Fresh off a season-ending win in his NHRA Top Fuel dragster, Antron Brown will start preparing for a race with a new twist -– and a number of turns -– the 4th annual PRI CKI All-Star Karting Classic, being held in conjunction with the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Orlando, Fla., Dec. 10-12.
 
Brown, a six-time winner this season in his Matco Tools dragster and former Pro Stock Motorcycle racer, is the latest racing star to be added to the field that already includes Indianapolis 500 and Rolex 24 winner Buddy Rice, Indy car star Graham Rahal, and recent NASCAR Sprint Cup winner Jamie McMurray.
 
“I’m really looking forward to the PRI CKI Karting Classic,” said Brown, who raced motocross before drag racing motorcycles. “This is going to be a lot of fun, and I look forward to racing with the IRL and NASCAR guys. It’s a great event.”
 
The PRI CKI All-Star Karting Classic features drivers from a variety of series, including NHRA, IRL, NASCAR, Grand-Am, and ALMS. More than 20 drivers will be announced in the All-Star division; past winners include Rice, Grand-Am star Michael Valiante, and Indy car driver Jay Howard.
 
Two karting divisions will be contested on the tight, fast track. In addition to the All-Star division, the Karter division will feature some of the best young, up-and-coming kart drivers from around the country. Many of the competitors in the division are champions and will soon be graduating up to cars. In addition, a media/celebrity karting race is on this year’s schedule.
 
The PRI CKI All-Star Karting Classic will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 10, on a track adjacent to the North/South Building of the Orange County Convention Center, site of the PRI Trade Show. There is no charge for admission.

Joe Allread, whose engine-building skills ranged from preparing small-block Chevrolets for Junior Stock to Chrysler Hemis for Pro Stock, died Nov. 11 after a battle with cancer.

Allread initially gained fame as one of the elite Junior Stock racers who emerged from the West Coast during the mid- to late 1960s and were known as the “Valley Boys.” His contemporaries from the Southern California region included John Barkley, John Dianna, Marv Ripes, Bob Lambeck, Willard Wright, Gary Glover, Ramon Lowe, Keith Berg, and Jay Hamilton. He campaigned a variety of vehicles throughout the years but was best known for his K/S’57 Chevrolet station wagon that was featured on the cover of Car Craft magazine in 1968.

Allread later built the Hemi engine for Bagshaw’s then-revolutionary ’70 Dodge Challenger, which was the first Pro Stocker constructed by noted chassis builder Ron Butler and won Best Engineered Car honors at the 1970 U.S. Nationals. Allread also prepared the Hemis for the Mopar Pro Stock entries of Butch Leal and Bob Lambeck.

More recently, Allread had been building Hemi powerplants for the SS/AH Hemi Barracudas of California Car Cover Co. team owner Jim DeFrank Sr. Rick Houser drove one of DeFrank’s Allread-powered Barracudas to the Mopar Hemi Challenge title at the 2007 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.

Barkley, who had met Allread at the old San Fernando Dragstrip in 1964, said, “We were partners in 1967 running Joe’s small block in my H/SA ’57 Chevy, and took turns driving. Joe drove it at the NHRA Finals that year and made it to the semi’s before losing to eventual winner George Cureton, who had the only car that could run the number besides ours. He later let me use the fuel-injected 283 from is K/S ’57 Chevy wagon, and that powered my M/SA ’57 Chevy to Stock wins at the Winternationals and Hot Rod Magazine race in 1968. Joe was a great guy with more patience than anyone I ever knew. He took forever to build a motor, but when it was done it was a work of art.” (Bill Holland photo)
 

Tony Schumacher

NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher will headline tonight’s worldwide debut of NHRA Tuesdays, 7-8 p.m. ET (4-5 p.m. PT) on WFO Radio with Joe Castello. To listen live, on demand, or to download as podcast, log on to www.wforadio.com.
 
Castello, the creator of hit satellite radio shows Wide Open on NASCAR Radio and Power Shift, hopes to break new ground in motorsports radio with the debut of WFO Radio. Through a user-friendly, high-quality experience free of charge to listeners, WFO Radio is setting a new standard for Internet-based radio with opinionated coverage of NASCAR, NHRA, Indy Car, Formula One, ALMS, and Grand Am racing.

Schumacher joins Castello Tuesday night for one of the champion's first one-on-one interviews since he earned his record sixth consecutive and seventh overall NHRA Top Fuel world championship. On Sunday at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Schumacher edged Larry Dixon by two points in the closest Top Fuel championship battle in NHRA history.

In addition to Schumacher, NHRA Funny Car world champion Robert Hight and NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Hector Arana will discuss their championships. Veteran NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart will provide expert analysis in the debut of his regular, weekly segment on WFO Radio.
   
For more information, log on to www.wforadio.com.

Antron Brown

NHRA Top Fuel star Antron Brown will be the Newsmaker of the Week on The Race Reporters radio show Wednesday at 7 p.m. EDT on www.PowerUpChannel.com.

Host Michael Knight will be joined for the journalists’ roundtable by Bobby Bennett, editor of Competition Plus.com; Corinne Economaki, president and publisher of National Speed Sport News; and Larry Henry, host of Pit Pass USA on the PowerUp channel.
       
The Race Reporters can be heard live, downloaded to an iPod, or accessed for listening on a delayed basis by clicking on the show icon at www.PowerUpChannel.com. Listeners can bookmark the show and sign up to receive a free e-card with news on upcoming guests at the show’s page, www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1549. The show will re-air several times later in the week (check PowerUp’s daily programming listing).

Knight is a 40-year motorsports industry insider and award-winning publicist and journalist. The one-hour show’s format is a “good, hard, honest, Constitutionally protected conversation on the issues of the day.” Previous Newsmaker guests have included Richard Petty, John Force, Ashley Force Hood, Dario Franchitti, Joey Logano, Gil de Ferran, Schumacher, Scott Pruett, Adrian Fernandez, Graham Rahal, Ron Capps, Scott Atherton, and Chris Economaki.
    
For more information on The Race Reporters, log on to
www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1549.

The Race Reporters podcast on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=319558548

2009 NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car world championship contender Ashley Force Hood enjoys flying down the racetrack in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang at NHRA national events, and she loves cruising the California highways behind the wheel of her street-legal Mustang. While the G forces are the biggest difference between the two Mustangs, the lack of tunes in her 7,000-horsepower Mustang is also something that Force Hood misses.

Force Hood gave listeners a peek at the songs she enjoys when she was the guest DJ on Santa Monica-based public radio station KCRW (89.9 FM in LA and KCRW.com worldwide). As part of the weekly Guest DJ Project, she picked five songs and discussed the significance with KCRW DJ Raul Campos. This morning, a quick snippet of her guest spot was broadcast by Music Director Jason Bentley during KCRW’s signature music show Morning Becomes Eclectic.

“It was actually harder than I originally thought to pick five songs because I love so many different kinds of music. I tried to pick a variety and songs that I didn’t just enjoy listening to but also that had special meaning to me. It was a fun project to get to be a part of and very different from my usual race car driver duties,” said Force Hood.

The full set is available online and available streaming for download and as a podcast. There is a transcript as well:  www.kcrw.com/music/programs/gd/gd091111ashley_force_hood.

Previous guest DJs have included athletes Brian Vickers, Tony Hawk, Stacy Peralta, Gabrielle Reece, Kelly Slater, actors Tim Robbins, Jorja Fox, and Scarlett Johansson, as well as iconic television producer Norman Lear and comedian Bobcat Goldthwait.