Now you can go fast and go green at the same time. If it sounds like an extreme contradiction then you might want to check out the NEDRA: The National Electric Drag Racing Association. Come out to the drag strip at the Portland International Raceway for some racing gone green – without a drop of gas.

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Formula Drift made it to Evergreen Speedway a few months back.  There was some great drifting put on by the pros and the new up and comers.  Although I have not had a chance to upload any of my own footage from the event, I did find this video which covers the weekends events pretty well

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Wake up Oregonians its bad enough they dont trust you to pump your own gas!  There is a bill in your backyard that may inhibit your selection when it comes time to purchase a fresh set of tires this season.  Governor Theodore Kulongoski, the Oregon Speaker of the House has introduced legislation (H.B. 2186) to prohibit the sale and distribution of aftermarket motor vehicle parts if alternatives are available that “decrease greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.” The bill is primarily focused on aftermarket tires and would authorize the Environmental Quality Commission to implement enforcement regulations, likely based on a rolling resistance calculation.

What Does this Bill Mean to You? A LOT!! For instance:

• H.B. 2186 would regulate vehicle fuel economy, an authority reserved to the federal government.
• H.B. 2186 could ban tires that may have improved performance, handling or appearance features, based solely on a rolling resistance rating.  In addition, this program could easily distract consumers from focusing on more important safety issues such as tire inflation and overloading of vehicles.
• H.B. 2186 would force consumers to purchase only original equipment manufacturer (OEM) tires because the program essentially exempts OEM-selected tires and unfairly implies that they are superior to aftermarket products.
• H.B. 2186 could prohibit aftermarket parts designed to either personalize or optimize specific vehicle performance attributes including handling, towing, suspension, fuel economy, etc.
• H.B. 2186 provides broad authority to government regulators and could limit a range of aftermarket parts currently available to consumers based on the subjective determination of government regulators.

This information is courtesy of SEMA: http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=62515

>>>Discuss This in the Forum<<<

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The Tokyo Auto Salon has in the past been the home to wild designs created by even crazier tuners and this year’s 2009 event is no different!  UCF gives you a look at the very first pictures to roll out from the show so you can see all the new gizmos and gadgets and get your fill of anime paint schemes to boot.  Click the link below to go to the forum to view all of the images!

>>>View The Pictures in the Forum<<<

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Ok so the event is a little old by now, but give us a break, we are still trying to get down that yule log from christmas.  Anyway here are a few pictures from the WaterWerksNW event put on in the summer in 2008.  It was a really good show with a great turn out.

The event had an autocross, car show, spam eating contest, and a dyno, what more could you ask for?  It was a good replacement for the WaterWagons show that never seemed to formulate that year due to scheduling conflicts.  Despite the lack of a drag strip, i dont think anyone really had anything to gripe about! To get a look at all the pictures from the event click the forum link below, but if your on a 56k its probably not going to happen!

http://ultimatecarforum.com/smf/index.php?topic=3596.0

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Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta, 46, died Saturday from multiple injuries suffered after his car went out of control and crashed in a high-speed racing accident at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park during the fourth and final round of qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals.

Kalitta earned most of his racing success in Top Fuel, where he claimed back-to-back world championship titles in 1994 and 1995. He retired from racing in 1997, sitting out most of two seasons before returning for a 10-race campaign in 1999. He sat out three more seasons following that brief stint and then returned again in 2003, joining cousin Doug as a second driver for the family’s two Top Fuel dragsters.

Motorsports may be losing a key member of its history, however he will never be forgotten.

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Racing official, Mauricia Grant, is filing a lawsuit against the NASCAR organization on grounds of both sexual and racial harassment.  The young 32 year old African-American woman began working in her field because she loved the high adrenaline atmosphere, the fast cars, and getting be around some of the top drivers in the world.  However, she claims that the enjoyment of her job quickly faded as a result of a hostile work environment.

In the lawsuit, she alleged she was referred to as “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba,” by co-workers, and was often told she worked on “colored people time.”  However this appeared to just be the beginning of things as she was also subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom had allegedly exposed themselves to her.

According to a recent Sports Illustrated article the lawsuit details a series of alleged incidents:

• Grant was forced to work outside more often than the white male officials because her supervisors believed she couldn’t sunburn because she was black.

• While riding in the backseat of her car pool at Talladega Superspeedway, co-workers told her to duck as they passed race fans. “I don’t want to start a riot when these fans see a black woman in my car,” she claims one official said.

• When packing up a dark garage at Texas Motor Speedway an official told Grant: “Keep smiling and pop your eyes out ’cause we can’t see you.”

• When she ignored advances from co-workers, Grant was accused of being gay. She also claimed co-workers questioned the sexual orientation of two other female officials.

• She was asked by her supervisor “Does your workout include an urban obstacle course with a flat-screen TV on your back?”

Grant says the incident has not diminished her love of the sport, however she demands that things need to change.  She claims that after numerous reports of these incidents, Grant was given the same un-assuring response of “these are military guys” or “you need to just deal with it”, somewhat of a “boys will be boys” concept.  NASCAR claims they have not reviewed the suit so were not available to comment too much on the incident, but did state that they have a strongly enforced zero tolerance policy on harassment.  Well a $225 million dollar lawsuit will no doubt make them tighten up the regulation and enforcement of that policy.

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