Dwayne Lang, Kyle Lang and Starter Jake Green (middle) get started on this foggy Sunday morning here at Bradenton Motorsports Park.Tim Frees runs Nostalgia Super Stock/B and qualified third out of twenty cars in class with his ’63 Savoy wagon. He was up early sweeping water from his pit mat and is here with his brother Jeff who qualified seventh with his AFX 1968 Cuda and is also entered in the Stock Super Stock Combo with his 2010 Challenger.Team DSR is having a rough week with two engine swaps under their belt. The team will face eliminations today with their fingers crossed as driver Leah Pritchett is set to face off with Eric Bardekoff’s 2016 Cobra Jet in round one. Team DSR and most of the other Supercar teams will be moving to Gainesville, Florida’s Gatornationals for next weekend.
Ted Brignano, who has been with the Baker Racing team going on twenty years, is preparing to cook breakfast for the crew this morning. Joe Baker is qualified eighth with his Joey Martin-built 2015 Corvette in VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod, running a 3.82 with power from a BAE Hemi and backed by a Ty Drive, a Lenco transmission, and NCRC converter with Chuck Ford as a big sponsor. Baker hails from Milton, Florida and plans a full season with NMCA this year with this being his first event with the series.
Dwayne Barbaree is here representing for the Dirty South this weekend and has Eric Laferrier assisting with tuning. He is set to face off with Andrew DeMarco in round one and has lane choice though it has not been much of a factor in qualifying the sun is out a little more today compared to yesterday and may play a factor as we move through eliminations today. John Langer had issues with fuel pressure traced to a worn return spring in the regulator so was off pace in qualifying for NA 10.5 and spun in the second session but got back in the throttle to test the top end charge on his BES-powered Trans Am. All is well there now and he did have two good runs with his best 60′ and 330′ here so should be running right with the top cars in class if he gets a good run in round one this morning against Leonard Long. This engine is new since Joliet last year where he cracked his block after the timing belt jumped time causing severe engine damage. BES prepped the Indian Adventures II block with a bigger bore to un-shroud the intake valve which significantly increased the average horsepower compared to the previous build.Ron Fisher has made significant changes since Lights Out 9 in his ’68 Chevelle with a new three speed transmission and new converter from Neal Chance. Shock settings have played a big part in tuning these Radial Wars cars and the team figured that out some more scoring a 4.50 up at SGMP after struggling with the car applying the tire at the hit. He made a solid pass in qualifying with a 4.91 at 163 after the trans and converter changes just to make sure to get down the track and will face number two qualifier James Lawrence in round one today.
We kicked off VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod eliminations with Jackie Slone and Joe Baker (pictured at right). Baker advanced on his 3.94 at 187 with Slone having an issue staging the car and rolling though the beams. Greg Seth Hunter wouldadvance to round two with luck on his side as top qualifier Randy Adler had to pedal the out-ofshape Chevy and ran over the eighth-mile timing blocks and getting the DQ, putting half the MMR team on to round two. Mark Luton would also advance over Chris Patrick scoring a 3.83 at 202, who went red on the tree ending his day. Mark Luton shown.Don Walsh Jr. would put up his best run of the weekend in his match with Eric Gustafson, earning his way to the next round with a 3.73 at 209 with a .983 60′ on the run.Jason Hamstra put up a 3.79 to get by Benny Strand, seen here being put in the beams by his mother Patsy.
Team Mopar started off well in Holley EFI Factory Super Car with Geoff Turk scoring an 8.08 on his earned single at top qualifier and Leah Pritchett earning her way to round two with an 8.20 at 165 win over Eric Bardekoff. Third qualifier Joseph Welch also advanced with an 8.09 over Kevin Skinner's Cobra Jet Mustang. Pete Gasko Jr’s car faltered at the line allowing a big advantage to Carl Tasca who put up an 8.24 at 164 on the go ahead win. A tough break for team Gasko.Cedra, Puerto Rico-based Waldemar Rodriguez qualified eleventh in class with an 8.13 and was matched against Richard Bierie for round one. Both racers slowed down but Rodriguez came away with the win to move ahead in eliminations.
Jordan Ensslin (at left) earned his way to round two of ARP Nitrous Pro Street over Matt Salminnen with a 4.39 at 162 MPH. Jennifer Rice ran a 4.61 taking out the new guy Craig Cerniglia's Chevelle. James Lawrence put up a 3.95 in Radial Wars competition, taking out Ron Fisher who improved slightly to a 4.88 at 165 in his Chevelle.Marty Stinnett earned the win over Josh Klugger, taking a starting line advantage and stretching it out with a 3.92 at 191 to Klugger’s consistent 3.99, also at 191 MPH. DeWayne Mills had a competition single and repeated his qualifying time of 3.88.
Charlie Cooper faced off with Brian Criste in Vortech Superchargers Street Outlaw and struck the tires at the hit. He tried to play catch up against the slower Criste to no avail running a 5.74 to Criste's winning 5.06 and losing the engine in the lights. A hard way to end the weekend for Cooper and Co. Shawn Ayers had to pedal Fletcher Cox’s Gold Dust against Rob Goss just a little bit as it was trying to shake the tires but still managed a 4.75 at 158 to take the round.Jamie Stanton is the number one qualifier in Xtreme Street, now behind the wheel of Scotty Guisler’s Olds after assisting with Jake Holdridge from Pentagon Race Cars with tuning via phone calls for some time now. He also drives Scotty’s No Prep Camaro and came down to Emerald City to test with the team in person preparing for the 2018 NMCA season. Guisler made a few hits in the car before giving the order for Jamie to take the wheel and here they are this weekend as top qualifier. He put up a 4.78 at 150 on his earned single. The team is using an Edelbrock 24-degree head with a 46 jet combo topping BES-built 582 Chevy.Brian Keep laid down a 4.80 in his match with Tony Orts earning the win. Teammmate Bill Gregan also made it to round two, winning his match with Mike Wabuda running a 4.83.John Langer made his way to round two in NA 10.5 with an 8.03 over Leonard Long, who spun the tires.
Final results sheets. Elimination editorial and photo coverage still to come. Thanks for visiting Dragzine.com.
Don Walsh Jr. had a great weekend coming into the season opener, running consistently all weekend, save for round two today where he spun the tires against Andrew Handras. Luck went Walsh’s way, however, as both cars struggled and he was able to recover quicker and earn the round with a 4.05 at 199. Joe Baker had problems keeping the car running once engaged in gear in the semi-final and was unable to make it to the line. Number two Jason Hamstra went 3.77 at 203 to take out Robert Abbott then faced off with Mark Luton in the semi-final going a 3.73 at 204 as Lutton shook hard near the 330′ and slowed to a 4.28 to set the final with Walsh.
The pair left together in the final, with Walsh scooting to a 3.705 at 208.96 and low ET of the event — below the 3.729 2017 record actually –to earn the win over Hamstra’s 3.747 at 204. I am not sure of the official policy for ProMedia event records but Walsh did not claim any runs for record consideration this weekend, not aware they reset upon a new season with the NMCA series.
“I am ecstatic that we ran the 3.70. We had a really consistent race car and got lucky one round where we spun the tires and so did our competitor and we got it gathered up and got the win. I really want to thank my wife Ashley Walsh, my daughters Kaylee and Page, my crew Justin Haddon, Chris Church and Mike Begley and all the people that make this happen, Precision Turbo, Pro Line Racing, Brad Anderson Enterprises, Afis plug wires, Brisk spark plugs, HPL and Cool Solutions for the trans cooler. I can’t say enough about everybody that’s involved in this. There is a lot of people that have worked hard to be here, and have us here, and I feel very fortunate to be in the winner circle tonight.” – Don Walsh Jr.James Lawrence is running very well in the new PMR Race Cars Corvette after two events in 2018, scoring the Mickey Thompson Radial Wars win here this weekend. He would meet Marty Stinnett in the final. Stinnett pulled the upset win over DeWayne Mills’ 3.889 repeat in round two with a 3.871 at 197 head-turner coming from the number four qualified position into the final. But he was a little too anxious in the final going .075 red against Lawrence but scoring a 3.858 at 198 MPH pass to back up his run from the prior round to make it official.The new car is certainly a team effort with Pro Line Racing, Fuel Tech and Procharger a huge part of the program. “The car has been phenomenal and we are fighting a little bit to get a new car down the race track and we have a lot of work still to go. Our job is to outrun the guy in the other lane and we put ourselves in a position to be there and came up short on that but still came away with the win on Marty’s red light. We have Dean as crew chief, with David Lucason and Brian Petty, and my lovely wife Melissa on the crew and my children Taylor, Jordan and Bradley my youngest girl here this weekend I couldn’t do it without these guys, they are the ones that put us in the winner’s circle.” – James Lawrence
The final of Vortech Superchargers Street Outlaw pit number one and three qualifiers together with Shawn Ayers having lane choice over Pharris. It would be Ayers away first putting up a .031 tree to Pharris .077 reaction with both cars leaving clean. It was tight to the stripe with Pharris' turbo car pulling hard on the top end to 170 MPH and both racers improving to 4.33's. Ayers was able to stay in front earning his way to victory at the Muscle car Mayhen 2018 season opener here in Bradenton, Florida. Shawn Ayers and the Cox Racing camp are the Vortech Superchargers Street Outlaw winner. Fletcher Cox, Ayers, Nick and Rich Bruder and crew started testing here earlier in the week and had some good runs early but fought some complications and had to work hard to keep the car running in top performance. The team has a new combination this week after moving from the Limited Drag Radial class to a Procharged combo from DiSomma Racing Engines tuned by Bruder Brothers to run Street Outlaw for 2018. “The whole team came together in a huge effort to fight though our complications and it’s the best feeling ever to pull the win out after the week that we’ve had getting every thing to sync together,” said Ayers The engine is a 440 cubic inch Ford fed by an F1X Procharger and backed by a Mark Micke transmission and Chance converter. Some of the other integral people involved with the program are Billet Atomizer Injectors, Menscer Motorsports, Mac Fab, VP Racing Fuels and Mickey Thompson.Bill Trovato has ran well this weekend running a 4.75 on Saturday and a 4.83 earlier today saying “I just went on a bye run and took it to the 330′ equaling the numbers on my .75, I feel the lanes are equal so gave up lane choice and keep the engine happy.” He will face his old nemesis Jamie Stanton in the semis. Stanton scored a 4.79 W over Bill Gregan to earn his place against Trovato where he put an .058 tree on Bill and needed the advantage as Trovato improved to a 4.731 at 149 to Stanton’s winning 4.738 at 151. Bart Tobener put his 2016 GT Mustang in the semis after getting by Brian Keep in round two on a hole shot, 0.50 to .117 reaction and have the single to the finals where he also ran to half track testing the surface, and his tune up.It would be Tobener away first in the Edelbrock Xtreme Street final with an .045 light and running hard to a 4.75 at 147. Stanton’s .081 reaction put him behind by a significant margin that would make it just to hard to catch up despite his 4.72 at 151.31 MPH pass with Tobener getting the event win in the Diablosport, MPR Race Engines, Race Parts Solutions, US Shift, UPR sponsored ride.
First to the sevens Geoff Turk waded his way through the field to meet with number three qualifier Joseph Welch in the Holey EFI Factor Super Car class in the first of it's kind all Dodge final round, guaranteeing a Mopar win for another first here at the NMCA 2018 Muscle Car mayhem season opener. Twenty six cars made it for round one and it was certainly a tough field as many big name teams were on the property. Welch took out David Barton in the semi finals, driving around his .018 reaction and 8.15 with an 8.05 at 169 MPH. On the other side of the ladder Chris Holbrook was playing hurt and wound up next to Turk in the semi putting up a killer .004 reaction in a valiant effort but slowed further to an 8.33 to Turk's winning 8.07 to set the final.
Privateer racer Joseph Welch, Patrick Barnhill,and Jason Lee from PTP, Chris Holbrook and crew came down early to test in Florida bringing the number 2 Challenger with them to prepare for the NHRA Gator Nationals and get some laps on the Mopar after it had not been run in over a year. At Jason Lee’s suggestion Welch signed up for the NMCA test session and wound up making several good laps to entered the Factor Super Car class and put himself up as number three qualifier. Originally from Kansas Joseph raced AHRA Pro Stock in the late 60’s and early 70’s while in college but ironically could not afford to race after graduating, getting married and going to work as an engineer and sold his car and operation raised a family before jumping back in the game with a COPO Camaro back in 2012.
Welch was away first with an .072 reaction as Geoff matched his .118 from the semi final. It would be no where near enough as he slowed to an 8.12 with Welch stretching out his lead with an 8.02 at 169.33 MPH to earn the win.ARP Nitrous Pro Street had Mark Hoagland and Jordan Ensslis in the final with Hoagland doing his job to get out front first with an .032 reaction to Ensslin’s .069. Hoagland faced issues with consistency this weekend and it still working kinks out of his new car while Ensslin was running well on Sunday. He scored the event win running a 4.46 at 160 MPH.
Tommy Delgado and Robert Blakenship met in the final of NA 10.5 with Delgado having lane choice and taking the left side. Blakenship scored the win as both drivers left before the tree activated.
Derek Putnam runs the Boulevard Boost Nova featured in FSC Magazine and runs out of Rollins Automotive. The car features a D1X Procharger and has a new FTI converter and 3 ½ inch Pypes exhaust installed just before the race. Putnam is shown on the left with Jason Rollins who is also running in True Street this weekend.Randy Seward is fresh off last weeks NMRA True Street win and is looking for back to back Championships to kick off his 2018 season. He is always a force to be reckoned with in the class due to his proven consistent performance.
Bill Lee Jr is running the Modern Hemi Shootout this weekend in a 2018 Dodge Demon owned by Steve Best. He ran a 10.04 and a 10.01 yesterday and will be looking for a nine second slip today. Dave Theisen has a fresh updated back half to his car for this season by Jim Powski and a fresh engine from Uratchko Racing Engines. This is Theisen’s first trip to Bradenton and has yet to get the car to make a solid launch here.Robbie Blakenship ran a 7.80 yesterday in NA 10.5 with his Bob Book Racing Engines powered Mustang. The team was getting ready to change the rear gears this morning and is looking to bump DeMayo out of the top spot knowing there is more in the car’s performance after looking over the data from Friday.Matt Salminen has a new car after taking some time off and selling his Outlaw 10.5 car. He purchased this Camaro out of Massachusetts and will run the Outlaw 632 class locally and is entered in ARP Nitrous Pro Street here this weekend. The car is powered by a Nelson Competition big Chevy with Chassis set up by Hank Hill. The crew chief is Mart Roberts with Mike Lanzetta and Kyle Salminen on the crew. He will be making his first qualifying attempt today.Carl Tasca’s crew chief Greg Grimes got us up to date on the teams performance this weekend. This is their second week here in Florida where Carl suffered a hurt engine in the new bullet so the team swapped in the old reliable engine and scored an 8.09 at 167 landing in sixth spot in the best run to date for the car. Carl has been racing since he was 15 years old with his first runs in a 68 Cobra Jet and is a third generation racer. Grimes has been with Tasca for thirteen years now. “The Mopar is a little bit quicker right now but we are doing our best, we know when the new motor is rebuilt we will be a little bit quicker, but there is one hundred and thirty one runs on that motor and run 168 MPH so I guess it wasn’t as tired as I thought it was.” – Carl Tasca. From left to right Crew Chief Greg Grimes , Carl Tasca and Don Belanger.Team MMR has both their cars here this weekend and just switched the red car driven by Greg Seth Hunter to a Fuel Tech engine management. Hunter pedaled through some tire shake in Friday’s qualifying session and sits seventeenth with a 4.43 so far. Mark Lutton is also out of the qualified field at this time with both cars now with different trans gear ratios compared to 2017 trim and still using the proven Gen X 351 cubic inch Coyote engine platforms.We stopped by Craig Sullivan’s pit and caught Dillon Stewart finishing the check on the bottom end this morning. Sullivan will need a good run to make the field today as he didn’t make a clean run on Friday.Don Walsh Jr put up a 3.75 at 209 in round two of VP Fuels Pro Mod jumping right into the top part of the field for his efforts.Greg Seth Hunter made a clean pass running a 4.04 at 182 putting him in the field for now pending the conclusion of qualifying as he is near the bump spot.Robert Abbott is solidly in with his 3.845 from the second session after the repairs to the housing rear housing and transmission last night.
Jordan Ensslin (pictured left) took over top qualifier with a 4.37 at 164 taking over top qualifier from Daryl Hameetman. Dewayne Mills improved to a 3.88 at 205 in Radial Wars round two qualifying.Daniel Pharris is the picture of consistency this weekend scoring another 4.37 and remaining top qualifier in Vortech Street Outlaw.Rob Goss and Bruce Maichle got the car to make a full pass scoring a 4.51 at 163 MPH, his first A to B run this weekend after major off season updates.Andrew Demarco got a smooth pass in his White Girl Wasted Mustang scoring a 4.50 at 159.Brian Keep (far lane) and Mike Wabuda were paired up in Xtreme Street with Keep figuring it out and getting off the line this round. He managed a 4.78 at 148 on the run, a solid run to get position in the field.Bill Gregan left hard and climbed the ring gear before lifting to avoid a major wheel stand. He came down a little hard and pulled to the side to check for any leaks before pulling off track. he was qualified second last night with a 4.81 at 143 in Xtreme Street.Bill Trovato improved significantly in this session to a 4.75 at 149 to put himself in the Xtreme Street mix.Dave Theisen set the car up soft to ensure a clean run this session and it payed off with a decent 7.91 at 175 MPH.Geoff Turk held on to his record setting top qualifier performance from yesterday’s 7.99 and sat out today’s lone session after the day was called early for the day due to rain.David Barton held on to number two qualifier with his 8.02, also from yesterday as the weather was not near the qualify of Friday.Longboat key, Florida’s Joseph Welch earned third qualifier with an 8.039 at 171 MPH driving his 2015 Drag Pak Challenger.
Watson Racing has four cars here this weekend with, Gardner Stone, Paul Roderick Jr. and Chuck Watson Sr in competition and all running well with Chuck Watson the top qualifier of the team landing fourth with his 8.05 at 167 MPH and three cars in the top ten. Chuck Watson and Jason Deitsch shown from left to right. Scott Libersher wears the number one from 2017 season championship and is qualified ninth with an 8.12 at 165 MPH.
Rob Goss took his car to Michael Carbone at MPH Fabrications after the World Cup for a full chassis upgrade since the car was updated in several stages after adding to a ten point cage put in the car originally and not purpose built as a complete unit. Goss suffered consistency issues one too many times in eliminations and decided it was time to just pull the trigger on a full build. Carbone built a total new 25.3 chassis with every bar replaced during the transformation. He also built the zoomie headers, installed a fire system a full carbon belly pan and re did the intake piping. Once finished the car went to Bruce's shop where Pro Wire fabricated a new wiring system and Bruce, Rob and crew started the re assembly process. The BES prepared engine was freshened for 2018 and set up with a Moroso dry sump system and saw some brief dyno time with Cal Hartline before coming here to Bradenton. Goss runs a Proformance Transmission and Coan converter combo. The team did suffer some engine damage this weekend hurting one head and replacing some internal components. One of those new car blues issues along with the major reconfiguration of the wiring and tuning parameters. It's been a long two days for the team and wish them the best for eliminations on Sunday.
Round Two Qualifying Results
Bob Stuller is on the property with "Jeepenstein" and entered in Gear Vendors True Street this weekend running out of Pro Fab Performance plus in New Port Richey, Florida with power coming from an MPR built small Ford sporting 401 cubic inches and boost fed from a Precision turbo. Bob has run in the sevens but looking for consistency today and the NMCA King of Florida crown. He did not get a time slip on this pass but was able to come back around and bust out a verified high seven second run. Randy Seward left hard scoring an 8.40 for his effort in the Gear Vendors True Street time trials. Their meeting and cruise was scheduled for 3:30 but we are in a rain delay on the track at this time at 4:40 PM with the Pro Media officials discussing the True Street cruise and waiting to see what the weather will do.
Final Qualifying Results
Geoff Turk put up the first seven second pass in Stock Eliminator last night with his Blackbird, a 7.975 at 170.94 MPH. Holley is putting up a bonus for the first seven in competition totaling $10K if the car is equipped with the Holley EFI so Geoff is one step ahead of the competition. The power comes from BES with chassis by MR2 and transmission by Coan Engineering. DSR has also been a big help to the program with Leah Pritchett set to drive that team’s car once the fresh engine is installed later today. JR1 Oil has also been a big part of Turk’s program. “I was paired up with David Barton last night, he stood it up earlier and I thought this is gonna’ be good, thought it might be side by side sevens because he might have that in it but the staff said I had a leak and let Barton run a single. They let me go next and I knew it was doing pretty good early but once it was humming down through there I knew it was a good time slip, but wasn’t expecting that good. Thanks to SRT Engineering and DSR Racing for all the help this weekend without my crew here, Dale Aldo the man behind the curtain who really championed behind the scenes to get this program to come together ” Geoff Turk Geoff’s wife Sandy is fighting some health issues and not able to be here this weekend but encouraged him to come and race and will be rooting for him while watching the Speed Video live feed back home.Manhattan Beach, California’s Eric Gustafson is stepping up for 2018 with his new Pro Mod featuring a Procharged Brad Anderson Hemi tuned by Jason Lee and Patrick Barnhill from PTP, which is an instrumental part of the team. The car was purchased as a roller with main assembly and some modifications by Gary Naughten Race Cars, the car was then wired up by Steve Summers before being sent to Larry Jeffers for paint and body work and some other final modifications. The family company Coast Packing is the main sponsor of the program with PTP Racing and Procharger main ingredients in Gustafson’s racing program. Eric is a two time NMCA Street Outlaw Champion though the Mustang is not quite completed for this season yet but will be competing later this year. “The Street Outlaw class has progressed considerably since we raced two years ago running mid 4.40’s… now guys are going high 4.20’s and .30s and we are looking forward to being at the top of the pack with the rest of the great racers in that class as well,” says Gustafson. “We started testing with this car a few weeks ago and and it’s a whole different feel driving a car like that, I made my first full passes in the car yesterday running a 3.95 and a 3.91 at 190.”Stanley & Weiss Racing are planning to run the full NMCA season for 2018 with John Stanley behind the wheel and Camp tuning as usual. The team is slowing down their schedule this year with plan to run the NMCA, The Shakedown at Norwalk and perhaps a few other select Pro Mod events. The car has quite a few changes to run NMCA rather than Pro Extreme with less overdrive, some changes to the electronics, and a heavier minimum weight. Camp called it, a “ whole different combination.” Definitely a team to watch for 2018.Kiscus/Klugger Racing is in the house ready to defend Josh Klugger’s 2017 Radial Wars Championship. Kevin Fiscus will be shaking the car down today with Josh back behind the wheel for Saturday’s qualifying. We caught up with the team swapping over from the Pro 275 trim, fresh of their win at Light Out 9 with Kevin Fiscus and Josh Ledford under the car.2003 and 2005 Xtreme Street Champion Tony Orts is back racing NMCA after a seven year absence. He has a new small block Chevy combo from Precision Engine Rebuilders topped with All Pro Heads and intake backed by a three speed TH 400 transmissions. Ort’s is running a plate nitrous system this weekend while awaiting a new fogger system. The Orts spent the off time working and raising the family as well as two family vacations to Spain, where his father is from originally. Tony and Rocket Ron shown from left to right.James Lawrence put up a 3.86 while testing on Wednesday in the Radial vs the World trim he ran at the US Street Nationals, then put the weight in for Radial Wars class on Thursday and scored a 3.90, right on the class record. The 3.86 is the quickest centrifugal blower pass in the world, the combo is a Procharger F3R 136 feeding a PLR Hemi.
Mickey Thompson Radial Wars number one qualifier so far is Dewayne Mills running a 3.908 at 06 MPH. Jamie and Tim set the car up for a safe run after making the swap to NMCA trim and a fresh set of Precision Turbo GenII 88’s and a new Pro Torque unit to kick of the 2018 season. “With Jamie Miller at the keyboard and Tim taking care of the car and Josh Watson letting Tim chew on him a little bit for something I’m sure.. we’re out here having a good time and working hard looking for wins.” – DeWayne Mills
Robert Abbott was off pace in Q1 running a 4.07 at just 144 after losing high gear in the transmission on the run. After making repairs to the trans and inspecting the car come cracks were found in the rear housing. The number two qualified Team Hamstra allowed the Abbott crew the use of their pit and welder to repair the housing for Saturday. Marty Stinnett lost the end of a pushrod on his test pass requiting a quick fix before round one qualifying replacing the pushrod and a the broken rocker and shaft assembly for that cylinder. The made the call running a 3.99 to land fourth in the five car Radial Wars field. The team discovered a boost leak after going over the data with the after pass check of the valve train looking good they should be good to go and looking to improve on the .99 next session. From left to right, Fred Pittman, Justin Reed and engine builder Jeff Burns.John Lastinger suffered severe tire shake during ARP Nitrous Pro Street qualifying.We spoke with Mike Demayo earlier in the day and he was predicting good things for the EIC powered ICE ignition fired NA 10.5 Mustang. He was right and sits number one with a 7.79 at 174 MPH.
Geoff Turk took top honors in Factory Super Car this session scoring the first official seven second pass in Stock Eliminator and will be scoring a fat ten thousand dollar check from Holley, after passing a rigorous tech inspection of course. Daniel Pharris is just ahead of Charlie Cooper in Vortech Superchargers Street Outlaw with a 4.369 at 172. Cooper put up a 4.37.9 for his effort.Randy Adler earned top position in VP Fuels Pro Mod for Friday s session scoring a 3.73 at 206..
Team DSR had a busy day installing a fresh engine for Leah Pritchett to make the first qualifying session. She landed ninth with an 8.13 at 167 MPH. Slone Boys Racing are setting good at eighth with a 3.84 at 199, Jackie’s best run to date in the car. The team tested some on Thursday with their new 959 Musi engine with good results but ruined a ring and pinion. They put a spare in for qualifying but it was a different ratio and have new set on order for tomorrow. They will be looking for high 3.70’s in come time for eliminations either with power management with the new bullet or a gear change or whatever it takes for La Fontaine Performance Center sponsored team.John Stanley had some repairs after his run this afternoon. we caught up with the team just wrapping up re assembling the blower . He landed ninth with a 3.86 but was down a hole early on his attempt.Pete Gasko Jr races the 2016 #32 COPO in 2018 trim this year running the Supercharged 350 ci combo after finishing second in the Factory Stock Showdown NHRA points for 2017 in just his first full year drag racing in the series. Gasko runs the Gasko Family Farms Camaro out of Ray Barton Racing camp and is here this weekend in his first NMCA event, while the team plans a full season with NHRA we can look forward to several more years of Team Gasko after such good performance so far. Gasko is just 20 years old and went from a twelve second street car into the COPO and has been racing now for three years. Pete Gasko Sr and his brother are partners in the car and raced the car at Englishtown and met a local racer Jerry who helped them with the car and introduced the Gaskos to Dave Barton. Pete Jr put his name on the list for a car at 14 years old, with his father saying, “Yeah w’ell buy it, cause I figured he’d never get picked, and then all of a sudden he’s a Sr. in High School, I get a text one day in February, ‘Dad we got the car’, I’m like what car?? Tuns out we got a COPO, I get home and at first I was no. So my wife says ‘look you never buy anything for yourself and if you want the race car buy the race car’ so we bought a race car and ere we are”. Pete Gasko Sr. From left to right, Jerry, Pete Jr and Pete Sr.
