With high hopes and emphatic eagerness, racers and race fans are preparing for the Holley NMRA/Red Line Oil NMCA Race for the Rings & Saturday Thrill Festival, May 3-5, 2024 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois.

This is the second race of the year for the Red Line Oil NMCA series and the third race of the year for the Holley NMRA series, and in addition to revving up for a chance to collect a coveted ring, heads-up and index racers in both series are already firmly focused on earning enough points to capture class championships at the end of the season.

Qualifying is sure to be off the charts today, and we can also look forward to the Saturday Thrill Festival with jet cars, FMX Motocross Stunt Shows, the World's Largest BIGFOOT, a sizable car show, manufacturers’ midway and much more. Come back to NMCADigital.com and NMRADigital.com each day through Sunday for race news, schedules, photos, qualifying, eliminations and a race wrap.


Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer Brandon Kessinger’s background is in oval dirt competition, winning championships along the way. After his daughter got older he wanted to get back into racing, and being involved with the Anderson family, naturally drag racing was a good fit so he took over the green car most recently piloted by Mark Anderson. These days it wears a white wrap, but the Jon Carls Two-Valve remains under the hood with a C4 transmission in the tunnel. The car didn’t run its best for first round of qualifying, and Kessinger attributes that to moisture in the fuel system. Kessinger tells us he missed the All Star Nationals at Rockingham, and he thinks during the downtime, moisture made its way into the fuel, so the car’s fuel system was drained, and replaced with fresh fuel for this evening’s second round of qualifying pass, where he was rewarded with a 10.35 at 127 mph. With maybe 11 passes on the car, Kessinger is still getting used the car, so we’re sure he’ll only get quicker.               


Rummaging through the pits looking for Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock racer Drew Lyons was a lesson in patience until we saw the car’s Bogart wheels poking out past his enclosed trailer. We knew we finally found him. The Holley NMRA Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway is Lyons’ first race of the year. He did test the car the previous weekend, and he was encouraged by the car’s performance. In round 1 of qualifying, Lyons did his usual wheelie, but still ran a 9.81, roughly half a tenth off the top qualifier. When we found him, he was going over data and putting together a game plan on how to tame the car at the launch. Over the offseason, Lyons did add Menscer shocks out back, and sadly, the Bogarts will be getting replaced, as well, but Lyons will also be adding a Tin Soldiers Fab9 rear end by the next race. Lyons runs a Gen 3 Coyote with a hodgepodge of clutch components, and a G-Force G101A transmission. The suspension in the car is also a hodgepodge of different manufacturers with components from Racecraft, Team Z Motorsports, and Maximum Motorsports. Lyons’ goal for this weekend is to qualify in the top half of the ladder and go rounds on Sunday.              

Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle racer Adam Cox finds himself third in points coming into the Holley NMRA Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway here in St. Louis. He’s done a few things to help make his car a little more consistent in Modular Muscle competition. With help from Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock racer Jacob Lamb, Cox made a clutch and pressure plate test stand, capable of measuring pressure plate clamping force. The test stand allows Cox to fine-tune the car’s clutch to not only improve overall performance, but maybe even more importantly, the car’s consistency. Most recently, Cox changed out the car’s braking system when he discovered the previous arrangement might’ve been dragging the brakes. Working with JC Cascio from Strange Engineering, Cox revamped much of the car’s braking system to unleash all the horsepowers. Also, and using his clutch test stand, along with the car’s AEM CD7 with 22-channel logger, he noticed at the All Star Nationals at Rockingham, the data showed the existing clutch was going away. He swapped out the clutch for a new Frankenstein unit of his own creation. The former clutch had been in the car for a year and a half, and seeing Cox’s car go down the track, that appears to be nothing short of amazing. He hopes the car goes down the track several times, especially come Sunday because that means he’s going rounds, and that’s exactly what needs to gain ground in the points.


Another Holley NMRA race means another Lee Blankenship update. Blankenship is like many of you who have maybe hit an event or two during a season, but for 2024 he dedicated himself to making every event. Running a Two-Valve with ported PI heads, a Trick Flow intake and a Vortech JT-Trim supercharger to run mid-10s in his 1996 Mustang GT in Tangerine, he didn’t have chance to do a whole lot to the car between the All Star Nationals and this weekend. However, when he went to unload the car Thursday morning, the engine wasn’t happy. A fresh set of NGK 4644 gasket seat spark plugs later, and the car is back to actin’ right. Another tidbit we learned about Blankenship’s GT is that the cylinder heads were treated to a 9-thread spark plug insert. If you’ve been around Mustangs or modular Ford engines for any length of time you know many spit out a spark plug due to many cylinder heads featuring just 4 threads for which the spark plug to grab. With a 9-thread arrangement, the spark plugs have a fighting chance of staying in the heads, even under boosted conditions. Speaking of a fighting chance, Blankenship is giving himself a better chance of going rounds here at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway by entering not just Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle, but also ARP Open Comp.


So far in 2024, Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock racer Jacob Lamb has been hitting event closer to home to preserve vacation time for actual vacations. His usual red Coyote Stock ride features a few modifications not legal for the class, so he has this 1986 LX coupe with him here at the Holley NMRA Nationals. This car was formerly owned by NMRA racer Kevin Scott, and even though the car has a few laps under its belt with its current Gen 3 Coyote engine, GForce G101A transmission and Ram clutch, this weekend will be the first event Lamb has raced the car. In Thursday’s test session, Lamb ran a 9.96, but acknowledged he had a few issues during the pass. Lamb’s goal is to qualify in the top half of the field. With the aforementioned accoutrements, to give the car a fighting chance, Lamb has also outfitted the original V8 car with a full set of Menscer Motorsports shocks and struts, UPR suspension upgrades and an AJE fabricated 9-inch rear end.           

Here is Friday's schedule, and for Saturday Thrill Festival features, including Jet Cars, BIGFOOT, FMX Stunts and UPR Products Car Show, click https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS4Ku_MQOoVBkSwi4t7lOl_8i_m71zICQarvbfcrWtuFVz2vLsENLDiaWxOBQjNcA/pubhtml