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2010 K&N Horsepower Challenge Sweepstakes Winner Stephanie Dunn Ready for the Open Road

14.07.2010

Stephanie Dunn wins 2010 Harley-Davidson Street Bob Motorcycle

Each season, K&N Engineering crowns a NHRA Pro Stock driver for their tremendous efforts over the last twelve months in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, all while awarding them with the single biggest payday in all of NHRA Pro Stock and a cool $50,000. The professional drivers aren't the only ones who get to participate in the excitement. K&N also offers the fans a chance to win big as well.

Stephanie Dunn and NHRA Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson accept Greg's winning check

For 2010, K&N announced that the K&N Horsepower Challenge Sweepstakes would continue and this year not only would eight lucky finalists be swept off to Norwalk, Ohio for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, but the one lucky fan who had been paired with the Challenge winning Pro Stock driver would be driving their very own 2010 Harley-Davidson Street Bob Motorcycle.

The eight lucky finalists arrived for the event and were paired at random with a Pro Stock driver as follows: Frank A. Santos (Q1 - Mike Edwards), Alan Rickert (Fan Pick Q8 - Warren Johnson), James L. Hasch (Q5 - Jeg Coughlin), Charles R. Burgoon (Q6 - Ron Krisher), Joe Soucek (Q7 - Roger Brogdon), Geoffrey B. Dana (Q3 - Allen Johnson), Robert A. Foos (Q4 - Jason Line) and the only lady in the competition Stephanie J. Dunn (Q2 - Greg Anderson).

Stephanie wasn't the one who first found out about the K&N HPC Sweepstakes. "Actually it was my husband, Curt," she admitted. "He saw the contest in a magazine he was reading and said 'oh you have to enter this contest right now', so I ran down and got on the computer and entered."

While Stephanie's husband Curt drag raced many years ago, she herself had never seen a drag race let alone ever attended an event. That was all about to change for the Northeast Ohio resident, when a FedEx envelope arrived announcing that she had been selected as one of the eight finalists.

"I couldn't believe it," she said of receiving the notice from K&N. "I was like what, are you serious? I told my mom and step-dad and they didn't seem to believe it and said well you're definitely not going to win the Harley."

"The whole experience was just awesome," she continued. "The folks from K&N treated us all like royalty the entire weekend. It was so exciting. I may not have ever seen a drag race before, but I am certainly a fan now."

Once the finalists had been paired with their driver, Dunn noted that Frank Santos who had been paired with Mike Edwards, was feeling quite good about his chances of winning the Harley.

"Whenever we were waiting for the cars to run in the shootout, Frank would tell me he wasn't a bit worried since Edwards has been running pretty good, I think we've got this one in the bag," she laughed.

Dunn was paired with number two seed and previous K&N Challenge winner, Greg Anderson and he reflects on meeting the eight finalists, including Dunn and Santos. "Before we started first round of the challenge, we all met the lucky people who had the chance to win the Harley. I met my girl Stephanie there, and she's all excited. Then I meet this guy who is representing Mike Edwards and this guy is just smiling ear-to-ear," he pauses. "I mean he knows he's got her in the bag. That he's going to be the one that will be driving that Harley home at the end of the day."

"I already wanted to apologize to my girl," Anderson laughed. "I mean she got me, she drew the short straw."

As luck would have it, it came down to number one Edwards and number two Anderson for all the glory and cash in the final round of the K&N Horsepower Challenge, with their respective paired finalists, Santos and Dunn.

Unlike the previous rounds of the competition, for the final round, the finalists were not at the starting line, but taken to the top end of the track where they could watch the race and greet there driver as soon as the rounded the corner, hopefully to congratulate them and begin the victory celebration.

"I was pretty nervous," Dunn said of her state of mind before the final. "Frank was cool as a cucumber. We waited what seemed like forever for our race to come up and we were going to watch on the monitor that ESPN set up for us. There were so many cars before our race and I don't know, I must have missed ours because I looked at one of the other guys down there with us, I don't know, it could have even been my husband, it was all so much and they said he won."

It took a moment for it to sink in that Anderson had won the Challenge over Edwards which meant she had won the 2010 Harley-Davidson Street Bob Motorcycle in the K&N Horsepower Challenge Sweepstakes.

"I said 'what, my guy? He won?' I just stood there for a second and then it was all over," she giggled. "I started jumping up and down and then Greg came around and he was jumping up and down."

"Greg was really sweet," she continued. "He said that he had been having a rough go lately and that I must have been his good luck charm."

"The entire experience was unbelievable. The people at K&N are just wonderful people. We had so much fun and met some really nice people, including the others in the contest," she added.

Dunn may not have previously been a fan of drag racing, but she and her family have been long time fans of K&N and all of their filter products.

"My husband, Curt has been using K&N products for years from when he was in auto repair to even now that he works in aviation," she noted. "We know that K&N air filters not only increase fuel mileage and horsepower, but they are also environmentally friendly since you can reuse them for a very long time."

Dunn doesn't currently have a motorcycle endorsement on her driver's license, but she assured that will change very soon.

"My parents all ride. My dad and my step-dad both have Harleys and I will absolutely learn to ride it and get my license," she said.

With the 2010 K&N Horsepower Challenge and Sweepstakes in the books, the excitement has already started to build for the 2011 edition. Keep watching www.knfilters.com for weekly qualifying updates and how your favorites NHRA Pro Stock driver is doing and all the latest news on how you can enter for a chance to take part in the next K&N Horsepower Challenge Sweepstakes.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Bill Balog and B-Squared Motorsports Win Sprint Car Event at Wilmot Raceway

14.07.2010

The commanding win at Wilmot Raceway was team B-Squared's first of the season, as they work towards securing their third consecutive IRA Championship. Photo by: McKay's Digital Images.

"It feels awesome to finally get our first win of the year. We have been very close on many occasions and we finally put it all together. Hopefully this is the first of many for the year," exclaims Chippawa Falls, Wisconsin racer Bill Balog.

This was the second of five trips to Wilmot Raceway for the B-Squared Motorsports team, and with track conditions less than favorable, Balog still managed to turn the fifth quickest time of the night, despite being the 25th car on the track. He finished his heat in third place.

In the 30-lap feature the number 17B car took the initial green flag from the sixth place starting position. After the top two cars got involved in an incident on lap one, Balog restarted the race from outside of row one this time. On the ensuing restart, Balog battled with the pole sitter for the first lap, but then quickly opened up a sizable lead on the field. By the time the next yellow flag came out on lap 15, Balog had opened up a half track lead on second place. With each ensuing restart, he quickly increased his already sizable lead, and he would easily go on to collect his eighth career IRA feature win, and the first of his 2010 season.

B-Squared Motorsports combines the efforts of driver Bill Balog and crew members Ryan Buesser and Jeff Bonilla, to form a Sprint Car racing team that is truly a force to be reckoned with. The award winning team is based out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

B-Squared Motorsports has experienced a good deal of success merging careful engineering with an undeniable understanding of racing. A few of B-Squared Motorsports' accolades include, driver Bill Balog being named Bumper-to-Bumper IRA Rookie of the Year, GFRA Rookie of the Year and Champion, and back-to-back IRA Champion 2008-2009. The team competes with the Bumper-to-Bumper IRA Sprint cars fulltime, and with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series at select races. Balog says he is grateful for his continued support from his sponsors such as K&N.

"Our relationship with K&N has been great. We have always gotten everything we wanted plus more. They do a fantastic job with supporting the short tack racers," says Balog.

"We currently use the Sprint Car air boxes, oil filters, filter oil and filter cleaner. We feel these items are the best on the market today."

For the remainder of year the team says they hope to pick up a few more wins before the season draws to a close. States Balog, "We are working on securing our third consecutive IRA Championship with the help of our K&N product."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Josh McGuire Racing Sweeps Dirt Late Model Events at Rocky Top and Ohio Valley

13.07.2010

The biggest race of the year is still ahead of the team, and with their momentum and sponsorship support they are feeling confident.

"Racing is such an up and down sport - some weekends you just get lucky I suppose," remarked Josh McGuire the Grayson, Kentucky native. It's tough to be humble when you rack up win number four and five for the Dirt Late Model season, but McGuire pulled it off. Josh McGuire Racing (JMR) swept their events at both Rocky Top Raceway in Coal Grove, Ohio and at Ohio Valley Speedway near Washington, West Virginia last weekend.

Team JMR swept all their races at both Rocky Top and Ohio Valley in dominate fashion.

At Rocky Top on Friday night, McGuire won his heat race in preliminary action, and later led all forty laps of the main event to score a dominant victory, nabbing the $4000 winner's check. Then on Saturday evening, in a rare trip to the Ohio Valley Speedway, McGuire once again swept the night's races taking home another $3000.

"It was an awesome weekend for our team and everything went just as we had hoped when we left the race shop on Friday morning," said McGuire. "We qualified well both nights and won our heat races, so that obviously put us in a great position when feature time rolled around. I can't thank everyone associated with our race team enough for their support and hopefully we can keep this momentum going.

The team admits that this is the just sort of year they have been experiencing, many peaks and valleys, with this clearly being a crest. Although they have had some very strong performances at many races, they have also been sidelined several times with mysterious mechanical gremlins.

"As a race car driver you always want more wins, I'm not sure you can ever satisfy a driver," laughs McGuire. "I suppose we are very fortunate though to have these wins at this point in the season. Much of our success has to be attributed to the remarkable support of our sponsors, product sponsors such as K&N, our crew, and of course my family - winning is really only possible when all of the pieces of the puzzle are present."

McGuire continues, "Our relationship with K&N is strong, we are so happy to have them as part of our team and to be able to utilize their products. Their oil filters, air filters, cleaners, and other products are always dependable and withstand the test of time in Dirt Late Model racing."

Probably one of the team's biggest events coming up this season is the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin on August 6-7. The Josh McGuire Racing team has secured the U.S. Steel sponsorship (also the title sponsor for the event) for this race and they are very excited to don the U.S. Steel logo as an addition to their many other sponsors.

"This opportunity has been a true blessing and we hope to be able to make this event a successful venture for all parties involved, adds McGuire.

"We hope that our momentum can continue, fortunately our team has a past record of having stronger ends of the seasons than beginnings, so hopefully we are on the right track again. The next several months are packed with many prestigious, big money races and it is always our goal to just make the starting lineup and then set our standards from there. A good attitude - supportive sponsors - and a strong team goes a long way."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Video - Mike Cronin Jr. and Quirt Crawford Discuss Their Modified Redline Time Attack Race Cars

13.07.2010

Redline Time Attack Super Modified Racer Mike Cronin Jr. discussed his highly modified Nissan 350Z with just under 500 horsepower. Cronin is also president of Fontana Nissan. Quirt Crawford of Crawford Performance also speaks about their Subaru race cars that have been modified for 550 and 600 horsepower.

Redline Time Attack Interviews with Mike Cronin Jr. and Quirt Crawford Video

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Rath Racing's Casey Martin Makes AMA ATV History on his Factory Polaris

12.07.2010

Martin's Polaris Outlaw 450 MXR has been dialed into near perfection by mechanic Dave Porter and it's powered by a Baldwin Motorsports motor, with suspension expertise from Fox Shox.

Daryl Rath from Hutchinson, Minnesota, has been racing quads and winning for over 24 years, he's become an icon of the sport. Through his dedication and hard work he took a hobby and his passion for racing and built a company around it. Since 1992 Rath Racing has been designing, engineering and manufacturing some of the industries finest high quality components for ATV's and UTV's. The fruits of his labor are plentiful, not only with the success and popularity of his products, but also with his results on the racetrack.

Mechanic Dave Porter says that Martin works very hard at every event and he is perhaps the best rider he has ever worked with.

Casey Martin, aboard his Factory Polaris Rath Outlaw 450 MXR continued his relentless assault so far this year at the AMA ATV Motocross ATV National, at Pleasure Valley, in Armagh, Pennsylvania. Martin earned to two first place motos, winning the Pro Am Production class. The momentum that this team is building is undeniable this season, and with this latest victory by Martin, they find themselves making a little history as well. This was the first AMA Pro Am MX win for the Factory Polaris/Rath Team.

When asked about his stellar performance this weekend Martin stated, "It was awesome to be able to put this Polaris on top, I knew what I had to do this weekend and as the race went on I knew my chances of winning were there and I didn't want to get over excited. I just kept reminding myself to ride smart until the checkers flew. We have done all the right things to this Polaris Outlaw; I know I will finish out the year strong."

Dave Porter who has been Martin's mechanic all season added, "In talking with Daryl Rath I told him I had some really good ideas that would put some more power to the ground, we agreed and it turned out my ideas were spot on. I am excited for Martin, Polaris, Rath Racing and myself for being able to be part of something like this. Martin works so hard and has always had the best attitude, he is one of the best if not the best rider I have ever worked with."

Rath went on to add, "Casey has continued to get extremely comfortable on the Outlaw. He feels the bike is a contender and the changes we are making now are really just small adjustments to keep him out front."

Rath explains that he started up a relationship with K&N back in 2008, at the same time his team resumed racing for Polaris. "We use quite a few K&N Filters and cleaners in all our race vehicles,from the Polaris Outlaw 450 , the MX and TT , the Polaris Sportsman 850XP, and our RZR's. We also utilize K&N products in all our tow vehicles."

Says Rath, "We are going to continue to focus on both the GNCC Utility Class and the AMA Motocross in Pro Am for 2010. We are excited to add the RZR portion to our program and feel that there should be some good new opportunities there as well."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.