NMRA Drivers Battle it Out in the Buckeye State

Santa Ana, CA – As the fourth of six events on this year’s NMRA tour, the 14th Annual NMRA Ford SuperNationals presented by WyoTech, June 8-11, at the recently renovated National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, packed a lot of punch as drivers delivered pulse-pounding performances to work their way up in points.

With his eye on the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle, Dwayne Barbaree led qualifying in VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw with a 4.39 at 170 mph in the 1995 SVT Cobra formerly-owned by Daniel Pharris and John Kolivas before being recently purchased by his teammate Russell Stone. He made it to the final where he met madman Manny Buginga, who currently holds the category’s elapsed-time and top speed records, and in the tango between the two turbo cars, Buginga uncorked a 4.49 at 165 mph to win over Barbaree, who ran 4.52 at 163 mph.

“There were challenging track conditions, but my crew chiefs, Nick and Rich Bruder, my crew, Pat Speer, TJ Strange and my wife, Jen, got this car going A-to-B when it counted,” said Buginga.

In Edelbrock Renegade — named for racing industry legend Vic Edelbrock, Jr., who recently passed away — Alton Clements led qualifying with a 7.45 at 185 mph. The cool and calm driver was focused and formidable through the final. There, he pulled alongside Brian Mitchell, who’s in the driver’s seat of Adam Arndt’s Mustang, and Clements cruised to the win with a 7.49 at 184 mph over Mitchell’s lifting 10.27. The win was the second victory of the weekend for Clements who had stood on top of the field just 48 hours earlier during the Ford Motorsport Nationals rain-delayed eliminations.

Jeff Polivka powered to a 7.91 at 171 mph to lead qualifying in ProCharger Coyote Modified, but the final featured John Kauderer and Haley James-Schneider. Kauderer turned on the win light with an 8.49 at 167 mph while James-Schneider ran into issues and was forced to get out of the throttle.

Matt Amrine rode to a 10.65 at 125 mph to lead qualifying in Richmond Gear Factory Stock, but in the final, Bart Welte got the best of him and won with a 10.80 at 121 mph to Amrine’s 11.01 at 122 mph.

Racing was tight in the 21-car G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock field and hot-shoe Jacob Lamb, who led qualifying at the races in Georgia and Pennsylvania, also led qualifying with a 10.24 at this race. The final round, however, belonged to Shiftin’ Shane Stymiest and Charlie Booze, Jr. Stymiest sailed to the win with a 10.33 at 128 mph to Booze, Jr.’s 10.36 at 128 mph.

Amanda Saad had the quickest reaction time in Detroit Locker Truck and Lightning qualifying with an 0.003, but the final round was tailor-made for Gerry Van Veen and Bob Dill. In it, Van Veen won with an 11.36 while Dill clocked a 9.59.

Multi-time champion Donnie Bowles drilled the tree to the tune of 0.000 in qualifying in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle, but Bobby Barrick had an 11.75 up his sleeve to win over Don Jones, Jr., who turned in an 11.19.

In the super-competitive Roush Performance Super Stang, Marvin Knack led qualifying with an .023 reaction time, but multi-time winner Chris Parisi pulled out yet another victory with a 14.48 over Chad Wendel, who stopped clocks with an 11.46.

Ashley Conway Lang crushed the tree with a 0.004 in Aerospace Components Open Comp qualifying, but Michael Lewandowski and Terry Haynal hung on through the final, and Lewandowski took the win with a 9.20 while Haynal put up an 11.67.

David Mormann’s name was at the top of the Race Pages Ford Muscle roster as he ran to an 11.503 on his 11.50 index, but in the final, Mike Roup, who also competes in NMCA, ousted Mormann with a 13.94 to Mormann’s 14.33.

In QA1 True Street, presented by Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, Jeremiah McGreevy was declared the overall winner with a 9.05 average, and David Merola managed a 9.56 average for the runner-up. Kevin McCotter was the 9-second winner, Jeff McCool was the 10-second winner, Robert Ball was the 11-second winner, Shannon Jones was the 12-second winner, Katrina Wiggins was the 13-second winner, Anthony Jager was the 14-second winner and Brian Flanagan was the 15-second winner.

In Race Pages Bracket competition on June 10, Greg Myers won and Charlie McCulloch was the runner-up in Bracket 1, Gary Fitzgerald was the winner and Jeff McMillen was the runner-up in Bracket 2, Tristyn Strouse was the winner and Todd Boring was the runner-up in Bracket 3 and Tom Brown was the winner and Davin Mormann was the runner-up in Bracket 4.

In Race Pages Bracket competition on June 11, Dan Chiles won and John Kammeyer was the runner-up in Bracket 1; Jeff McMillen won and Ryan Rice was the runner-up in Bracket 2, Daniel Inhoff was the winner and Gayle Weeks was the runner-up in Bracket 3 and Brian Kuta was the winner and Davin Mormann was the runner-up in Bracket 4.

A special feature of this event was the Trick Flow Super Ford Showdown, which pitted the June 10 and 11 Race Pages Bracket winners against each other, and Brian Kuta earned the win over Gary Fitzgerald.

The action continues with the 12th Annual Nitto NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, where the NMRA will take on the NMCA, July 27-30, 2017 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois.