Yesterday was a great day at US 131 Motorsports Park all in attendance as racers had to turn testing experience into qualifying results. While a few of the larger classes kicked off early elimination rounds last night, today is the day where every run counts, and all the work leading up to the event matters. 

 

The index and heads-up racers run through eliminations today, but racers in the Dodge // Mopar Hemi Shootout and Torqstorm Superchargers True Street classes made all the passes that count on Saturday to crown champions in a wide range of elapsed-time categories from the overall quickest average to the closest to a 15-second average.

 

Today the eight quickest machines from the Dodge // Mopar Hemi Shootout roster move on to the HHP Performance Quick 8 competition, which will determine who has the baddest modern Hemi machine on the property. 

 

Follow along on this page and our social channels for updates throughout the final day of the race, and click these links to view the QUALIFYING and ELIMINATIONS.

Here is the schedule for today’s action at the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.

Things didn’t go as planned for John Leslie Jr. in Richmond Gear Factory Stock. His Fox Mustang hooked hard, but then the heavy metal noise growled from the back of the car. It wasn’t loud guitars though, the Rock Star snapped one 35-spline axle and twisted another, which cramped his style on the eve of eliminations. Sadly he had a 9-inch rearend ready to go back at his shop but wanted to upgrade the bearings before installing it in the car, so it wasn’t on hand for an easy fix.

A Ford engineer by trade, Dave Henderlong swapped a stock Godzilla engine into his Thunderbird — which was the first car he ever bought for the princely sum of two movie tickets and a bucket of popcorn. After the turbocharged LS engine slated for the car died on the dyno, he picked up this used 7.3-liter engine plucked from an Amazon truck. He reversed the exhaust manifolds to clear the steering rack and added spacers to the K-member to drop it into this Fox T-bird built up with used suspension and rearend bits. Under the sway of an OBR Control Systems controller, his Gozilla is upgraded with a Callies camshaft and PAC valve springs. His goal is to dip into the nines in naturally aspirated trim before bolting on a turbocharger. He is running this weekend in ARP Open Comp.

Chris Hammon's 1993 Mustang LX coupe evolved from every stage of Fox modifications from bolt-ons to its current Vortech-boosted Coyote engine running on about 10 pounds of boost. He says modern engines are so much more tunable and reliable. Apparently, they are also quite consistent, as he qualified in the top spot in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle at Norwalk and the second spot here at US 131 Motorsports Park. He’s been running in the class for two and a half years and tries to dial the car to run the same number in any weather, and he hopes that pays dividends this weekend. The vintage 5.0 Mustang magazine license plate is certain to bring a little good karma along for the ride.

Sondra Leslie rolled into the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers with her Strange Engineering-backed four-eye Fox ready to rumble in VP Racing Madditives Renegade. Unfortunately, one of the aluminum tubes in her Vortech supercharger plumbing cracked, so she turned to the Haley James Racing team for some welding assistance. With the tube repaired, she was back in action.

Striving to meet his lofty standards this weekend in G-Force Racing Transmissions, Kevin McMullen started the weekend on a sour note. A broken clutch set him back to square one on his setup. He’s been sneaking up on it this weekend and hopes to go rounds today. McMullin plans on racing in some H-Pattern racing classes between now at the World Finals. 

Larry Firestone's been fighting the setup on his 2008 Mustang all weekend long. We caught up to him while he dried the car off from last night’s rain, but it was a torque converter switch before the race that put his HP Tuners Super Stang machine a second behind its usual pace. He is working through the tuning with Brenspeed and hopes to have it fully sorted out before the last race of the season. 

Breakage at the track can cause a great deal of frustration, but often the vendors on the Manufacturer's Midway come through in the clutch. The distributor gear in Junior McKenzie’s 408-cube Windsor broke and he tracked down a new one at Florida Performance. The car was all buttoned up and ready to go for eliminations where he hope to make the most of this 16th-qualified position in ARP Open Comp. 

This weathered $5 bill has a long history of trading hands between Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle racers Andy Russell and Charlie McCulloch. They placed a bet years ago and whichever racer beats the other gains possession of the cash. Currently on a hot streak, Russell plans to hold on to the five spot. Between this event and the finals, Russell is getting a hip replacement. "The car is hanging in there, but I am worn out," he joked. 

In the combined NMRA/NMCA TorqStorm Superchargers True Street category, stalwart racer Randy Thomas represented the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals Series well by averaging an impressive 8.68 seconds across three runs yesterday in his 2010 Shelby GT500 to earn the runner-up honors at the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers.