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12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals Sunday Coverage

Posted By: Steve Turner
After an action-packed Saturday, the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center All-Star Nationals roars into its final day at Atlanta Dragway this weekend. Today the heads-up and index classes run through eliminations deciding who takes those coveted trips to the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle. A special class will also crown a winner today as well when the top eight finishers in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout square off in the Arrington Performance HEMI Quick 8 presented by Redline Oil. [gallery size="large" columns="2" ids="15431,15432"] After rain shortened the program last night, the action kicks off early at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center All-Star Nationals as the event's champions are crowned in eliminations today. Jim Ault of Kettering, Ohio, is new to heads-up racing with the NMRA, but he's been a fan of the series for some time and he's no stranger to quick cars, as he has an 8-second S550 Mustang street machine. Ault picked up this 2003 Cobra, which had been set up to run Ultra Street with a turbocharged, modular engine to jump into the Edelbrock Renegade competition with. The chassis has been updated by Gary Rohe Race Cars, and the team made minor changes to the driveline, which includes an Extreme Transmissions Powerglide automatic and a Precision Turbo 76mm turbocharger. NMRA champion Brandon Alsept is crew chief on the Cobra and the team is hoping to improve on the 5.40 they clocked in qualifying earlier in the weekend.

We have seen some cool race car setups over the years, but this one really stands out. Matt Fint rolled into the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center All-Star Nationals with a newly completed Richmond Gear Factory Stock Mustang. He started the build of this Bright Atlantic Blue 98 back in 2014, but it stalled until recently. He picked up its new Tim Matherly-built Coyote bullet at Jacob Lamb's recent invitational race, and started assembling the car from a near shell days before this event. Fint, his dad Billy, and Jacob put it together in his home garage. However, the coolest feature is the Kirkey child passenger seat that meets the passenger-seat rules requirement and lets his daughters Elsie and Kopelynn take rides to local car shows. Fint is shaking it down with a safe Coyote Stock calibration before leaning harder on the fresh combo.

Steve Halprin is enjoying his first season in VP Madditives Street Outlaw and this weekend his dad is here with him. Halprin noted everyone is struggling to get a handle on the track and turning the power down. Halprin's season of learning as a driver rather than a car owner continues, as he unfortunately turned on the red light in the first round of eliminations against Phill Hines. This mild-mannered 2012 Mustang GT is competing in QA1 True Street with a simple, bolt-on combo. Dale Aldridge upgraded the factory Gen 1 Coyote 5.0-liter with an Airaid cold air intake, BBK headers, a custom exhaust, and a 2018 Mustang GT intake manifold ported by 1,320 junkie. He says just adding the intake really picked up, but what might be more impressive is that the car is still running like a top with the factory, 65,000-mile spark plugs in the heads. Keith Ciborowski has been dealing with some minor issues in his beautiful Terminator Cobra, the most recent of which was a problem with the bump box when staging the car during Edelbrock NMRA Renegade qualifying. Tuner Eric Holliday noted that they should have it sorted out when eliminations commence this morning. One of the most striking machines in the UPR Products car show was Robert Killian's Boss 9-powered rat rod based on a 35 International cab. He did much of the work, but Jen Greenstone of Cutworm Specialties and Steve Tucker at South East Race Cars helped it become a reality. The 598-cube engine is topped by Kaase cylinder heads and burning pump gas it pounds out 1,147 horsepower and over 1,000 lb-ft of torque. Running a C6 automatic and a Mark Williams rearend it is a street-worthy machine that has nearly 4,000 miles on the clock. Killian plans to upgrade the chassis and race it at next year's event. Dom DiDonato has been working on getting a hold of the tricky track surface in the heat here at Atlanta Dragway, and according to crew chief Chuck Wrzesniewski, If we turned the power down any more, we'd have to take the engine out. Whatever calls the team made, they were the right ones as DiDonato drove to a 4.49 and the first-round win over Steve Cagle.

Chris Graff put this simple Fox convertible together last fall after deciding to revive the car that sat in his garage. Now it runs easy 11.60s with a swapped stock Coyote 5.0 breathing deeply through a JLT Performance cold air intake. He is competing in the Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle class this weekend at Atlanta Dragway.
In her first round of heads-up competition, Becki Cram was victorious over NMCA veteran and Edelbrock Xtreme Street racer Tony Orts when Orts knocked the tires off at the hit. Becki and husband Joe just jumped into the NMRA Renegade this year and the Cobra Jet tribute Mustang isn't nearly optimized for the class just yet, but the car and driver are obviously capable of taking advantage of any flaws that show up in their opponent's game.

Not only does VP Racing Madditives sponsor the NMRA Street Outlaw class and VP Racing Lubricants sponsor the NMCA Pro Mod class, but the company is also on hand at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center All-Star Nationals supplying racers with VP Racing Fuels to feed their machines.

The top qualifier in NMRA Exedy Racing Clutches Modular Muscle, Chris Graff's 89 Mustang is a fairly basic build that's been bombproof. After being away from racing for about six years, he bought a stock Gen 2 Coyote engine and grabbed a C4 transmission from his old Renegade ride. With safety updates and chassis work by Cody Barklage at Starting Line Motorsports, Graff debuted the Fox body at Bowling Green last season. Now, Graff also has an 05 in the works for Mod Muscle use, but in the meantime is focused on not getting in his head during eliminations today. All the way from the great state of Texas, James Meredith of team Triangle Speed Shop is running his 73 Capri in NMRA Exedy Racing Clutches Modular Muscle and Gary Hollywood Parker is on photobomb duty. Meredith had been dabbling in some no prep racing lately, but computer issues meant a malfunctioning nitrous system so he had mixed results there. Now it's all sorted out and Meredith is glad to be back at 'real racing with a prepped track, although the giggle juice isn't in play this weekend. Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning driver Keith Chobirko is just one of many NMRA racers who is looking for a green light for Vinnie Telesco, who is on the mend after going several rounds with the Coronavirus. Chobirko's Ford Ranger is a highly capable machine, as is the driver who took the top spot in qualifying with a .002 reaction time.

Mark Anderson's Two-Valve knife must be pretty sharp, as he hung tough in Richmond Gear Factory Stock at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center All-Star Nationals. Apparently those cam and exhaust upgrades and hot sauce tune from his Uncle Rick worked. After qualifying his Laris Motorsports-backed machine in the second spot with a 10.40 at 126, he squared off against Matt Fint in the first round of eliminations. Fint left early, which served up the easy win to Anderson. That set the stage for a clash with number-three qualifier Mike Bowen's Coyote-powered Maverick in the second round where Anderson lost on a holeshot.

ELIMINATIONS are underway. We'll post a race wrap after all of the winners have visited the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle, but for results as we receive them today, click HERE

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