NMRA Racers Battle It Out During Successful Stop at Atlanta Dragway

Race Wrap for 7th Annual Borla Exhaust NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by Miller Welders

Santa Ana, CA – The 7th Annual Borla Exhaust NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals, presented by Miller Welders has concluded and it was definitely an extraordinary weekend of records, wall-to-wall action, and fun. As the engines cool off and the racers hit the road, we are left with a clear image of the fast, the good, and what’s in store for the next six months of drag racing. Atlanta Dragway was the second stop on the NMRA Keystone Drag Racing tour and one we won’t soon forget.

In VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw we saw a slugfest between the turbo and supercharged camp, just as we did one month ago at the season opener. Phil Hines was consistently quicker, by just .01 seconds, than Dan Saitz of Hyperformance Motorsports through most rounds of competition as both dipped into the sixes. But it is all about the win light-the final round was a little anticlimactic as Hines was shutoff after the burnout due to fluids leaking under the vehicle. Saitz soloed for the victory, his first one in NMRA competition.

It is becoming the year of Frank Varela and Hellion Racing B-Team with their amazingly quick turbocharged Coyote 5.0 entry. He faced last year’s champion, Bart Tobener, in the final round of Edelbrock Renegade as Tobener is finally making some headway with his program but is still a tick behind the turbo car of Varela. Tobener went on the bumper and Varela ran 7.70 at 182 mph. In the ProCharger Coyote Modified class we watched Haley James avenge her loss from Florida over class rival Johnny “Lightning” Wiker as he spun out of the gate and James unleashed a nasty 8.28 at 166 mph performance. Wiker ran an off-pace 8.67 at 166 mph as he chased her after pedaling his 2013 Cobra Jet racecar.

The streak comes to an end! Jimmy Wilson took down and ended the seven-race win streak of Teddy Weaver in ACT Pure Street. Wilson ran the tables on the defending champion by out qualifying him and outrunning him in the big money final round, 9.66 at 140 mph to 9.69 at 139 mph. The Strange Engineering Coyote Stock field was whittled down to Drew Lyons and Joe Marini. All day long Lyons had the class talking about his consistently quick runs in the 10.30s and he would unleash another one in the final round (10.35 at 127 mph) to outrun the 2011 Mustang GT of Marini, who posted a 10.42 at 128 mph. It was the first NMRA victory in Lyons’ drag racing career.

As the big picture begins to become clear in most classes after just two races, one doesn’t haven’t too look far to see a dominating performance becoming quite apparent in American Racing Headers Factory Stock. Matt Amrine of Finish Line Performance has been consistently quicker and faster than the entire class through two races and eight elimination rounds. Will he go undefeated? Amrine is making a strong argument for it with his quick runs going anywhere from one-tenth-to-two tenths quicker than the rest of the field. In the finals, he took down JJ Jones of Woodbine Motorsports with a 10.74 at 124 mph to Jones’ 10.89 at 119 mph.

The Index side of the NMRA world is always close and exciting and the Atlanta Dragway stop on tour was no different. The Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle category saw Adam Cox kick and stick his way to the Aerospace Components Winners Circle, a rarity for a manual transmission equipped racecar. The Kentucky racer faced Donnie Bowles Jr. in the final elimination round and took the win light with a 10.35 at 141 mph to Bowles who played the stripe with a 9.99 run at just 128 mph. The Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning came down to Matt Banks in his Gen 2 Lightning truck and the Ranchero of Greg Bagnell. It was all old school with Bagnell and his 1970 Ranchero finishing on top.

Wrapping up the Roush Performance Super Stang category was the extremely lucky Chad Wendel over Bobby Barrick. Wendel overcame back-to-back rounds of starting line troubles only to watch his competition break out and he cruised to victory as he idled down track. But don’t let his luck make you think that is the only way he won the race, his skill took over in the last two rounds of competition. In the final Wendel dumped the throttle on his Moser Engineering sponsored ride near the finish line to run 11.58 at just 107 mph to earn the win light. The Flex-a-lite Open Comp saw Wesley Dalrymple go to his second straight final round and once again finished runner-up as Greg Cole took the stripe and the cash home with his 1988 Mustang.

Completing the on-track portion of the NMRA’s second stop on tour is HP Tuners True Street where there are several winners. At the top is the Overall Winner, Chris Escobar, who became a 15-time True Street winner with his twin turbocharged SVO Mustang. He won the class with a 9.15 average. Tim Grissam took the 10-second average victory while Darryl Hallford had the best 11-second average. Other True Steret winners include Justin Ehlin (12-second), Jeffery Eames (13-second), Mike Stearman Sr. (14-second), and James Rowell (15-second).