Saturday Coverage | Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Featuring The Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival

Oct 01, 2022

For Ford fans, there couldn’t be a better way to celebrate a Saturday than being at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the 24th Annual Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented By Competition Clutch Featuring The Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival.

On the drag strip, racers are jockeying for position on the ladders in the index and heads-up classes as qualifying continues. Meanwhile, the final two carryover categories from the rain-delayed 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented by TorqStorm held at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, back in July complete eliminations during today’s qualifying.

More immediately, the Capri Swarm and TorqStorm Superchargers classes will crown champions today. In True Street, the eight quickest overall rides will move on to tomorrow’s Circle D Specialties King of the Street class, while the eight quickest manual-trans machines will graduate to tomorrow’s TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout.

Action is not in short supply on the drag strip, but the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival activities are full tilt today as well, with Autocross, Drifting, and Off-Road excitement, as well as the Ford Fest 50. The latter event sees Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Chelsea Denofa competing with local circle-track racers in prepped Crown Victorias. There is also a Dyno Challenge, and the Grand Champion class, which puts cars to the test across several racing disciplines.

Wrapping things up tonight is a car party that takes attendees back in time. Retro Meet celebrates classic Fords from 1979-1998 with bitchin’ tunes, radical clothes, and bodacious burnouts.

Stay tuned to this page and our social channels throughout the day for updates on today’s action.

CHECK OUT THE QUALIFYING RESULTS HERE.

Here is a look at today’s racing schedule during the 24th Annual Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented By Competition Clutch Featuring The Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival.

The Off-Road Experience is off the hook at the 24th Annual Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented By Competition Clutch Featuring The Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. Fun-Havers Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Loren Healy are putting on quite a show slinging mud and flying high.

Our selection for the Fastest Street Car magazine award during yesterday’s car show was Brian Hood’s gorgeous red restomod. It features a completely custom interior, but it was the trick air cleaner that caught our eye. Shaped like the factory engine cover, the billet lid houses an oval air filter more common to carbureted applications. It is truly trick.

Where else are you going to see Mustangs drifting three wide and an off-road Bronco slaying all four tires right next to Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s drift stallion? This weekend it is only going down at the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival.

As you enter Beech Bend Raceway the UPR Products Car Show is filled with incredible machines, but we have never seen so many tasty trucks on the property. From a full carbon fiber pickup to a Godzilla-swap restomod, there is a little something for every pickup fan in Bowling Green this weekend.

Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer, Mark Anderson, headed into the weekend on a mission to run fast in his Team Dirty Bird Four-Eye Fox, but he took out his transmission and driveshaft yesterday. With a little help from his friends, and a borrowed driveshaft from Tim Donathen, he had a new transmission installed in 20 minutes so he was ready for today’s final round from the rain-delayed 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented by TorqStorm held at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.

Since the race in Martin, Michigan, Randy Soper kept busy running at Jacob Lamb’s 5th Annual Factory Hot Rod Nationals race. He also tested at the past two NMCA races, so his yellow New Edge racer was primed for action in G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock. He felt good about the weekend after clocking a 9.73 in testing. Today he finishes competing in the elimination rounds from the Michigan race, before wrapping up qualifying in for the World Finals.

Vintage crew cab trucks are hard to find, but are quickly becoming popular to build. Dan Hart of Jacked Up Trucks in Upton, Wyoming, finished up this 1979 F250 crew cab build that was started by Sweet Brothers Restomods. The classic pickup body sits on a 2012 Ford F150 Raptor chassis, and pulled their other truck, a 1975 F-600 all the way here. The F-600 belongs to Jack Elberson and it sits on a 2016 Ford E-350 bus chassis. It maintains the vintage interior, but relies on the bus chassis and V10 drivetrain for motivation. Hart and Elberson were looking around for something different to do and decided to give the NMRA World Finals and Holley Ford Festival a try.

Shelby Wendel has been running 11s in his father Chad’s Limited Street Mustang, but they decided to step him up to something a bit quicker. This weekend, he’s earning his competition license and competing in the Suncoast Performance 8.60 Street race class. So far, he’s clocked an 8.30 pass, but his 8.66 is what sealed the deal for his license. Shelby and Chad plan to move the car up to Limited 235 and/or Renegade for 2023.

A relative newcomer to the Renegade scene, Jason Riley of Estill Springs, Tennessee, has been killing it in the Limited 235 category at other events, and is the defending class champion and current points leader. Working with Justin McChesney and the KBX team, he has swapped out ProChargers, changed the stator in his torque converter, and added a bit of weight to compete in the NMRA. His debut came at the Norwalk, Ohio, event where he runner up’d to Joel Greathouse, and he currently sits 5^th in qualifying in Bowling Green with a personal best time of 4.646. Riley has owned the 1987 Mustang for over a decade and used to compete in True Street with a Vortech T-Trim blower and Windsor engine. He collected three 10-second awards, but his Holley EFI 417ci Bennett Racing drivetrain is ready to collect some big cash and prizes in Renegade for 2023.

Solomon Lunger of Ford Era YouTube fame turned his Gold Dust project truck into a weapon of mass tire and bed destruction in the TorqStorm Superchargers/Motor Life Burnout Challenge. As a result, his 1970 F250 Crew Cab hauled away with top honors and $500 in Holley Cash. He edged out his close friend Kyle Delfel in the wild, ProCharged 2005 Lincoln limousine, which took announcer Chad Reynolds for a ride during its burnout run.

We Have Ford Horsepower of every kind on display, here's a look at some of the action.