Blue Oval Battles: The NMRA 2017 Season Preview

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The NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals Series is the number one all-Ford motorsports show for a good reason, it gives racers and fans what they want year after year. Every NMRA event is packed to the gills with blue-oval racing action, swap meets, car shows, grudge nights, and much more. In 2017 the NMRA kicks off their season again at Bradenton Motorsports Park with the Spring Break Shootout, and has a calendar filled with great events for the entire racing year.

The NMRA has one of the most robust class offerings of any drag racing organization in the world. There is a class for every Ford racer at an NMRA event from Bracket and index classes, all the way to the four-second heads-up racing in Street Outlaw. Besides their usual full slate of classes, the NMRA will continue to have their Grudge Night activities in 2017, and bring in racers from Discovery Channel’s hit TV show Street Outlaws at events to make passes.

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Recognizing that change can be a good thing, the NMRA has been working on some tweaks to a few of their specialty shootout classes for 2017. The NMRA’s Mike Galimi goes into a bit more detail about the changes to a few of these races and their formats. ”The Tremec Transmission Stick Shift Shootout format has been altered for 2017. It has gone from a two-car match race, to a four-car eliminator. Once again, the qualifying class for the Stick Shift Shootout is the QA1 True Street challenge on Saturday, when the top four averages turned in by manual transmission equipped rides are entered into the shootout.”

Listening to their racers, the NMRA introduced what could be the most radical version of their very popular True Street class, Outlaw True Street. This class was first contested at the NMRA World Finals and quickly made its mark with some very fast street cars battling it out in with close racing on the track. “ididit Outlaw True Street is coming off a successful debut at last year’s World Finals, so the NMRA has added the class to the Spring Break Shootout in Bradenton. The category is a fast street car shootout for 28/275 style cars and it has opened up the door for some racers from a few of the specialty classes to mix it up when they normally wouldn’t line-up. It will once again be held under the lights on Saturday night,” Galimi says.

The Stock and Super Stock racing has a huge following across the country. Fans love the wheels-up racing action, and the racers who pilot these amazing machines love to put on a show. According to Galimi, to give both the fans and racers what they want, the NMRA is putting these cars on the track even more, this season. “New for 2017 is the expansion of the Stock/Super Stock Combo as it will run at two events, and Micro Strategy Technology will once again sponsor it. The Stock/Super Stock Combo will be contested at both the WyoTech Ford Motorsport Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, and the Super Nationals, which is held at the historic National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio.”

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For 2017 the NMRA is also adding some very exciting shootout classes to selected events. These shootouts give racers a chance to compete for prize money and pick up a coveted NMRA trophy in the winner’s circle.  One of the big additions is a class for the racers who use Modular Ford engines and make big power. 

“UPR Products Modular Xtreme is a no-holds-barred category for Modular-powered cars to let it all hang out. Twin turbochargers, large single turbochargers, minimally restricted supercharged setups—basically, if your Modular or Coyote-equipped Mustang is too radical for one of the other shootouts or championship categories, then this would be the place for it to fit in. It will run at the Spring Break Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park and the NMRA World Finals at the scenic Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY,” Galimi explains.

Part of being a successful racing organization is looking at what the tea leaves tell you, and then being proactive with what you do. There could be another new heads-up class for those who like power-adders under the hood of their Ford. “The NMRA is continuing to focus on expanding the specialty shootout market to help attract different segments of the market. As the fast street car crowd has a lot of opportunities to participate in these classes, NMRA Tech Officials are working hard a new championship category aimed to fill the void for smaller power adders that run in the high eight-second, to the low nine-second zone. It isn’t an easy task, but the team will release a preliminary set of rules in the near future,” Galimi says.

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In addition to making some moves with their on-track program, the NMRA has started to work on ways to bring more eyes to their racing series. In 2016 the NMRA worked with Speed Society to help promote their racing series across social media and will continue to do the same in 2017. Besides a larger social media campaign, the NMRA will have all of their events broadcast live on SpeedVideo.com this season.

The 2017 NMRA season promises to be one of the biggest yet with even more racing action and coverage across the board. Both fans and racers will be treated to expanded classes and more coverage across the board at each event. If you’re a true Ford aficionado than the NMRA will have everything you need this year to get your blue-oval fix!

2017 NMRA Schedule

  • March 2-5, 2017: 23rd ANNUAL NMRA SPRING BREAK SHOOTOUT • Bradenton Motorsports Park, Bradenton, FL
  • April 6-9, 2017 : 9th ANNUAL NMRA/NMCA ALL-STAR NATIONALS • Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, GA
  • May 4-7, 2017: 17th ANNUAL NMRA FORD MOTORSPORT NATIONALS • Maple Grove Raceway, Reading, PA
  • June 8-11, 2017: 14th ANNUAL NMRA FORD SUPERNATIONALS • National Trail Raceway, Hebron, OH
  • July 27-30, 2017: 12th ANNUAL NMRA/NMCA SUPER BOWL OF STREET-LEGAL DRAG RACING • Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, IL
  • September 28 – October 1, 2017: 19th ANNUAL NMRA ALL-FORD WORLD FINALS • Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, KY

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2017 NMRA Classes

  • Street Outlaw
  • Renegade
  • Coyote Modified
  • Coyote Stock
  • Factory Stock
  • Modular Muscle
  • Super Stang
  • Truck & Lightning
  • Open Comp
  • Ford Muscle
  • True Street
  • Bracket
  • Terminator GT 500 Shootout
  • Modular Extreme Shootout
  • EcoBoost Battle Shootout
  • Turbo Coyote Shootout
  • Outlaw True Street

About the author

Brian Wagner

Spending his childhood at different race tracks around Ohio with his family’s 1967 Nova, Brian developed a true love for drag racing. Brian enjoys anything loud, fast, and fun.
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