Nearly two years ago, NHRA promised its legion of fans in
the New England states that it would soon bring the NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series – the fastest, most exciting form of motorsports on the planet –
to that region of the country.
Today, NHRA made it official by announcing the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series will visit New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., for
the inaugural NHRA New England Nationals, June 20-23, 2013. The
announcement marks a process that began more than a decade ago when NHRA
decided it wanted to stage an NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event in
this region of the country. NHRA enjoys the most geographically diverse
schedule of any of the major motorsports and the addition of New England only
reinforces that position.
“This is a landmark announcement for NHRA and the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series,” said Tom Compton, president, NHRA.
“We identified the New England area as one of the primary regions to expand our
schedule and today’s announcement is very exciting for everyone involved in
NHRA.”
New England Dragway in Epping, N.H. will be making capital
improvements to the facility over the course of the next 12 months in
preparation for the arrival of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in
June 2013. The facility joined the NHRA member track network in 2011 with the
goal of one day hosting a NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event. The
nearly two years of hard work put in by track officials and its owners have
resulted in today’s announcement.
“To bring the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series to New
England and specifically the state of New Hampshire is very exciting,” said Joe
Lombardo, track general manager, New England Dragway. “We have started the
process of preparing our facility to host an event of this magnitude and look
forward to hosting the stars of NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing next June.”
The event will be headlined by 15-time NHRA Funny Car world
champion John Force, seven-time Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher, as well as many
other top stars including New England’s own Bob Tasca III, Antron Brown, Ron
Capps, Greg Anderson, Cruz Pedregon, Courtney Force, Morgan Lucas, Robert
Hight, Terry McMillen, and Jeg Coughlin, among others. The event expects
to entertain fans from the entire New England region, including Connecticut,
Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and
Canada. The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series is broadcast on
ESPN2/ESPN2HD.
Fans attending the event are in store for an experience
unlike any other in sports and entertainment. NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
showcases the world’s fastest race cars, a spectacle of high speed,
side-by-side races with jaw-dropping performances where the sophisticated
machines accelerate to more than 100 mph in less than a second and routinely
exceed 300 mph. A total sensory racing experience that you can see, hear, feel
and taste, every NHRA Full Throttle event is a highly engaging and genuine fan
experience that provides all-day entertainment on and off the track with NHRA’s
open pit environment that allows every person attending an event to get up
close and personal with the sport’s biggest stars.
The New England area has a long and storied drag racing
history with the sport making its debut at the old Newington Airport in 1953.
Eventually, and after much due diligence, New England Dragway was opened in
September 1966. The facility has been active ever since, becoming an NHRA
member track in 2011 and it will now host the biggest drag racing event in the
history of the facility as well as the state of New Hampshire – an NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
NHRA and New England Dragway officials will make additional
announcements in the coming weeks and months regarding sponsors, tickets and
promotional events and activities. Tickets for the event are expected to
go on sale on Tuesday, Nov. 13. For more information, log on to NHRA.com.
