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It’s elimination day; the thirteenth running of the Street Car Super Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been marred by crashes and oildowns. By the end of the day we’ll have crowned event winners and put the finishing touches on what has been a marathon event. Currently the bracket cars are on track, and the big boys should be headed out around 11AM barring any further issues. Stay tuned!
Brian Macy is driving The EFI Store-backed, Darrin Meroniuk 1863 Nova in 275 Radial. Remember the car I mentioned last night owned by Eddy Whipple? Well, this is Eddy’s old car, which is now in Meroniuk’s hands. Apparently both were at a race in Spokane along with Macy when Macy was driving the black EFI Store Willys, and when the Willys broke, Macy and Meroniuk spent the rest of the weekend supporting Whipple. Confused yet? So the whole time they were there at this race, Meroniuk was eyeing up the Nova, and eventually offered Whipple the trade option, and the two swapped cars.
Today, the car sports a 434 cubic-inch small-block Chevy with 18-degree Dart heads and a Bowtie block. A pair of 72 mm turbochargers, 25 psi boost pressure, and gasoline fuel have combined to help the car into the 4-second zone. So far they’ve been a best of 4.95 with only three hits on the car. He was eliminated in the class, but with so few hits on the car they are looking to be a serious player. They recently upgraded the car to use a Turbo 400 transmission with second-gear-leave option to help build boost and get the car out of the hole more quickly. All it takes is a gear ratio change, and they can go back to using all three gears for quarter-mile racing. The transmission has an upgraded valve body which allows transbrake activation in both first and second gear. Macy says all vehicle operations are operated through a Holley Dominator EFI system–which makes sense given that he earns his living as an EFI tuner. This car was just finished up a few days ago in time for the event, and they are very pleased with its initial performance.
“I’m happy we’re in the 4s,” said Macy. “That’s what we were looking for.”
This is your winning elapsed time in the Outlaw Pro Mod class for the 2017 Street Car Super Nationals. The Q80 Racing Team of Jose Gonzalez and Eric Dillard had one heck of a weekend. They were shooting for a monster pass in the 5.20s and went 5.440 today, but it wasn’t without its challenges. My understanding is that in the pursuit of these elapsed times, the team went through a number of transmissions and at least one broken rear, and simply didn’t have the data they needed to put the big tuneup in the car. Even so, they put a monster 275.45 mph on the boards earlier today. In the other lane of the final round, John Stanley got out of shape and had to lift early, ending his chances to take home the big prize.
Freddy Bueno’s ’63 Nova is a work of art. The 25.3 chassis was done in-house at Freddy’s Fab Workz, and the car boasts one of Bischoff Engine Service’s 462 cubic-inch small-block Chevrolet engines topped off with one of Robert Lane’s Fast Lane nitrous systems. Freddy’s dad Javier painted the car its gorgeous orange shade.
“Eric Mitchell is helping us with the nitrous tuning. Having him tune for us is a game changer,” he said.
The car still rides on Calvert leafs and went a 1.09 short time in a quarterfinal loss to Chris Groves when the car popped around halftrack. With such limited time on the car, they’ve still turned in a best elapsed time of 4.59, showing that with Bueno’s chassis tune and Mitchell’s nitrous tune this car will be a player in the West Coast 275 wars.
Matt Paris made the long trek over the hill from Longmont, Colorado with his pretty ’57 Chevy to run in the XDR class. It features a 565 cubic-inch with Big Duke heads and one of Fast Lane’s nitrous systems. This is their first time on radials and they’ve turned in a personal best of 5.02 at 140 mph. The 3,550-pound car normally runs in around 8,500 Density Altitude compared to the 2,500 or so we’re seeing here, so Matt’s sneaking up on the tuneup with baby steps.
This beautiful engine belongs to former PSCA Wild Street champion Dee Pfnister. The XDR car has been completely revamped with a 585 ci engine and old-school F-3R ProCharger supercharger.
“This is our first good weekend for shakedown passes; we went from 5.14 to 4.73 in just a few passes and are trying to figure out the converter and stuff like that. I’m working with Joe Rivera at Pro Torque on that. Kevin Mullins from TKM built the engine,” he said. Pfnister went down to Ryan Jones in the semifinal round.
Earlier this weekend Steve Nicholson told us he had something for the Outlaw 10.5 class from his Sonny’s-powered Sting Ray… and he did. How does three Outlaw 10.5 wins in four years sound? We think this guy has the class–and the Street Car Super Nationals–figured out.
Mike Bowman is on a tear in his Pro Mod over the last little bit here. Not only did he outlast Carl Stevens in the final round, this marks his second SCSN win in a row. His winner’s circle photo is graced by Camp Stanley, who never met a celebration he didn’t like.
I found it interesting that a few of the racers I spoke with over the weekend who told me they were on to something with their combinations were able to back up the talk and walk the walk when push came to shove. Despite showing up with an all-new combo, Giuseppe Gentile was able to not only capture the runner-up spot in Outlaw 10.5, but also take home the big prize in the Big Tire No Time class.
Speaking of Camp Stanley, if the rumors of the team’s retirement are true, they are going out on top of the world. Not only did they capture the runner-up spot in Outlaw Pro Mod, Stanley also tuned the CTS-V to the record for the world’s fastest blown doorslammer, sending John down the track to a monster 266.74 mph pass.
If you’re wondering where Krusty Ramsey was with his well-known Outlaw 8.5 nitroused Malibu, here’s where–tuning his wife Meghan’s stock-bottom-end LS-powered Mustang in the 235 Limited class. Meghan acquitted herself well as a driver, running a best pass of 5.55 in a quarterfinal loss to number-three-qualifier David Holtgrew. Mike Silva captured the class win in his slick silver Nova over Richard Shelley’s Mercury Capri.
And how about Ryan “Toaster” Jones in his killer Nova? Toaster made a bunch of changes to his ride, leaving the Outlaw 8.5 class he’s dominated over the last couple of years, and entered the Xtreme Drag Radial class. Those changes included switching the car over to alcohol, removing the intercooler, and setting it up to run in this class. It took them until the last qualifying session to figure the car out, and Toaster eventually turned in a 4.41 to jump to the second spot in XDR behind Norman Chamg, and tuned the car to a final-round finish, where he went down to Chang after the car lost traction and he had to lift.
Final Elimination Results
235 Limited/Turbo Pro Mod/Outlaw Pro Mod
Outlaw 10.5
XDR
