The popular points race had been held the last weekend in April for the past six years. The May date, however, is something Bristol Dragway president Jeff Byrd feels will only enhance an already tremendously successful event.
"We looked at the weather patterns for this area and figured out that May is really the optimal spring month for the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals," he said. "Obviously our main concern is giving our fans the best possible product in the best possible circumstances.
"We have the fastest growing event on the schedule so we went to work with NHRA, hoping we could move to a later date, to better benefit the fans, the sanctioning body and Bristol Dragway. We feel like this is definitely a great move for all of us."
The series' 23-race NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series will again begin and end at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California, kicking off the 2007 schedule Feb. 8-11 with the CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals, and ending it with the crowning of the series' champions Nov. 1-4 with the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.
In all, six national events have new race dates in 2007 while Norwalk Raceway Park, which sits between Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, has been added to the schedule. The other dragways with new dates are Atlanta, St. Louis, Topeka, Reading and Memphis.
The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway have moved to April 26-29, followed by the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis, May 4-6. The NHRA Supernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., just outside New York City, will continue to run June 21-24.
Another change to the schedule will be the move of the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. to Aug. 16-19, which will be the last race to determine the Top Eight positions for the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship. The O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.), will move off Memorial Day weekend to the following week, becoming a three-day event, June 1-3, followed by the NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, just south of Chicago.
The schedule features only one stretch where the competitors are off for more than one week, that being between the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals in Phoenix, Feb. 23-25, and the traditional East Coast opener, the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., which will be held March 15-18.
Among the many changes to the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series schedule is the relocation of the Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals from National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio to Norwalk Raceway Park, one of the premier drag racing facilities in the country, June 28-July 1. The new summer race optimizes the 23-race schedule bringing the excitement of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing to not only the entire state of Ohio, but residents of Southern Michigan.
The world's largest, most prestigious and longest running drag racing event, the 53rd annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, will be held once again on Labor Day weekend, Aug. 29 - Sept. 3 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The race, which already features two lucrative bonus events, the Skoal Showdown and Ringers Gloves NHRA Pro Bike Battle, will deliver further excitement as it will be the first race of the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship.The O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park, will move to be included as part of the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship, Sept. 14-16. The final race to secure the top four teams remaining in the Countdown to the Championship will be the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park near Richmond, Va., Oct. 5-7. NHRA also announced that the Pro Stock Motorcycle class will add a 16th event to its current schedule, competing at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex outside Dallas, Sept. 20-23.
The Western Swing will remain in tact, beginning with the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, July 13-15, followed by the Schuck's Auto Supply NHRA Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, July 20-22 at Pacific Raceways in Seattle and the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway, in Sonoma, Calif., July 27-29.
The final two races of the season, the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Oct. 18-21, and the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Nov. 1-4, will represent the Countdown to One in the drag racing world competing for the claim to the NHRA POWERade World Championship.
ESPN2, a part of the ESPN network, the worldwide leader in sports, will once again provide exclusive television coverage, on a same-day basis, of all 23 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events.
