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We’re back in Joliet — the town made famous by the mischievous Blues Brothers — for the biggest and baddest street legal drag race all season long, the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing at the Route 66 Raceway. One of two combined events on the calendar, the stars of the NMRA Muscle Car Nationals Series and the NMRA All-Ford Drag Racing Series will join forces in combined categories and then battle it out for muscle car supremacy on Sunday afternoon, with the NMRA attempting to defend its title from last year. Dragzine and its sister site, StangTV, will be in the house all weekend long bringing you the news, notes, and photos from the street car extravaganza here in Chicagoland!
Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels. For all your high performance wheel and tire needs, look no further than Mickey Thompson.
For coverage from the NMRA side of the 7th annual Super Bowl, click HERE to launch StangTV.
As it usually is here in the middle of July, it's hot and muggy at the Route 66 Raceway, and that should play a pivotal role this weekend as tuners work to get a handle on the warm racing surface.
This morning's testing session, which runs up until the first qualifying session at 3 p.m., is already underway with competitors in each and every category using the opportunity to get some tuning data in the heat before it counts later this afternoon. We'll have two rounds of qualifying today, at 3 and 7 p.m.
Former NMRA Pro 5.0 champion Don Walsh Jr. is in attendance here at Route 66, fresh off his first NHRA Pro Modified win just a week ago in Norwalk, Ohio 
over Troy Coughlin. “We had a really good weekend in Norwalk and made some consistent runs. We really got a handle on the car at Bristol when we got to the final round, and we were able to put it all together last weekend,” he said. Walsh, who last competed with the NMRA in 2006 before the Pro 5.0 category disbanded, took advantage of a lengthy break between Norwalk and the next NHRA event in Indianapolis to “see some old friends and make a few new ones” in his old stomping grounds. The Walsh Motorsports/Precision Turbo machine is the same Mustang campaigned by Jay Payne last season, and Walsh and Payne operated as a pseudo team operation earlier this season, but logistics between their team and Payne’s in California have limited their partnership. The twin turbo combination in the Walsh mount is similar to that of Payne’s a year ago. “This turbo combination is really about controlling the power, and in this heat, it’s as much about making the power as it is getting it to the race track,” said Walsh.
Chuck Samuel, who was here a year ago with Alex Viscardi, joined Steve Matusek's Aeromotive team in the off season and his addition has already paid dividends for the team in the NHRA Pro Modified ranks. Matusek made a test hit earlier this morning and overpowered the race track about 200-feet out, but his new BOSS-themed Mustang is s surefire contender this weekend.
Californian Clint Hairston is making his second NMCA start this season here in Chicago with a completely re-worked race car. The Hairston team, with driver Clint and crew chief Jake (who builds the engines for Jeg Coughlin Jr.'s Mopar Pro Stock effort in Charlotte, N.C.), picked up their GTO from Jerry Bickel Race Cars this week following what team owner Jim Hairston described as a 'long list of changes.' Among those changes is a brand new nose with a cowl hood sans the former hood scoop and decals in place of the once-required factory headlight lamps. In all, the car has lost in the neighborhood of 30-pounds.
Frank Mewshaw won't be winning any "best appearing" awards, but following a seven week repair job to replace the roof and repair the quarter panels and pillars following his crash in Atlanta, the former Super Street 10.5W champion was back in Maryland and is here in Chicago.
The ageless Willard Kinzer, now 84 years of age, isn't slowing down any, but rather, is just finding ways to get quicker and faster. Kinzer has a brand new (to him) Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5W machine here. David Wolfe, whom Kinzer purchased his familiar Super Street Fox body two years ago, did some work to this car before the Kentucky businessman purchased it last fall. Kinzer made a lap in the car last season, clocking a 6.74 in his very first pass down the race track. 'So far, I'm really enjoying the way this new car drives, but we're working to get me more comfortable with it, and that's our goal this weekend,' said Kinzer.
Joe Barry, best known for his exploits on Drag Week with his good friend Larry Larson, towed all the way from Colorado to compete here this weekend with his absolutely stunning Tri-Five.
The legendary A-Team Speed Shop from nearby Tinley Park, with driver Randy Adler, just missed making history here last year, when they clocked an oh-so-close 6.001 in qualifying, nearly becoming the first Pro Street car into the five-second zone. Adler went on to win Pro Street in convincing fashion and is back to defend his title this year.
Bill Houghton, from "just ten minutes down the road," is debuting his brand new 1969 Plymouth Barracuda this weekend in Super Street 10.5W, with power from a 540-inch Donovan with a pair of 88mm turbos. Said Houghton, 'we competed with the Outlaw Super Stocks for years and I've wanted to build one of these Barracudas for years. I've really been wanting to do this. We spent two years building the car for Super Street, and after years of running nitrous, we made the switch over to the turbo combination. It's essentially the same engine we ran with nitrous, but we've done some work internally and got some help from Don Bailey to get the combination figured out.' Houghton finished the car recently and made one 1/4-mile test hit before arriving here at Route 66.
John Sullivan, who was here two years ago at the Super Bowl with his centrifugally supercharged Dodge Stratus, is back with a new (to him) Camaro sporting a "huffer' protruding from the hood.
The Pelech brothers -- Ted and Tim -- are out with their trick, nitrous-fed Third-Gen Camaro after several years away from the street legal drag racing world. 'We haven't been racing much of late, but we're out here trying to change that,' said Ted.
Don Walsh Jr. was one of several heads-up racers to take a crack at the blisteringly hot race track this afternoon prior to the lanes closing for test 'n tune. Walsh, like so many others today, danced around early in the run and wisely lifted, coasting to an 8.10 following a nice 1.01 short time.
In the Midwest, heat and humidity often equates to rain and thunderstorms, and the forecast for this weekend certainly contains some of that. We've managed to avoid showers in the Chicago areas thus far, but the ominous clouds have overtaken the sunlight as the first round of qualifying for Truck/Lightning and EFI await in the staging lanes.
Joe Barry rolled to a nice and smooth 7.82 at a slowing 140 mph to close out the long morning and afternoon of testing.
Jeremy Gillam went right to the top of the pack in Mean Street, carding a 9.934 at 132.96 mph.
Tommy Godfrey was one of only three Mean Street racers to record a presentable run, carding a 10.10 to trail Gillam and Brandon Alsept.
Don Bowles cruised right into the No. 2 slot with an 8.56, just a hundredth behind class leader Andy Schmidt at 8.55. Perennial favorite Charlie Booze Jr. was quicker than Schmidt to each of the early intervals before slowing to just a 9.74.
Danny Shemwell carded an 8.11 in the opening round of Xtreme Street qualifying to earn the provisional No. 2 slot, just behind Phil "Corndog" Smith and his 8.07.
Jill Hicks, wife of Super Street 10.5W racer Brian Hicks, competes in the Nostalgia Pro Street division behind the wheel of a Dodge Avenger. Hicks struggled in the first session and carded a coasting 15-second elapsed time.
David Beeson, record holder in Nostalgia Pro Street many times over, bettered the current 7.24 national record with a killer 7.17 on his opening shot to easily pace the class. Darren Breaud meanwhile was one of several racers in the 7.3-7.4-second range, carding a 7.44.
Mike Murillo encountered mechanical woes at the drop of the green and was towed off. The current national record holder at 6.49-seconds, Murillo will no doubt be back in tonight's improved conditions for another shot at it.
Team owner Billy Midnight was fired up after his driver, Tony Nesbitt, sailed to the top of the Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5 order with a nice 6.65 in the opening qualifying session.
Frank Mewshaw showed the crowd his best diesel tractor pulling impression with smoke pouring from the exhaust on the left side of the car, but once he released the transbrake and poured the coals to it, the Firebird was clean as a whistle on its way to a 7.11 at 192 mph.
David DeMarco was the only other driver in the 6.60's during the opening round of 10.5W qualifying, rocketing to a 6.69 for the second spot.
Clint Hairston reeled off a stellar 6.03, 245.94 mph blast to pace the 16-car Pro Street field after one round of qualifying.
John Sullivan slid right into the No. 3 spot in his Camaro with a great 6.09, trailing only Hairston and Bull Lutz at 6.07. Randy Adler, meanwhile, slowed to just a 7.77.
Don Walsh Jr. was all over the race track early on and pedaled his way to a 6.88 at 199 mph.
Steve Matusek made a hard move toward the center line and made an impressive evasive move to keep from collecting the foam 330-foot timing block.
John Leslie Jr. created some fireworks during the second session of NMRA Factory Stock qualifying.
Jason Lee cruised to the top of the Drag Radial qualifying order with a 7.56 in the second session under the Route 66 lights.
Charlie Booze Jr. put together a full run this time around to the tune of an 8.54, but unfortunately, Andy Schmidt in the other lane put together a little bit better one, carding an 8.53 to lead the Hot Street/Pro Stock field into Saturday's final session.
Tim Essick has arrived! After a several week scramble following his crash in Maryland, the Essick team made the long haul to Chicago today and made it here in time to tech in and make a pass in the second session of Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5W. Essick hopped and skated just of the starting line and slowed.
Kevin Mitchell went for a wild ride in the second session of Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5W qualifying. Mitchell was out of the groove near the center line for much of the length of the race track and finally lost it around the 100-foot mark, turning 180-degrees and making hard contact won the passenger side of the car. The Camaro burst into flames as it rolled to a stop. Mitchell quickly climbed from the battered car without injury, but the cleanup time effectively ran us into the midnight curfew. We'll have a sequence of photos of the crash added to the coverage in the morning.
With David Beeson sitting out the second session, as he often does, Darren Breaud gathered all of the attention in Nostalgia Pro Street with a nice 7.30 to move himself up into the No. 2 slot. Jeff Colleta, meanwhile, slowed to a 12-second lap and will carry his earlier 7.50 into the final session tomorrow.
