Just half way through the 2022 NMRA Ford Drag Racing season, several racers have already put on dominating performances in the categories, while other classes are still engaged in tight battles for championship points.
VP Racing Madditives Renegade
Two-time, back-to-back, and defending VP Racing Madditives Renegade champion Joel Greathouse has won the first three events this season. He and chief Justin McChesney have shown incredible poise and consistency with the KBX-powered Mustang, even when the track has proved difficult to get a handle on.
As normal, the Renegade class is combined with the NMCA’s Xtreme Street class at three events, and this year, we’ve seen an influx of new Ultra Street racers join the fray, as two of the combined events are serving as Radial Tire Racing Association points races.
While Greathouse has dominated the season so far, the competition is hot on his heels. Kieffer Simpson and Haley James claimed low ET and Top MPH at the season opener, respectively, and Simpson collected a runner-up finish.
At the second race in Rockingham, the NMCA’s Bill Trovato was laying down impressive times and coming off a victory at the NMCA season opener, while Becki Cram put down some quick times to garner a final-round appearance in North Carolina. That race was also Alton Clements 2022 season debut with is Vortech-powered Mustang, and he looks to be a solid contender with low ET for both Rockingham and Madison races, as well as number-one qualifier at the former. Lastly, the Super Bowl of Street-Legal Drag Racing in Madison, Illinois, saw Keith Ciborowski’s season debut in his father Mike’s turbocharged Mustang. A last-minute thrash got them to the track, and a top-notch combination along with precise tuning got them to the final round of competition at the Super Bowl.
JDM Engineering Limited Street
Building on her efforts from 2021, Samantha Moore has laid the smack down on the JDM Engineering class in 2022. The Michigan native swept the first three events, claimed and reset both the speed and ET records, and so far, looks to be not only unstoppable this season, but also on the cusp of breaking into the 7s.
Stacey Roby has a lock on second place in points for Limited Street, though class newcomer Del Holbrook made it to the final round in Rockingham with his nitrous-assisted Coyote Mustang. Holbrook has likely yet to unleash the full potential of his car, as the new driver continues to set personal bests each time he competes, while still learning in his first season in heads-up competition.
G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock
There aren’t many more exciting classes to watch than G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock, as the entire class is comprised of stick-shifted machines that often see two or three gear shifts before the front wheels come down. Sitting on top of the competitive and still-growing field is Charlie Booze Jr.
Booze Jr. has set the pace for the field at every event, taking number-one qualifier honors and setting the low ET for each event. He followed up his runner-up finish at the season opener in Bradenton with back-to-wins at Rockingham and Madison.
Taking the fight to Booze Jr. are Shane Stymiest and Randy Soper. Soper took claimed victory in Bradenton, while Stymiest made final round appearances at the following two events to step into second place. Booze Jr. currently sits over 500 points ahead of Stymiest going into the second half of the season, but with as tight as the field usually is during eliminations, anyone has a shot at winning.
Richmond Gear Factory Stock
Yet to be defeated in 2022, Mike Bowen is on a tear in Richmond Gear Factory Stock competition. Bowen and his Ford Maverick have not only collected all three Victor awards this season, but have also claimed low ET, Top MPH and both ET and Speed records for the class.
Sitting firmly in second place is Chris Niebauer and his Fox-body Mustang. Niebauer has met Bowen in all three final rounds and is several hundred points ahead of Tom Mueller and 2020 class champion and veteran, John Leslie Jr. And as of the Super Bowl race, Mark Anderson is back in competition and has partnered up with Team Dirty Bird and the Stephens family, who purchased Anderson’s Two-Valve-powered Mustang just prior to the event. The bright green Fox Body has proven to be a capable performer, and perhaps even more so with the Team Dirty Bird pooling its knowledge and resources.
Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle
With wins in Rockingham and Madison, Shane Williams leads the points race in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle, with former Modular Muscle and Open Comp champion Susan Roush-McClenaghan just a few hundred points behind in second place.
Absent from competition in 2022 is defending and three-time class champion Jason Henson, and that has left the door open for others such as Matt Harget and Andy Russell to step up into the top five. Class veteran Charlie McCulloch remains in the fight as well.
ARP Open Comp
The points race is tight in the NMRA’s ARP Open Comp category with less than 100 points between the top two racers. William Jones grabbed the season opener win over Mel White, but has fallen down in the rankings as Terry Haynal grabbed the win in Rockingham. Jon M. Pickering raced to the NMRA Winner’s Circle in Madison, but it has been Dennis Corn who is collecting round wins to set himself in second place. Runner up in Madison, Charlie Atkinson, is just 10 points behind Pickering, currently in Fourth place.
Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning
2020 Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning champion Bob Dill grabbed a win in Bradenton at the start of the year, and added a runner up, final-round appearance to put him at the top of the championship points going into the fourth race of the season.
With Johnny Wiker’s runner up in Bradenton, and round wins, Johnny Lightning sits a close second, with 2021 class champion Mike Roup less than a hundred points behind Wiker. Roup runner up’d in Madison to Gregory Collins, who now sits Fourth in points after three rounds of the 2022 NMRA season.
HP Tuners Super Stang
With numerous Super Stang championship to his name, Marvin Knack has plenty of round wins under his belt, and it’s round wins that have put him in the championship points lead despite not having won a race this season. Knack has, however, gone to the final round at the Super Bowl event in Madison, Illinois, but faces stiff competition from defending class champion Chris Parisi, who opened his 2022 NMRA season with a win in Bradenton.
Chris Rusch and Rodney Ward both collected wins to put them in the top five, and Logan Day, Mike Moistner, and Dale Aldridge have been going rounds and collecting points to ensure they stay in the hunt for the championship going into the second half of the season.
SCT Ford Muscle
2021 SCT Ford Muscle champion Danny Towe is staying right where he left at the 2021 season finale in Bowling Green, which is at the top of the points list. Towe went to the final round in Bradenton where he placed runner up to John Butsko, and followed that up with another final-round appearance at Rockingham at the conclusion of which he drove all the way to the NMRA Winner’s Circle.
Towe is followed closely by 2020 Ford Muscle champion, David Mormann, in second place—a pairing of class-name-appropriate, classic Ford Mustangs. The top five racers are separated by just a few hundred points, and Jason Phillips win at the Super Bowl in Madison, Illinois, has him rapidly climbing the list.
Mickey Thompson X275
While not an NMRA points class this year, Mickey Thompson X275 largely follows the previous year’s Street Outlaw rules, but is part of the Radial Tire Racing Association points series for 2022. The class will run with the NMRA at the three NMRA/NMCA combined events this year and racers will collect points at these races. At the two events the NMRA has hosted the class, Justin Palmer and Eric Moore have taken victories with their Ford-powered, Fox-Body Mustangs.
The second half of the 2022 Holley NMRA Ford Nationals series picks up in just two weeks with the NMRA Ford Performance Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
VP Racing Madditives Renegade
Two-time, back-to-back, and defending VP Racing Madditives Renegade champion Joel Greathouse has won the first three events this season. He and chief Justin McChesney have shown incredible poise and consistency with the KBX-powered Mustang, even when the track has proved difficult to get a handle on.
As normal, the Renegade class is combined with the NMCA’s Xtreme Street class at three events, and this year, we’ve seen an influx of new Ultra Street racers join the fray, as two of the combined events are serving as Radial Tire Racing Association points races.
While Greathouse has dominated the season so far, the competition is hot on his heels. Kieffer Simpson and Haley James claimed low ET and Top MPH at the season opener, respectively, and Simpson collected a runner-up finish.
At the second race in Rockingham, the NMCA’s Bill Trovato was laying down impressive times and coming off a victory at the NMCA season opener, while Becki Cram put down some quick times to garner a final-round appearance in North Carolina. That race was also Alton Clements 2022 season debut with is Vortech-powered Mustang, and he looks to be a solid contender with low ET for both Rockingham and Madison races, as well as number-one qualifier at the former. Lastly, the Super Bowl of Street-Legal Drag Racing in Madison, Illinois, saw Keith Ciborowski’s season debut in his father Mike’s turbocharged Mustang. A last-minute thrash got them to the track, and a top-notch combination along with precise tuning got them to the final round of competition at the Super Bowl.
JDM Engineering Limited Street
Building on her efforts from 2021, Samantha Moore has laid the smack down on the JDM Engineering class in 2022. The Michigan native swept the first three events, claimed and reset both the speed and ET records, and so far, looks to be not only unstoppable this season, but also on the cusp of breaking into the 7s.
Stacey Roby has a lock on second place in points for Limited Street, though class newcomer Del Holbrook made it to the final round in Rockingham with his nitrous-assisted Coyote Mustang. Holbrook has likely yet to unleash the full potential of his car, as the new driver continues to set personal bests each time he competes, while still learning in his first season in heads-up competition.
G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock
There aren’t many more exciting classes to watch than G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock, as the entire class is comprised of stick-shifted machines that often see two or three gear shifts before the front wheels come down. Sitting on top of the competitive and still-growing field is Charlie Booze Jr.
Booze Jr. has set the pace for the field at every event, taking number-one qualifier honors and setting the low ET for each event. He followed up his runner-up finish at the season opener in Bradenton with back-to-wins at Rockingham and Madison.
Taking the fight to Booze Jr. are Shane Stymiest and Randy Soper. Soper took claimed victory in Bradenton, while Stymiest made final round appearances at the following two events to step into second place. Booze Jr. currently sits over 500 points ahead of Stymiest going into the second half of the season, but with as tight as the field usually is during eliminations, anyone has a shot at winning.
Richmond Gear Factory Stock
Yet to be defeated in 2022, Mike Bowen is on a tear in Richmond Gear Factory Stock competition. Bowen and his Ford Maverick have not only collected all three Victor awards this season, but have also claimed low ET, Top MPH and both ET and Speed records for the class.
Sitting firmly in second place is Chris Niebauer and his Fox-body Mustang. Niebauer has met Bowen in all three final rounds and is several hundred points ahead of Tom Mueller and 2020 class champion and veteran, John Leslie Jr. And as of the Super Bowl race, Mark Anderson is back in competition and has partnered up with Team Dirty Bird and the Stephens family, who purchased Anderson’s Two-Valve-powered Mustang just prior to the event. The bright green Fox Body has proven to be a capable performer, and perhaps even more so with the Team Dirty Bird pooling its knowledge and resources.
Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle
With wins in Rockingham and Madison, Shane Williams leads the points race in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle, with former Modular Muscle and Open Comp champion Susan Roush-McClenaghan just a few hundred points behind in second place.
Absent from competition in 2022 is defending and three-time class champion Jason Henson, and that has left the door open for others such as Matt Harget and Andy Russell to step up into the top five. Class veteran Charlie McCulloch remains in the fight as well.
ARP Open Comp
The points race is tight in the NMRA’s ARP Open Comp category with less than 100 points between the top two racers. William Jones grabbed the season opener win over Mel White, but has fallen down in the rankings as Terry Haynal grabbed the win in Rockingham. Jon M. Pickering raced to the NMRA Winner’s Circle in Madison, but it has been Dennis Corn who is collecting round wins to set himself in second place. Runner up in Madison, Charlie Atkinson, is just 10 points behind Pickering, currently in Fourth place.
Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning
2020 Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning champion Bob Dill grabbed a win in Bradenton at the start of the year, and added a runner up, final-round appearance to put him at the top of the championship points going into the fourth race of the season.
With Johnny Wiker’s runner up in Bradenton, and round wins, Johnny Lightning sits a close second, with 2021 class champion Mike Roup less than a hundred points behind Wiker. Roup runner up’d in Madison to Gregory Collins, who now sits Fourth in points after three rounds of the 2022 NMRA season.
HP Tuners Super Stang
With numerous Super Stang championship to his name, Marvin Knack has plenty of round wins under his belt, and it’s round wins that have put him in the championship points lead despite not having won a race this season. Knack has, however, gone to the final round at the Super Bowl event in Madison, Illinois, but faces stiff competition from defending class champion Chris Parisi, who opened his 2022 NMRA season with a win in Bradenton.
Chris Rusch and Rodney Ward both collected wins to put them in the top five, and Logan Day, Mike Moistner, and Dale Aldridge have been going rounds and collecting points to ensure they stay in the hunt for the championship going into the second half of the season.
SCT Ford Muscle
2021 SCT Ford Muscle champion Danny Towe is staying right where he left at the 2021 season finale in Bowling Green, which is at the top of the points list. Towe went to the final round in Bradenton where he placed runner up to John Butsko, and followed that up with another final-round appearance at Rockingham at the conclusion of which he drove all the way to the NMRA Winner’s Circle.
Towe is followed closely by 2020 Ford Muscle champion, David Mormann, in second place—a pairing of class-name-appropriate, classic Ford Mustangs. The top five racers are separated by just a few hundred points, and Jason Phillips win at the Super Bowl in Madison, Illinois, has him rapidly climbing the list.
Mickey Thompson X275
While not an NMRA points class this year, Mickey Thompson X275 largely follows the previous year’s Street Outlaw rules, but is part of the Radial Tire Racing Association points series for 2022. The class will run with the NMRA at the three NMRA/NMCA combined events this year and racers will collect points at these races. At the two events the NMRA has hosted the class, Justin Palmer and Eric Moore have taken victories with their Ford-powered, Fox-Body Mustangs.
The second half of the 2022 Holley NMRA Ford Nationals series picks up in just two weeks with the NMRA Ford Performance Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.