Mopar® celebrates 30th Mile-High NHRA Nationals

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Mopar® celebrates 30th Mile-High NHRA Nationals

Posted Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009, 2:19 pm in Employee News

Chrysler Group LLC’s parts division is ready to bring the “boom” back to Thunder Mountain.

The ultimate Mopar® Nation celebration is set to blast off next weekend at the 30th Annual Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, the longest continuous running sponsorship in the National Hot Rod Association. The event is July 10-12 at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.


Mopar’s headline event has become an iconic stop on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Fans, professional racers and grassroots racers alike have flocked to Mopar’s “home track” for more than 50 years to watch no-holds-barred racing action at the quarter-mile built by John Bandimere Sr. The drag strip, set 5,800 feet high in the picturesque Rocky Mountains, presents a unique challenge to racers and crews as they work to make power in the thin-air environment.

Mopar HEMI®-powered vehicles have proven especially adapt at solving the challenges presented by Thunder Mountain. Team Mopar NHRA pro stock driver Allen Johnson has advanced to the finals in each of the last two years, claiming a Mopar Mile-High victory in 2007. Mopar-powered NHRA funny car driver Jack Beckman matched Johnson’s feat, triumphing in 2007 with a runner-up finish in 2008.

“Mopar is proud to continue its long and successful partnership with the NHRA, Bandimere Speedway and the Bandimere family,” Jim Sassorossi, Director—Global Parts Sales and Marketing-Mopar Parts, said. “Their tireless work has built Thunder Mountain into a can’t-miss stop on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The fact that Mopar’s sponsorship of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals is the longest, continuous-running sponsorship in the NHRA is a point of pride for everyone at Mopar’s Center Line, Mich. headquarters.”

“Bandimere Speedway is very pleased that Mopar is continuing in its role as sponsor of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals,” John Bandimere Jr. said. “We are thankful of the long-standing relationship we have with all of the people at Mopar, Dodge and Chrysler Group LLC, and are proud to be the ‘Home Track’ for Team Mopar.”

Mopar will once again get the party started in style with the eighth annual Mopar Big Block Party, scheduled for Thursday, July 9, from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time on the streets of downtown Golden, Colo. The Mopar Big Block Party, the “Official Starter” of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, will feature a driver autograph session with Mopar-powered drivers including Allen Johnson, Johnny Gray, Rickie Jones, V. Gaines and Mopar racing legend Judy Lilly. Fans also can check out Mopar race cars and NHRA drag race machines while local band Rated M Rocks kicks out the jams from the Mopar Stage.

“SpeedFreaks” TV and radio hosts Kenny Sargent, Crash Gladys, Statt Mann Caruthers and Chris Jacobs will be on hand to emcee the Big Block Party proceedings.