After several seasons battling it out in the soon-to-be-jettisoned NMRA Limited Street category, Stacey Roby is getting not one but two new cars ready for his 2024 racing season so he won’t have to skip a beat.
When the announcement came that Limited Street wouldn’t be returning to NMRA in 2024, Roby decided to finish out the current season rather than cut it short. “Samantha [Moore] and I had a good rivalry and kept the spark alive but the class ran itself out,” noted Roby, who finished second overall in points in both 2022 and 2023 and frequently went toe-to-toe with Moore, the two-time class champion.
The decision didn’t come as a surprise to Roby, though, who knew for a while that he would need a new place to race in 2024 and had prepared appropriately. Nearly two years ago, Roby acted quickly when he spotted Keith Ciborowski’s old NMRA Renegade ride for sale. The car in question, a 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra, had an impressive spec sheet and had been meticulously maintained – it was an easy choice for Roby to snatch it up.
Originally built to 25.3 SFI specs by Jim Hallowell of Hallowell Custom Fabrication with a tubular front end, the stock-style suspension New Edge SN95 has gone through a few changes in the time that Roby has owned it and is now nearly ready to make its latest competition debut.
“It will have a 5.4-liter engine from Rich Groh Racing with a single, Renegade-legal 76mm Harts turbo with a custom turbo kit from HPJ Performance, and four-way adjustable Viking shocks from Kelly Aiken at KellTrac,” Roby shared of the Cobra’s critical parts and pieces. HPJ also mounted the Motor City Solutions one-piece front end and fiberglass doors. “It’s got a three-speed Turbo 400 from RPM Transmissions, a billet Coan bolt-together converter, and a Merrillat Racing 9” rear end.”
The Cobra went straight from its former home with the Ciborowski family to HPJ, and from HPJ it returned to Keith Ciborowski’s shop. “I’ve still haven’t actually taken possession of it yet,” laughed Roby. “Keith is doing the final assembly, plumbing the car, doing the fuel system, and all the wiring from front to back.”
In conjunction with Eric Holliday from JPC Racing, Ciborowski will also be in charge of managing the tune up of the FuelTech FT600 EFI system. First, though, Roby’s new-to-him Cobra will head to JPC headquarters where Holliday will set the baseline and sort things out on the in-house hub dyno as a jumpstart before the new Holley NMRA Ford Nationals racing season begins.
With an estimated time of completion set for September/October, Roby is excited to go testing and bump in with a turbo car for the first time. “It’ll be a learning curve for me, and it’ll be a change going to eighth-mile, but I’m excited about the different powerband and top end speed,” added the man who is already well-prepared for the challenge with a second spare RGR engine. “NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade will be a little tougher than Limited Street, but hopefully we’ve got a combination that should be a frontrunner and I’m looking forward to it.”
Meanwhile, Roby is also working on having another project buttoned up for 2024 use. Built to run in the cutthroat Limited Drag Radial (LDR) small tire category, Roby’s 2016 Ford Mustang features an unconventional combination as the crank-driven F3-121 ProCharger supercharger supplies boost to a billet Coyote engine from Accufab.
Paired with a three-speed Turbo 400 from Rodney Massengale at RPM Transmissions which utilizes a Sonnax gearset, the entire combination will be controlled by FuelTech’s latest and greatest EFI technology.
No expense was spared on the top-shelf build. Roby expected to campaign the S550 at around 2,500 pounds and went all-in on every carbon fiber component he could find to keep the weight down… “If it’s carbon, that car will have it,” affirmed Roby, who incorporated a fiber one-piece nose, doors, belly pan, wheel tubs, bumpers, deck lid, and more, all in carbon fiber, of course.
The double frame-rail chassis, fabricated by Chad Winfield, also features a four-link rear suspension composed around a Merillat Racing 9” floater rear end, Mark Williams Enterprises center section and axles, and Menscer Motorsports canister-style shocks. Up front, TBM spindle-mount brakes and Menscer shocks were also installed.
“The Cobra should be done over the winter, and we’ll run it in LDR and at Milan Dragway,” Roby added. “That class is running 4.0s right now, so we’ll see if we can get a 314 cubic inch engine into the high-3s.”
When he’s not busy racing in NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade or Limited Drag Radial, Roby is also racking his brain considering possibilities for his jettisoned Limited Street entry. That infamous red Mustang definitely is not for sale, according to Roby, and very well may end up in the hands of his now 14-year-old son. “He recently got his NHRA license in Jr. Street, so he’s getting his feet wet and we’ll see what happens once he turns 16,” asserted the proud father. “I don’t want to cut that car up since it has 3,000 original miles on it, so we may slow it down and put it in some sort of street-type class.”
Regardless of where Roby runs and what he races, he is gearing up to have quite a busy season in 2024 and has already proven from his past performances that when he pulls into the beams, he comes to win.
When the announcement came that Limited Street wouldn’t be returning to NMRA in 2024, Roby decided to finish out the current season rather than cut it short. “Samantha [Moore] and I had a good rivalry and kept the spark alive but the class ran itself out,” noted Roby, who finished second overall in points in both 2022 and 2023 and frequently went toe-to-toe with Moore, the two-time class champion.
The decision didn’t come as a surprise to Roby, though, who knew for a while that he would need a new place to race in 2024 and had prepared appropriately. Nearly two years ago, Roby acted quickly when he spotted Keith Ciborowski’s old NMRA Renegade ride for sale. The car in question, a 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra, had an impressive spec sheet and had been meticulously maintained – it was an easy choice for Roby to snatch it up.
Originally built to 25.3 SFI specs by Jim Hallowell of Hallowell Custom Fabrication with a tubular front end, the stock-style suspension New Edge SN95 has gone through a few changes in the time that Roby has owned it and is now nearly ready to make its latest competition debut.
“It will have a 5.4-liter engine from Rich Groh Racing with a single, Renegade-legal 76mm Harts turbo with a custom turbo kit from HPJ Performance, and four-way adjustable Viking shocks from Kelly Aiken at KellTrac,” Roby shared of the Cobra’s critical parts and pieces. HPJ also mounted the Motor City Solutions one-piece front end and fiberglass doors. “It’s got a three-speed Turbo 400 from RPM Transmissions, a billet Coan bolt-together converter, and a Merrillat Racing 9” rear end.”
The Cobra went straight from its former home with the Ciborowski family to HPJ, and from HPJ it returned to Keith Ciborowski’s shop. “I’ve still haven’t actually taken possession of it yet,” laughed Roby. “Keith is doing the final assembly, plumbing the car, doing the fuel system, and all the wiring from front to back.”
In conjunction with Eric Holliday from JPC Racing, Ciborowski will also be in charge of managing the tune up of the FuelTech FT600 EFI system. First, though, Roby’s new-to-him Cobra will head to JPC headquarters where Holliday will set the baseline and sort things out on the in-house hub dyno as a jumpstart before the new Holley NMRA Ford Nationals racing season begins.
With an estimated time of completion set for September/October, Roby is excited to go testing and bump in with a turbo car for the first time. “It’ll be a learning curve for me, and it’ll be a change going to eighth-mile, but I’m excited about the different powerband and top end speed,” added the man who is already well-prepared for the challenge with a second spare RGR engine. “NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade will be a little tougher than Limited Street, but hopefully we’ve got a combination that should be a frontrunner and I’m looking forward to it.”
Meanwhile, Roby is also working on having another project buttoned up for 2024 use. Built to run in the cutthroat Limited Drag Radial (LDR) small tire category, Roby’s 2016 Ford Mustang features an unconventional combination as the crank-driven F3-121 ProCharger supercharger supplies boost to a billet Coyote engine from Accufab.
Paired with a three-speed Turbo 400 from Rodney Massengale at RPM Transmissions which utilizes a Sonnax gearset, the entire combination will be controlled by FuelTech’s latest and greatest EFI technology.
No expense was spared on the top-shelf build. Roby expected to campaign the S550 at around 2,500 pounds and went all-in on every carbon fiber component he could find to keep the weight down… “If it’s carbon, that car will have it,” affirmed Roby, who incorporated a fiber one-piece nose, doors, belly pan, wheel tubs, bumpers, deck lid, and more, all in carbon fiber, of course.
The double frame-rail chassis, fabricated by Chad Winfield, also features a four-link rear suspension composed around a Merillat Racing 9” floater rear end, Mark Williams Enterprises center section and axles, and Menscer Motorsports canister-style shocks. Up front, TBM spindle-mount brakes and Menscer shocks were also installed.
“The Cobra should be done over the winter, and we’ll run it in LDR and at Milan Dragway,” Roby added. “That class is running 4.0s right now, so we’ll see if we can get a 314 cubic inch engine into the high-3s.”
When he’s not busy racing in NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade or Limited Drag Radial, Roby is also racking his brain considering possibilities for his jettisoned Limited Street entry. That infamous red Mustang definitely is not for sale, according to Roby, and very well may end up in the hands of his now 14-year-old son. “He recently got his NHRA license in Jr. Street, so he’s getting his feet wet and we’ll see what happens once he turns 16,” asserted the proud father. “I don’t want to cut that car up since it has 3,000 original miles on it, so we may slow it down and put it in some sort of street-type class.”
Regardless of where Roby runs and what he races, he is gearing up to have quite a busy season in 2024 and has already proven from his past performances that when he pulls into the beams, he comes to win.