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The National Muscle Car Association kicks off its 2014 campaign in style in sunny Florida at the Bradenton Motorsports Park, with a clean slate in the points standings, a host of brand new race car and equipment, and even some new faces in the lanes. Dragzine will be on hand all weekend bringing you the same day coverage, including photos, news, notes, and results, that you’ve come to expect, so keep it tuned right here.
A special thanks to Comp Cams, the presenting sponsor of our event coverage here on Dragzine. For all your high performance valvetrain needs, including camshafts, lifters, valve springs, rockers, and more, visit Comp Cams!
T.J. Strange hails from Anderson, Indiana and made the haul down for some Xtreme Street action. The car is powered by an in house built Stranges Competition Engines 565 cubic inch big Chevy with Induction Solutions nitrous and topped by a Pro Systems SV1 carburator. The crew from left to right is John Strange, T.J. and car owner Terry Wilson. John and T.J.s father could not make it this weekend.
846 Dan Kroll has moved back to Xtreme Street after taking 2013 off to regroup. New for this year is Lou Iacopetti came on as a partner in the car a new 525 big Chevy from Brian Doss from Speed Services. The car has been revamped by Dan’s TKR Motorosports for this season and the new class after running Drag Radial in 2012. Troy Pirez Jr. from Innovative Racecraft has also come on board tuning. New Santhuff struts from Ron Rhodes, shocks from Mark Menscer, Stainless Works headers and new backhalf from Tim Lyons. He has tested to an 8.20 so far here this week.
Edelbrock Extreme Street racer Ray Cox is down in Florida for the NMCA season opener with some new things going on for 2014. Cox has new headers from Stainless Works and bead lock wheels from Cartel and will be running new heads later in the year along with a new intake manifold. The nitrous is set up by Kevin Neal with engine assembly done in house by Ray. Sponsors include Cartel, Aerospace Components, Race Engineering, Moser and a Mark Micke transmission. Ray’s son Brad and Ray Cox from left to right. This will be there first hits this year this weekend.
Mike DeMayo is sporting an updated 417 from Gabby Labiosa’s EIC Motorsports with a bit more power. He tested here at the NMRA event running a 7.90 with more on the table though the weather this weekend is not quite as good. Mike was the N/A 10.5 record holder with a 7.98 last year and will be looking for that title again though NMCA wipes the previous year’s records as rule changes often effect performance of the racers.
Dwight Ausmus runs this 1972 Firebird in N/A 10.5 and is yet another racer that was unable to test in the off season due to the terrible weather up north. He has some new shocks and springs on the car and will be making the first runs on the car since the Indy finals. He runs a 558 from BES basically carried over from 2013.
Don Bowles made a nice run in the Coal Digger VIII with a 8.084 showing on the board.
Sean Ashe is sporting a wild new paint scheme fro 2014 featuring Eddie the Iron Maiden mascot on the hood. The design is based of the “Killers” album and goes right along with the team’s attitude for this year. Sean went to the semi’s here at the NMRA season opener just two weeks ago and is looking to hurt some feeling in Stainless Works Street Outlaw.
Phil “Corndog” Smith is here with a new combo for Street Outlaw. The Trans Am was reconfigured for 2014 with the stock suspension under the car and a new 588 from Nelson Competition and a three speed transmission from Proformance Transmissions. They have not tested prior to the event and made one hit yesterday on motor. Phil’s sole hit in today’s session resulted in tire spin early.
Reggi gave me the scoop on Willard Kinzer’s Mickey Thompson Super Street Mustang. The car was purchased mid season last year so this is the first outing here at Bradenton. It’s got a 522 big Chevy maintained by Pro Line Racing and twin turbos out front.
Team Green has three cars here this weekend with Jonathon making some laps in the Camaro to get seat time before jumping into the teams 55 Chevy. Jennifer is running their Pro Mod Corvette with a new nitrous engine from Pat Musi and Joshua is driving the Pro Mod Camaro this year. They have made a couple of hits in testing and things are looking good so far.
Kooks Pro Street is now Kooks Pro Mod for 2014, dropping the old name as most of the cars in the class are no longer “pro street” style cars. Jim Bell is here with his R2B2 built Mustang.
Kevin Fiscus hails from Jacksonville, Florida and ran his first Gator Nationals this year. His is here running Kooks Pro Mod this weekend. I caught his first hit in testing but he shook the tires past the tree and aborted the run.
John Benoit is back in NMCA Pro Mod after three years and normally is found running Top Sportsman. He is debuting a new car this weekend built by Jerry Bickel and powered by a big by large Buck Racing Engine.
Round One Qualifying Results
Kevin Fiscus lit up the boards to the tune of 5.89 at 248 to lead the Kooks Pro Mod field int he first session today. The Fiscus/Klugger Racing team is happy with that run as it did what it was supposed to do. If the conditions are favorable in the morning they will be looking for a 5.85 ish run for the 2014 Pro Mod record.
Steve Summers haiuls from Utica, Illinois with this beautiful 1970 Camaro. he sits second with a 6.016 at 256 and has high MPH for this session.
it’s been three years since John Benoit has run with the NMCA and he is shaking down his new car this weekend. He sits tenth so far after having to abort his run this afternoon.
Don Bowles was paired with Mike DeMayo in N/A 10.5 and lost an oil pump belt on his run causing sever damage to the engine while DeMayo went on to an 8.02 at 168 taking top qualifier in class. Bowles has an engine being driven down from Kentucky tonight and took the car to Robbie Blankenship’s shop about two hours north of here to make the necessary repairs.
Dwight Ausmus left hard on his pass running an 8.12 at 168.
Steven Wardlow laid one down to take top qualifier in Edelbrock Xtreme Street running a full two tenths ahead of the field with an 8.01 at 172 MPH for Team Midnight. Terry Strange was beside him landing second in class with an 8.29 at 164.
Sean Ashe was way ahead of the pack in Stainless Works Street Outlaw running a 7.40 at 188. The team is making a converter change looking to get back on track for Saturdays session and into the low sevens.
Dwayne Barbaree made the ride from El Dorado, Arkansas and had trouble keeping the car hooked up in today’s qualifying session. He is a multi time event winner last year and is running the same basic combo from 2013.
John Trobiani is new to the Nitrous Pro Street class and is doing well so far with the top qualifier with a 7.56 at 180.
Andy Vogt is based out of Des Moins, Iowa with this 1990 Trans Am and sits second in ARP NPS, earning his MPH with a 7.97 at 182 MPH run.
Newcomer to the Nitrous Pro Street class is Jennifer Rice. She ran the full NMCA tour last year in Open Comp with her father Ed RIce. her 9.53 at 143 was on motor only and Ed is setting up a nitrous system on the car tonight for Saturday’s qualifying.
Andrew Handras dropped a valve on his pass in Kooks Pro Mod. They pulled both heads and have to change out a piston. The heads are at Nelson Competition for repairs.
Dwight Ausmus is changing the rear gear to a get a little more leverage in the hotter weather since he ran the car last year.
Phil Hines did not run today and is waiting on some parts from Procharger in the morning to get it back to running condition.
Jim Bell shook the tires on his run in Pro Mod. the crew was getting ready to pull the valver covers to check things over this evening after qualifying.
Team Midnight was also doing a gear change on Phil Smith’s Trans Am. One of the things not changed over from the previous combo the car was running.
