While we were in the thick of all the action at the Holley NMRA/Red Line Oil NMCA Race for the Rings & Saturday Thrill Festival at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday, strong storms in the late afternoon put a stop to it.
We are in the clear on Sunday morning, however, and cars are already fired up and flying down track. Many racers have their minds set on going rounds, getting to the winner’s circle and gaining points toward a season championship in the series.
Keep an eye on NMCADigital.com and NMRADigital.com for more race news, qualifying and elimination results, photos and a race wrap.
Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer Mark Anderson had an eventful weekend here at the Holley NMRA Race for the Rings. Driving Michael Washington’s Factory Stock car, the crew received the car’s new Dynamic Racing Transmissions C4 on Friday, and then when Anderson tried to make first round of qualifying, a fuel injector o-ring exited the chat, which cost him that qualifying shot, and also second round of qualifying. Therefore, he had just one qualifying pass prior to eliminations, and to make matters worse, he had to face top qualifier Mike Bowen in the semi-final round. Bowen didn’t seem sympathetic to Anderson’s woes, putting a 10.00 pass on Anderson to end his weekend. However, now that Anderson has a few passes on the car, he can look at the data, and develop a plan to find those four tenths needed to be up front in Factory Stock.
VP Racing Lubricants Renegade racer Joel Greathouse hurt his red LX coupe at the All Star Nationals, and with the quick turnaround for the Holley NMRA Race for the Rings here at World Wide Technology Raceway, he wasn’t able to gather all the parts needed to have his red car here in competition. Fortunately, John Kolivas had the Calypso car usually driven by Shawn Pevlar, in fighting shape, so Greathouse was able to compete and stay in the points hunt. Sine he leads the points in Renegade, that automatically entered him into the Race for the Rings, where he was able to get past Josh Hutnick to add some bling to his collection. The only real difference between his red car and Kolivas’ car is that his car is an 8.2 deck combo, and the green car has a 9.5 deck Bennett Racing combo with a Harts single turbo and a RPM Racing Transmissions Turbo 400. Greathouse had a bye run first round so they didn’t change the tune much at all after running a 4.49 to qualify in the top spot. The track was better than Greathouse and the team thought it would be after Saturday evening’s brutal storm so they don’t foresee any big tuning changes. “We just gotta get it to leave,” Greathouse says.
John Cole is here in his 2003 Cobra racing both Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts Street Bandit and Circle D Specialties True Street. His Cobra utilizes a Mach 1 WAP block, a cast crank, and a set of high-mileage pistons and rods he had sitting around. He was basically building the car for Limited Street, but when that class went the way of the caribou, he noticed he had enough parts to put together a pretty basic combination with parts he already had on hand. Atop the Mach 1 long block is a VMP supercharger, and in the tunnel is a Turbo 400 transmission. Redline Motorsports’ Matt Bell did the combo’s initial tune, but Cole makes little tweaks here at the track. In its current configuration, the car is much quicker than 10.10, so that has been the struggle, to slow it down for the class. Cole’s car was the prototype car for 417 Motorsports’ tubular front end, and Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock racer Tim Donathen has also waved his magic wand over the car, as well. One thing is for sure, Cole is going to be super busy today, running both Street Bandit and True Street, as True Street will be intertwined with other classes on the schedule.
Being a track worker can many times be a thankless job. After Saturday evening’s big storm, the Total Venue Concepts (TVC) crew was here so early they woke up nearby roosters. More than one racer remarked how surprised they were to see how good the track was during Sunday’s eliminations. The TVC had the track in great shape all day.
Longtime Mustang drag racer Bob Cosby has an extensive military background so existing in subpar living conditions is nothing new to him. However, we’d say his “camping” experience here at World Wide Technology Raceway for the Holley NMRA Race for the Rings has not been ideal. Saturday afternoon’s storm sent everything not hunkered down into the next county, but somehow, and using that military experience, Cosby’s camp escaped largely unscathed, save for perhaps wet bedding. As far as his on-track experience this weekend, competing in Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts Street Bandit, it was his first ever getting timed out at the tree, but he rebounded with a 10.12 on the 10.10 class index to land in the 4th qualifying spot for today’s eliminations.
Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle racer Roxanne Shepard is a little out of sorts this weekend at the Holley NMRA Nationals here at World Wide Technology Raceway. First off, it’s her first race since husband Barry passed away, so that’s understandably tough, but then she ran into driveline issues, which resulted in an early exit from competition. Fortunately, she has the components back home to get the car ready for the upcoming Norwalk NMRA Homecoming race, which takes place June 6th-9th.
Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer Mike Bowen has enjoyed a relatively stress-free weekend. Since Bowen’s leading the points, the 1971 Maverick Grabber racer received an automatic entry into the Race for the Rings, but he was also number 1 qualifier, so number 2 qualifier Damien Stephens was in the other lane. With basically identical reaction times, Bowen slowly pulled away for the win with a 10.08 against Stephens’ 10.27. With his Race for the Rings victory, Bowen now has two Nitto Tire Diamond Tree rings.
A former Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer, Tom Mueller now races in Suncoast Performance 8.60 Street Race at the wheel of a 2016 Mustang GT. Following the recipe of a few other 8.60 Street Race participants, Mueller runs a Barker Performance Sleeved Gen 2 Coyote with Comp Turbo twin turbochargers, an Extreme Automatics Turbo 400 with a Pro Torque converter, and a Lund Racing tune. Mueller, illustrating the car’s street-friendly characteristics, says he even takes his kids to school in the car. When it comes to running on the class’ 8.60 index, Mueller says, “I do most of the tuning off the Boost Leash, according to weather and track conditions. I race my race, and I race the finish line, but the biggest thing about this class is you have to cut a light.” Doing so gives each competitor the upper hand when it comes to getting to the stripe and making the decision to stay in it, or dump it to scrub off speed. Mueller thanks Hot Shot’s Secret Oil, Finish Line Performance, BA Motorsports, and his wife Tracy, his biggest sponsor and supporter. Suncoast Performance 8.60 Street Race goes off for first round of eliminations this morning.
We are off to a great start. Here is Sunday's action-packed schedule.
We are in the clear on Sunday morning, however, and cars are already fired up and flying down track. Many racers have their minds set on going rounds, getting to the winner’s circle and gaining points toward a season championship in the series.
Keep an eye on NMCADigital.com and NMRADigital.com for more race news, qualifying and elimination results, photos and a race wrap.
Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer Mark Anderson had an eventful weekend here at the Holley NMRA Race for the Rings. Driving Michael Washington’s Factory Stock car, the crew received the car’s new Dynamic Racing Transmissions C4 on Friday, and then when Anderson tried to make first round of qualifying, a fuel injector o-ring exited the chat, which cost him that qualifying shot, and also second round of qualifying. Therefore, he had just one qualifying pass prior to eliminations, and to make matters worse, he had to face top qualifier Mike Bowen in the semi-final round. Bowen didn’t seem sympathetic to Anderson’s woes, putting a 10.00 pass on Anderson to end his weekend. However, now that Anderson has a few passes on the car, he can look at the data, and develop a plan to find those four tenths needed to be up front in Factory Stock.
VP Racing Lubricants Renegade racer Joel Greathouse hurt his red LX coupe at the All Star Nationals, and with the quick turnaround for the Holley NMRA Race for the Rings here at World Wide Technology Raceway, he wasn’t able to gather all the parts needed to have his red car here in competition. Fortunately, John Kolivas had the Calypso car usually driven by Shawn Pevlar, in fighting shape, so Greathouse was able to compete and stay in the points hunt. Sine he leads the points in Renegade, that automatically entered him into the Race for the Rings, where he was able to get past Josh Hutnick to add some bling to his collection. The only real difference between his red car and Kolivas’ car is that his car is an 8.2 deck combo, and the green car has a 9.5 deck Bennett Racing combo with a Harts single turbo and a RPM Racing Transmissions Turbo 400. Greathouse had a bye run first round so they didn’t change the tune much at all after running a 4.49 to qualify in the top spot. The track was better than Greathouse and the team thought it would be after Saturday evening’s brutal storm so they don’t foresee any big tuning changes. “We just gotta get it to leave,” Greathouse says.
John Cole is here in his 2003 Cobra racing both Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts Street Bandit and Circle D Specialties True Street. His Cobra utilizes a Mach 1 WAP block, a cast crank, and a set of high-mileage pistons and rods he had sitting around. He was basically building the car for Limited Street, but when that class went the way of the caribou, he noticed he had enough parts to put together a pretty basic combination with parts he already had on hand. Atop the Mach 1 long block is a VMP supercharger, and in the tunnel is a Turbo 400 transmission. Redline Motorsports’ Matt Bell did the combo’s initial tune, but Cole makes little tweaks here at the track. In its current configuration, the car is much quicker than 10.10, so that has been the struggle, to slow it down for the class. Cole’s car was the prototype car for 417 Motorsports’ tubular front end, and Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock racer Tim Donathen has also waved his magic wand over the car, as well. One thing is for sure, Cole is going to be super busy today, running both Street Bandit and True Street, as True Street will be intertwined with other classes on the schedule.
Being a track worker can many times be a thankless job. After Saturday evening’s big storm, the Total Venue Concepts (TVC) crew was here so early they woke up nearby roosters. More than one racer remarked how surprised they were to see how good the track was during Sunday’s eliminations. The TVC had the track in great shape all day.
Longtime Mustang drag racer Bob Cosby has an extensive military background so existing in subpar living conditions is nothing new to him. However, we’d say his “camping” experience here at World Wide Technology Raceway for the Holley NMRA Race for the Rings has not been ideal. Saturday afternoon’s storm sent everything not hunkered down into the next county, but somehow, and using that military experience, Cosby’s camp escaped largely unscathed, save for perhaps wet bedding. As far as his on-track experience this weekend, competing in Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts Street Bandit, it was his first ever getting timed out at the tree, but he rebounded with a 10.12 on the 10.10 class index to land in the 4th qualifying spot for today’s eliminations.
Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle racer Roxanne Shepard is a little out of sorts this weekend at the Holley NMRA Nationals here at World Wide Technology Raceway. First off, it’s her first race since husband Barry passed away, so that’s understandably tough, but then she ran into driveline issues, which resulted in an early exit from competition. Fortunately, she has the components back home to get the car ready for the upcoming Norwalk NMRA Homecoming race, which takes place June 6th-9th.
Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer Mike Bowen has enjoyed a relatively stress-free weekend. Since Bowen’s leading the points, the 1971 Maverick Grabber racer received an automatic entry into the Race for the Rings, but he was also number 1 qualifier, so number 2 qualifier Damien Stephens was in the other lane. With basically identical reaction times, Bowen slowly pulled away for the win with a 10.08 against Stephens’ 10.27. With his Race for the Rings victory, Bowen now has two Nitto Tire Diamond Tree rings.
A former Richmond Gear Factory Stock racer, Tom Mueller now races in Suncoast Performance 8.60 Street Race at the wheel of a 2016 Mustang GT. Following the recipe of a few other 8.60 Street Race participants, Mueller runs a Barker Performance Sleeved Gen 2 Coyote with Comp Turbo twin turbochargers, an Extreme Automatics Turbo 400 with a Pro Torque converter, and a Lund Racing tune. Mueller, illustrating the car’s street-friendly characteristics, says he even takes his kids to school in the car. When it comes to running on the class’ 8.60 index, Mueller says, “I do most of the tuning off the Boost Leash, according to weather and track conditions. I race my race, and I race the finish line, but the biggest thing about this class is you have to cut a light.” Doing so gives each competitor the upper hand when it comes to getting to the stripe and making the decision to stay in it, or dump it to scrub off speed. Mueller thanks Hot Shot’s Secret Oil, Finish Line Performance, BA Motorsports, and his wife Tracy, his biggest sponsor and supporter. Suncoast Performance 8.60 Street Race goes off for first round of eliminations this morning.
We are off to a great start. Here is Sunday's action-packed schedule.