Dan Rensch (left) collected the LSX True Street crown last night with a host of 7-second laps from his, while Jeff Knox won the overall True Street title with a 7.861-second average. Middlebury, Vermont’s Gardner Stone qualified seventh with an 8.23 from his Chuck Watson-prepared 2016 Cobra Jet. Stone, a hall of fame tractor puller, began drag racing in 1964 and competed through the mid-1970s before switching gears to other forms of racing, including stock cars. Stone will tell you, “I’ll race a bullfrog if you put an engine on it.” In 2013, Stone had the opportunity to acquire a Cobra Jet, which ignited his return to drag racing. He then purchased the ’16 model and has been chasing the NMCA Factory Super Cars tour the last two seasons. Stone is confident he has the car to run at the front of the pack, but is chasing some power issues early in the run that’s kept his “Widowmaker VI” from performing to its potential.Crew chiefs Rick and Nick Bruder (pictured) would like nothing more than to continue their recent success here at Beech Bend with Shawn Ayers and Fletcher Cox and the “Golddust” Mustang. Rich set the X275 world on its ear here less than a month ago with a stunning 4.29-second world record pass.
We've taken a step back in time this weekend at the Bluegrass Nationals. In addition to the return of Pat Musi's familiar Pro Street Firebird, longtime racer and chassis builder Gary Rohe is making his first NMCA start in nearly 12 years -- and his first time at an event in any capacity in seven years -- with his iconic 1980 Ford Mustang. Now clad with big meats out back, the once-time Xtreme Street car is running in Nitrous Pro Street. Rohe has largely competed in local series like the OSCA in recent years, making changes to the chassis over time at his Lawrenceburg, Indiana shop. The powerplant is a 642-inch big-block with a single carburetor in nitrous. The drivetrain, Rohe notes, is the very same unit that engine builder Tony Bischoff ran in his Oldsmobile Achieva in Super Street back in the early 2000s.
Need more nostalgia? Oswego, Illinois Tony Orts is making his first NMCA start in a number of years this weekend, as well, behind the wheel of his familiar checkered 1968 Firebird. Orts went bracket and index racing for a few years for a change of pace, but says, "it was incredibly boring, so we had to go heads-up racing again." The Firebird is virtually a new car under its shell, with updated chassis work from nose to tail completed this winter to compliment the 440-inch small-block Chevrolet from Precision Engine. Orts qualified 12th with a 5.17. Bowling Green local Jessie Coulter has soaked up the glory thus far this weekend in his ’91 Camaro, qualifying atop both the Real Street Shootout and Xtreme Street fields at 4.791. Coulter won the Shootout last night, collecting $1,000 and an LSX Bowtie engine block for his efforts.
Kentucky’s own Richard Deaver had a white-knuckle moment in the opening round of Xtreme Street opposite of Tim Knieriem, when something in the drivetrain ignited near the finish line, erupting into a full-fledged, Funny Car-like inferno. Deaver was visibly fighting to get the car stopped in a hurry, sashaying side-to-side as he matted the brakes to get out before the cockpit could get any warmer. Deaver jumped from the car as it continued to burn in the shutdown area. The safety crew was quick to get the fire extinguished, but not before considerable body and electronics damage was done to the passenger side and cockpit of the Mustang. Deaver says he got nicked by the flames, but checked out okay and was observing the damage when we stopped by.
James Lawrence torched a piston in his opening round defeat of Mark Woodruff in Radial Wars, causing the blow-by tubes to blow off and oil the racetrack and every nook and cranny of the engine compartment of the car. The crew, with the help of several volunteers, immediately began thrashing to change engines. Given just 90 minutes by the NMCA to turn the car around to face Marty Stinnett in the final, this group is in an race against time to swap in the engine, change out intakes and injectors, and get the car set up for the money round. Jason Hamstra and team have made it look easy this weekend, carding a record 3.72 in testing and a 3.69 on Friday night to qualify No. 1 before sitting out Saturday’s rounds to save parts. Hamstra moved on to round two with a 3.74.
Canton, Georgia’s Robert Killian campaigns this gorgeous ’69 Dodge Dart GTS in Nostalgia Super Stock’s C/FX category. This car, impressively, has never been anything but a racecar — its original owner purchased the car, removed what items didn’t need to be there for racing purposes, and campaigned it, mostly in bracket races for much of its life. Killian bought the car three years ago largely in the fashion you see it here, with a 440-inch Wedge with a couple of four-barrels on top for power. Killian added the ’68 Hemi ‘Cuda-style hood scoop and repaired of a couple of minor body flaws since acquiring it. All of the original equipment was provided with the sale, and even after the owner’s passing, his wife has still kept tabs on its success under Killian.Daniel Pharris ended Shawn Ayers’ unbeaten streak in Street Outlaw in the final round, driving away from the tire-chattering Golddust Fox body to a winning 4.35 to Ayers’ trailing 4.58.
(Left) Jason Hamstra made his first mistake all weekend in the semifinals or Pro Mod and it cost him -- Hamstra was dead-late against Jackie Slone and the Michigan stole one, earning a trip into the final by a sizable 3.87 to 3.75 count. (Right) Don Walsh, Jr. and Craig Sullivan got up close and personal in their semifinal bout as they both drifted toward the centerline near the 100-foot mark. Sullivan was forced to lift while Walsh slapped the loud-pedal and motored on down to a 4.31-second victory. James Lawrence and the gang were rewarded for their efforts in the heat and humidity this afternoon to change and engine, as the C7 Corvette streaked away from a tire-spinning Marty Stinnett in the Radial Wars finale to take his second victory of the season in 4.05-seconds.
Don Walsh, Jr. may have come into the Pro Mod final as the favorite, but we don't race 'em on paper. Walsh and Jackie Slone were dead-even out of the gate, but Walsh's turbocharged Camaro made a violent move near the top-end and he had to lift, allowing Slone to drive away for the title.
Scott Libersher added another victory to his resume this weekend in Factory Super Cars, besting Chuck Watson in a stellar Ford-Chevrolet final round. In an all-Firebird affair, Dwight Ausmus benefited from top qualifier David Theisen’s foul start to score an 8.148-second victory in N/A 10.5.Jessie Coulter completed his perfect weekend here at Bowling Green, scoring the Xtreme Street title to go along with his victory last night in the Real Street Shootout. Coulter went low for the weekend in the final at 4.76.We just squeezed in the finale of the opening round of qualifying last night before a thunderstorm swept into the Beech Bend Raceway Park. While the track crew was busy working to dry the track to start as on-time as possible this morning, another shower moved into the area. We’re looking at a 10:30 a.m. start time, beginning with Nostalgia Super Stock.The sun has come out and the pit areas are abuzz as crews began preparations for the second round of qualifying. With warmer temperatures expected, as well as direct sunlight on the racing surface, improvements in the order may be a challenge.Sixteen years after his untimely passing, Pro 5.0 Mustang star Steve Grebeck still rides with his friend, Don Walsh, Jr., on his Pro Modified Corvette.
Just three races into their switch from the tried-and-true magneto ignition system to coil packs on their Pro Line Hemi, DeWayne Mills and tuner Tim Davis are firm believers. Davis says the setup, which uses FuelTech's FTSPARK module and eight individual coil packs, has not only changed how the car sounds, but has vastly improved how the engine operates and is tuned in regards to ignition timing and fuel. Mills leads the field at present with a 3.88. An interesting fact from Davis: in Radial vs The World trim with 106mm turbos running at 80 psi, Mills, Hemi makes over 5,000 horsepower, and "we can use all of it and then some," he adds.
Pro Modified competitor Mats Wicktor has come all the way from Sweden to take part in his first NMCA event this weekend. Wicktor, a 30-year drag racing veteran who regularly competes in his native land on what he calls "terrible tracks," shipped his nitrous oxide-assisted '53 Corvette to the United States in December to try his hand stateside. Following a six-week trek by boat, Wicktor and his crew set up camp in Florida. Wicktor was to compete in this weekend's Heads Up Madness event in Bradenton, Florida, but with that event cancelled due to weather, he and his guys made a last-minute, sleepless trek to Kentucky. Wicktor has been a best of 4.01 in Sweden with the car, which is using some prototype nitrous components that Wicktor developed. He currently sits two spots outside the field with a 7.19. Randy Seward made a stop at Beech Bend on his summer-long, unsupported tour of the United States behind the wheel of his 8-second Ford Mustang. Seward has already traversed 950 miles, from his home in Orlando to the Atlanta Dragway yesterday in Georgia. An 8.95 on his opening hit at the track in True Street time trials left Seward less than content as he was busy tinkering with the tune.
A Kentucky native, Marty Stinnett told us back un March that he’d have to not want to come to Bowling Green in order to miss. Little did he know however what he’d have to go through to get here. In the final round at the All-Star Nationals in Georgia last month, Stinnett impacted the guardrail at 190 mph in his small-block Ford Mustang, causing extensive damage to the front and passenger-side of the car — this just weeks after he and his crew had to thrash to repair the car at the Sweet 16 in South Georgia when a steering failure caused the car to glance off the wall. Stinnett says of the Atlanta mishap, “my ego was hurt, my pride was hurt…I just wanted to put the car away and forget about it.” He says in the days following, he received phone calls from friends and fellow racers that lifted his spirits, convincing he and racing partner Wade Hopkins to begin work on rebuilding the battered Fox body. In the accident, the body was shifted over on the chassis by a slim measurement and the turbo system and suspension damaged. He and Hopkins redid the front clip and repaired the nose and quarter panel.
After several nearly sleepless days and nights over the last week as he trekked between his home and Hopkins’ in Mississippi, the crew finally fired the car yesterday and loaded up to head to Bowling Green, arriving just before sunset, in time for the opening qualifying session. Stinnett has clocked a best of 5.22 thus far in a pair of abbreviated runs. He comes into this event as the points leader in the class, a mere 15 ahead of DeWayne Mills.
Geoff Turk got more than he bargained for in last night’s opening session of Factory Super Cars qualifying, as his Blackbird Dodge Challenger drifted out of the groove and got so sideways you could read the lettering on the door from the starting line. Said Turk: “I was pretty sure I was going to be doing some body-work after that one.” Turk struggled in today’s second session, striking the hides early and recording just a 9.61, last on the sheet of 16 cars.Shawn Ayers continues to pace the Street Outlaw field with his 4.37 from last night,just a few ticks head of Daniel Pharris 4.41.Tricia Musi says it’s “a dream come true” to own and pilot her father, Pat’s famed Pontiac Firebird. The car sat for 14 years untouched in sponsor Don Reem’s showroom on display before Mike Bankston purchased it lock, stock, and barrel. The car is almost entirely as it was when it last ran in 2004 — the only changes a move to an M&M transmission and a new poured seat for Tricia. Born as Patricia and, as she explains, undeniably her father’s daughter, she and Bankston put “Pat Musi Jr.” on the door and on her tech card.
OG Xtreme Street racer Tony Orts (left) is sitting ninth in the class after two sessions with a 5.51-second best in the very same car he was running here 15 years ago. Bart Tobener is 16th out of 17 cars on the sheet with his well-off-pace 8.40. Jessie Coulter continues to pace the field with his 4.791. Leonard Libersher currently sits fifth in Factory Super Cars with an 8.231 in his COPO Camaro. Father Scott, the reigning series champion, leads the field at 8.121.James Lawrence improved to a 4.04 at 189.04 mph in the Dragzine Corvette in Q2. Mark Woodruff is a close third at 4.05. DeWayne Mills continues to lead the field at 3.88.
"Good job honey," shouts Shannon Glidden over the radio to husband, Billy, as he punched his way into the Pro Mod field with a last-ditch 3.92 in the final session of qualifying.
There aren't too many 1953 Studebaker's let running around in Pro Modified, an certainly none as historic as this one. Morris, Alabama's Hank Stubbs has been running the former Scott Cannon-owned and driven 'Stude for a number of years in Outlaw Pro Modified around the South. The car, built in 1997 in Australia by Murray Anderson, has an untold number of passes on it ... Stubbs commenting, "they say after 400 or 500 runs a car isn't any good anymore...we probably put that many on it in one season." Stubbs parked the screw-blown machine in the top half of the show with a 3.859. Rob Goss saved his best run for last, unseating Shawn Ayers atop the Street Outlaw field with a stout 4.340.Highland, Michigan’s Dave Theisen qualified atop the N/A 10.5 field with a 7.896, a scant .007-seconds ahead of Leonard Long. Dwight Ausmus joined them in the sevens at 7.990.
The Nationals Muscle Car Association has arrived at the mid-point to its 2018 tour as it rolls into the third stop on the schedule at the scenic and historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The weather is expected to play a role this weekend, as will the heat and humidity that annually keeps tuners and drivers on their toes to navigate the tricky racing surface. In addition to the traditional Dave Duell Classic Nostalgia Super Stock shootout, this event will also play host to a special LSX Real Street showdown and filming of the NBCSN televisions how Grudge Race.
Indiana native Doug Duell, the son of the late Dave Duell, has kept his father's legacy alive over the years with the annual running of the Dave Duell Classic. The elder Duell, a longtime class racer, was a major player in the Nostalgia Super Stock movement, and he'd certainly be proud to witness what this race race-within-a-race has become over the years. Some 65 Super Stockers -- Chevrolets, Dodges, Fords, and even an AMX are all a part of the show this weekend. California’s Eric Gustafson is the most recent winner on the tour in Pro Mod, where he scored the first-ever win in a major Pro Modified series with a ProCharger centrifugal supercharger at the All-Star Nationals in Atlanta. Gustafson tested here in Bowling Green on Wednesday and Thursday, running a best of 3.85.Billy Glidden has enjoyed a lot of success here at Beech Bend over the years, from the Pro 5.0 days in the NMRA and NMCA Super Street.
Pro Modified racer Aaron Glaser went for a wild ride in Atlanta when his nitrous-assisted '69 Camaro took an abrupt turn just off the starting line and spun into the wall. With new body panels unavailable in time to make it here to Beech Bend, Glaser and the team at his family-owned body shop made repairs to the body and the front clip on the chassis in-house. The custom paint schemes he's been notorious for require some 200 man hours to complete, and the stickler that he is for having a presentable racecar, he couldn't bring himself to run the car in primer; when a crewmember suggested he rattle-can the repaired side of the car, he shrugged his shoulders and said 'why not?' Glaser painted half of the nose and the passenger-side door with the words "Two-face" -- an ode to the two distinct looks on each side of the car. Philadelphia Eagles star Fletcher Cox and his driver, Shawn Ayers, are presently leading the Street Outlaw points standings by a comfortable margin over Daniel Pharris, 1205 to 815, thanks to a unbeaten, untied, and unscored-upon record through the first two events.Geoff Turk reeled off a stellar 8.18 in today’s Factory Super Cars test session to lead the field into qualifying later this afternoon.If it’s hot out here — and trust us, it is — you wouldn’t know it by Jason Hamstra’s performance, as he uncorked a sub-national record 3.729 in testing.Noted automotive TV host Willie B. and his production crew from Grudge Race have been filming a matchup today between a nitrous-assisted Nova and a gorgeous twin-turbo Dodge Dart.Believe it or not, this very Corvette owned by Kentuckian Tom Blincoe was somersaulted through the shutdown area here at Beech Bend less than a month ago during the Outlaw Street Car Reunion. With just a handful of runs under his belt in a Pro Modified car at the time, Blincoe was late on the parachutes and applied the brakes, sending his virtually brand-new 1963 ‘Vette around, where wind got underneath the rear of the car and took flight, slamming down atop the wall just behind the cockpit and sliding to a stop near the end of the racing surface. Chassis builder David Monday, who tunes and oversees the ProCharger-fed machine, burned the midnight oil building virtually a brand new racecar, replacing the front clip, rear clip, replacing bars in the cage, and hanging a new body. Blincoe has been a best of 3.80 in the car. According to Monday, he’s building a pair of new C7 Corvette’s for he and Blincoe, both of which will be ProCharger-boosted.
Port Charlotte, Florida's Matt Salminen brought his beautiful 1969 Camaro up to compete in Nitrous Pro Street this weekend. Salminen, an electrical contractor by trade, built the Camaro that's powered by a 632-inch Nelson-built mill. On two nitrous kits, Salminen has been a 4.50 to the eighth-mile, and on all three expects to be a 4.30s player. And let us tell you, this baby is gorgeous, inside and out! Jason Hamstra reeled off a scintillating 3.69 this evening to take the top spot with authority. Joe Baker slid in second, over a tenth back at 3.81. In all, 19 cars took a time in the opening round of qualifying, with Jeff Byrd holding down the bump at 4.45. Fourteen cars ran 4.03-seconds or better, and the field should tighten up considerably with two sessions tomorrow.Don Walsh Jr. parked his twin-turbo Corvette in sixth at 3.85.Shawn Ayers carded low elapsed time of the opening session of Street Outlaw tonight, going 4.372 to pace the seven car field.Jessie Coulter sits atop the Real Street Shootout field after one session at 4.81, more than a tenth ahead of second-place Ernie Dampier at 4.97.Driving the Firebird her father, Pat, piloted in Pro Street a number of years ago, Tricia Musi marched to the top of the Nitrous Pro Street order this evening with a 4.537. Jennifer Brooke-Rice made it all all-female charge at the top of the field, earning the second spot at 4.66.
