K&N and NHRA Extend Title Sponsorship of K&N Horsepower Challenge

Last year’s fan prize was a special edition 2016 Toyota Tacoma.

Drag racing traces its roots to the backroads and dry lake beds around America. The human spirit is driven towards competition. Get two guys together with cars and before long you will have a race of some sort. Back in 1947, drag racing pioneer Wally Parks organized the Southern California Timing Association and so began the modern era of drag racing. SCTA events were held at the Bonneville Salt Flats as well as the Santa Ana Drags, America’s first drag strip.

Greg Anderson took home $50,000 as the 2016 K&N Horsepower Challenger winner, defeating his KB Racing teammate Jason Line.

By 1951, the sport had grown big enough that regulations needed to be put into place and Wally Parks was at the forefront of it. At the time, Wally was the Editor of Hot Rod magazine and had the backing to create the National Hot Rod Association. The NHRA would go on to be a leader in the motorsports industry and set a number of precedents that would shape the way the industry was regulated. Today, NHRA has over 70,000 members and more than 40,000 licensed competitors and has led drag racing to be one of the most popular motorsport events in the world. Being on top of the motorsports world draws a lot of companies looking to sponsor drivers, series, and events. One of those sponsors is K&N Engineering.

K&N is another well-known name in the automobile and motorsport worlds. Only a few years younger than NHRA, K&N has made a name for being the World’s Best Air Filter. Making filters for just about everything from chainsaws and lawnmowers to car, trucks, boats, and helicopters. K&N has been a sponsor in NHRA for over 30 years.

The fan assigned to Greg for the 2016 K&N Horsepower Challenge and the winner of the prize Tacoma was Eva Mack, of New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Along with sponsoring drivers, K&N is the title sponsor of the K&N Horsepower Challenge. Essentially a race within a race, the K&N Horsepower Challenge allows the top seven Pro Stock drivers in points and a driver voted by the fans to compete for a chance to win $50,000. Along with the driver portion, 8 lucky fans are chosen at random to be a part of HPC. These fans are flown to Las Vegas, where the event is held, and each one is paired with one of the competing drivers. The fan who is paired with the winner of the K&N Horsepower Challenge wins a custom truck. This event is extremely popular among the drivers and the fans who enter for a chance to be chosen.

The NHRA and K&N have come to an agreement for K&N to extend their sponsorship of the K&N Horsepower Challenge through 2018. “We are very excited to continue our relationship with K&N and bring NHRA fans more of the K&N Horsepower Challenge,” said Graham Light, NHRA Senior Vice President of Racing Operations. “The K&N Horsepower Challenge is one of the most exciting all-star bonus events of the year and a fan favorite. The best Pro Stock racers in the world compete for a $50,000 purse and the fans have the opportunity to get directly involved with the racing by picking the eighth finalist with a fan vote.”

Greg Anderson, in his Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro, beat out Jason Line after Line had to shut down due to fluid leaking from his car.

“K&N Horsepower Challenge is a monumental event for the NHRA Pro Stock class and we’re excited to see K&N’s involvement continue into 2018,” noted Caitlin Clement, Track and Series Support Manager for K&N Engineering. “The HPC is a very unique event that blends driver competition with fan excitement that is unmatched amongst all of our promotions. We’re looking forward to giving the fans a chance to win big again next spring!”

K&N is no stranger to working with NHRA. After the 2015 season, NHRA announced the new rules for the upcoming 2016 season and one of the big changes was the switch to electronic fuel injection for the Pro Stock class. K&N worked closely with NHRA, the OEMs, race teams, and chassis builders to build an intake system that would allow the switch to be made from carburetion to fuel injection.

This year’s K&N Horsepower Challenge will be held during the NHRA spring race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Check back for more information on this and other K&N sponsored NHRA drivers and events.