Bradenton is wrapped up!
Written by - Jason Reiss and Greg Acosta

After a wild weekend of racing, crashes, record-setting passes, and insane wheelstands, the 8th Annual Nitto Tire Spring Nationals have been completed. Although the mainstream media has been ranting about ‘gloom and doom’ about the economy, the fans packed the stands in droves, the racecars showed up, and everyone in attendance had the opportunity to watch the best all-Ford racers in the country do battle on the 1320. The NMRA Keystone Ford Nationals is alive and well!

Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5 had what could only be termed a tough weekend. From Jerry Morgano’s front-end wreck during test and tune to ’08 Champion Conrad Scarry’s wreck yesterday to Dwayne James’ fireball today, nearly half the field had to deal with extraneous issues. Keith Neal, who had issues all last season that prevented him from doing well, ran through the field like a man with his hair on fire, taking his very first NMRA Pro Outlaw 10.5 win over Rueben Tetoshvili with a 7.28 at over 199MPH.

In ProCharger Super Street Outlaw, ’08 Champion John Urist seemed to be on a roll. He qualified number one, took out Chris Tuten in round one of eliminations, and had a bye into the final. On the other side of the ladder, Don Burton rolled through Perry Santini and John MacDonald to meet up with Urist in the final. After a lengthy staging battle, the tree dropped, Burton rolled out, and Urist didn’t move. Don Burton is your event winner!

Edelbrock’s Hot Street class featured the typical close racing style that the class is known for. In eliminations, Ben Mens took out Max Gross before his second-round bye, while Robbie Blankenship earned a first round bye as the top qualifier. Blankenship faced off against Tim Eichhorn in round two, with an 8.87 taking the win over Eichhorn’s 8.89. In the final round, the Roush Competition Engines-powered teammates squared off, and Mens rolled through the beams, handing the easy win to Blankenship.

DiabloSport EFI Renegade saw some familiar faces come out to play in the sun. Dan Rawls piloted Wizard I to the number one qualifier spot with an 8.40 at 163 miles per hour. The final round came down to Brian Mitchell and Chris VanGilder duking it out for top dog. It was an 8.61 to 8.64 race with Mitchell coming out on top.

BFGoodrich Tires’ Drag Radial class underwent some changes over the winter designed to tighten up the performances of the various combinations. Jason Lee ran the first competition 7-second pass to take out Matt Bell, then outran Sonny Biggs on his way to the final round. Sean Lyon, returning from the land of “where did they go?” beat a pair of Johnsons, Pete in the first round and newcomer Orson in the second before taking his competition bye in the semi. When Lyon and Lee met up in the final, Lee uncorked another 7-second pass to put Lyon on the trailer and win the first Drag Radial race of the season.

5.0 Mustang Magazine Real Street racers came out of the gate hard with most of the field in the single digits. Sitting in the big dawg’s chair at the end of Saturday was Jim Breese with a blazing 9.62 at 141 miles per hour. After whittling the class down to the final pair, it was Dave Ginter and Tim Matherly facing off. In a close race, Matherly outran Ginter 9.63 to 9.70 in the all-Modular Real Street final.

Eibach Pure Street was packed with new and familiar faces. After three rounds of qualifying, Mark Anderson sat atop the Pure Street field with a 10.23-second pass at 129 miles per hour. Consistant performances brought Anderson to the final round to face former champ Jimmy Wilson. The race was over before it started when Anderson went red by .016 seconds.

In ACT Factory Stock, Carlos Sobrino came out with an 11.48 at 117 mph mass early in qualifying to take the number one spot on the ladder going into eliminations. On Sunday, reigning champion Tommy Godfrey found his mojo and ran the table with a string of eleven-teen passes to meet John Leslie Jr. in the final round, where an 11.18 defeated Leslie’s 11.64 to take the first win of the season.

ROUSH Modular Muscle started the season off right with a solid 18-car field. Reigning champ Tom Motycka came out on top on Saturday with a .002-second reaction time. By the time the final pair came out, only Susan McClenaghan and Paul Svinicki were left standing. McClenaghan took herself out before the race technically started with a .056 redlight, giving Svinicki the win.

Steeda Open Comp saw Bruce Parker take out Dach Anderson.

In Detroit Locker Truck and Lighting defending champion Mike Motycka defeated Marco Ponce Jr.

The Spring Break Shootout was won by multi-time True Street winner Chris Escobar.

Full results are here.