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Sunday
Before the craziness of Sunday eliminations, we caught Billy Glidden tending to his revived 1990 Mustang. “I ran the car once in 2008 and once in 2010,” Glidden describes. “It was very erratic back then. We came out to Indianapolis Raceway Park on a Wednesday night not long ago and tried the setup the car had in it. It didn’t move around, but it also did not hook up perfectly. We then went to Louisville for a big event and tried to make four passes. It was so erratic; we couldn’t even try for third gear.”
Billy Glidden wears his "Back in Black" shirt some friends made to commemorate the return of his Mustang. "I called local chassis builder, Greg Risk, and asked him to come to look over the car," Glidden adds. "We discovered some things on the front of the car that were not exactly right. Since then we have run seven (4.30 range ETs) in a row."
When it comes to tight racing for the upcoming first round of VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod, five racers are in the 3.70-second range on the Indy 1/8th-mile. Right behind them, there are five more competitors under the 3.80-second field. No matter how you look at the upcoming ladder compared to qualifying ETs, this is anyone’s game.
The final qualifying round was dramatic as John Stanley jumped the Stanley and Weiss Caddy into the number one position from his previous 3.75 to a 3.72 ET – demonstrating how tight the field is.
Sunday, eliminations - round one
As of eliminations Leonard Long has already been named the FST Carburetors NA 10.5 for this NMCA championship season. Long scored three wins and a runner-up over season and took home a runner up finish during 2019. His effort continues to see if he can finish with four wins for this year.
Dominating the NA 10.5 class, Leonard Long put a fresh 408 cubic-inch engine in his 1995 Mustang for the year-end finals. For the first round, he explained that he took a little clutch and timing out of his tune for what he calls his "race trim." He explains that it is just a little bit safer to get down the track consistently.
Chuck Weck may not have made the Xtreme Pro Mod show, but he is still sorting out his attention-getting 1959 Dodge Saratoga. "We're still figuring out the new chassis," Weck tells us. "We really turned it up for our second qualifying pass, and we found the limit for the tires to hold. (laughs) We will be running more NMCA events, among other races for 2020.
Tom Blincoe is the optimist going into round one of Xtreme Pro Mod. He told us, “Believe it or not, we have a whole, whole lot left in the car. We ran a 3.80 in the final qualifying shot but we have 3.72 or even a 3.70 ET to get out of it with some changes.”
Changing the rear gear ratio is the big tune-up for Tom Blincoe as he told us that they did not have enough gear in it for this air. The 598 cubic inch DMRC Hemi with a Procharger likes to spin and that is what they are going to give it for first round.
One of the biggest upsets in the first round of eliminations was in VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod class. Number-16 qualifier Stephan Stringer defeated number-one qualifier John Stanley in the top versus bottom ladder. Stringer ran a consistent 3.821 compared to his qualifying 3.824 pass. Stanley spun the tires resulting in an out-of-shape pass as he idled through the traps.
Stephan Stringer said he will definitely take the upset of round one in stride when he got past John Stanley. Stringer knows he still has plenty of performance gains to squeeze out of the 521-cube Hemi powered Camaro when it comes to the fuel system and timing.
Chris Holbrook entered eliminations with the number one spot and continued to prove himself over the newly named 2019 champion, Bill Skillman. Holbrook ran a 7.84 in his round win over Chuck Watson while Skillman ran 7.86 to defeat Gardner Stone. The COPO Camaro versus Cobra Jet Mustang rivalry will continue into round two.
"We have a bye run going into round two so we're going to give it a little more because we're sure Skillman will be swinging for the fences as well," Holbrook continues. "We will go for a little more timing on the starting line and see if that steps us up a little."
Unfortunately, in that second round, Holbrook blew a head gasket causing a harrowing top-end ride as he did everything imaginable to keep the Mustang off of both guardwalls.
Shawn Pevlor scored a bye run single in the first round of Mickey Thompson Street Outlaw competition. The elapsed time spread continued to be an exclusive battle between Rob Goss in his 2009 supercharged Challenger and Pevlor. It ultimately was Pevlor and Goss in the Sunday evening finals. Goss achieved a big reaction time advantage off the starting line and held Pevlor off with a 4.38 to Pevlor’s 4.55 ET.
Ultimately, Rob Goss may have won the battle for the day, but the 2019 World Championship for Street Outlaw goes to Shawn Pevlor who only lost a few of his 670-point lead to Goss with the final round loss.
It was a similar scenario in the ARP Nitrous Pro Street class; the first round elimination showed only two racers, Billy Glidden and Tony Gillig in 4.30’s in the 1/8-mile. Short of Jordan Ensslin or Tricia Musi bettering their 4.40’s, there are two dogs in that hunt as well.
Well, the dog story for Gillig and Glidden came to fruition as the two met in the finals. Jaws dropped as a .021-second starting line reaction time advantage went to Gillig, but Glidden ran a 4.317 to Gillig’s 4.367. The final round calculated margin of victory was .016-second. The 2019 overall champion in Nitrous Pro Street is Tricia Musi. She held her commanding 1100 -point lead finishing out the final event at Lucas Oil Raceway.
The VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod held a Cinderella story from the first round to the finals. Stephan Stringer caught everyone’s eyes when, as the number-16 qualifier, he defeated number-one qualifier, John Stanley. He then went on to score round-after-round wins to ultimately get to the final round against Jim Widener. Widener actually ran a quicker 3.78 compared to Stringer’s 3.80 ET. It was the starting line where the Xtreme Pro Mod final was decided as Stringer’s .058 reaction time held off Widener to the finish line.
Jim Widener’s journey to the final round gained him points against John Walsh Jr. who entered the event in the national points lead. It wasn’t enough points accumulated though, as Walsh is crowned the 2019 Xtreme Pro Mod champion.
It is no great surprise that with the dominating national points lead he had going into this final event, Leonard Long was the man to beat. Long had a 1,240 point lead, the largest lead of any class before the World Street Finals race began. Long is now named as the 2019 champion in FST Carburetors NA 10.5.
Long paired-up against Dwight Ausmus in the final round of NA 10.5 class. With almost identical reaction times, Long walked away with a big lead at the ‘stripe with a 7.86 to Ausmus’ 8.03 ET.
In the Holley EFI – Factory Super Car category, Bill Skillman solidified his points lead by traveling all the way to the finals where he went up against Randy Eakins. Eakins and his 2019 Mustang made up an all-Ford Cobra by pairing against Skillman. In one of the tightest final rounds of the day, Skillman edged Eakins with a 7.95 to a 7.96 ET. At the end of the day, the Factory Super Car world championship honors go to Skillman as well.
With both the 18th Annual NMCA World Street Finals presented by Chevrolet Performance in the books and the 2019 NMCA World Championship points honors decided, the only thing left is the upcoming NMCA and NMRA Championship awards banquet held in conjunction with the 2019 Performance Racing Industry trade show this coming December. Of course, this biggest project for all of the racers who compete in NMRA and NMCA events is to begin planning and building for the upcoming season in 2020.
Sunday, final elimination ladders
