The Big Show—Blue Oval beauties gathered at the UPR Products Car Show in Bowling Green
Written by Steve Turner
Photography by the author
Crowds of fans and an invasion of fabulous Fords traversed the picturesque entry road into Beech Bend Raceway Park over the four days of the Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Scott's Trailer Sales Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. The event capped the season-long celebration of the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals Series’ 25th Anniversary in grand fashion.
Among those Ford were hundreds of show machines that filled the traditional show field and spilled over into the Beech Bend Park theme park, which served up a great background for the beautiful Blue Oval rides on display. The huge turnout presented a challenge for the judges from the Bowling Green Mustangs host car club but was a delight for all the enthusiasts in attendance.
We are covering some of the highlights here, but this is one show that every Ford fan should see in person, so mark your calendars for September 26-29, 2024 when the NMRA returns to Bowling Green to close out its 2024 season. Until then, check out some of the sweet rides from the 2023 event.
FSC0124-SHOW1-2 (lead inset)
BEST OF SHOW
One look at the glistening Kandy Brandywine paint covering Brent Poole’s 1955 F100, and it’s easy to see why the Rockport, Indiana, resident’s big-block-powered pickup hauled away the Best of Show award from the Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Scott's Trailer Sales Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. Rolling on sparkling five-spoke wheels, the truck features a fully custom interior and a wood-lined bed.
There were plenty of Fox Mustangs on the property, and one standout was James and Charlene Smith’s 1998 Mustang GT stood out thanks to what is underhood. Powered by a shiny small-block boosted by a polished Paxton Novi supercharger, this powerplant earned Sunday’s Best Engine honors in Bowling Green.
James Pennington and his beautiful 1995 Mustang are regulars on the Bowling Green show field, and this year was no exception. The pushrod-powered SN-95’s stunning exterior scored the Best Paint & Body award in 2023.
Anthony Mutschelknaus made the trip out from Salem, West Virginia, to show off his Coyote-swapped, VMP-supercharged 1990 Mustang GT. He doubled down at the show, scoring the Directors Choice Modified award on Saturday and the Best ’79-’93 Mustang award on Sunday.
On the SN-95 front, David Edwards’ two-tone 1997 Mustang sat low on big and littles and looked the part of a performance machine. Powered by a ProCharged Coyote swap under the hood, it muscled its way to the Best Race Car Pro Street award at Beech Bend.
Rising above stiff competition in the category for specialty stallions, Toby Barnett’s 2020 Shelby GT500 Super Snake earned the Best Shelby-Boss honors at the Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Scott's Trailer Sales Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. That is appropriate because his special Shelby is boosted by a polished Gen 5 Whipple supercharger that pushes its output past 825 horsepower.
Proving that beauty is more than sheetmetal deep, Andy Holub’s 1972 Maverick looks sharp on the outside, but it was his nicely detailed cabin that earned the Best Interior award.
Dominic Farbo’s 1965 Mustang restomod, known as Blizzard, iced out the competition to nab the Best Classic Mustang award in Bowling Green. This Ring Brothers creation is motivated by a Wegner Automotive 427 stroker Windsor mated with a Bowler Performance five-speed manual transmission. It puts down the power with a full Detroit Speed suspension while Baer Brakes throw out the anchor when needed. Those striking wheels are HRE 560Rs wrapped in Nitto rubber.
The S550 crowd always shows out at Ford events, so the competition is always fierce. Kyle Franklin’s bagged and beautiful 2015 Mustang GT sports a GT500-style nose, outstanding orange paint, and a set of massive five-spoke wheels. All of those contributed to his car’s win in the Best 2015+ Mustang category.
One of our favorite Foxes from the first day of the UPR Products Car Show was Kane Farley’s Terminator-swapped 1993 Mustang. He always had an affinity for the Special Vehicle Team’s ’03-’04 Cobras, so he decided to bring his high school dreams to life in the beautiful Fox coupe. His car earned a Special Recognition in Kentucky.
One ultra-rare Cobra R is enough to stop a Ford Special Vehicle Team fan in their tracks, but Alan Dale and his sons Nathan and Steven are SVT fanatics. They own this 2000 SVT Mustang Cobra R and the 1995 SVT Mustang Cobra R next to it in the UPR Products show field. Nathan says attending the NMRA World Finals in 2001 sent his family down the rabbit hole of collecting SVT Mustangs. Now they have several, but the ’00 R-model is truly special, and they drive the car to the tune of more than 40,000 miles on the odometer, which is a rarer sight than the car itself.
At the conclusion of the show each day the winners gathered to collect their awards before heading out of Beech Bend Raceway Park on its iconic entry road.
Written by Steve Turner
Photography by the author
Crowds of fans and an invasion of fabulous Fords traversed the picturesque entry road into Beech Bend Raceway Park over the four days of the Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Scott's Trailer Sales Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. The event capped the season-long celebration of the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals Series’ 25th Anniversary in grand fashion.
Among those Ford were hundreds of show machines that filled the traditional show field and spilled over into the Beech Bend Park theme park, which served up a great background for the beautiful Blue Oval rides on display. The huge turnout presented a challenge for the judges from the Bowling Green Mustangs host car club but was a delight for all the enthusiasts in attendance.
We are covering some of the highlights here, but this is one show that every Ford fan should see in person, so mark your calendars for September 26-29, 2024 when the NMRA returns to Bowling Green to close out its 2024 season. Until then, check out some of the sweet rides from the 2023 event.
FSC0124-SHOW1-2 (lead inset)
BEST OF SHOW
One look at the glistening Kandy Brandywine paint covering Brent Poole’s 1955 F100, and it’s easy to see why the Rockport, Indiana, resident’s big-block-powered pickup hauled away the Best of Show award from the Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Scott's Trailer Sales Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. Rolling on sparkling five-spoke wheels, the truck features a fully custom interior and a wood-lined bed.
There were plenty of Fox Mustangs on the property, and one standout was James and Charlene Smith’s 1998 Mustang GT stood out thanks to what is underhood. Powered by a shiny small-block boosted by a polished Paxton Novi supercharger, this powerplant earned Sunday’s Best Engine honors in Bowling Green.
James Pennington and his beautiful 1995 Mustang are regulars on the Bowling Green show field, and this year was no exception. The pushrod-powered SN-95’s stunning exterior scored the Best Paint & Body award in 2023.
Anthony Mutschelknaus made the trip out from Salem, West Virginia, to show off his Coyote-swapped, VMP-supercharged 1990 Mustang GT. He doubled down at the show, scoring the Directors Choice Modified award on Saturday and the Best ’79-’93 Mustang award on Sunday.
On the SN-95 front, David Edwards’ two-tone 1997 Mustang sat low on big and littles and looked the part of a performance machine. Powered by a ProCharged Coyote swap under the hood, it muscled its way to the Best Race Car Pro Street award at Beech Bend.
Rising above stiff competition in the category for specialty stallions, Toby Barnett’s 2020 Shelby GT500 Super Snake earned the Best Shelby-Boss honors at the Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Scott's Trailer Sales Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival. That is appropriate because his special Shelby is boosted by a polished Gen 5 Whipple supercharger that pushes its output past 825 horsepower.
Proving that beauty is more than sheetmetal deep, Andy Holub’s 1972 Maverick looks sharp on the outside, but it was his nicely detailed cabin that earned the Best Interior award.
Dominic Farbo’s 1965 Mustang restomod, known as Blizzard, iced out the competition to nab the Best Classic Mustang award in Bowling Green. This Ring Brothers creation is motivated by a Wegner Automotive 427 stroker Windsor mated with a Bowler Performance five-speed manual transmission. It puts down the power with a full Detroit Speed suspension while Baer Brakes throw out the anchor when needed. Those striking wheels are HRE 560Rs wrapped in Nitto rubber.
The S550 crowd always shows out at Ford events, so the competition is always fierce. Kyle Franklin’s bagged and beautiful 2015 Mustang GT sports a GT500-style nose, outstanding orange paint, and a set of massive five-spoke wheels. All of those contributed to his car’s win in the Best 2015+ Mustang category.
One of our favorite Foxes from the first day of the UPR Products Car Show was Kane Farley’s Terminator-swapped 1993 Mustang. He always had an affinity for the Special Vehicle Team’s ’03-’04 Cobras, so he decided to bring his high school dreams to life in the beautiful Fox coupe. His car earned a Special Recognition in Kentucky.
One ultra-rare Cobra R is enough to stop a Ford Special Vehicle Team fan in their tracks, but Alan Dale and his sons Nathan and Steven are SVT fanatics. They own this 2000 SVT Mustang Cobra R and the 1995 SVT Mustang Cobra R next to it in the UPR Products show field. Nathan says attending the NMRA World Finals in 2001 sent his family down the rabbit hole of collecting SVT Mustangs. Now they have several, but the ’00 R-model is truly special, and they drive the car to the tune of more than 40,000 miles on the odometer, which is a rarer sight than the car itself.
At the conclusion of the show each day the winners gathered to collect their awards before heading out of Beech Bend Raceway Park on its iconic entry road.
