Prev Article Next Article


The Clements Grip and Go on New Launch Pad at Atlanta Dragway

Posted By: Mary Lendzion
Fans were enthusiastic about seeing Alton Clements and his sister and fellow NMRA Edelbrock Renegade racer Valerie Clements roll their cars out of their trailers at the 22nd Annual Nitto NMRA Spring Break Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park in early March, and hung with them as Alton drove to a win and Valerie faced mechanical issues. After some time celebrating and then wrenching, the brother and sister team, which also includes their dad and engine-builder Alton Clements, Sr., returned to race action last Friday, March 25, for the Atlanta Outlaw Drag Racing Series at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, where they entered Outlaw 275. While the eighth-mile event was a no ET deal and both Alton and Valerie are mum on their elapsed-times and mph, they will share that both of their cars were hooking and booking on the facility's new concrete launch pad. The track was great, said Alton, whose Fox body Mustang is powered by a small-block Ford and ProCharger F1A-94 and rolls on 275 Mickey Thompson Street Radial Pros. I'm not sure if it was the new surface or the fact that they were dragging and prepping it. I heard one of the nitrous cars was in the mid 1.teens in the 60-foot. Meanwhile, in her 2005 Mustang rather than the 2014 Mustang she had been running the past few years, Valerie drove to a new best eighth-mile elapsed-time, with her new combination, which features a 365 cubic-inch small-block Ford rather than the Modular engine she had run previously, a ProCharger F1A-94 and 275 Mickey Thompson Street Radial Pros. The carefully-considered change in powerplants allows the team to have similar setups, which Alton tunes via Big Stuff 3. "Last weekend was a good outing, and everything was perfect, even though I had a minor leak early on and we stopped running to avoid possibly hurting the engine, said Valerie. The track was really tight, and I'm excited to see how everyone else uses it when we're back there for the NMRA and NMCA race. Valerie Catch the ever-charismatic Clements and their killer cars at the highly-anticpated 8th Annual NMRA/NMCA All Star Nationals presented by Miller Welders, April 7-10, 2016, at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia. (Photos courtesy of Valerie Clements)

join our

email list

You’ll be first to know about NMRA events, race results and so much more!