A Lyon’s Share of Success

NMRA Race Wrap for 10th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL

Santa Ana, CA – It was a wild conclusion to the 10th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing. Over 600 race cars converged on Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL on Thursday to begin four days of euphoric competition between the two sanctioning bodies. Each series competes separately with three rounds of qualifying and elimination runs. Once the NMRA Keystone Automotive and NMCA Flowmaster event champions are declared through 23 categories, including both HP Tuners True Street and Gear Vendors True Street, the competition officials then pair up the winners with a corresponding category from the other series.

The Super Bowl Shootout isn’t an easy or equal crossover and this year we ended up with twelve pairings. The tiebreaker was the final match with the Strange Engineering Coyote Stock lining up with Chevrolet Performance Stock; the winner of that final pair would be rewarded with two points in the Shootout to eliminate any tie. Breaking right to the good stuff-NMRA won again and it came down to the final pair for the third year in a row! Drew Lyons commanded his Coyote Stock car to the finish line with a 10.45 at 127 mph to turn on the win-light against his competitor, Glenn Pushis. It was dramatic and Lyons was the hero of the day after Team NMRA battled back and forth before going behind by one point heading into the finals. It was practically a scripted finale between both teams with NMRA walking away with the Nitto Tire Diamond Tree ring for the eighth time in the past ten years.

Prior to the dramatic Shootout, the NMRA Keystone Automotive Drag Racing Series was red hot with quick action and tight racing for the fifth stop on the six-race tour. There was no more popular category than the VP Racing Fuels/Stainless Works Street Outlaw class as pre-race hype indicated a large turnout and when tech inspections concluded, twenty-eight racers were registered with twenty-seven of them taking the tree in qualifying. It came down to the Mustang of the mighty Bruder Brothers and their small-block Ford powerplant against the LS-powered Fox-body Mustang of Eric Gustafson. The California-based Gustafson was deadly all weekend long but an oil line came off in the final round, Bruder streaked to a 4.53 at 163 mph for the win and emerged the victor in the largest field in nearly a decade. The Edelbrock Renegade class was no less thrilling with the supercharged camp proving to be consistent and fast with Alton Clements Jr. taking his second straight win, this time he beat rookie Aaron Bates with a 7.66 at 179 mph to Bates’ 7.80 at 177 mph.

Haley James of Hellion Racing B-Team faced class rival Johnny “Lightning” Wiker in the final round of ProCharger Coyote Modified for the fourth time this season. Both racers traded low ET of the weekend back and forth and by Sunday night James grabbed her third win this year with an 8.39 at 162 mph to Wiker’s 8.46 at 163 mph. Moving to the naturally aspirated division puts ACT Pure Street at the top with Jimmy Wilson going to the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle for the fourth straight event as he seems to have Teddy Weaver’s number in final rounds. This time it took a 9.73 at 138 mph from Wilson to beat the defending champ, who had posted a 9.75 at 138 mph. The Strange Engineering Coyote Stock class, with Ford Performance sealed Coyote 5.0 engines, watched Drew Lyons regain his winning composure as he topped Darrin Hendricks in a close battle-10.46 at 127 mph to a 10.48 at 128 mph. James Meredith eliminated the last undefeated racer this season when he beat Matt Amrine in the finals of American Racing Headers Factory Stock. Amrine ripped the handle off the shifter and James got to the stripe first with an 11.04 at 117 mph.

Moving to the index categories we had near record turnouts for the season and Flex-a-lite Open Comp saw teammates from the Blackson Arrow team beat out the field. Mel White worked the finish line stripe to beat Steven Daniels. It was a heads-up race, with a breakout, as both carried a 10.95 index. White ran 10.99 while Daniels posted an 11.02, earning the Georgia-based racer a chance to celebrate in the illustrious and glamorous Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle. The Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning class came down to Bob Dill who scored his first major class win in thirty-years of drag racing! The turbocharged Coyote engine powered his Gen II Lightning truck into the Aerospace Component’s Winner Circle as he beat Kennady Jones who broke out, handing the win to Dill.

The Roush Performance Super Stang class was enormous as it featured over twenty competitors in the street-oriented category. The finals came down to Larry Firestone and his Roush-supercharged 2008 Mustang GT and John Mummery, the Canadian racer who was extremely consistent despite rowing his own gears with a Tremec transmission. Firestone jumped on the brakes to prevent a breakout, his 11.93 was accomplished with just a 93 mph charge. The final class, Exedy Racing Modular Muscle saw Donnie Bowles win yet another Illinois title with his propane-powered hot rod as he was the victor over Indiana’s Brad Phoenix.

For the second year in a row the HP Tuners True Street competition was held on Saturday and a combined 78 competitors were registered. When the dust settled from the 30-mile cruise and three consecutive runs, Kevin McCotter of Michigan was crowned the Overall Winner thanks to his 9.87 average. Matt Caldwell was rewarded with the Overall Runner-Up honors as his 10.33 average was more than enough to hold off the rest of the field. Other winners included David Decker (11-second winner), Fred Stickovich (12-second winner), Jason Epstein (13-second winner), Mike Baker (14-second winner), and David Schenn (15-second winner).

The thrilling conclusion to the four-day event was the Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing Shootout and as mentioned earlier, Team NMRA continued its domination of the special showdown with an eighth victory. The pairing winners receive bonus money and the winning team brings home the Nitto Tire Diamond Tree win.

The 2015 NMRA Keystone Automotive drag racing season concludes October 1-4 at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY with the 17th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA All-Ford World Finals. See you there!