AUBURN HILLS, Mich.,
Sept. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
- Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers Matt
Hagan, Jack Beckman,
Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson, Jr. begin NHRA Funny Car
championship chase at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pennsylvania
- Leah Pritchett set to battle for
NHRA Top Fuel championship in HEMI®-powered Mopar Dodge Top Fuel
Dragster
- Fourth annual Mopar Mega Block Party at FirstEnergy Stadium set
for 4-10 p.m. ET on Thurs., Sept.
12, featuring home run derby with NHRA stars, NHRA driver
autograph session, Mopar car show, Raminator monster truck rides
and more
- Mopar Career Automotive Program (CAP) "Assemble Your Future"
initiative hosts local, next-generation service technician students
for at-track activities as a reward for their participation in the
program
The 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series regular season is
over and the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs
begins with the Mopar Express Lane
NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pennsylvania, Sept. 12-15, 2019.
For the fourth consecutive year, the event kicks off with the
Mopar Mega Block Party from 4-10 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 12 at FirstEnergy Stadium in
Reading. The free admission event
features a home run derby with NHRA Stars, NHRA driver autograph
session, Mopar car show, Raminator monster truck rides and
more.
On the track, four Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers from Don Schumacher
Racing (DSR) will begin their quest for the 2019 championship,
powering Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Cars. Two-time Funny Car
world champion Matt Hagan, 2012
titlist Jack Beckman, 2016 champion
Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson, Jr. begin the Countdown inside
the top six positions while DSR's Leah
Pritchett will take her HEMI®-powered Mopar Dodge Top Fuel
Dragster into battle from the seventh position.
The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car drivers are coming off a
tremendous regular season, scoring seven wins in the 18 national
events. Capps won three in his NAPA Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat while
Hagan, driver of the Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody, and
Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat pilot Johnson Jr. each put
their Funny Cars in the winner's circle twice. Beckman reached four
finals, including last weekend's U.S. Nationals, to make it 14
final round appearances by a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
driver.
Beckman and Johnson Jr. lead the Dodge//SRT Mopar contingent
back to Maple Grove Raceway with two previous wins in the Mopar
Express Lane NHRA Nationals. Beckman won in 2008 and 2015 and
Johnson scored Reading wins in 1999 and 2016. Hagan was victorious
in 2014 and Capps triumphed in 2017. Pritchett is seeking her first
Reading win.
The results from the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals have
played a significant role in the Top Fuel championship outcome over
the last few seasons. Since 2013, the winner of the Top Fuel Wally
in Reading has gone on to hoist
the Top Fuel championship hardware. In Funny Car, last year's
Reading winner snapped a string of four consecutive wins by DSR and
Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers and went on to win the championship as
well.
Fox Sports 1 will air coverage of qualifying Friday evening from
6:30 – 8:30 p.m. ET and Saturday from
9 – 10 p.m. ET. The network will
broadcast live coverage of eliminations Sunday from 2 –
5 p.m. ET.
Mopar Mega Block Party kicks off Mopar Express Lane NHRA
Nationals
For the fourth consecutive year, the Mopar Express Lane NHRA
Nationals race weekend will be kicked off by the Mopar Mega
Block Party. The free admission event, set to roll into FirstEnergy
Stadium in Reading from
4 -10 p.m. ET on Thurs., Sept. 12,
will offer a full slate of fun activities for families as well as
Dodge//SRT and Mopar enthusiasts. NHRA stars and TV personalities
will step to the plate and take their cuts in the annual Mopar Mega
Block Party home run derby. Dodge//SRT Mopar NHRA drivers
Matt Hagan, Leah Pritchett, Jack
Beckman, Ron Capps and
Tommy Johnson Jr. are scheduled to
slug it out alongside NHRA on Fox play-by-play announcers
Tony Pedregon and Brian Lohnes to determine who will wear the
home-run crown.
NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart will
provide the play-by-play. Donations to the Make-A-Wish and Infinite
Hero Foundations will be made in the name of the winner of the
elimination-style competition. Mopar Mega Block Party attendees can
also interact with their favorite drivers during a one-hour
autograph session, jump inside the cab of the 10-ft.-tall Raminator
monster truck for a once-in-a-lifetime ride and test their
virtual racing skills in the "Drag Strip Showdown," a head-to-head
competition in Dodge Challenger SRT Demon simulators. A
HEMI-fueled, 100-plus Mopar car show, giveaways, food and drink
booths, vendor displays and live concerts by bands Liquid A, Go-Go
Gadjet and TJ Bebb are also on tap, with a mega fireworks display
to close out the night. For more information on the Mopar Mega
Block Party, visit www.moparblockparty.com.
Higher Education at 300 mph: Mopar CAP Students to visit
Maple Grove Raceway
For the third NHRA national event in 2019, the Mopar Career
Automotive Program (CAP) will host next-generation service
technician students at Maple Grove Raceway, Friday, Sept. 13 as part of the "Assemble Your
Future" initiative. Through a partnership with Pennzoil, students
from five area schools – ATC Warminster, ATC Exton, Mercer County Community College, Pennsylvania College of Technology and Northampton
Community College – will have the opportunity to visit with Hagan
and Pritchett, tour the DSR pit areas and interact with area
FCA US dealership
representatives.
The program is the third of four Mopar CAP "Assemble Your
Future" initiative programs at NHRA national events in 2019, with
the Dodge NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil at The Strip at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway in late October, being the final
event.
Mopar CAP, established in 1984, prepares students to begin their
automotive technician careers upon graduation from a certified,
two-year training institution, such as a university, college,
community college or technical center. Currently, FCA has more than
9,000 active students enrolled in its Mopar CAP program, with
students completing more than 100,000 class courses.
There are an estimated 750,000 auto technicians working
nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Across the industry, another 46,000 will need to be hired between
2019 and 2026 to meet increased demand.
For more information on the Mopar CAP program,
visit https://www.mopar.com/en-us/mopar-cap.html.
About Dodge//SRT
Dodge//SRT offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that
stand out in their own segments. Dodge is America's performance
brand and SRT is positioned as the ultimate performance halo of the
Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance
brand with one vision and one voice.
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the
spirit of brothers John and Horace
Dodge, who founded the brand in 1914. Their influence
continues today. For 2020, Dodge literally expands its
high-performance Charger model lineup, adding a Widebody exterior
to America's only four-door muscle car. Powered by the
707-horsepower supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI Hellcat V-8 engine, the
2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat maintains its reign as the most
powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world.
The 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is possessed by the
Demon. Its 797-horsepower supercharged HEMI® high-output engine
makes it the most powerful, quickest and fastest muscle car,
reaching 0-60 miles per hour (mph) in 3.4 seconds, and the fastest
GT production car with a ¼-mile elapsed time (ET) of 10.8 seconds
at 131 mph. It also reaches a new top speed of 203 mph.
Joining the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is the 2019 Dodge
Challenger SRT Hellcat, with its more powerful 717-horsepower
engine, and the Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody, featuring fender
flares from the SRT Hellcat Widebody, which add 3.5 inches of width
to the 485-horsepower Scat Pack's standard body. Also new for 2019
is the Challenger R/T Scat Pak 1320 with exclusive drag strip
technology from the iconic Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. The
Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320 is a drag-oriented, street-legal
muscle car and a blank canvas for the serious grassroots drag
racer. The 2019 Dodge Durango SRT, America's fastest, most powerful
and most capable three-row SUV with a best-in-class tow rating of
8,700 lbs., completes the brand's performance lineup. These
visceral performance models join a 2019 brand lineup that includes
the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger — a
showroom that offers performance at every price point.
Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA US news
and video on:
Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com
Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com
Dodge brand: www.dodge.com
Dodge Garage: www.dodgegarage.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgemoparmotorsports, www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or
www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA
Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA
YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica
About Mopar
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words MOtor and PARts) is the
service, parts and customer-care brand for FCA vehicles around the
globe. Born in 1937 as the name of a line of antifreeze products,
the Mopar brand has evolved over more than 80 years to represent
both complete care and authentic performance for owners and
enthusiasts worldwide.
Mopar made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era, with
Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road
and racing use, and expanded to include technical service and
customer support. Today, the Mopar brand's global reach distributes
more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150 markets around
the world. With more than 50 parts distribution centers and 25
customer contact centers globally, Mopar integrates service, parts
and customer-care operations in order to enhance customer and
dealer support worldwide.
Mopar is the source for genuine parts and accessories for all
FCA US LLC vehicle brands. Mopar parts are engineered together with
the same teams that create factory-authorized specifications for
FCA vehicles, offering a direct connection that no other
aftermarket parts company can provide. Complete information on the
Mopar brand is available at www.mopar.com.
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