Some teams staying busy during NHRA’s week off

The NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series gets a break this weekend after running for six consecutive weeks, but at least a few teams will forgo a trip to the beach and stay focused on the dragstrip.

John Force Racing and some other teams will compete Saturday in a nonpoints exhibition event in Norwalk, Ohio. Tony and Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson and Jim Head also are scheduled to race.

Force then heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for two days of closed-session testing with his youngest daughters, Brittany and Courtney, in Top Alcohol Dragsters.

The popular four-time NHRA Funny Car champion also will spend an hour signing autographs at a special “Wild Wednesday” edition of the NASCAR All-American Series at the speedway’s Bullring. Force is scheduled to sign from 6 to 7 p.m.

The ASA Speed Trucks regional series will compete Wednesday along with Super Late Models, Legends Cars and Thunder Roadsters. Racing starts at 7 p.m.

A special entrant in the Speed Trucks race will be Randy LaJoie, the 1997 and 1998 NASCAR Busch Series champion and currently an ESPN race analyst. Also racing a Speed Truck at the Bullring for the first time will be Las Vegan Steve “Bear” Rzesnowiecky, 15, who is third in series standings.

• DRAG RACING — Mike Neff will become the fourth Funny Car driver for John Force Racing after this season.

Neff, 40, is the longtime crew chief for Gary Scelzi at Don Schumacher Racing. Neff will take over the car previously driven by Eric Medlen, who died in a March testing accident in Gainesville, Fla.

• OPEN WHEEL — Leilani Munter is scheduled to make her Indy Pro Series debut Aug. 11 at Kentucky Speedway in a car prepared by Henderson’s Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

She began racing late model stock cars in 2001, worked her way into ARCA regional stock-car racing and appeared to be on her way to NASCAR until joining Schmidt’s four-car team, which has won two of the last three Pro Series drivers championships.

• SPORTS CARS — Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing of Las Vegas announced this week that Peter Dumbreck of Adderbury, England, will co-drive its Ferrari F430 GT with Dirk Muller beginning Aug. 11 in the American Le Mans Series.

The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series races today at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal as part of the inaugural NASCAR Busch Series event.

• MOTOCROSS — Kawasaki’s Tim Ferry of Largo, Fla., picked up his first win in six years Sunday in Washougal, Wash., in the AMA Motocross Championship Series.

Ferry used two second-place finishes and a bit of luck when points leader James Stewart crashed late in the second moto.