence, Kan. A reception will follow the service at the First Church of the Nazarene, 1470 N. 1000 Road, Lawrence, KS 66046. Memorial contributions may be sent to the Tim Baxter Memorial Fund, care of Douglas County Bank or Warren-McElwain Mortuary. Online condolences may be sent to www.warrenmcelwain.com.
John Medlen, who won an NHRA Funny Car championship as crew chief to Tony Pedregon, helped design and develop the Boss 500 Ford nitro motor, and worked hard to improve safety in drag racing after the tragic death of his son, Eric, will return to John Force Racing in the new capacity of director of technology and safety.
“I found out John Medlen became available over the weekend, and I offered him a job to come back to work with us on safety. He is a leader in safety. I always wanted John Medlen back because he is like family. I am excited to have him back in our brain trust. He will start immediately, and he will get to work with the other crew chiefs building on a lot of the safety ideas we have worked on over the winter. We had a strong test session, but we need to keep working on ideas and projects throughout the season. That is what Medlen will do for us,” said John Force, JFR CEO.
Medlen, who left JFR in 2010 when the economic downturn forced team owner Force to park the Ford Mustang in which Mike Neff earned 2008 rookie of the year recognition, will oversee an expanding research-and-development program designed to ensure the team’s overall success and safety for years to come. He will also work with Ford Racing engineers to continue to develop the Boss 500 engine.
“I’m thrilled to be back here at John Force Racing. This is truly a family environment, and I have missed it. From the time I walked in the door, everything has been the same,” said Medlen. “The people, the hospitality; nothing has changed. We’re all looking forward to a great year racing four Funny Cars and going for that championship. I’m excited to be here and have the opportunity to be back in the family.”
Appropriately, the 61-year-old veteran will work from within The Eric Medlen Project, a research and safety initiative founded and funded by Force following the 2007 testing accident that claimed the life of one of the sport’s rising young stars. The Eric Medlen Project is housed in JFR’s massive Midwest shop facility in Brownsburg, Ind.
A talented designer and machinist, Medlen not only spearheaded the Boss 500 engine program, but also was instrumental in helping to develop the three-rail chassis to which the team converted its Ford Mustangs in 2008.
“Few people will ever know of the many engineering contributions that John Medlen has made to drag racing,” said JFR senior crew chief Bernie Fedderly. “He was the real ‘mad scientist’ in our group. I don’t think there’s anything he can’t build.”
A self-taught engineer, Medlen plied his trade as crew chief for Don “the Snake” Prudhomme and Chuck Etchells, among others, before briefly working as general manager of Callies Crankshafts Inc., in Fostoria, Ohio. He was lured back to drag racing when Force offered him the chance to run an R&D team in 1996.
The result of that collaboration with driver Pedregon was a second-place finish behind Force. The team finished second two other times before winning the 2003 championship. When Pedregon left the team, Eric Medlen, an aspiring rodeo cowboy and mechanic on Force’s Castrol GTX Ford, was given an opportunity to race with his dad.
Medlen’s mechanical aptitude first was recognized by Bill Dyer, a high school shop teacher in Lodi, Calif. At Dyer’s suggestion, Medlen read everything he could about motors, engineering, and machinery, and by the time he graduated from high school, he could disassemble and reassemble virtually anything with moving parts.
By the time he was 20, he owned his own machine shop, and by the time he turned 26, he had transformed a thriving automobile repair business into a custom parts fabrication facility that served his racing interests and those of his closest friends.
Will Lester, staff photographer for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, earned the country’s top motorsports journalism award for photography for the fourth time Jan. 24.
Lester won the Taxslayer.com Motorsports Journalism Award in the photography category for his image of NHRA Funny Car driver Johnny Gray’s exploding Service Central Dodge Charger from the Big O Tires NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last October. Gray was not injured in the incident.
The award entries were judged by the Indiana School of Journalism.
Some of the judges’ comments for his entry titled “Blown Up” included: “Captures action not commonly seen in such photos”; “Excellent framing creates a sense of suspense and relates a story”; “Photo has `stopping power' "; and “causes a person to pause and examine the details.”
Lester, 50, attends 10 motorsports events a year, including approximately five NHRA races.
“It's going up against some of the best photographers in the world,” said Lester, who was presented the award Tuesday night in Charlotte during a ceremony at the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour. “To get a shot I'm happy with that shows the explosiveness of the sport - both literally and figuratively - there's a lot of luck involved. You just want to make sure you have the shot in focus and all of the pertinent information in the image.”
All four of Lester’s awards were won with photos he took during NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events. His claimed his other awards in 2000, 2006, and 2008.
“On behalf of everyone at NHRA, we certainly congratulate Will for winning yet another photography award with an image he captured during an NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event,” said Jerry Archambeault, NHRA vice president of public relations and communications. “Will has certainly been able to bring the spectacular nature of NHRA Drag Racing to life through his images published in the Daily Bulletin over the years, and the awards he has earned certainly put a great spotlight on our sport.”
Lester’s award comes with a $1,000 scholarship, which he has given to his alma mater, Cal State Fullerton in Southern California.
“Great photos don’t just happen,” said Daily Bulletin sports editor Louis Brewster. “They are the result of anticipation and preparation. There are not many photographers who will outwork Will Lester. That’s pretty much his signature.”