Written By Mary Lendzion
Photography by the Race Pages staff and courtesy of Samantha Moore
Samantha Moore sets herself up for success. She constantly thinks about her car, and how she can coax more power from her combination for NMRA JDM Engineering Limited Street competition.
That has worked wonders for Moore, who co-owns Vector Motorsports in Brighton, Michigan, with Dan Sienkiewicz, as she has been a formidable competitor in the three years that she has been raced in the heads-up category. She has led qualifying, set records, and won races, and she came close to capturing a season championship last year in her 2014 Mustang with a 25.3 cage by RJ ProFab in New York.
To recap, she started her remarkable year of racing at the BMR Suspension NMRA Spring Break Shootout last March at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, where she led qualifying, won the race and set the category’s elapsed time and top speed records with an 8.185 and 162.68 mph. It was proof that she and her new Coyote engine built at her shop and paired with a VMP Gen II-R TVS supercharger ported by Jokerz Performance and Coan Turbo 400 were ready to rumble.
Next up was the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport last April at Atlanta Dragway, where Moore led qualifying again and reset her top speed record with a 164.29 mph. Unfortunately, she struggled with electrical issues in her car and exited in the semifinal round of eliminations.
At the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing presented by HPJ Performance last May at World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois, she reset her top speed record with a 167.09 mph, but her hopes of winning were dashed when her car stalled in the water box.
“My car had never stalled like that before, and when I got it restarted, it stuttered,” said Moore. “It slowed to an 8.50-something on that pass and I lost. We did a leak down and compression test in the pits, which showed no obvious problems, but I knew something had to have happened because my car has never felt like that.”
With a mid-season rule change calling for a larger pulley for the blower combination, Moore performed the work and put her car on the dyno to see what boost and power levels would be.
“On the first baseline pull right after I lifted, I felt the engine let go and smoke was everywhere,” said Moore. “The engine decided to chuck a rod and install a window, destroying the engine and most everything in it. I’m assuming we spun a few rod bearings during that last pass in Illinois and the dyno finished it off.”
That happened the week of the NMRA Ford Performance Nationals in June at Summit Motorsports Park in Ohio, and Moore, who was leading points at the time, was faced with some tough decisions.
“When my business partner, Dan, said I could use parts from his hurt Coyote engine, we started pulling my engine out late that night,” said Moore. “We quickly got parts together and Chris Holbrook of Holbrook Racing Engines pulled off what we thought would be impossible and got everything machined for us. We got the engine and parts back on Monday, had the short-block done on Tuesday, the long-block done on Wednesday and we put the engine in on Thursday and got to Norwalk late. We were exhausted, and I had no clue what my TVS combination would do. On my third qualifying pass, the cam seized in the cylinder head and we were done. Bill Putnam got around me in points.”
Upon returning to Vector Motorsports, Moore pulled Sienkiewicz’s engine from her car, and began rebuilding her Coyote engine, this time, with a new sleeved GT500 block, a Bryant billet crank, Callies Ultra rods, JE pistons and cylinder heads repaired by Slawko Racing. She was ready to roll about a week before the Inaugural Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival presented by Force Engineering last July at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan.
“We showed up to that race with a ProCharger P-1X combination, which required massive engine bay modifications, fabrication for the piping, and installation of a new air-to-air intercooler,” said Moore. “We didn’t get to test beforehand, our TVS Coan converter was tight for the different blower and I quickly had to figure out the tune with our Holley EFI. We led qualifying again and won with that untested combination. Honestly, it was the best win ever. I felt like it showed our shop’s flexibility, capability, and knowledge.”
Armed with a new custom Coan converter to complement the ProCharger P-1X, Moore went into the final event of the year, the Whipple Superchargers NMRA All-Ford World Finals presented by Competition Clutch and Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival last September at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky.
“I had no clue what this converter was going to do to the tune and almost put the car on the rear bumper, so I had to completely rework our entire tune again,” said Moore. “Then we had to change the blower belt every pass due to belt slip issues because of the higher loads, but we reset the elapsed time and top speed records again, this time with an 8.128 and 167.82 mph, and we finished as the runner-up after having to lift out of a massive power wheelie in the final. The car was hauling all weekend. We were so close to the championship, especially since we did what we had to by leading qualifying and resetting the records, but Bill Putnam went the number of rounds he needed to go to get to the championship, and we finished in the second spot.”
Not ready to close the book on the season, Moore headed to the Mod Nationals last November at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
“We switched to the ProCharger D1-X, swapped our intake with a new Holley Race Series Sniper intake, 2600cc injectors from AUS Injection, and we went back to our previous Coan converter,” said Moore. “We struggled with some belt slip issues (and lost) large amounts of boost every pass. We were changing belts, pulleys, tensioners, and everything we could think of. We swapped back to our Cobra Jet intake from the Holley Sniper just to make sure, but things got worse. We still managed to run 8.00 at 170 mph with all of these issues. Friday night, we worked until about 4 a.m., switching to the TVS. We showed up that morning for the remaining qualifying runs with no testing or tunes for this Gen3R combo on the new 2021 setup. I put in what I thought would be logical for a tune, Dan made a guess with the suspension and we sent it down the track and made a nice clean pass.”
While her car wasn’t making as much power as she had hoped it would, she pulled off the win in the All-Blower class. Then back at the shop, she discovered that her pistons were scuffing her block, and she’s in the process of rebuilding.
“The new engine will still be a Coyote engine,” said Moore. “We’re using the same Bryant crank and Callies Ultra rods, with custom JE pistons, and we’re changing the cam profiles from Comp cams. Jason Coan is installing new billet parts, as well as freshening our transmission and our converter. Chris Holbrook from Holbrook Racing Engines is sponsoring us this year and will help out our engine program immensely.”
Moore also is swapping her cylinder heads with new heads ported by Frankenstein Engine Dynamics. She’ll use Manley valvetrain components and her ProCharger P-1X. She’s replacing her previous UPR components with new UPR suspension components, and replacing her Strange 35-spline axles with Strange 40-spline axles. New Strange brakes are called for, and Viking Performance supplied a new set of shocks and struts for her nearly 3,900-pound car, which she is rewiring.
When the work is wrapped up, Moore will leave Michigan, with her car in tow, for the 28th Annual Spring Break Shootout, March 3-6 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.
“I’ll make the race in Florida come hell or high water,” said Moore, whose car is appropriately named Relentless. “I want to continue to be competitive and earn a championship. It’s important to me to show people what I’m capable of and what our shop, Vector Motorsports, is capable of with this heavy car and small blower.”
Photography by the Race Pages staff and courtesy of Samantha Moore
Samantha Moore sets herself up for success. She constantly thinks about her car, and how she can coax more power from her combination for NMRA JDM Engineering Limited Street competition.
That has worked wonders for Moore, who co-owns Vector Motorsports in Brighton, Michigan, with Dan Sienkiewicz, as she has been a formidable competitor in the three years that she has been raced in the heads-up category. She has led qualifying, set records, and won races, and she came close to capturing a season championship last year in her 2014 Mustang with a 25.3 cage by RJ ProFab in New York.
To recap, she started her remarkable year of racing at the BMR Suspension NMRA Spring Break Shootout last March at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, where she led qualifying, won the race and set the category’s elapsed time and top speed records with an 8.185 and 162.68 mph. It was proof that she and her new Coyote engine built at her shop and paired with a VMP Gen II-R TVS supercharger ported by Jokerz Performance and Coan Turbo 400 were ready to rumble.
Next up was the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport last April at Atlanta Dragway, where Moore led qualifying again and reset her top speed record with a 164.29 mph. Unfortunately, she struggled with electrical issues in her car and exited in the semifinal round of eliminations.
At the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing presented by HPJ Performance last May at World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois, she reset her top speed record with a 167.09 mph, but her hopes of winning were dashed when her car stalled in the water box.
“My car had never stalled like that before, and when I got it restarted, it stuttered,” said Moore. “It slowed to an 8.50-something on that pass and I lost. We did a leak down and compression test in the pits, which showed no obvious problems, but I knew something had to have happened because my car has never felt like that.”
With a mid-season rule change calling for a larger pulley for the blower combination, Moore performed the work and put her car on the dyno to see what boost and power levels would be.
“On the first baseline pull right after I lifted, I felt the engine let go and smoke was everywhere,” said Moore. “The engine decided to chuck a rod and install a window, destroying the engine and most everything in it. I’m assuming we spun a few rod bearings during that last pass in Illinois and the dyno finished it off.”
“When my business partner, Dan, said I could use parts from his hurt Coyote engine, we started pulling my engine out late that night,” said Moore. “We quickly got parts together and Chris Holbrook of Holbrook Racing Engines pulled off what we thought would be impossible and got everything machined for us. We got the engine and parts back on Monday, had the short-block done on Tuesday, the long-block done on Wednesday and we put the engine in on Thursday and got to Norwalk late. We were exhausted, and I had no clue what my TVS combination would do. On my third qualifying pass, the cam seized in the cylinder head and we were done. Bill Putnam got around me in points.”
Upon returning to Vector Motorsports, Moore pulled Sienkiewicz’s engine from her car, and began rebuilding her Coyote engine, this time, with a new sleeved GT500 block, a Bryant billet crank, Callies Ultra rods, JE pistons and cylinder heads repaired by Slawko Racing. She was ready to roll about a week before the Inaugural Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival presented by Force Engineering last July at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan.
“We showed up to that race with a ProCharger P-1X combination, which required massive engine bay modifications, fabrication for the piping, and installation of a new air-to-air intercooler,” said Moore. “We didn’t get to test beforehand, our TVS Coan converter was tight for the different blower and I quickly had to figure out the tune with our Holley EFI. We led qualifying again and won with that untested combination. Honestly, it was the best win ever. I felt like it showed our shop’s flexibility, capability, and knowledge.”
Armed with a new custom Coan converter to complement the ProCharger P-1X, Moore went into the final event of the year, the Whipple Superchargers NMRA All-Ford World Finals presented by Competition Clutch and Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival last September at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky.
“I had no clue what this converter was going to do to the tune and almost put the car on the rear bumper, so I had to completely rework our entire tune again,” said Moore. “Then we had to change the blower belt every pass due to belt slip issues because of the higher loads, but we reset the elapsed time and top speed records again, this time with an 8.128 and 167.82 mph, and we finished as the runner-up after having to lift out of a massive power wheelie in the final. The car was hauling all weekend. We were so close to the championship, especially since we did what we had to by leading qualifying and resetting the records, but Bill Putnam went the number of rounds he needed to go to get to the championship, and we finished in the second spot.”
Not ready to close the book on the season, Moore headed to the Mod Nationals last November at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
“We switched to the ProCharger D1-X, swapped our intake with a new Holley Race Series Sniper intake, 2600cc injectors from AUS Injection, and we went back to our previous Coan converter,” said Moore. “We struggled with some belt slip issues (and lost) large amounts of boost every pass. We were changing belts, pulleys, tensioners, and everything we could think of. We swapped back to our Cobra Jet intake from the Holley Sniper just to make sure, but things got worse. We still managed to run 8.00 at 170 mph with all of these issues. Friday night, we worked until about 4 a.m., switching to the TVS. We showed up that morning for the remaining qualifying runs with no testing or tunes for this Gen3R combo on the new 2021 setup. I put in what I thought would be logical for a tune, Dan made a guess with the suspension and we sent it down the track and made a nice clean pass.”
While her car wasn’t making as much power as she had hoped it would, she pulled off the win in the All-Blower class. Then back at the shop, she discovered that her pistons were scuffing her block, and she’s in the process of rebuilding.
“The new engine will still be a Coyote engine,” said Moore. “We’re using the same Bryant crank and Callies Ultra rods, with custom JE pistons, and we’re changing the cam profiles from Comp cams. Jason Coan is installing new billet parts, as well as freshening our transmission and our converter. Chris Holbrook from Holbrook Racing Engines is sponsoring us this year and will help out our engine program immensely.”
Moore also is swapping her cylinder heads with new heads ported by Frankenstein Engine Dynamics. She’ll use Manley valvetrain components and her ProCharger P-1X. She’s replacing her previous UPR components with new UPR suspension components, and replacing her Strange 35-spline axles with Strange 40-spline axles. New Strange brakes are called for, and Viking Performance supplied a new set of shocks and struts for her nearly 3,900-pound car, which she is rewiring.
When the work is wrapped up, Moore will leave Michigan, with her car in tow, for the 28th Annual Spring Break Shootout, March 3-6 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.
“I’ll make the race in Florida come hell or high water,” said Moore, whose car is appropriately named Relentless. “I want to continue to be competitive and earn a championship. It’s important to me to show people what I’m capable of and what our shop, Vector Motorsports, is capable of with this heavy car and small blower.”