2019 Orlando World Street Nationals Coverage

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The crew has the track cleaned and ready for an exciting day of racing, Wade Rich, the Operations Manager (right), shown here with Tony Little the Director of Marketing work hard keeping things on track here at Orlando Speed World to provide a great venue and top notch, record setting surface. We go hot at 10AM with Prater Radiator 10.0 Index followed by JKR inc 8.50 Index and then get into the heads up classes with Extreme Concrete Pro Mod.

Jesse Lambert qualified second in Holeshot Wheels OL 10.5 with a 3.89 at 204 MPH but hurt the engine and will not be able to continue for eliminations today. Lambert ran the Billet Atomizer Injectors Outlaw 10.5 series again this year and made the switch to the radial tire for the 2019 season with good results. “This is the best surface we have been on this year for the radial and we are starting to figure out what it likes compared to the slick…” Jesse said. He was number five in points coming into this race with just 60 points between two and five coming into this final points race of the season. Lambert finished in the top five for 2018 both nationally and at Cecil County’s 10.5 series.

Future plans call for pulling the engine for repairs and setting it up for the 2020 season at J&E Performance. He uses a conventional head big Chevy displacing 540 cubic inches with Precision XPR 94 MM turbos. “ With Joe Newsham, Pro Torque Converters, Billet Atomizer, Cutaway Creations, VP Racing Fuels, AMS 2000, everybody is really helping us out and getting us where we need to be. The last two races we have really started to get a handle on the car and seeing some good numbers on the track. We went an .87 at Virginia PDRA and won that race and went an .89 on the last pass here.” – Jesse Lambert, shown with his father Rodney on the left.

Frank Meshaw is entered in Holeshot Wheels Outlaw 10.5 this weekend and scored his first three second run netting a 3.998 at 194 MPH in the second session. It’s been a long time coming for the Palm Bay, Florida based racer who was a long time NMCA competitor before moving over to the outlaw ranks in Outlaw Drag Radial and more recently in RVW and where ever he fits in. The Meshaw/Fratena Trans Am uses a Nelson Competition Chevy with Precision turbos and an ATF Transmission and converter. Frank has run the same basic combination for several years and just keeps pecking away at the tune up and moving with the new technology available for suspension tuning engine management using the Fuel Tech FT 600. Baskin Truck Sales has been a long time supporter of the team along with TRZ Motorsports who has been a big part of the build and success over the years.

Final Results

Randy Weatherford earned his first win in a boosted car this weekend out running Jason Lee in the Coast Packing Camaro owned by Eric Gustufson in the all Procharger Extreme Concrete Pro Mod class this weekend. “My weekend was going good and we made it to the final, the Proline Racing prepared Pro Boost car is awesome and performed flawlessly this weekend. I have one of the best tuners with Steve Petty on our team, he put me in this damn winner circle for the first time with this new Jerry Bickel car. All my workers at WS Construction are good hard workers without them I couldn’t be out here doing this, it’s what I live for right here, winning.”

Melanie Salemi did what she had to do at the starting line and put up a .007 reaction time against Steve Jackson and running out the back to a 3.583 at 209 to Jackson’s 3.585 at 213 to take the Duck X Productions Radial vs. the World win with the debut of the team’s new car here this weekend. The final round was the quickest side by side match in drag radial history and an epic side by side battle with the 2019 NHRA Pro Mod Champion Steve Jackson. This was Salemi’s fourth final round appearance this year and her first win for 2019 “We had a picture perfect weekend, we hurt zero parts, made countless runs, we were learning things and figuring out how this car is going to work… I have to thank the people we have behind us and definitely thank Mark Menscer for giving us a hand this weekend and Eddie Whelan, this is all his so this is all for him.” – Melanie Salemi Winner circle photo courtesy BME Photography.

Jerry Morgano came from the seventh qualified position to capture the Holeshot Wheels Outlaw 10.5 win this weekend setting a personal best and slick tire record 3.867 at 202 MPH in the final against the 2019 Billet Atomizer Outlaw 10.5 series Champion Mo Hall. “I think that is the fastest pass in the history of Outlaw 10.5 on a slick tire.” Morgano said. He is running the new Hoosier 10.5 tire and the team has been working with Frank Papp at Hoosier on the development along with another racer. “Frank has been doing an awesome job helping another car that we run with and now we have it on ours as well. We use some oddball stuff in our program compared to to what everyone else runs but we work hard and make it work” Morgano uses a Disomma Racing Engines small block Ford topped with Vizner Engine Development heads and billet intake fed by a pair of Bullseye turbos on his 2002 Cobra Mustang.

This is the first event win for Chris Holdorf who was the Performance Welding Pro 632 champion this weekend. He has been racing for just about two years now jumping with both feet into the highly competitive Pro 632 class and competing in the PDRA where he finished third in points over all with his team mate Walter Lannigan landed fifth. “It feels great, its definitely something we’ve been working for for a while..” Holdorf told us. “…its a really tough field with Voss and Pluchino and the other guys, its not an easy class to compete in and it feels good to beat one of the best over there in Dillon Voss. Our crew is fantastic and they work hard for us at Black Flag Motorsports. Thanks to my dad and wife Betsey and all my family for putting up with this endeavor of ours and always supporting us through it all, its kind of a new dream come true. My number one here is Alan he is probably the biggest help besides my dad, and our tuner Mark Medeiros.” Courtesy BME Photography

ATFSpeed.com Xtreme Street was spawned by the revamp of Heavy Street and aslo featured a wide variety of cars in this new class. From Mike Schmidt’s NMCA NPS/Outlaw 632 Camaro to Scott Husted’s Limited Drag Radial Mustang it made for a very interesting intersection of class cars combined into a new venture.

Chris Perry earned top qualifier in Xtreme Street and rode that all the way to the final with a string of 4.20’s and dipping to a new personal best 4.18 at 188 in the semi final to overcome former OWSN winner Scott Husted in a very close match. His opponent in the final was Jon Bitler, a first time participant here at the OWSN, running his Procharged 1969 Nova. He had somewhat of an easy ride to the final on his side of the ladder but set new personal best ET with a 4.49 in round a one match with Phil Hines He let it eat on a semi final single scraping the bumper near half track in a monster wheel stand but set it down soft and was able to make the final with Perry only do have it come up again as the air got much better as the sun went down Sunday night. “We were fighting all the way but the car is really coming around…” Perry told us. “We are taking a car that used to run 4.40’s, and we have been working hard to get this thing to run 4.0’s and that is a goal we are gonna end up going, hopefully by February, for lights out XI. Kris Nelson has been a super help to me beyond just building our engine. I have to thank him and all the sponsors along the way, Fuel Tech and Cameron, I cant thank everyone enough. My crew chief Tony Londo has been with me the whole way Andrew and Dave and the guys at NBS fabrication have helped us a lot with the car as well. We have come so far in a short period of time and to win here is amazing.” Courtesy BME Photography

TRZ Ultra Street is a fiercely competitive class and this weekend was no exception with Brian Keep earning the top qualifier with a stellar 4.638. He met with number two qualifier Kirt Sanders in the final with Kirt earning his first drag race win taking advantage of Brian Keep on the tree with an .028 reaction time. It was close all the way to the stripe with Sanders scoring a 4.696 at 152 MPH to earn the win. “The biggest thing to me is my crew chief Brad Cox and my girlfriend Ruth Pund. We have a 22 year old crew chief calling the shots, he made all this happen all I did was the driving. They are the heart and soul behind the whole thing. Thanks to Nelson Competition for the horsepower, Mickey Thompson Tires BLP, BES Larry Hart Transmissions and FTI for being a part of out program.” – Kirt Sanders. From left to right: Justin, Tara, Ruth, Kirt and crew chief Brad Cox.

Randy Seward came away a two time winner this weekend, earning the 1-Stop Automotive True Street win on Saturday and coming back to win Maximum Machine Works Heavy Street Sunday night after qualifying second in class. The new rules for Heavy Street had a wide variety of cars and combinations in the class for 2019 and brought out some more street oriented cars as was the purpose of the revisions. Attrition was heavy in qualifying with five cars unable to make it for round one on Sunday. “I got lucky on Saturday, there were some fast cars in True Street and it ended up I was the one that didn’t make big mistakes and won that it…” Randy said. “I had some decent runs in Heavy Street but the best was the final with Lil Bull. I didn’t know I had won till I asked them at the scales, it was really an incredibly tight race.” Randy scored a hole shot win with the margin of victory being just .002 at the stripe.

The BME Photography Open Comp finals came down to Larry Hamby and Mickey Pearce after six grueling round of competition. Number one qualifier Pearce had a single going into the final putting up an 11.38 at 105 MPH on his 11.33 dial to prepare for the match with Hamby who took the semi final win over David Crohe. In the final round Pearce went red with a -.047 reaction handing Hamby the win at the starting line. “It was a crazy weekend…” Larry told us after the race. “I’m not much of a quarter mile guy but this is BLP’s first time as the title sponsor for this event and they are my main sponsor so I said I will come out and support and do whatever it takes. We fought, we clawed to get here, it was a true battle, my guys were unbelievable and we made it happen. I want to thank Jacob Warren who builds my engines and my sponsors BLP, All Performance Super Center, Outlaw Race Fuels, and Accurate Powder Coating, we had a blast this weekend.”

“The Axeman” Marcus Birt earned the No Time 28 class win in John Gotti for car owner Mike Adams in the Adams Towing sponsored Reese Brothers Race Cars built Camaro. That makes two for two after a debut win at Jackson, South Carolina for the Gene Fulton powered machine.

Wayne Van Beek earned the win in Platinum Products Top Sportsman with his 1996 Chevy Beretta defeating John Rougas in the closest final of the event, determined by just .001 of a second at the stripe. Courtesy BME Photography

JKR Inc 8.50 Index featured five round of racing this weekend with John Wallauer from St Cloud earning the win with his very clean Plymough Duster. He matched up with Plainville, Connecticut’s Freddy Perkins putting up a .012 reaction leaving Perkins to try and catch up. He went just a little too fast at the stripe giving Wallauer plenty of margin who ran a 8.57 at 155. Courtesy BME Photography.

Number six and seven qualifiers met up in the Prater Radiator 10.0 Index final with Mike Ruff fouling out by .002 and Matt Gramzinski going on to win the event after six rounds.

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The Orlando World Street Nationals has been an iconic event for over two decades with racers and spectators from all over the world descending on Orlando to get in on the action. This morning we had the first True Street class competition before we got into the heads up qualifying classes. The rain cleared up earlier than forecast allowing us to be on schedule with the track going hot just after 10 AM.

Randy Weatherford leads the Extreme Concrete Pro Mod field with a 3.646 at 205 MPH in his Procharger centrifugal supercharged Camaro. Randy switched from a nitrous combination over the summer and debuted the new set up and car at the Shakedown at VMP landing at number three qualifier. Since then the team has several top qualifier positions at the PDRA in Pro Boost. The new Pro Line Racing engine is performing well for the team and cutting the crew’s work effort and Mr. Weatherford’s piston bill. He set the PDRA class record in Virginia at the finals with a 3.597 at 209 MPH and ran a 3.65 in testing here this week. The car was purchased partially completed out of California in March and underwent the transformation from twin turbos to the supercharger combination over several months by Racecraft Inc and PLR.

Round Two Qualifying Results

“Axeman” Marcus Birt has been at the top level of performance in Radial vs the World recently and this weekend is no exception as he leads qualifying in the OWSN Duck X Productions RVW this weekend with a record setting 3.55 at 207 MPH from the second session of qualifying today. On that run he scored a .909 60′ and amazingly in the final session he nabbed an .899 60 but did not improve on his ET showing there is more there for the taking in the right conditions.

“It felt real good..” Birt told us after the round. “Stevie told me if it takes what I’m putting on it, hang on it’s gonna haul butt. I knew it was gonna run, it was on a pass and when I got down there and saw the 60′ I was saying Lord have mercy. They pretty much pick and say what it’s gonna run and it runs the number.” Steve Jackson and Jeffrey Barker, Craig Amerson and Eddie Wilson keep the engine together and do the transmissions with Jeffrey and Stevie making the tuning decisions. The car is gets power from a Pat Musi engine backed by a M&M Transmission and Chance converter.

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It’s hard to think it’s been twenty 26 of the Orlando World Street Nationals this weekend, but here we are for another amazing spectacle of speed and raw horsepower. This year we have 13 classes to run, including the new 1- Stop Automotive True Street, which will feature a street cruise on Saturday morning. Maximum Machine Works Heavy Street is also participating after a major revamp of the rules in an effort to mix things up and invoke the old school performance, with no wheelie bars and tagged and insured real street cars.

The weather on Friday is overcast with spotty rain which is effecting our schedule but should clear by Saturday morning and allow us some great weather for the rest of the weekend and some exciting racing.

Melanie Salemi has a brand new car here this weekend, purpose-built for Radial vs. the World by G-Force Race Cars. The car is owned by Eddie Whelan, with sponsorship Al Lee Installations. The car gets power from a screw blown MSR Hemi.

“It’s going pretty good,” Melanie told us after her first run this morning. “We’ve just been taking it slow and doing some testing. Last night we went 3.70 and just went another 3.70 this morning…we are well on our way to making a full run and hopefully can turn the world upside down this weekend. Eddie really likes the radial class and John was very successful with Nova Joe in the GTO, which Eddie also owns. Paulo Guist, who is tuned by Jim, as well, runs very well so we figured it was time to see what we could do with the radial tire ourselves and a different engine combination and have some fun.”

Salemi is entered in Duck X Productions Radial vs the World this weekend and definitely looking to shake things up here in Orlando.

Jerico Balduff took some time off from the PDRA schedule to focus on work with the family business, Extreme Concrete, and make some changes to the Chevelle. The team switched to FuelTech engine management, changed to a new rearend featuring a new 11-inch unit from Carmack Engineering and a set of Penske rear shocks from PRS.

“We have done a lot of work in the past couple of weeks,” Jerico told us. “Pretty much nonstop grinding. We went to FuelTech Tuesday and ran the car on their hub dyno, getting everything working properly and put almost 3,200 horsepower through it. We came home and the car laid down a 3.77 off the trailer here and today went a .74.”

It was a big help for the team getting it dialed in and troubleshooting at FuelTech, allowing them to get a head start on the track set up.

“It’s a little weird on the dyno because the car makes a lot of noise and all the vibrations but you aren’t going anywhere. Thanks to Luis and Cameron at FuelTech for all the help getting it sorted out…we would still working on the car if we had not made the trip. I could not ask for nicer people — the whole experience was amazing.” Jerico said. Balduf uses a Steward Performance-built Hemi with a Hammer supercharger topping Noonan Heads and Alan Johnson block in the Andy McCoy-built, Gotham City-themed Chevelle.

Brian Keep is fresh off back-to-back Ultra Street wins at No Mercy X and the ODRC in Bradenton and is working the short track tune-up before going into qualifying this evening. He managed three 1.07’s so far here in Orlando and scored a 1.06 on his fourth attempt, and second on the day, running it to half track.

“We are slowly making minor changes to see how much 60-foot we can get out of the car. A 1.07 is our best but we went three in a row here so far and see if we can’t get a 1.06 here on the next pass,” Brian told us earlier this morning. Brian and the crew will be working hard for the three-peat this weekend.

Over the summer the Gregan family has been working on a new bullet and a switch over to a Procharger for the Ultra Street class Mustang using the F1A-91 head unit with a Chris Alston gear drive. The new Fast Forward Racing Engines short block will feature a Dart Iron Eagle block and a new design of Bennett Racing prepped hi port heads and a 2828 Edelbrock intake manifold along with a spec camshaft package. The new port design features 265 cc runner volume with a 2.125 intake valve and 1.6 exhaust valve diameter. Internals will use Diamond pistons with a Callies crankshaft and Callies Ultra series connecting rods. A Wilson throttle body and elbow will top off the engine.

The fabrication and custom stainless headers to complete the swap is being done by Innovative Racecraft in Plant City, Florida. Further modifications include a tube front end forward of the shock towers along with a front mount fuel cell, an inter cooler and the associated plumbing for the VP Q16 and rewiring the electronics in the car for the switch to fuel injection and the Holley Dominator EFI system with Dave Hanlon from Propulsion Laboratory lined up to tune it.

Gregan uses an FTI Transmission and converter with power going back to a TRZ Motorsports fabricated rear housing, also using their front and rear control arms and anti roll bar along with Innovative Racecraft spec Black Ops shocks and struts. A new FTI trans and bolt together converter will see duty behind the now ProCharged Ultra Street car.

It’s been longer than anticipated getting the changeover completed but Bill and the team is here in Orlando prepared to put some laps on the Mustang after a some test runs at Bradenton and a dyno session at Real Speed Racing to get a baseline tune up and ensure everything is working as it should. The final wiring and Holley engine management installation was performed at Pro Fab Performance in New Port Richey and Matt laRue will be here this weekend assisting Team Gregan.The crew consists of Bill Gregan, his wife, Bobbi Gregan, son Tyler Gregan, his girlfriend Madison Teeters and Bradley Wigland.