For the second time in his drag racing career, Ron Maroney can say he is an IHRA World Champion.

Maroney clinched his second career Nitro Altered championship with one race remaining at the IHRA Northern Nationals at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park back in August and was able to simply sit back and enjoy the long and rainy weekend at the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment World Finals at Memphis International Raceway knowing he is a two-time champion.

One of the newest and most exciting additions to the IHRA’s Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series in 2014 was the addition of a competitive Jet Dragster class. Comprised of four beautiful ladies in a four-car jet-powered operation, the IHRA’s Jet Dragster category blasted onto the scene in Tucson, Arizona in March and wrapped up its year at the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment World Finals in October with the crowning of the IHRA’s inaugural Jet Dragster world champion – Elaine Larsen.

IRG Sports + Entertainment™ (IRG) announced that it has closed on the transaction to acquire Cordova Dragway Park, and has assumed control of the facility’s operations effective today. The motorsports venue has been renamed Cordova International Raceway™ (CIR), joining sister tracks Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Florida; Memphis International Raceway in Millington, Tennessee; and Southwestern International Raceway in Tucson, Arizona.

Don’t be late. Those three words were the only words being muttered by Top Sportsman racer Mike Koontz as he pulled into the staging lanes for the finals of the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment Tournament of Champions presented by AMSOIL.

Last year, Koontz lost in the finals of the IHRA’s championship tournament with a sleepy .092 reaction time in a loss to Graham Foster. This year, Koontz was determined not to let that happen again.

The road to a championship is often paved with unexpected turns and tricky matchups.

Sometimes you find yourself matched up against a new racer you know little about, other times it is a former champion standing in your way. But what happens when you have to face someone a little closer in your life? Someone, say, you like to share your personal time with away from the racetrack? And what happens when that matchup comes in the semifinals of a race that determines a championship?

Scotty Stillings is a five-time IHRA World Champion.

He won his first championships as a kid in the late 90s. His third and fourth titles came in the mid-2000s as he grew into a regular in the ranks of Super Stock. But it is his fifth title, won earlier this year at the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment World Finals at Memphis International Raceway, that stands as the most unique of his championship collection.

Sometimes, all it takes is a little motivation.

For more than a year, Jimmie Hutto’s beautiful AA/SA 1967 Camaro sat hidden away in a corner, waiting for just the right moment to be resurrected and returned to the dragstrip. But with each passing race weekend, that time seem to come and go until one day, Hutto found the drive to restore his ride and return to the racetrack. And the motivation? None other than his son, Justin Hutto.

Jeremy Mason has dreamt of being a champion ever since he was a little kid.

From the very first time he made a pass down a racetrack in Junior Dragster, to his move up through the ranks to a much faster dragster in Quick Rod, Mason knew he wanted to be an IHRA World Champion and put his name alongside the all-time greats that have raced before him.

Only three drivers in the history of the IHRA have ever won the prestigious Summit Racing Equipment Tournament of Champions more than once.

Michael Beard did it in 2009 and 2012 in two different classes. Mike Koontz won it in 2009 and again this season in Top Sportsman. And then there is Michael Ruff. Calm, cool, collected – and simply one of the best darn racers in the game today – Ruff has won the IHRA’s championship tournament two of the past three years in Super Rod, setting up a bit of a dynasty for himself in the comfy confines of his home state of Florida.

In June, Tony Jones celebrated his very first Ironman trophy in IHRA competition by winning a Summit Racing Equipment Pro-Am Tour event at Memphis International Raceway in a thriller over Greg Fowler. Almost four months later to the day, Jones was back in the winner’s circle at the very same track with a win over the very same person.

Only this time, there was much, much more at stake.