Crab Cakes & Mustangs!

Race Wrap for the 15th Annual SCT NMRA Ford Nationals presented by SVTperformance.com at Maryland International Raceway, May 1-3

Santa Ana, CA – The weekend started off with perhaps the best conditions the NMRA competitors have faced this year thanks to an overcast sky, temperatures in the high 50s, and an amazingly prepped track surface. Records fell, personal best times were accomplished, and it was a great way to kick off the 15th Annual SCT NMRA Ford Nationals, presented by SVTPerformance.com. The NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals stop at Maryland International Raceway is unique, due to all of the special features that have been added into the weekend. There is the VMP Superchargers Terminator vs. GT500 Shootout, all of the other SVT activities like the UPR Products Car Show and HP Tuners True Street for those specialty cars, and of course, the JPC Racing Turbo Coyote Shootout. The sun popped out on Saturday and Sunday, bringing performances back to reality and getting the racers into race mode for eliminations.

In VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw, Andy Manson made it back into the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle scoring his second career class win. There have been three different winners in Street Outlaw in three NMRA events this year. Manson’s ProCharger-powered Mustang pushed deep into the 6.80s with a 6.84 at 205 mph to secure the victory over John Urist who posted a 6.90 at 204 mph. The Edelbrock Renegade class saw Frank Varela and the Hellion Racing B-Team continue to dominate those ranks and take his third straight victory. This time it was Alton Clements in the other lane getting the runner-up; 7.85 at 181 mph to Varela’s 7.62 at 184 mph. ProCharger Coyote Modified had a wild weekend of drag racing with two favorites breaking before eliminations, leaving Haley James as the shoe-in for the win. But winners are decided on track and a staging duel in the final round against NMRA newcomer Ronnie Reynolds proved to throw her off her game. Reynolds took his wife’s street car to the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle by running low nine-second runs all weekend long. He ran 9.20 at 146 mph in the finals while James left before the tree was activated.

Are we seeing a new streak begin in ACT Pure Street? Jimmy Wilson took his second straight victory in the naturally aspirated class when he beat perennial front-runner Teddy Weaver. Wilson unleashed a 9.53 at 140 mph to top the field as Weaver blasted his way to a final round performance of 9.59 at 140 mph. The Strange Engineering Coyote Stock class was all about Drew Lyons as he and crew chief Bruce Hemminger have been in back-to-back Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle parties. The sealed crate motor from Ford Performance didn’t prevent Lyons from running consistent 10.20s; he beat Gifford, 10.29 at 129 mph to 10.38 at 128 mph. In American Racing Headers Factory Stock, Matt Amrine continues running over the Coyotes with his two-valve powered 1998 Mustang GT. This time it was Justin Fogelsonger sitting on the other side of the track and Amrine saved his best pass for last with a 10.67 at 125 mph performance while the Coyote 5.0 motivated-1986 Mustang LX cruised to a 10.83 at 121 mph.

The Index side of the NMRA scene was no less exciting with some of the closest racing we’ve seen thanks to big upsets and holeshot wins. Kent Nine is knee-deep in his title defense and proved why he is champion-the Edelbrock supercharged ‘Vert took down fellow Brenspeed teammate Miles Wagoner in the finals of Roush Performance Super Stang. The Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle field saw longtime Mod racer Rick Doern secure the win with his low 13-second ride by taking out Mike Reid who put his 2015 Mustang in the finals for what is believed to be the first final round appearance for an S550 Mustang in organized drag racing. Milton Grow captured the Flex-a-lite Open Comp win by eliminating Larry Geddes in the finals. Jimmy Cantrell put his super quick Ranger pick-up in the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle by taking down rookie driver Ryan Jones.

The special events portion of the drag race consisted of the VMP Superchargers Terminator vs. GT500 Shootout and the JPC Racing Turbo Coyote Shootout. In the battle of the siblings, Shane Halleman ran deadly consistent low eight-second runs and even dropped into the sevens for the first time in his career, to take the win over Wajdy Khalil-8.14 at 173 mph to a 10.43 at 112 mph. Justin Burcham dominated the Turbo Coyote Shootout from start to finish with a 7.78 at 185 mph finale while Brent Roberson was the runner-up with his best run of the weekend, 8.39 at 167 mph. Both Halleman and Burcham won their respective shootouts earlier this year during the Spring Break Shootout. Mat Brunette of Billet Pro Shop topped the McLeod Racing Stick Shift Shootout with an impressive 8.85 at 160 mph in his grudge race against Jim LaRocca, who spun out of the gate with his 2007 Shelby GT500.

HP Tuners True Street was a slugfest between two New Jersey heavyweights in the street car business. Anthony Leone won out with his turbocharged GT as he claimed the overall win thanks to an 8.61 average that came by way of an 8.54, 8.55, and an 8.75. That narrowly beat Mike Jovanis, who won the Florida True Street challenge earlier this year, and he posted an 8.64 average. He cracked off an 8.31 right out of the gate but spun hard and ran just 9.11 in his second run, only to come back and redeem himself with an 8.51 performance. Rick Kaknes took the overall win in the SVT division of HP Tuners True Street with a 10.40 average.

The Bracket Racing segment of Sunday’s eliminations is unique in that there are four segments that run separately until each is down to 16 cars between a pair of categories. The race officials combine Top ET and Mod ET to run out the remainder of the competitors while Street ET is linked up with Stick ET. David Gates secured the Street ET/Stick ET big money with his high nine-second ride while Brian McLaughlin stood on top of the Top ET/Mod ET bracket.