Ron Capps, five-time national event champion driving the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Funny Car in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, will depart from his usual activities of trying to win his first Funny Car world championship on the NHRA Pro circuit to participate in California's Humboldt County's first NAPA Stores Arm Drop Competition at Samoa (Calif.) Dragstrip Oct. 24.

Capps will serve as the official starter when 200 licensed drivers of imports, domestics, motorcycles, snowmobiles, dragsters, and any other vehicle approved by NHRA that can run quicker than 20 seconds on the quarter-mile compete for a grand prize of $2,500 and a stocked NAPA toolbox.

The event is presented by the Humboldt County NAPA Stores and the Humboldt Del Norte Timing Association.

"What the NAPA folks and Samoa Dragstrip have done with the Arm Drop is basically bring back the style of the old days," said Capps, a Northern California native. "I'll be standing up there as a starter, and I'll drop my arm to start the competition between two cars. It brings back memories of the beginnings of the sport. Many people have seen the movie American Graffiti and have seen how races with two cars are started by an arm drop instead of the Christmas Tree that is used now in NHRA competition.

"It's exciting for me to be invited, first of all. And to go to a track like Samoa Dragstrip, which is an NHRA track located way up in Northern California, is quite an honor. From what I hear, there are a lot of racers who show up at this track.

"Every year at the NHRA national event in Sonoma, I talk to a lot of people who race up there. I'm excited just to see the place. It's beautiful country, I'm told, and it's going to be a lot of fun to interact with the racers. Also, we're going to have dinner a couple of the nights with some of the winners, so that part always excites me.

"They're going to give away a lot of NAPA equipment at this event. That's always a good incentive for somebody who races part time."

Saturday racing on Oct. 24 begins at 10 a.m. sharp. For more information, call Danny Wright, 707-845-575, or Mark Rynearson, 707-498-1298.

For more information, log on to www.samoadragstrip.com/armdroprules.html.