It’s the first race of the year for the NMCA in 2012 as they move into Bradenton. This is a combination event ran in conjunction with the LSX Challenge series that we will be promoting on a separate coverage page. Check back all weekend for the new cars and action from Bradenton!

Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor Mickey Thompson Tires, check them out at www.mickeythompsontires.com

If you are looking for LSX Challenge coverage, click here.

MIke Stavrinos is debuting his new car this weekend at the Season opener for the NMCA. The car was built by Sheppard Race cars and has a Nelson Competition 800+ cubic inch big block Chevy on nitrous for power. Kooks Custom Headers has come on board as a major sponsor for the Stavrinos Motorsports Camaro. Special thanks to brother Deano, Randy Chris Nelson, Chris at Sheppard Race Cars and everyone else that did their part in the build. They have run some 4.0 hits to the 1/8 mile and ran a low 6 clicking it a little early today during testing.

Team Green is here debuting a new car fresh out of Bickel Race Cars. They did some testing yesterday with "pleasing results" said team owner Dan Green. His son Josh is just 18 and has been racing for two years. The engine is a natrually aspirated 894 from Steve Schmidt and will be competing on Pro Street.

Mike Fratena came out to run in Drag Radial this weekend bringing out the crew along to help out.Mike decided to dump the blow through set up last year and has had success with fuel injection since with Cal Hartline on board to tune the small block turbocharged third gen Camaro. From left to right Peg Fratena, Randy Fratena, MIke Fratena, Cal Hartline and friend Brian.

Another newcomer to NMCA this weekend is Shawn Ashe. He is another X275 racer coming to test the waters in NMCA Drag radial. He hurt his small block Chevy testing recently at PBIR and since Jason Gatlin from ATF Speed built the car and provides the trans and converters among other things they stuffed one of Jim Blair's spare engines in. They have working hard at it for a couple weeks to make the change and pulled an all nighter to get here this afternoon after firing up the engine at 2 AM. A custom front motor plate was whipped up by Gatlin to convert the F1-X Chevy gear drive to bolt to the Ford engine, which will be available to anyone, including digitizing your current plate.

Jason Carter is back on the scene in Super Street OL 10.5 with the tried and true Malibu. He is running the same twin turbo BBC as before and Eric LeFerrier will be driving this year as well.

Kentuckey racer Danny Shemwell is here in XS running his GTO with a new 525 BBC from BES. The crew includes Lynn Yonts, Jesse Coulter with Hank Hill from Hooked up and Gone Race Cars.

Eric Kenward is here trying out the Drag Radial class with his Malibu wagon. He normally runs X275 and G-body events.Some weight reduction was done recently with flush mount lexan rear glass and a fiberglass tailgate.By removing about 90 pounds from the back of the car the front to rear bias is improved from before which should help to keep the front on the ground. He runs a Nelson Competition small block Chevy with Trick Flow 18 degree heads and Wilson Nitrous, a lithium 960 series battery from Pro Lite.

Round 1 Qualifying Results

Mean Street

JEREMY GILLAM            4           0.00      .233      11.418    114.95

DAVID HEMBREE         10417    0.00      .053      11.643   118.79

BRAD MEADOWS        10003      0.00      .160      16.417   50.52

Comp Cams Pro Stock

DON BASKIN                           3        0.00      .026      8.487    156.41

DON BOWLES                          5       0.00      .059      8.626    155.97

MICHAEL DEMAYO             117       0.00      .091      8.960    154.03

ROBBIE BLANKENSHIP     2          0.00      .036      9.167    149.67

Aeromotive Extreme Street

R          DANNY SHEMWELL     4999     0.00      -.186     7.973     172.34

L          DAVID HATNICK           4827      0.00      .353      8.093     173.17

L          FRED BRUNN                4105       0.00      .223      8.844     162.80

R          SCOTT GUILER             4442       0.00      .048      12.934   92.65

R          BILL TROVATO             4177        0.00      .046      8.112     170.71

L          BOB KURGAN                4444       0.00      .126      19.519    0.00

Stainless Works 275 Drag Radial

Three of five cars in 275 Drag radial got down the track with Jason Lee wearing the number 1 on his ride and running a 7.45 @ 189 taking a shot for the class record. Kenward and Fratena struck the tires, but Fratena's turbo made up 186 MPH through the lights.

R          JASON LEE                      1             0.00      .082      7.454    189.91

L          DAN KROLL                     6116       0.00      .099      7.706    183.59

L          MICHAEL FRATENA      6101      0.00      .146      8.793    186.76

R          ERIC KENWARD            9             0.00      .077      9.059    145.34

R          SEAN ASHE                   6108        0.00      .155      10.225    94.46

ARP Nostalgia Pro Street

Number two man Jeff Colletta posted up a nice 7.33 @ 188, while Bucaro and Baskin ran a pair of 7.30's

R          JOE BUCARO                 3            0.00      .125      7.303      185.10

R          SKIP BASKIN                 4              0.00      .078      7.307    188.83

L          JEFF COLLETTA           2              0.00      .032      7.335    188.40

R          DARREN BREAUD       3807       0.00      .027      9.031    111.09

L          DAVID BEESON            3003      0.00      .099      31.74      6 0.00

Mickey Thompson Super Street 10.5 W

Frank Meshaw was the only car in the sixes with a nice 6.87 @ 210 MPH. A twin turbo Nelson Competition BBC and ATF Speed Automatic trans are a big part of Frank's consistancy, along with Hooked up and Gone race Cars.

FRANK MEWSHAW      2840      0.00      .836      6.870    210.28

WILLARD KINZER         2605      0.00      .074      7.651     177.65

STEVE SUMMERS        2918        0.00      .046      7.928    131.13

RAYMOND SANCHEZ   2018       0.00      1.049    8.089    171.46

BRIAN HICKS                 2930       0.00      .063      8.600    188.79

JOHN LASTINGER        2002      0.00      .037      12.228    94.51

JESSE VIOLANTE         2003       0.00      .255      12.868    80.73

ERIC LAFERRIERE       2001       0.00      -.222     12.923    61.69

MIKE MURILLO             1             0.00      .045      10.416     85.57

Kooks Custom Headers Pro Street

Chris Rini set low ET running a 6.07 in the first session of qualifying today with his nitrous fed ATI performance Camaro.

L          CHRIS RINI                    1010         0.00      .021      6.074    236.53

L          JIMMY KEEN                 1995         0.00      .187      6.395    229.18

R          MIKE STAVRINOS        1713     0.00      .119      6.398    216.76

R          BILL LUTZ                       1969         0.00      .138      6.155    238.03

L          JOSH GREEN                  1020     0.00      .101      6.908    198.85

L          VINCENT DEMIERI       1013     0.00      .152      7.479    131.69