Just last month, reigning NMCA Pro Street champ Chris Rini and his ATI Performance Products-backed team unveiled their intentions to debut a brand new 1969 Camaro, built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars and featuring an aero-slick Cynergy Composites body for their title defense run in 2011. Although his familiar Dodge Stratus had served him well with the national record and the title in the NMCA and several wins at Automatic Pro Mod and other venues, it was time to introduce a new piece.
Over the weekend, Rini and company debuted the new Camaro as expected at the NMCA season opener at the Bradenton Motorsports Park down in Florida, and to say that the move to a new race car paid dividends would be an understatement. Fridays testing netted a 6.18 best – just three hundredths off his own national standard in the class – then proceeded to blow the doors off that number and his fellow competitors in the first qualifying session with a 6.037-second, 234 mile per hour blast to take the top spot with room to spare.
Following the repair of engine woes encountered on the record pass, Rini cranked off a 6.06 in the opening round of eliminations, defeating Dave Merritt and backing up his earlier 6.03 to officially reset the class performance mark. A 6.07 in the second round sent Vinny Budano packing and a 6.12 on his semifinal solo run advanced him to the final. Unfortunately, the new car blues got the best of the ATI team, as the hood scoop blew off in the lights on the semifinal run, handing Joe Dunne a break single in the final round. Nonetheless, The ATI Performance Products’ team showed everyone what its going to take to steal away that #1, and in doing so, kicked off what should be a heated and exciting battle to find the five-second zone.
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