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National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) star Ashley Force Hood formally announced Tuesday that she is pregnant and will take a "temporary hiatus" -- sitting out the 2011 Full Throttle drag racing championship.

This will be the first child for the two-time NHRA U.S. Nationals champ Hood, 28, and her husband, Dan. Force Hood's father, 15-time NHRA Funny Car champ John Force, announced that 2008 Rookie of the Year Mike Neff will return to the cockpit to fill in for Hood this season in the John Force Racing Mustang. Dan Hood will be his tuner.

In addition to Force Hood's news, her father announced that 2009 Funny Car champ Robert Hight has been promoted to President of John Force Racing, which has won 17 of the last 21 NHRA Funny Car titles. Force will hold the title of CEO.

"This past November, after watching my dad clinch his 15th championship, Dan and I decided we would try to start a family,'' said Force Hood, who will take over as president of John Force Entertainment during her racing sabbatical.

"We felt that if God wanted it to happen, it would happen. Well, God didn't waste any time and I am pregnant and due at the end of the summer.''

Force said she still plans on representing her sponsors this season and will work closely with your younger sister Courtney, who is planning to make her NHRA pro class debut this season.

 

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National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) veteran driver Mark Niver, 60, of Phoenix, was pronounced dead Sunday afternoon after crashing his Top Alcohol class dragster during a national event at Pacific Raceways outside Seattle.

This is the second fatal accident in an NHRA event in the past 31 days. Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Neal Parker was killed in a crash in Englishtown, N.J., on June 11. Like Parker, Niver's dragster crashed in the shutdown area of the track. A female spectator was killed Feb. 21 in Phoenix, when a tire came off Antron Brown's Top Fuel dragster during a first round elimination.

According to witnesses, Niver's car slammed into the safety netting at the end of the track after his parachutes did not fully deploy. The King County Sheriff's Department halted race activities for more than an hour to investigate the crash, but NHRA officials eventually resumed and completed the event.

The NHRA issued a statement saying it, along with Pacific Raceways, extended its "deepest sympathies to the entire Niver family" and promised a full investigation.

According to the Seattle Times, winning driver Chris Demke presented his winner's trophy to Niver's wife, Tanis, his children and grandchildren who were at the event.

"We hope his last memory was seeing his win light," Demke told The Times. "Losing him is like losing an elder in the sport. It chokes me up."

Greg Anderson, who later in the afternoon won the Pro Stock class, told the Times, "I've known Mark forever and when I found out it was him, my heart stopped."

One of Niver's two career Top Alcohol dragster wins came at Pacific Raceways two years ago. Sunday's accident happened seconds after Niver defeated Shawn Cowie in the semifinals which would have earned him a place in the championship round.

According to the Tacoma News-Tribune, Niver's parachute "broke" when it was deployed and his dragster "buckled" after hitting the safety net, with the front end bending upward toward the cockpit. His finish-line speed was estimated to be 271 mph.

Demke would have raced against Niver in the final round had the crash not occurred. Demke chose not to appear in the final out of respect to Niver.

"Mark was always warm, friendly, joking," Demke told The Times. "He was honest and raced on his own budget. It was a family operation and he ran a mean and lean team. There's no way to think anything about bad him. He's a legend and we're going to miss him."

 

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I’ve got to say NASCAR fans, I’m a little disappointed. I was looking around at unnamed Web sites and I came across a story about George Gillett and his partnership with Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud of Saudi Arabia (if his last name didn’t tip you off). What I found was a very prominent site that didn’t moderate comments and as a result allowed a lot of hateful, racist stuff to be said. I won’t repeat any of it here.

Although I know none of our readers were saying any of that stuff (and those comments don’t reflect the views of most fans) it still really bothered me. NASCAR fans bemoan being tied to some really negative stereotypes and I don’t blame them. But then there is a segment of fans that goes on to write stuff like this. A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

Now I suspect Prince Faisal is far more interested in George Gillett’s stake in the Liverpool Football Club in England (which Gillett owns with Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks), than he is in Gillett’s interest in Richard Petty Motorsports. For the sake of argument though, let’s say it is RPM that Faisal wants. Whats so bad about that?

The beauty of this sport is that literally anyone can enter it if they have the resources. This means the owners in the sport are financially a pretty eclectic bunch; from auto magnates to sports stars to working joes. Is Prince Faisal’s money not just as good?

In the NHRA, the money of a middle eastern royal was good enough for Alan Johnson, Larry Dixon and Del Worsham. HH Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani, a member of the ruling family of Qatar, partnered with Johnson this season to form Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing. According to the Wall Street Journal Sheikh Khalid is pouring $10 million into the team just this year. In this case the Sheikh is a man of wealth who loves drag racing and sees value in the NHRA. I say welcome.

In an era when money is increasingly tight and the future of a lot of organizations is in question why not look outside our own borders to attract investors?

All of what we’re seeing right now is very preliminary stuff, and from NASCAR’s and Richard Petty’s comments they haven’t even been consulted. That being said Prince Faisal and his sports investment firm F6 have a lot of resources. That shouldn’t be turned away or discouraged. Nor should we attach offensive stereotypes to someone just because of their national origin.

At the end of the day if Prince Faisal wants to buy a NASCAR team, or start one, or even wants to go NASCAR racing himself, I say go for it.

In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”