Although the 2023 Holley NMRA Ford Nationals season is wrapping up with its grand finale in Bowling Green, Kentucky, at the end of September, there’s plenty of new stuff just getting started; the event will host the first running of the new NMRA Street Bandit 10.10 Presented by Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts category and plenty of racers – including Matt Fint – are preparing their programs in anticipation of getting in on some of the action.
Fint searched for months before he found and purchased his rare, 1-of-563 Bright Atlantic Blue 1998 Ford Mustang Cobra back in 2008. At the time, the car had a tag and title and did a stint as Fint’s daily driver before it slowly got turned into a racecar. In 2010, the Kentucky native began campaigning the car in classes such as NMRA Modular Muscle, NMRA Factory Stock, and most recently, NMRA Coyote Stock.
“I had planned to take 2023 so I could spend more time with my family,” noted Fint, whose fiancée, Sarah, and daughters, Kopelynn, Elsie, and Natalie, all approved of the idea. “I sold my Kooks headers to buy a turbo and was building the car to run in NMRA SunCoast Performance 8.60 Street Race in 2024.”
Feeling the itch to race again, Fint’s mentor and “second dad,” Jacob Lamb, generously let him put the inaugural laps on the new Mustang he had built for his own son, Jesse Lamb, at the Ford Takeover event in June in Tennessee. “I had been scheduled to work that weekend, but my boss, Adam Cain, who owns Cain Auto Supply and the NAPA where I work, covered my shift and encouraged me to go,” said Fint, grateful for his employer’s generosity.
Fint had decided to keep his car in an all-motor configuration, albeit temporarily, so he could make it to the NMRA World Finals Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival where he would run in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle before completing the transition to a boosted combination.
Instead, he focused on a more long-term plan that centered around a heads-up, quarter-mile, single-index goal. “Well, I had already broken the seals on my Gen 3 Coyote so I engine decided to keep it naturally aspirated and run the new Street Bandit 10.10 class instead,” proclaimed Fint. His Cobra had hadn’t a license plate on it in nearly a decade, but he quickly resolved that and added insurance as well as new interior carpet for the car as per the class rules.
Next, Fint obtained a set of Mickey Thompson radial tires and added a sheet metal intake manifold to the Ford Performance powerplant. Given that he had run a personal best of 9.86 seconds in the quarter-mile in NMRA Coyote Stock-legal trim, he knew his setup would suffice for the slightly slower 10.10 elapsed time goal of his new class and chose to keep the rest of his parts as they were.
Over the years, Fint had outfitted his SN95 with a G-Force G101-A transmission, Ram adjustable clutch, 9” rear end from AJE Suspensions, an AJE K-member and A-arms, UPR Products rear upper and lower control arms, Strange struts in the front with Viking double-adjustable shocks in the rear, Moser axles, Aerospace Components brakes at all four corners, and Billet Specialties wheels.
“I built this car to be nearly identical to Jacob Lamb’s Fox body so we can swap parts back and forth as needed,” added the man who is committed to the concept of teamwork and shows loyalty to his people in spades. “I also kept the little Jr. Dragster Kirkey passenger seat with pink harnesses that I added for my girls when I was in Factory Stock.”
With the conversion to street car-legal status complete, Fint plans to attend a local test session or two before rolling out to Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky for the grand NMRA finale and his debut in the new Street Bandit 10.10 Presented by Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts class.
And, in addition to the support from Cain Auto Supply, he’s got David Todd of Todd and Sons Properties, Zach Parkerson of The Tint Factory, his father and backbone of his entire operating, Billy Fint, as well as his soon-to-be father-in-law, Rodney Goodlett, all backing his efforts.
“All of my turbo stuff is in tote bins on a shelf, because the plan down the road is to still go that route,” explained the man whose off-season plans also include spraying his Cobra with a fresh coat of paint and starting a powder coating business. “I expect to run the full Street Bandit 10.10 season in 2024 and maybe run Street Race 8.60 after that, but who knows, I may love Street Bandit 10.10 so much that I decide to stay there indefinitely.”
Fint searched for months before he found and purchased his rare, 1-of-563 Bright Atlantic Blue 1998 Ford Mustang Cobra back in 2008. At the time, the car had a tag and title and did a stint as Fint’s daily driver before it slowly got turned into a racecar. In 2010, the Kentucky native began campaigning the car in classes such as NMRA Modular Muscle, NMRA Factory Stock, and most recently, NMRA Coyote Stock.
“I had planned to take 2023 so I could spend more time with my family,” noted Fint, whose fiancée, Sarah, and daughters, Kopelynn, Elsie, and Natalie, all approved of the idea. “I sold my Kooks headers to buy a turbo and was building the car to run in NMRA SunCoast Performance 8.60 Street Race in 2024.”
Feeling the itch to race again, Fint’s mentor and “second dad,” Jacob Lamb, generously let him put the inaugural laps on the new Mustang he had built for his own son, Jesse Lamb, at the Ford Takeover event in June in Tennessee. “I had been scheduled to work that weekend, but my boss, Adam Cain, who owns Cain Auto Supply and the NAPA where I work, covered my shift and encouraged me to go,” said Fint, grateful for his employer’s generosity.
Fint had decided to keep his car in an all-motor configuration, albeit temporarily, so he could make it to the NMRA World Finals Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival where he would run in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle before completing the transition to a boosted combination.
Instead, he focused on a more long-term plan that centered around a heads-up, quarter-mile, single-index goal. “Well, I had already broken the seals on my Gen 3 Coyote so I engine decided to keep it naturally aspirated and run the new Street Bandit 10.10 class instead,” proclaimed Fint. His Cobra had hadn’t a license plate on it in nearly a decade, but he quickly resolved that and added insurance as well as new interior carpet for the car as per the class rules.
Next, Fint obtained a set of Mickey Thompson radial tires and added a sheet metal intake manifold to the Ford Performance powerplant. Given that he had run a personal best of 9.86 seconds in the quarter-mile in NMRA Coyote Stock-legal trim, he knew his setup would suffice for the slightly slower 10.10 elapsed time goal of his new class and chose to keep the rest of his parts as they were.
Over the years, Fint had outfitted his SN95 with a G-Force G101-A transmission, Ram adjustable clutch, 9” rear end from AJE Suspensions, an AJE K-member and A-arms, UPR Products rear upper and lower control arms, Strange struts in the front with Viking double-adjustable shocks in the rear, Moser axles, Aerospace Components brakes at all four corners, and Billet Specialties wheels.
“I built this car to be nearly identical to Jacob Lamb’s Fox body so we can swap parts back and forth as needed,” added the man who is committed to the concept of teamwork and shows loyalty to his people in spades. “I also kept the little Jr. Dragster Kirkey passenger seat with pink harnesses that I added for my girls when I was in Factory Stock.”
With the conversion to street car-legal status complete, Fint plans to attend a local test session or two before rolling out to Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky for the grand NMRA finale and his debut in the new Street Bandit 10.10 Presented by Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts class.
And, in addition to the support from Cain Auto Supply, he’s got David Todd of Todd and Sons Properties, Zach Parkerson of The Tint Factory, his father and backbone of his entire operating, Billy Fint, as well as his soon-to-be father-in-law, Rodney Goodlett, all backing his efforts.
“All of my turbo stuff is in tote bins on a shelf, because the plan down the road is to still go that route,” explained the man whose off-season plans also include spraying his Cobra with a fresh coat of paint and starting a powder coating business. “I expect to run the full Street Bandit 10.10 season in 2024 and maybe run Street Race 8.60 after that, but who knows, I may love Street Bandit 10.10 so much that I decide to stay there indefinitely.”