ELIMINATION RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE
Today's the day that winners are crowned and the championship points chase heats up! Sunday's schedule for the 18th Annual NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Muscle Car Drag Racing has been set and we will begin racing at 8:45am sharp.
Over in the Cram pits, a fresh Whipple supercharger now graces Becki Cram’s 2010 Ford Mustang in preparation for today’s NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade/NMCA Edelbrock Xtreme Street eliminations. The car is making a bit more boost now and the group is feeling positive that they’ll be yelling “Oh My Gawd!” later as she hopefully cruises through the rest of the remaining rounds.
The key to continuous improvement is continuous work, NMRA VP Racing Madditives Renegade/NMCA Edelbrock Xtreme Street hot shoe Martin Connelley definitely hasn’t been slacking. The man from Kentucky slotted his 1990 Ford Mustang into the number four spot in qualifying with a 4.568 at 154.69 mph hit, then shaved a hundredth off in round one of eliminations when he went 4.557 at 153.93 mph and turned the win lights on in his lane. Connelley will continue to chip away at it in hopes of scoring a Victor award later today.
Although he claims to have done nothing to his Coyote-powered, stick shift 1971 Ford Maverick since the final NMRA race of 2022 in Kentucky except put air in its tires, Mike Bowen easily took the lead in NMRA Richmond Gear Factory Stock with a class-leading 10.055 at 127.33 mph hit and scored a win in round one of eliminations on Saturday night. The reigning class champion has faith in both his combination and his driving abilities, and Bowen is a favorite to make it to the finals later today.
The Ciborowski family has a robust history of racing with the NMRA, and now Kyle “Gator” Ciborowski, the youngest of two-time NMRA Limited Street champion Mike Ciborowski’s sons, has moved up from True Street to the hot new NMRA SunCoast Performance 8.60 Street Race category. The family put together Gator’s ride in late 2022 and the patriarch put the inaugural shakedown runs on the spicy street car at the NMRA season finale in Kentucky. Gator, who also does competitive cheer and recently won a back-to-back championship, completed his competition license this weekend and has been slowly turning up the wick on the TVS-supercharged Coyote combination as he acclimates to the quicker speeds. Although he didn’t get the first-round win in eliminations on Saturday night, Gator still accomplished quite a bit and has plenty left to enjoy for the rest of the season.
Happy to be back in the driver’s seat after several years off due to focusing on customer cars and building his Woodside Motorsports business, North Carolina’s David Woodside is now focusing on refining his reaction times in NMRA ARP Open Comp. He made it through to the quarter-finals with his 1979 Mercury Capri at the previous race but issues with his shifter halted his progress there. This weekend in St. Louis, Woodside is running stock and has a new set of double-adjustable Menscer Motorsports shocks on board. The Capri has been consistent and Woodside has been improving his own consistency as well, picking up a win in the first round of eliminations on Saturday night which entitled him to a bye in round two this morning.
His fourth year running in NMRA Coyote Stock, Shawn Olson’s beautiful 1966 Ford Mustang was originally a 6-cylinder car but now sports a hefty, modern Gen 3 Coyote V8 powerplant under its hood. A survivor car still in its original color, Olson picked it up in late 2019 with only 21,000 miles on the chassis. He built it up for the category with help from fellow racer Mike Bowen, and worked hard to get both the Ram clutch and his launch rpm dialed in this weekend. Unfortunately, Olson wasn’t able to advance past the first round of eliminations this time out, but the Ohio-based racer will keep at it for the remainder of the season and beyond.
During the off-season, Gordon Harlow had Bennett Racing Engines refresh his 1989 Ford Mustang’s engine and he’s been running a lot quicker this year as a result. Harlow’s working to adjust his program to accommodate the newfound speed, but is cutting consistently quick lights as always. In NMRA ARP Open Comp qualifying, his 0.006-second reaction time placed him third in the order but he went a little too quick during Saturday night’s first elimination pairing and his 9.993 at 136.06 mph trip on a 10.02 dial gifted the win to Larry Geddes in the opposing lane. Although he’s still working to get a round win for this season, Harlow is all smiles, as always.
