It’s championship Sunday here at the NMCA World Street Finals, and with virtually every class title still up for grabs, there’s certain to be a bit of drama as we work through today’s elimination rounds.
In perhaps a metaphoric way, someone was just trying to chill the crowd at this weekend’s unseasonably hot NMCA World Street Finals. The Lucas Oil Raceway staff arrived this morning to find that a prankster had commandeered a large fork lift in the overnight hours and dropped a fully-loaded ice machine onto the grandstands.
The SpeedVideo crew has been hard at work all weekend long bringing you the live streaming coverage of the World Street Finals. Be sure to check out www.speedvideo.com to tune in!
More car show action? Check.
NA 10.5’s Leonard Long has endured the kind of weekend that would make many question their very participation in this sport, but as the points leader, if there’s any weekend to forge on, this is the one. Long and his crew have been fighting issues with their combination all weekend long, pulling their transmission to change gear ratios in the oppressive heat, and, just when they though they had a handle on it, punched a hole in the block and oiled the racetrack in the final qualifying session. Already fatigued, Long and his crew stayed up until 1 a.m. last night changing engines, got themselves a scant amount of shut-eye, and were back at it this morning checking and double-checking things before firing the engine. Long has a healthy lead in the standings, but should he bow out early and Dwight Ausmus win the race, the title could be pulled from Long’s grasp.
Des Plaines, Illinois’ Andy Vogt powered his ’90 Trans Am to the top spot in Nitrous Pro Street qualifying with a stellar 7.301 at 189.12 mph yesterday afternoon.
The Hamstra family has played their cards perfectly thus far in their quest for the Pro Mod championship. Hamstra reeled off a 3.839 in Friday’s opening qualifying session, and satisfied with their performance, parked their supercharged ’69 Camaro on Saturday to save parts for today’s eliminations. Luckily, no other competitor in the 19-car field could oust his Friday effort, giving him the top spot on the ladder and a fresh racecar going into round one. Hamstra will race Tim Savell in the opening stanza.
Steve Summers, the number two qualifier in Pro Mod, is one of the prime contenders for the championship today, as he presently sits third, behind Hamstra and leader Adam Flamholc who is not here this weekend. Summers’ wife, Jerilynn, was busy cleaning the gorgeous Camaro for battle this morning.
Round One Ladders
Xtreme Street, Street Outlaw, Radial Wars, LSX Real Street
In what was an exciting first round of Pro Mod, Mark Luton ousted Billy Banaka on holeshot, 3.91 to a losing 3.89.
Jim Widener also got n on the surprise upset action, hanging .02-seconds on Mikey Rees in the JEGS Corvette and egding him out at the stripe, 3.916 to a quicker-but-losing 3.901.
Although Don Baskin looked to have his fist round match in the bag, hsi engine began going away at the top end, allowing Josh Ritli to drive around him at the stripe, 7.64 to a quicker 7.59. That pushed the door wide-open for Jeff Rudolf to overtake him for the Nitrous Pro Street championship, but just two pairs later, Joe Bucaro, driving Baskin’s backup car, downed a slowing Rudolf, thus deciding the 2017 points race.
With this 7.28-second round win, Rob Pearce cemented his Pro Stock series championship.
As they say, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Leonard long and his team have worked themselves to the bone this weekend, and with their wounded backup engine in the car, bypassed the burnout box and staged the car, knowing they only needed one round win to seal the championship. As fate would have it, opponent Joe Clemente was having troubles of his own in the other lane, and at the drop of the tree, his car stumbled, allowing Long to shut down early and coast to the title.
(Left) Despite a competition single, Marty Stinnett didn't hold back as he went after the required 1-percent record backup in round, coming up a little short at 3.949. His closest title chllenger, Josh Klugger, advanced on with a 3.99-second defeat of Nicole Priola, who carded possibly a career-best 4.36 of her own.
Dave Granger’s way-cool ’51 Henry J clicked off a 7.18 at north of 190 mph in the opening round of Top Sportsman eliminations.
Driving NHRA crew chief Tommy Delago’s screaming ’67 Nova, Frank Cervelli dropped his opening round match with Frank Hoffman, 8.82 to an 8.98.
Factory Super Cars top qualifier Paul Roderick clicked off low elapsed time of the opening round at 8.251-seconds in his Ford Cobra Jet Mustang.
Al Corda is class racing royalty if there is any. Unfortunately, Corda fouled out in the second round of the Stock/Super Stock Combo to Ricky Pennington.
Dave Adkins ad his team were thrashing after their round one victory, as the car sheered all of the flexplate bolts. It's all hands-on-deck in their pit to make their matchup with Marty Stinnett.
St. Clair Shores, Â Michigan’s David Dudek runs this spectacular 1969 Plymouth HEMI Roadrunner in the F.A.S.T. (Factory Appearing Stock Tire) class, which is running here as an exhibition eliminator this weekend. Dudek was the number one qualifier with a 10.09 at 137 mph, and has been into the nines on occasion previously.
Per the rules, Dudek runs the factory air cleaner, correct carburetors, intake manifold, exhaust manifolds…sharing “it has to look the part.”
“Inside, everything is legal to do. The intake is all ported, the heads are CNC ported, it has titanium intake valves. It’s got 14.3:1 compression, 4.25-inch crank, only .070-inch over, so its a 496. It also has a 55mm roller camshaft core in there…we’re restricted to 2.5 inch exhaust and you have to run the factory tires that it came from the dealer with. At the end of the last year, I made five nine-second passes in a row.”
Dudek has owned the car for four years, and confirms that it has, during its ownership, been  largely a weekend warrior racecar.
With championship Sunday comes continuel points tallying…the day-long job of NMCA Event Director Rollie Miller.
Josh Klugger’s and DeWayne Mills’ plan to team up for the formers’ championship aspirations this week went exactly as they drew it up, as Klugger earned the competition single in the final, leaving Mills to deal with points leader Marty Stinnett. Mills saved his best run of the weekend for Stinnett and fulfilled his role as blocker, unleashing a 3.87 to Stinnett’s right-there 3.89. With that, Klugger simply has to stage the car in the final round and he is the Radial Wars champion.
Charlie Cooper sealed up his Street Outlaw championship today and will also race for the crown here at the World Street Finals.
Is that German?
In Nitrous Pro Street, Joe Bucaro, driving the Oldsmobile Cutlass borrowed from Don Baskin, powered to victory over Josh Rilti in decisive fashion, a 7.34 to a 7.58. Also completed earlier, Haley Rounsavall scored a big holeshot victory in Chevrolet Performance Stock over Jesse Wilson, driving Kelly Pierce’s Camaro, 10.23 to a quicker 10.22.
The final Pro Mod finale of the season came down to Mark Luton and Steve Summers, who, with the early departure of Jason Hamstra, had to win the race to claim the championship. And convincing fashion, he did just that, clicking off low elapsed time of the weekend with a 3.80 to oust Luton’s game 3.92. Summers jumped up two spots this weekend to claim his second series championship.
In Factory Super Cars, incoming championship hopeful Chuck Watson, Sr. nailed Gardner Stone to the tree, taking a holeshot-aided victory, 8.30 to quicker-but-losing 8.29. Although Watson lost the title Scott Libersher earlier in the day, he’ll carry some momentum into the offseason. In NA 10.5, number one qualifier Robbie Blankenship ran the table, dipping his Ford Mustang into the 7.80s in the final, with a low elapsed time of the weekend 7.89 to defeat Dwight Ausmus’ 7.97.
DeWayne Mills claimed the Radial Wars crown here at Indy, ousting newly-minted series
champion Josh Klugger in an all-PLR final, a 3.88 to a 3.92, after nearly identical reaction times. In Street Outlaw, Daniel Pharris finished off an epic class debut with his new ’95 Cobra, pedaling his way to victory over new series champion Charlie Cooper, 4.42 to 4.45, while Nick McGrath singled to the Xtreme Street victory when Jessie Coulter was unable to make the call.
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Already fatigued, Long and his crew stayed up until 1 a.m. last night changing engines, got themselves a scant amount of shut-eye, and were back at it this morning checking and double-checking things before firing the engine. Long has a healthy lead in the standings, but should he bow out early and Dwight Ausmus win the race, the title could be pulled from Long’s grasp.
