Championship Sunday is here, and we woke-up to cloudy skies after overnight rain dumped the wet stuff over the area. People were drying off their cars, and blowing off their car mats this morning to get ready for the day. The owner of this Torino Talladega in the car show doesn’t trust that the rain is done for this morning. Thankfully, it’s a clear car cover so we can still take in the awesomeness that is a Talladega.Dwayne Barbaree is in unfamiliar territory toward the bottom of the Street Outlaw qualifying sheet. The guys were up early working on the tune, and warming up the car to get ready for eliminations.
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Are vans making a comeback, or did they ever leave? This is a 1977 Dodge Tradesman B200 van bought new in Canada. The paint is all original, and the van has just 58,000 miles on it. Brand new Cragar SS wheels gives the van appeal, and it relies on a mildly hopped-up 360 for motivation. The van is owned by Wayne Peters from Olmsted Township, Ohio. Team Green’s Josh Green had a solid qualifying effort, and is sitting in the fourth spot with a 5.97 at 239 mph. Patrick Barnhill has been working on the tune for both Team Green cars. Today’s soupy weather might call for some tuning changes from what racers have used the past couple days.Here is the Radial Wars ladder so you can keep track of your favorite racer. Mills and Berry have proved to be the top racers in the class this weekend, but they still have to race, and anything can happen in drag racing.
Nitrous Pro Street racer Joe Bucaro utilizes a Zapp Racing Engines small block Ford with a Monty Smith nitrous system, a Pro-Formance Transmissions Turbo 400 with a Neal Chance converter, and a Chris Dunkin-tuned suspension. The guys from TFL Performance is basically Bucaro’s crew at the races, and help him out a ton. Mike Testani, former NMRA Super Street Outlaw racer, is here at the NMCA World Finals helping Bucaro clinch the 2015 Nitrous Pro Street championship, as well.Jason Hoots and Paul Wiley changed the torque converter in their Extreme Street entry last night, but they still have a lot to make up compared to other cars in the class. The converter in the car from Saturday was too tight, so Hoots is hoping this one helps get him off the line without blowing off the tires. This car is actually Paul Alfeo’s GT that he used to race in NMRA Real Street.Summit Motorsports Park’s Track Manager Kurt Johnson has been working hard all weekend, along with the NMCA’s TJ Bailey, to keep the track in tip-top shape.Mike Bowen had the lead on Ben Mens for about 60 feet in NA 10.5 action, Unfortunately for Bowen, Mens took over from there to spell an end to Bowen’s glorified test session.Between the two of them, Jason Lee (Left) and Patrick Barnhill (Right) are tuning on 13 cars here at the finals. This morning’s soupy weather has turned into a rather warm afternoon, but Barnhill tells us he tunes a car differently for every pass down the track, taking into consideration weather and track conditions, and other variables. The guys are plenty busy here at the finals, as is usually the case at every event they attend.Andy Warren lost the battle in round one of eliminations, but won the championship anyway in Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle Car. Well, John Warren is still in the mix in Extreme Street with his Nova. The heads-up classes are heading back to the lanes for the next round of competition.Willard Kinzer just ran 250 mph in Pro Mod, but his car caught on fire just past the traps. Kinzer is out of the car, and we have no word on damage to the car as of this minute. This guy can’t catch a break.Dwight Ausmus has his Firebird consistently in the 8.0s, which is helping his BES-powered car go rounds. Ausmus had a bye run after Rick Riccardi hurt a couple rocker arm bolts the previous round.
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The race we've wanted to see all weekend will happen in the finals of Mickey Thompson Radial Wars. It will be Dewayne Mills against Woooo Nation's Keith Berry. Mills uncorked another 4.0 pass at 200 mph in the semis, while Berry answered with a 4.12 at 186 mph. Berry has wrapped up the Radial Wars championship, and Mills thinks it's time to run a 3.
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It will be Michael Biehle versus Steve Summers in the final of VP Racing Fuels Pro Mod. Summers ran a 5.87, while Biehle ran a 5.88 in the semis so this should be a great race.
Final Rounds
It was Mustang versus Camaro in the Pro Mod final with Steve Summers going against Michael Biehle. Summers was out out first, and was able to stay out front with a blistering 5.80 to Biehle’s equally-impressive 5.83. Both drivers had a tune-up in the car, as both ran 257 mph. Biehle wins the championship for 2015, but Summers won the battle at the finals.Joe Bucaro had Don Baskin’s 632-inch Camaro in the final of Nitrous Pro Street. Bucaro wanted to close out the season on a winning note, and he once again ran in the 7.20s with a 7.29 over Baskin’s 7.36. Bucaro clinched the Nitrous Pro Street championship in the process. Way to go, Joe.Well, the final of Radial Wars was slightly anti-climactic. It was Keith Berry against Dewayne Mills, and Mills was going for it, but he appeared to have a mishap at the tree, and went in deep. Then when the lights came down, he didn’t go anywhere. Berry, meanwhile, it appeared he was going for it, too. He had to pedal it, but with Mills back at the tree, the win and the championship was in the bag. Mills was allowed to run the car for a go at the 3s, but a 4.06 at 200 mph was all the car had in it on that pass. Maybe with some cooldown time a 3 would’ve been in the cards, but we won’t see a 3 until 2016.The beautiful Chevy II of Jarod Wenrick had quite the debut, but Eric Gustafson ran consistently around the 4.50 mark, and those numbers were enough to win the finals, and the Street Outlaw championship.Mike Demayo had to face Leonard Long in the final of NA 10.5 after battling all day. Demayo was able to pull out the win, but Long wins the championship for the year. Demayo finishes second in points.John Warren did it. He was able to get a win to finish out the year. Warren and his family have put a lot of work into the car to get it competitive, and that work paid dividends in the finals to get the win. With his win, Warren finishes fourth in points for 2015. Warren beat Aaron Bates out of Dez Racing. Bates’ crew worked hard all weekend to improve the car’s times, but Warren had a just a tad more in the final.In Chevrolet Performance Stock, Ronnie Hackleton closed out the year with a win over Glenn Pushis in the final. However, Pushis will go down as the first ever winner of the Chevrolet Performance Stock champion.
Rick Riccardi is here after having his race car repaired from a wreck earlier this year. The Car spent some quality time at Matt Wirt Race Cars getting repairs. Riccardi took one pass to get his feet wet, and then almost made a full pass in round one of qualifying with an 8.94. We trust Riccardi will go quicker as the weekend goes along.Street Outlaw racer Eric Gustafson sits atop qualifying as Saturday morning gets started. The Goose busted out a 4.437 at 165 mph, and is looking to win a championship in the ProCharger-motivated Mustang.Another Street Outlaw racer that hasn’t had such a great race so far is Andrew Demarco. He hurt the engine in testing on Friday morning, but the guys worked overnight to get it fixed, and running again. Hopefully, we’ll have better news out of the Demarco camp after round two qualifying, which is scheduled to start around noon.The Ford Racing Cobra Jet Showdown is rolling as we type this. All the Cobra Jet heavy hitters are here battling it out.
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The car show at the NMCA World Finals is full of Detroit iron, and a Ducati Superbike. It's barely 10:30, and the show field was already pretty full of stunning rides. NMRA Coyote Stock racer Mike Bowen is here at the NMCA Finals to get some practice in, and participate in the NA 10.5 class. He’s not really in the neighborhood of the class regulars, but he’s working on reaction times, and doing some testing while at the event.For the NMCA Finals, Billy Glidden has the 872-inch engine in the car, but he’s made some recent changes to it. The engine makes really good power early in the run so he’s working on the downtrack part of the power curve via the EFI tune.In talking to Andrew Demarco, he relayed his engine issue turned out to be a cracked exhaust port leaking water. Repairs were made overnight, and Demarco was able to make a second round qualifying hit.News from the Paul Major crew is that everything is good so far. Saturday morning they were checking valves, rockers, and adding new spark plugs, all the normal stuff to make sure everything was fine.
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Ray Schuler's Pro Mod Camaro runs a Nelson Competition powerplant with a custom nitrous system on the car. After the first round of qualifying he was in the 6th spot. He got out of the groove a little, so he's hoping he can keep it in the groove, and improve that qualifying spot.
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The starting line was packed for the second round of qualifying with Keith Berry and Dewayne Mills lined up against each other. The guys didn't disappoint. Berry ran a 4.10, and Mills ran another 4.0 with a 4.06 this time. If the weather cools down for the third round of qualifying, we just might see a 3-second pass. When we walked through the pits this morning, the Mills pit was pretty quiet, just waiting on the qualifying to roll around. Berry says we should should watch for side-by-side 3s for third round of qualifying. Jessie Coultier lowered his elapsed time again in the second round of qualifying to a 7.78 at 176 mph in Holley EFI Real Street.
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In a match-up perhaps everyone wanted to see, Phil Hines and Eric Gustafson lined up against each other in the second round of qualifying. Hines improved his time from round 1, while Gustafson was slightly off his round 1 pace. We hope the two will line up again for round 3. Hearing both ProCharger cars go down the track is like hearing angels sing. Another NMRA regular giving the NMCA side a go is Jim Breese. Bresse has competed in NMRA’s Modular Muscle, Real Street, and most recently, the Renegade class. The Renegade and NMCA Extreme Street rules are pretty close, and Breese is giving it a shot with a ProCharger-blown Four-Valve, Rossler Turbo 400, and an Ultimate Converter Concepts converter. Last night’s qualifying pass was Breese’s first hit with the old design Mickey Thompson ET Street radials. His best in Renegade trim with the new Mickey Radial Pros is an 8.14. In second round of qualifying today Breese ran an 8.17 at 164 mph.One of the more unusual cars here at the NMCA Finals is the 1963 Studebaker Super Lark of Ted Harbit. He is running in the National Parts Depot FAST class, and running deep into the 13s.Another NMRA regular Alton Clements is here running Extreme Street, as well. Clements hurt his primary blower last night in qualifying, but family friend Brent Weston flew in this morning with a new ProCharger F-1C 10.5 to put on the car. Behind the Ford small block is a Neal Racing Transmissions’ Turbo 400 with a Cameron’s Torque Converter Service converter.Jason Hoots is here running Extreme Street with a Vortech YSi-Trim BXL, Powerglide, and Ultimate Converter Concepts converter. He and his traveling buddy Paul Wiley were repairing their golf cart when we came by, and he was hoping to improve on his qualifying time in round 3. We saw him driving around the golf cart so we think that part was fixed with a little welding, but an off-pace pass means the guys still have some work to do on the car.NA 10.5 racer Rick Riccardi made a full pass in round 3 of qualifying, running an 8.17 at 167 mph. Riccardi reports he is just sneaking up on it.Dwight Ausmus made a tune-up change to his NA 10.5 Firebird, and it really helped on top end, but it hampered front half performance. So he tried to get some of that front half back during third round of qualifying, and the car dipped back into the 8.0s.In third round of Radial Wars, Dewayne Mills again ran in the 4.0s with a 4.02 at 201 mph. No one ran in the 3s, unfortunately, but Mills’ consistency will be tough to beat.
This is it — the season finale for the NMCA Flowmaster Drag Racing Series, as championships will be decided and crowns handed out in each and every eliminator in the final hurrah of 2015 at one of the finest racing facilities in the nation, the Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk. With the support of Comp Cams, we’ll be bringing you the action all weekend, with news, notes, results, and lots of great photos!
Michael Biehle II has the VP Racing Fuels Pro Mod championship pretty well wrapped up, but he is still at the race to close out the season on a high note. In Friday morning’s test session, Biehle shook the tires, and aborted the pass.Keith Berry has a slight points lead Mickey Thompson Radial Wars, but Frank Mewshaw, Mark Woodruff, and Dewayne Mills aren’t going to make it easy for him. In Friday morning’s test session Berry ran a 4.17 at 178 mph.The sun is out at Norwalk, as you can with the reflection on Willard Kinzer’s Pro Mod Camaro. Kinzer ran a 6.09 at 240 mph in Friday morning’s test session.If you are a fan of muscle cars, the FAST class is right in your wheelhouse. FAST stands for Factory Appearing Stock Tire. The cars have to appear stock, and run period-correct tires. The faster cars in the class will dip into the 10s in the right weather, and under the right conditions.Edelbrock Extreme Street racer Dan Baumann is mathematically out of the championship hunt, but he is always exploring other class options within the NMCA and NMRA. Baumann has been chasing the right converter, and an 8.04 at 154 mph shows he may still be trying to find the right one for the car’s combination.Jarod Wenricks has his unbelievable Chevy II here at Norwalk, and has run in the 4.50s so far in testing for Street Outlaw. He had the front dress off the small block Friday morning to address a vacuum pump issue.The Cobra Jets are here at Norwalk to compete in the 5th Annual Ford Racing Cobra Jet Showdown. Holbrook Racing’s Chris Holbrook is a fixture in this class.Eric Gustafson runs an LS-based, ProCharger-equipped combination in his Fox Mustang in Street Outlaw. During Friday’s test session, Gustafson was able to run a stellar 4.44 at 166 mph.Joe Bucaro pretty much has the ARP Nitrous Pro Street class in hand so he’s here for his victory laps, if you will. Bucaro has a lot of experience with nitrous combinations, and he obviously has it figured out this year.
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Dan Baumann needed to put together a good pass during the evening qualifying session because during the heat of the day his car didn't want to run the number. His ProCharger combination responded with about the elapsed time he predicted. The car ran an 8.0 earlier in the day, but when the temps came down a few degrees so did his time with a 7.79 at 179 mph. Kevin Lumsden had the points lead coming to the NMCA finals with a 190 cushion between he and Glenn Pushis. Ronnie Hackelton holds the top qualifying spot after round 1 of qualifying with a 10.42.Dwight Ausmus and his Firebird is second in points in NA 10.5, and third in qualifying after round 1.In the Chevrolet Performance Challenge Series Real Street class, Jessie Coulter sits number in points. He had a scrape with the wall recently, but he has brushed that off at Norwalk to sit in the top spot after round 1 with a 7.85 at 174 mph.Dewayne Mills sits atop the Radial Wars class with a mind-bending 4.03 at 200 mph. Keith Berry followed up with a 4.09 at 189 mph.The much-publicized Barracuda of Bill Houghton sits fourth after round one of qualifying with a 4.40 at 183 mph.
This is it — the season finale for the NMCA Flowmaster Drag Racing Series, as championships will be decided and crowns handed out in each and every eliminator in the final hurrah of 2015 at one of the finest racing facilities in the nation, the Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk. With the support of Comp Cams, we’ll be bringing you the action all weekend, with news, notes, results, and lots of great photos!
