That means multiple galleries over multiple days, so keep coming back to check them all out here.

I’ve raced and announced a fair amount in the state of Florida and can tell you that the fans there are awesome. And boy did they get a great show at the 2024 Gators. Everyone that goes always comments on how fun the crowd is there and they aren’t kidding. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as they loved the live action.

CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED THE OTHER GALLERIES FROM THE GATORS

The post Our 2024 Gator Nationals Photos Continue With An All New Gallery From Rich Pasley. The People, Cars, Action, And More You Dig. appeared first on BangShift.com.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

The post FREE LIVE DRAG RACING: NHRA Division 2 Divisional Lucas Oil Sportsman Drag Racing At South Georgia Motorsports Park – Sunday appeared first on BangShift.com.

(Photos by David Whealon) – NHRA Drag Racing at the Gatornationals was off the hook yet again in 2024! We’re talking huge crowds, great racing, and a good time had by all! This is the start of a whole new year of NHRA Drag Racing and we know this season is going to be something special. We’ve got great nitro action photos from Gainesville thanks to longtime contributor David Whealon. David was in Florida shooting all kinds of fun stuff at the Gatornationals and sent us a whole bunch of his favorites.

That means multiple galleries over multiple days, so keep coming back to check them all out here.

I’ve raced and announced a fair amount in the state of Florida and can tell you that the fans there are awesome. And boy did they get a great show at the 2024 Gators. Everyone that goes always comments on how fun the crowd is there and they aren’t kidding. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as they loved the live action.

CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED THE FIRST GALLERY!

The post More 2024 NHRA GatorNationals Action Photos: David Whealon Brought Us All The Action, And The Shots Start Here! appeared first on BangShift.com.

The post FREE LIVE DRAG RACING: The Pros Are Testing In Gainesville For The NHRA Season Opener. Testing Wednesday appeared first on BangShift.com.

On Friday evening, while Brian and I announced the LIVE broadcast, I made one of my normal impromptu decisions and announced a special deal for the folks watching the PRO Winter Warmup live here on BangShift to get some free decals for their race cars. Anyway, it turns into kind of a big thing and Brian and I are loving it. We pack up for the night after great racing action on Friday and hit the hotel. It’s at that point that we see Todd Myers who does PR for Kalitta Racing, and Jim Walczak who is McMillan’s PR dude, have emailed us while watching the LIVE broadcast and asked us to bring decals to the pits for their teams!

Yes, we were jumping up and down like 12 year old cheerleaders.

So, the next morning we hit the track, got all our crap set up to broadcast and headed toward the pits. Before even talking to Kalitta or McMillan we ran into DSR drivers Ron Capps and Matt Hagan. We consider both of these guys friends, and have had the opportunity to hang out with them a few times in the last few months so after listening to Matt tell a story about a cow of his being stuck in a tree, and Capps doing an interview, we told them about Kalitta and McMillan wanting to run our decals. They of course smiled and, when we asked if they could sneak a couple onto their cars, said they would see what they could do. Let us remind you that this is THE RON CAPPS, and MATT HAGAN 2011 NHRA FUNNY CAR CHAMPION!!!!!!

So we restrain ourselves, from being too excited, and head out to McMillan’s pit and Kalitta Racing. Terry takes the decals and says they’ll find a place for them with a smile on his face, and we leave with confidence that they will be somewhere that will make us laugh or jump up and down or both. When we get to Jeff Arend’s Kalitta Racing pit, we see that Jeff is cleaning up some stuff on the front of the fairly naked Funny Car body, and he just laughs when we tell him we were told to bring decals for the car. Like Capps and Hagan, Jeff knows us pretty well. We’ve interviewed him a few times, and because we LIVE broadcast the biggest Nostalgia Drag Racing events around, we have gotten to see him driving Dale Pulde’s War Eagle a bunch of times. Jeff is a cool dude. So he hands us some cleaner, a towel, and a hard card and suggests a spot on the rear quarter panel. Brian and I look at each other and just giggle. And so it is that with the level of precision you would expect from Brian and I, we applied BangShift decals to the Kalitta Racing BangShift.com DHL Funny Car. Okay, so it’s the DHL Funny Car, but it sure sounds good with BangShift in it.

After skipping to the rental car and continuing to laugh like little girls, we got back to work and started the LIVE broadcast of the 2012 PRO Winter Warmup when the first pair lined up at the starting line. When Arend, McMillan, Capps and Hagan came up for the first time I thought Brian and I were going to jump off the camera tower. It was awesome. And after battling it out all night long to be the first to 300 mph sporting a BangShift.com decal, the 1^stMember in the BangShift.com 300 mph Club, is none other than our pal Ron Capps, driver of the Napa Auto Parts Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger NHRA Fuel Funny Car. With a pass of 299.35 mph, Capps was so close on his first attempt, but just couldn’t make it happen. Subsequent attempts by all 4 drivers had them smoking the tires and trying to find that sweet spot in their tune-ups. They got them all figured out later in the evening, and Capps came out first and ran 308 mph to be the first in the Club. The rest of our gang ran 300 with our decals, but Capps was the first and his 308 was the fastest. We couldn’t have been more thrilled about getting BangShift.com on to the most bad assed hot rods on the planet, and owe a huge thanks to Team Kalitta, Team McMillan, Don Schumacher Racing, Jeff Arend, Ron Capps, Terry McMillan, and Matt Hagan.

To these guys this was a fun gesture. To us it was the start of BangShift’s domination of the world, and we uuuuuhhhhhhhhhh I mean…. and it made us feel really good since Brian and I have worked to build BangShift.com from nothing into the hottest hot rod, racing, and gearhead destination on the web. What’s next? Stay tuned, you might be surprised.

BangShift sticker on Jeff Arend's nitro flopper!

Cad dorking out!

The post CHADMOUTH: BangShift.com’s 1st 300 mph Club member, 1st Funny Car, and 1st Top Fueler appeared first on BangShift.com.

We can say that there has been lots more tire smoke this afternoon as teams really start to get after it and move into a race type tune up. We are thinking that if you want to “win” the side by side shows Friday and Saturday in Top Fuel, it will take 4.70s or bust!

Here are a few more photos to hold you over until we run our galleries tonight!

The post Another Quick Update and a Few Photos from the PRO Winter Warm Up appeared first on BangShift.com.

The post We are here at the PRO Winter Warm Up appeared first on BangShift.com.

The post Video Replay: 2011 California Hot Rod Reunion Rerun Right Here appeared first on BangShift.com.

We’ll also be cranking photo galleries from the huge car show, the pits, and some of the off-site cruises as well. Bookmark this page, and send the URL to all your friends cause the FREE LIVE broadcast will take place right here in this blog item!

As if you needed more incentive to show up, the Winged Express and the Rat Trap will be match racing all weekend, plus gassers galore and all the nitro fired iron you can handle!

LIVE Broadcast Sponsors:

Below is the event schedule as published by the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum folks:

Wednesday, June 15

Late Registration and Will Call for Show ‘N Shine Only

(Holiday Inn Convention Center)………………………….9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Racer Will Call opens at Beech Bend Raceway …………………….7 a.m.

Racer Pit Parking and Vendor Midway Setup ……………..9 a.m. – 6 p.m

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony (Grounds at Heartland Park, adjacent to the Holiday Inn University Plaza) and Heacock Classic Insurance Cruise …..5 p.m.

NO Show ‘N Shine parking at track

Thursday, June 16

Late Registration and ALL Will Call pick up (Beech Bend Park) ……….6 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Show ‘N Shine parking opens ……………………………………………..6 a.m.

Reunion Opens ………………………………………………………………..8 a.m.

SoffSeal Show ‘N Shine Judging ……………………………..8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Hot Heads Qualifying and Exhibition Runs ………………10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Hot Heads Top Fuel & Funny Car Qualifying – Session 1………2 p.m.

Secure Track Activity ………………………………………………….5 p.m.

Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion Reception

(FREE admission – Holiday Inn Convention Center) ………………7 p.m.

Friday, June 17

Show ‘N Shine parking opens …………………………………………6 a.m.

Reunion Opens ……………………………………………………………8 a.m.

SoffSeal Show ‘N Shine Judging …………………………….8 a.m. – noon

Autograph Session at Dynamat Dynamic Legends Tent ………11 a.m.

Hot Heads Qualifying and Exhibition Runs As Called…………..10 a.m.

Hot Heads Category Eliminations – Round 1………………….3 p.m.

Autograph Session at Dynamat Dynamic Legends Tent………3 p.m.

Hot Heads Top Fuel & Funny Car Qualifying – Session 2……..4 p.m.

Hot Heads Top Fuel & Funny Car Qualifying Final Round…..8:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 18

Reunion Opens …………………………………………………………..8 a.m.

Pre-race Ceremonies & National Anthem……………………….1:30 p.m.

Hot Heads Category Eliminations …………………………………..11 a.m.

Autograph Session at Dynamat Dynamic Legends Tent ……11 a.m.

Hot Heads Top Fuel & Funny Car Eliminations…………….2 p.m.

Autograph Session at Dynamat Dynamic Legends Tent………3 p.m.

Special Awards and Honoree Presentation ………………………………………………..6:30 p.m.

Twilight Memorial………………………………………….6:45 p.m.

Top 50 & Best of the Best SoffSeal Show ‘N Shine Parade and Awards…….7 p.m.

Final Round Eliminations…………………………………..8 p.m.

Cacklefest ……………………………………………………………..8:30 p.m.

Winner’s Circle Awards ………………………………………………………………..9:30 p.m.

Reunion Closes …………………………………………………….10 p.m.

The post Watch FREE Live Streaming Video of the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion Here! appeared first on BangShift.com.

You read that right. See, Force won the NHRA Funny Car Championship in the 1990 and 1991 seasons, but then here came Cruz and took that big Wally right back for 1992. Force and Pedregon both grew up in Southern California and had a passion for drag racing, but that is where the similarities end. Whatever it is that makes these two like oil and water, we like it. John didn’t and we are sure he came back for the 1993 season with a big giant chip on his shoulder. The result was unprecidented success.

Cruz Pedregon, and brother Tony, have never given up, and have both won two NHRA Funny Car Championships. We expect they will win more in the years to come. Cruz was one of the hottest Funny Cars in the field during the last third of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing series, and is hoping to capitalize on that with even great success in 2011. We wish him luck. 

Check out our own Brian Lohnes talking to Cruzer while we were at the PRO Winter Warmup in Palm Beach Florida.

To keep up with the latest from Cruz Pedregon Racing, check out their website here.

The post Video: Cruz Pedregon talks with us about the NHRA Full Throttle Series and More. appeared first on BangShift.com.