It's go time here at Bradenton Motorsports Park and the racers and fans are lining up to kick off the 2018 NMRA racing season. Today we'll be full hot into qualifying, as well as eliminations for the Watson Racing Cobra Jet Showdown. The UPR Products Car Show is jam-packed today and the hardware on display is impressive to say the least. Marty Quadland spends his summers in Wyoming and winters in Sarasota, Florida, and recently finished up the renovation on his 1972 Pantera. Gone is the 351 Cleveland, replaced by a modern Ford Performance Aluminator engine that fronts the original ZF five-speed gearbox. The rest of the car received a modern makeover as well, and the car show crowd can't seem to get enough of it.   Justin Jordan (middle) and his Jordan Performance and Racing shop was tasked with converting Larry Starost's (at left) 2013 Stage 3 Roush Mustang from a Super Stang entry to run in the new Steeda Limited Street class. With help from Pro Fab's Matt LaRue, Jordan finished up the build just days ago and piloted the pony on its maiden voyage this morning. Right out the of the gate, the Roush set the pace for the class with an 8.68 run, though it still needs to pass tech as of this writing. The amount of turbocharged S550 Mustangs here this weekend is at an all-time high, and the large majority of them have been running in the 8- and 9-second range. You can find them in almost all classes, too, from True Street to the Hellion Turbo Coyote Shootout. Brad Schehr of Ft. Myers, Florida, took some time off for the family, but the former NMCA Street Radial racer is back with a blown Mustang. Looking to run in Ultra Street and NMCA Xtreme Street, Schehr and his crew put together this Mustang in their garage. The '89 Mustang packs a 360ci engine with a ProCharger F1A-94, and Schehr will be running in the Street Outlaw category to get runs on the new combination in anticipation of next weekend's NMCA event. Turbocharged Mustangs in QA1 True Street are nothing new, but vintage Mustangs running turbochargers in the class is relatively rare. We heard this one spool up in the burnout box and went digging for more information. Allen "Sandbagger" Lohr of Bucyrus, Ohio, is the car's owner, and from what we gathered, the "302" and "turbo is this big" combination is a DFI fuel injected, 363ci with a Turbonetics 88mm turbocharger. Lohr told us that he bought the car in rough, Ohio rust-belt shape for $1,800, and it's been a work in progress ever since. Does it run 11s Does it run 8s True Street will be coming up this afternoon to find out.   Not resting on their championships from 2017, Charlie Cooper (pictured) and Manny Buginga both came out pushing the performance envelope with their VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw Mustangs. Both racers have battled engine issues with Buginga lifting a cylinder head and Cooper having to swap out his entire engine. Daniel Pachar is piloting Sal Trejo's 2004 Mach 1 in ProCharger Coyote Modified this weekend and currently sits third with a 7.73 elapsed time after two rounds of qualifying. Rich Groh Racing Engines built the Coyote powerplant, ProFormance built the Turbo 400 transmission, and Triangle Speed Shop in Texas put it all together. ProCharger Coyote Modified champion Tommy Annunziata was experiencing some mechanical issue launching his Cobra Jet Mustang today during the second round of qualifying. Tuner Jimmy LaRocca has been softening the hit to get it to leave and during the coals to it down track to compensate. The team is currently qualified in first place by a slim margin over Haley James. QA1 True Street hit an all time high record number of cars today here at Bradenton Motorsports Park with 152 entries. While her husband Tony Alm has been ripping up the NMRA and NMCA ranks for years behind the wheel of his Fox-body Mustang, this weekend it was his wife Patti's turn at the wheel of their turbocharged S550 Mustang. While the car has been in the 9s previously, some testing earlier this week revealed an issue with the car pushing through beams when on the transbrake, so Patti has had to foot brake the car to low 10-second passes. The Watson Racing Cobra Jet Showdown saw five rounds of intense racing action. The final round pitted Rod Heltzel in his 1 of 1 Orange CJ versus Ken Miele. Heltzel had problems at the hit, left with a .291 reaction time and rolled down the track. The win was Miele's for the taking, but he broke out, running 8.707 on his 8.74 dial in, handing Heltzel the win. Keep up with all of today's qualifying results right <<<HERE>>>