What’s a girl to do when she’s won back-to-back championships, set multiple records, and her current class gets archived? Well, when she’s Samantha Moore, she doubles down and decides to completely overhauls her competition car in favor of stepping up to a quicker, more challenging category.
After winning the NMRA Limited Street championship title in 2022, Moore once again clinched the title for 2023 after capturing her fourth win in just five races, with one still left to go. It was a season of ups and downs for Moore for sure, as she fought to overcome mechanical trouble and less-than-ideal conditions on more than one occasion, but she held on strong and added multiple top-qualifier honors to her impressive résumé along the way.
The co-owner of Michigan-based Vector Motorsports also set and reset both ends of the NMRA Limited Street class record several times throughout the year, most recently with a quarter-mile elapsed time of 7.830-seconds and a trap speed of 175.98 mph from her ProCharger-supercharged 2014 Ford Mustang California Special.
“There was a mid-season rule change that allowed me get some weight out of the car and I saved nearly 100-pounds thanks to my TurboStart and their new 16-Volt Lithium batteries battery,” noted Moore, whose S197 now sits around 3,500 pounds and was recently outfitted with a new sponsored set of Mickey Thompson’s famous rubber. Moore also has worked relentlessly to refine her California Special’s combination throughout the year, testing no fewer than nine different intake manifolds. “The guys at Coan Racing always jump through hoops to help me, and we’ve made a few stator changes as well which has worked wonders and allowed us to trap as high as 178.01 mph.”
Looking ahead to 2024, though, Moore’s familiar playground isn’t an option anymore… so, she’s stepping up to NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade and Ultra Street instead.
“I hate to have to cut the car up,” lamented Moore, who will be converting it to Renegade trim during the upcoming off-season. “I’m definitely sticking with a ProCharger and Coan transmission, but am debating either staying with Coyote power or going to a small block Ford engine – either of which will be built by Holbrook Racing Engines.”
The tremendous amount of work it’s going to take to make the move up is a daunting task, and the clock is ticking quite quickly. Fortunately, her Mustang’s RJ ProFab-built cage and chassis are already up to par, but Moore will have to completely rewire the car with MilSpec components from Modern Racing from nose to tail, cut apart the front end, mini-tub the rear, add a ton of lightweight components, and do lots of fabrication in the rear end to accommodate the changes.
Additionally, Moore will also be upgrading to an all-Aeromotive mechanical fuel system and swapping the car over to run on alcohol, and she will control the combustion chaos via the onboard Holley EFI system.
“I thought about taking a year off and building it right, but I didn’t want to miss out on the momentum we’ve got right now and I owe it to my sponsors to keep going,” said the diehard racer who chooses success over sleep and is grateful to the support of ZPE Griptec, among many others, who help make her program possible. “We’ll do as much as we can during the winter to be ready for the first NMRA race in Florida in late February and then refine it as we go, just like we did for Limited Street.”
Moore knows that she’s stepping into shark-infested waters with NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade and other Ultra Street events, and that she’s going to be at a disadvantage initially, but she’s never one to shy from a challenge and welcomes the opportunity to expand her skillset both as a tuner and as a driver. “I’m going to miss quarter-mile racing and I know I’ll get my ass handed to me at first,” she stated with surprising calmness, “but I need a challenge and I’m excited to have more opportunities to race against respected teams. I’m also excited for the good crossover opportunities between the classes and hope to attend some big events like No Mercy, Lights Out and YellowBullet in the future.”
After winning the NMRA Limited Street championship title in 2022, Moore once again clinched the title for 2023 after capturing her fourth win in just five races, with one still left to go. It was a season of ups and downs for Moore for sure, as she fought to overcome mechanical trouble and less-than-ideal conditions on more than one occasion, but she held on strong and added multiple top-qualifier honors to her impressive résumé along the way.
The co-owner of Michigan-based Vector Motorsports also set and reset both ends of the NMRA Limited Street class record several times throughout the year, most recently with a quarter-mile elapsed time of 7.830-seconds and a trap speed of 175.98 mph from her ProCharger-supercharged 2014 Ford Mustang California Special.
“There was a mid-season rule change that allowed me get some weight out of the car and I saved nearly 100-pounds thanks to my TurboStart and their new 16-Volt Lithium batteries battery,” noted Moore, whose S197 now sits around 3,500 pounds and was recently outfitted with a new sponsored set of Mickey Thompson’s famous rubber. Moore also has worked relentlessly to refine her California Special’s combination throughout the year, testing no fewer than nine different intake manifolds. “The guys at Coan Racing always jump through hoops to help me, and we’ve made a few stator changes as well which has worked wonders and allowed us to trap as high as 178.01 mph.”
Looking ahead to 2024, though, Moore’s familiar playground isn’t an option anymore… so, she’s stepping up to NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade and Ultra Street instead.
“I hate to have to cut the car up,” lamented Moore, who will be converting it to Renegade trim during the upcoming off-season. “I’m definitely sticking with a ProCharger and Coan transmission, but am debating either staying with Coyote power or going to a small block Ford engine – either of which will be built by Holbrook Racing Engines.”
The tremendous amount of work it’s going to take to make the move up is a daunting task, and the clock is ticking quite quickly. Fortunately, her Mustang’s RJ ProFab-built cage and chassis are already up to par, but Moore will have to completely rewire the car with MilSpec components from Modern Racing from nose to tail, cut apart the front end, mini-tub the rear, add a ton of lightweight components, and do lots of fabrication in the rear end to accommodate the changes.
Additionally, Moore will also be upgrading to an all-Aeromotive mechanical fuel system and swapping the car over to run on alcohol, and she will control the combustion chaos via the onboard Holley EFI system.
“I thought about taking a year off and building it right, but I didn’t want to miss out on the momentum we’ve got right now and I owe it to my sponsors to keep going,” said the diehard racer who chooses success over sleep and is grateful to the support of ZPE Griptec, among many others, who help make her program possible. “We’ll do as much as we can during the winter to be ready for the first NMRA race in Florida in late February and then refine it as we go, just like we did for Limited Street.”
Moore knows that she’s stepping into shark-infested waters with NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade and other Ultra Street events, and that she’s going to be at a disadvantage initially, but she’s never one to shy from a challenge and welcomes the opportunity to expand her skillset both as a tuner and as a driver. “I’m going to miss quarter-mile racing and I know I’ll get my ass handed to me at first,” she stated with surprising calmness, “but I need a challenge and I’m excited to have more opportunities to race against respected teams. I’m also excited for the good crossover opportunities between the classes and hope to attend some big events like No Mercy, Lights Out and YellowBullet in the future.”