Night-time racing always adds a dramatic element to the event; and we think that having a whole year next year to promote this style of racing again. – Mike Galimi, Race Pages
As an inaugural event for this year’s NMRA season, the OTS class presented by Ididit Inc. has the least amount of rules out of all the classes this event had to offer. Some of the fastest street cars that attended this year’s World Finals event (around ten cars total, with eight cars competing) entered the OTS class. Keeping up with the no-time shootout format was the aim of the game – with plenty of cash and bragging rights for the winner at the end of Saturday night.
We had the chance to speak with Mike Galimi, editor of Race Pages for the NMRA and get the download on just what exactly the OTS class is.
The list of rules in the NMRA Outlaw True Street class is about as long as an ingredients list in a Vegan’s supper. In a nutshell, the rules are fairly simple. It’s an eighth-mile race with no-time on a .400 pro tree, with a 25 to 30-mile cruise beforehand. Drivers are randomly paired up, and each car must be registered, insured, and have a license plate. Any car that enters must be a Ford-bodied vehicle with working headlights and taillights, albeit any power plant is available to use.
You don’t need an NMRA membership to compete in the class, and the amount of power adders is unlimited (as well as the use of a side-exit exhaust). In the form of the traditional Grudge racing theme, the only decree is that you must use a 28-inch tall tire (or a 275 radial/bias ply equivalent, see full list of rules here).
“The Outlaw True Street class started from the Outlaw No Prep races,” Mike Galimi, editor of Race Pages said. “It’s derived from our true street class, and includes a 30-mile cruise. Just like any other no-time race, it’s an eighth-mile format grudge racing style event.
“The idea was brought to us around several months ago, and it kind of laid dormant for awhile, until we started to approach the World Finals event. Since the event is so unique, we decided to add it this year to the Grudge Night event. It’s a neat class, and we added some additional structure to the class, and it’s just grown from there.”
Galimi explained that just like the Grudge Night event, the NMRA is really trying to get to the market in different ways than before. “Our goal with the NMRA is always to get as many enthusiasts racing as possible, and to give them unlimited opportunities,” Galimi entailed. “This was a pretty wide-open concept. The rules are pretty minimal, and Grudge racing is extremely popular. We had about eight-to-nine days to put the entire event together, once we finally received a sponsor for it. We thought this was a pretty great start.”
“There are tons of True Street enthusiasts with some very powerful cars that are always looking for something different, other than the usual back-to-back passes on the tree,” he continued. “We had eight cars compete – but two cars had broke before – so we essentially had ten from the get-go. We were happy with the double-digit outcome, especially with such a short promotion time.
“One of the points of this class is to capture a new audience for the NMRA racing series, and bring in new racers and expose them to drag racing. It went so well, that we’re actually planning on doing this class again next year, and possibly adding a second race somewhere in the season, or at the World Finals.”
“We love this type of racing, and those two cars in the finals [referring to Oswald and Torres] would have been an excellent race had it fallen clean,” Galimi said. “It’s very exciting – night-time racing always adds a dramatic element to the event; and we think that having a whole year to promote this style of racing again for the World Finals will triple that number of cars that showed up easily.
“We think it can grow two-to-three times larger with the right promotion. It’s such a wide-open fit for cars, and the 30-mile cruise adds an element of real, true street cars.”