Here’s how the racing goes down on the final day of action at the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals Presented by MAHLE Motorsport.


We're getting ready to kick off eliminations today at the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals Presented by MAHLE Motorsport North America here at beautiful Rockingham Dragway. Stay tuned for more news and updates as the day unfolds.


On the eve of the Mustang’s birthday tomorrow, there are some beautiful pony cars on display in the UPR Products car show, including Ron Davis’ orange 1965 Mustang. Featuring a dressed-up small-block breathing through stack injection, his striking restomod made the trip over from Kannapolis, North Carolina, to enjoy the show today.

 

"She‘s fast," Mark Anderson said with a smile as we entered his pits. He had just made a lifting pass in qualifying now that his fresh Richmond Gear Factory Stock record looked secure. After taking on 200 pounds in the off-season, Anderson set out to find some power and efficiency on the chassis dyno, thanks to the generosity of Matt Bell at Redline Motorsports. Part of that secret sauce was running through five different camshaft grinds created by his father Ron in collaboration with modular cam guru Todd Warren. He also spent a lot of time testing in the off-season and the results are speaking loudly at Rockingham Dragway.

We are accustomed to seeing Peter Delpino of DPM Racing competing in Circle D Specialties True Street — where he took the overall win with a 9.27 average —with his ProCharged, E85-burning S550 stallion. However, this weekend he also enrolled in the HP Tuners Super Stang class to get some more laps in at Rockingham Dragway. Clocking in at nearly 4,000 pounds, he runs an ATF Speed 10R80 and has run as quick as 8.6 seconds, but had to reel the car in so he could stay within safety regs as the car lacks a cage. He says the car is running consistently this weekend, but he has to get used to waiting for the slower cars to launch first in Super Stang. He says he has time to enjoy a sandwich before he can let it rip.

Michael Sweeney’s 1988 Mustang GT might just be too pretty to race, but that isn’t preventing the paint-and-body man from having fun in ARP Open Comp. Running a 557-cube big-block Ford backed by a Powerglide and an 8.8-inch rear, the ebony Fox is good for elapsed times as quick as 9.5 seconds. He started the weekend fighting issues with his carburetor, but that hasn’t daunted the Edgewater, Florida, resident from running the full NMRA 25th Anniversary season.

Speaking of carburetors, Junior McKenzie is really happy with his Tony Morris twin-blade unit, which he says is easy to maintain and easily adapts to weather conditions. He says the car is "printing tickets" this weekend, meaning it is clicking off consistent passes. In the off-season, he switched from radials back to slicks, which brought his 60-foot times back in line and yielded more bite off the line and carries the nose of his 1979 Mustang off the line. 

Back racing with NMRA for the first time since 2012, David Woodside borrowed this beautiful Mercury Capri from his father, Greg, who built the car. Sprayed in Mopar Destroyer Gray courtesy of Johnnie Driggers, the Fox-platform machine is powered by a 466-cube big-block Ford sending power through a C4 automatic to a 9-inch rearend planted by a ladder-bar suspension. It is good for mid-9-second passes at full weight and it is ready for more thanks to the 8.50 cage that Woodside built in his shop.

With backing from Booze Brothers Racing, Dan Ryntz is dialing in his Coyote Stock racer. After annihilating a 9-inch rear, he is running a borrowed 8.8-inch unit until a new 9-inch is ready. In qualifying he was working on tuning the suspension to get the front-end lift under control.