The 2019 NMCA World Street Finals From Indianapolis

[nextpage title=”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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

[nextpage title=”Saturday”]

The National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) tour is making its final stop on the six-race tour for 2019 with the 2019 Muscle Car Nationals. Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana hosts one of the biggest street-legal drag races of the year. The lion’s share of class points competition shows commanding leads for the titles with crucial battles in play for the second and third spots in the World Championship rivalry.

At high noon on Saturday, round two of qualifying pulled out of the lanes in all categories. In VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod, the ladder has moved around with Don Walsh Jr. and Jim Wider swapping the one and two spots. Craig Sullivan is Mr. Consistent with his ’69 Daytona Superbird by improving his time but holding the number three position.

The ladders are set for the Sunday elimination event. Some of the standout finishers in qualifying include Chris Holbrook who dominated the Holley EFI – Factory Super Car class with at least a .08-second ET over the remaining field. With a similar performance level, Leonard Long shifted his way into the top spot of FST Carburetors – NA 10.5 with a 7.83 ET that is .07-seconds above the field.

Other big moves during session two qualifying included Billy Glidden stepping into the number one position of ARP – Nitrous Pro Street. Tony Gillig arrived following the first qualifying session and found his place in the number two position while Tricia Musi stepped up her qualifying number over a tenth of a second to a 4.39 to keep her in the third spot.

Leonard Long holds on to the number one spot for FST Carburetors – NA 10.5 class. David Theisen remains in the number two spot since Friday qualifying while Don Baskin made a big move from number five up to the number three position.

One of the unique events within the event is the Quick Fuel Nostalgia Super Stock  All-Star Shootout, which combines eliminations between the NMCA Nostalgia Super Stockers against the Victory Nostalgia Super Stock racers.

[nextpage title=”Friday”]

In VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod,  Don Walsh Jr. has a handy lead in the NMCA points chase. Walsh, a multi-time NMRA Pro 5.0 champion drives his show-stopping turbocharged C7 Corvette. He comes into the final event holding a commanding 820-point lead over Jim Widener. Breathing down Widener’s neck for the number two finish is Tom Blincoe with a mere 80-points spread. John Stanley is behind by only 125-points.

Bill Skillman is at the top of Holley EFI – Factory Super Cars entering this final weekend. The patriarch of the Ford Cobra Jet/Ray Skillman Ford team leads by more than 1000 points over Randy Eakins.

We asked Skillman what it took over the 2019 season to gain his commanding points lead. “Ford really stepped up their Cobra package this year,” Skillman described. “We did get a couple of big wins this year, but it’s earning round after round points that got us to this spot.”

Shawn Pevlor has the points lead in the Mickey Thompson – Street Outlaw battle going into Indy.  The small-tire, single power adder class is where Pevlor’s well recognized 1989 Mustang dominates across many similar classes across the sport. Pevlor has a 670-point lead over Rob Goss while Phil Hines, Mike Cerinaro, and James Lawrence are separated by just a couple hundred points.

ARP – Nitrous Pro Street sees Tricia Musi holding a little more than 1,000 points over number two chaser, Don Baskin. The class is a spread with normally aspirated and nitrous oxide injected weight and cubic inch rules applied to the tube chassis race cars. Musi says that even though she mostly has the championship wrapped up, she still has something to prove by coming to the final event and going additional rounds.

Third in points is Mark Hoagland who has his sights set on Baskin with just a little more than 200-points dividing their current number two and three positions.

“We had some timing hiccups here in the first round of qualifying which slowed us to a 4.51 ET,” Trish adds. “We ran a 4.39 in the afternoon test session so we will get back in the hunt by our next round of qualifying.”

Edelbrock – Xtreme Street is the NMCA category where greater liberties are allowed with engine/body combinations,  yet still comes down to the single power-adder, and small tire rule restrictions. Jessie Coulter has owned this class for years and he leads in his LS-powered Camaro. Scott Guiler and Tony Orts still have a shot at the championship with fewer than 500-points holding them back.

Leonard Long has rocked the FST Carburetors – NA 10.5 class going into the end of 2019. His accumulation of 2940 points at the start of the World Finals puts him more than 1,200-points over current number two the points roster, John Langer. Langer still has two racers from the class, David Theisen and Don Baskin breathing down his neck with less than 200-points dividing the three.

The Father and Son team of Jordan and Jeff  Ensslin dominated the number one and three spots in the first round of ARP – Nitrous Pro Street. Currently ranked number four and seven, they are still going to give the final NMCA season points tally a run for its money. Number two qualifier for this first round is Billy Glidden with a 4.44 ET. Historians recognized Glidden’s recently refurbished black Mustang as his past winning ride that saw many winner’s circles years ago.

Mickey Thompson – Street Outlaw qualifying had Shawn Pevlor showing off his season dominance. He is currently number one on the qualifying list with a 4.42 ET with current number two in points, with Rob Goss turning a 4.53 ET.