Drag Radial/limited Street racer Mel Nelson ran a 4.53 @ 173 during testing yesterday. They have had problems with the car wheeling and have been moving weight around to rectify that after a wheelie at the Snowbirds here last year knocked him out of competition early.

I met up with Dave Lovendahl the Technical Advisor from JRI Shocks in the pits after talking with Todd Brash from TRZ Motorsports. Dave has 30 years of experiance in NASCAR and feels the drag shock technology is years behind the curve. he made the move here after becomeing bored with NASCAR and the many restrictions the sanctioning body places on the teams.

Dan Kroll made the trek from Chicago for the X275 class with his very clean Nova. Dan has run the NMCA Extreme Street class and is also running X275 races as time allows for 2011.

Jesse Violante bought the Camaro formerly campaigned by Brian Markiewicz just after Thanksgiving last year and spent time since then getting it ready and making some small changes for the new season. the folks at AA Performance is handling the chassis with Kris Nelson on the tune up. Jesse hails from Vero Beach, Florida and so far has been 4.37 on three kits. ATI is alo on board with one of two of the new lockup transmissions, the other one is in Chris Rini's ride. They did have problems yesterday finding tires with equal runout and only got one pass in.

Ron Green is debuting a new car as well this weekend. The twin turbo charged 2000 Firebird was built at Sheppard Race Cars with an engine by Billy Albert Racing Engines out of Virginia. Hank Hill is on hand tuning the chassis while the power is being managed by none other than Brad Brand who is also driving the car today. Ron did some easy runs during yesterdays testing.

Jimmy Bradshaw is here from Orlando debuting his blown 526 Hemi Dart which we had written about previously here at Dragzine.

There are plenty of Pro Mods here between the two classes for them with 28 cars total. Rickie Smith did well in testing yesterday with a 3.91. John Vergotz has been struggling with the car going left as it comes off the wheelie bars. They made some adjustments overnight and are expecting better results in the first session.

Team Pirez brought the old reliable Nova out for some X275 fun this weekend. The same tall deck 565 is still running strong and Troy Sr will be driving this weekend.

John Fernandez put the Team Lopez on the pole with a nice 4.98 @ 142. Eric Kenward sits second with a 5.05 @ 140 followed by Bobby Flippen in his Gloucester, Virginia based pickup/

Robbie Blankenship brought out his NMRA Hot Street car to run in X275. He gets a weight break and is allowed slicks with his natrually aspirated combo.

Brian Keep wowed us early in the X275 session by standing his flamed out S10 on the bumper. he went on to a 5.55 @ 132.

Chris Tedeschi is behind the wheel of the former Scranton Brothers Mustang which is now under new owners. As you can see there was a little too much air under the front and he had to abort the run.

Mel Nelson has the top qualified car in Limited Street with a 4.54 @ 173, over a tenth ahead of Tony Ridenour's twin Procharged Camaro.

Rob Wells ripped off a nice 4.28 @ 183 early in the 10.5 session.

Danny Lowery however was able to better that ET with a 4.24 @ 181 to take over the position.

Jamie Hancock put up a nice 4.04 @ 179 for the top spot in Automatic Pro Mod. Ronnie Davis put his 63 Vette in second with a 4.09 @ 179 while Rober mathis sits in third with a 4.11.

Rickie Smith ran a clean 3.93 @ 190 giving him the top qualifier.

Scott Braskett ran his first ever 3 second pass today putting him in the third position and just behind Tim Tindle's 67 Mustang.

Dan Stevenson was able to improve slightly and break into the 3's, Jose Morel jumped into the field from 14th spot with a nice 4.09 @ 178, Drummond improved slightly but remains in 6th while Corly Markwart sits on the bump in Jon Adam's car with a 4.18 @ 173.

Aaron Hobley Jr. broke something in the rear on his last qualifier for 7.50 index. he was the top qualified car but it doesn't look good for him to make repairs overnight.

This little Chevette run out of the Bill Lee Race Cars shop and is being friven by Wesley Lee, definitely a cool ride.

Ray Degiovine took the top spot in 5.50 index with a 5.503 @ 115 with his 69 Nova based out of Punta Gorda, Florida.

In X275 John Fernandez led the field all day with his first run this morning, a 4.98 @ 142. In the final session Clint Lonon, the Tomato Nationals X275 winner inproved to a 5.04 @ 140 knocking Eric Kenward to third and Robbie Blakenship jumped up to 9th with a nice 5.21 @ 133 ahead of Corey Berry.

Tim Hendricks did a great job of pedaling this one and set it down easy. He ran a 5.30 on this run and wasnt able to improve his position.

Yes Pirez rode one out too. Here he is on the way up in a display of great driving as he rode it out.

Eric Kenward is often a crown pleaser and today was no exception with this down track wheelie. He qualified third in class.

Ten cars came for Limited Street's debut here at the US Street Nats with Mel Nelson the top qualifier. Angelo Graham traded spots with Ruben Tetsoshvili in the final session improving by two hundredths but both will have singles tomorrow in the short field. Chris Tedeschi ran a 5.01 @ 151 to land sixth.

Mel Nelson and the CZR Team are getting it done with consistancy, low ET and top MPH.

Tony Ridenour has stuggled a bit recently and had troubles keeping the car hooked up today. His one good pass was good enough for second spot in the field however.

Troy Blake landed sixth in the final session with a nice 4.47 @ 166 in his Procharged 2002 Camaro.

Sure is good to see this car back in action andrunning well.

Outlaw 10.5 has a full field with Danny Lowery on top of the pile. Jesse Violante improved his place in the final session with a 4.408 @ 167 and landed in third ahead of Dan Saitz while Tony Nesbit dropped to fifth.

Jose Morel was on a string today running consistantly and leading the Auto Pro Mod field with a 4.005

Alex Viscardi inproved substantially with a 4.34 @ 172 in the last session, good enough for eighth.

Robert Mathis ran a 4.03 and then a 4.02 @ 182 in the last session to secure second.

Fast Frank squeeked into the show with a 4.11 @ 179. The nitrous sniffing Viper has an 801 cubic inch beast under the hood.

Chris Patrick's 4.06 landed his Willy's in fifth bumping Corky Markwart from the field. There is good news however as they intend to run the top eight non qualified cars in a seperate field tomorrow.

Rickie Smith led all day in the Pro Mod field but was knocked back to second by Tim Tindle's 67 Stang with a 3.91 @ 184, Smith still has top MPH.

Xtreme Import had two sessions today with eight cars showing for the innagural class here in 2011. Jamie Rodriguez put his 1980 Toyota on the pole with a 4.61 @ 152

Blackwater Jack played a few sets after the racing till around 11 PM Saturday night. Good Times.