It’s the first race of the year for the NMRA at the familiar Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. With a lot off season rules changed and classes combined, it will be interesting to see how racers will adapt. Stay tuned all weekend as we bring you in depth racing coverage from the NMRA Spring Break Shootout.
Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor SCT Performance. Check out their new Livewire TS at www.sctflash.com.
Bright and early Sunday morning, the track crew is hard at work prepping the track and eliminations will be starting soon. Stay tuned all day, we will try to bring you the coverage as quickly as possible.Yesterday Valerie Clements was struggling to figure out why her engine wouldn't make enough boost. We spoke with Alton Clements Sr. this morning - the team found a clamp that had worked its way loose, and made a pulley change to get ready for today's eliminations. Alton Jr. told us the difference between an EFI Renegade car without and with an intercooler is approximately 200 degrees of intake temperature.Factory Stock champ Carlos Sobrino is out for the weekend. He struggled yesterday to get the car to rev over 6000RPM and changed the ignition box but his problems persisted. The engine developed a slight knock as well, so he figured it was better to put it in the trailer and take it home for an inspection rather than run the risk of damaging anything else.Steve Matusek continues testing his Pro Mod - the team continued to struggle getting down the track yesterday, and they were hard at work this morning prepping the machine for another run.Stopped by to chat with Sean Ashe and Jason Gatlin this morning while the team was inspecting their gear-drive and supercharger assembly. They haven't put it all together yet this weekend but they found a couple of issues last night that should help their performance today. Gatlin's ATFSpeed builds the geardrive along with dozens of other hardcore race parts.
Charlie Cooper made it to the second round in Renegade in his gorgeous Cobra Jet, but was forced to back out when his blower pulley end up in the burnout box.Matt Amrine lucked out with a bye to the final round after eliminating Chalie Rankin in the first round. Amrine is also the only FS competitor to break into the 10-second zone in eliminations today. He will face Louie Sylvester in the final.Joe Marini's on a roll today in Coyote Stock. The first-time heads-up driver took out Paul Dishroon in the first round and 2012 class champion Joe Charles in the second round of competition. He will face Shane Stymiest in the final round.AJ Wyce has a machine that's rockin' today. He took out Jim Breese in the first round and Scott Grove in the second. He will run Brian Mitchell in the final round; Mitchell arrived there via two single runs when Tim Matherly and Charlie Cooper didn't make the call.Filthy Phil got out of shape in the semifinal; it looked like his dominating run this weekend would be over. But opponent Eric Leeper had some troubles of his own, and Phil was able to get back into the game by beating Leeper to the stripe. He will face DJ Loiacano in the semifinal; John Urist has a bye to the final on the other side of the ladder. Urist has been improving all day - he picked up .06 from the first round to the second.
Second Round Elimination Ladders
Final Round Sheets
It’s the first race of the year for the NMRA at the familiar Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. With a lot off season rules changed and classes combined, it will be interesting to see how racers will adapt. Stay tuned all weekend as we bring you in depth racing coverage from the NMRA Spring Break Shootout.
Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor SCT Performance. Check out their new Livewire TS at www.sctflash.com.
A bit of controversy in the pits - it seems that one of the spec fuels permitted in the Coyote Stock and Factory Stock classes does not meet the NMRA's specifications, and a couple of competitors, including Coyote Stock champ Joe Charles, were forced to find an alternative fuel for today's qualifying sessions. Here Joe's cleaning out the lines from all of the old fuel."Ticket Taker" Billy Driscoll rolled in late last evening with his turbocharged machine. He made a hit this morning in the second round of qualifying and clicked off an 8.15 shutdown pass. Look for him to improve drastically in the third round.We caught up with Jason Hoots this morning in the pits. He's driving Paul Alfeo's Renegade car and still trying to sort it out. Yesterday he tossed the belt right off the line, and in the second round today he struggled off the line.After years running at the top of the Real Street class, the last two seasons have been a challenge for Tim Matherly. He's currently qualified sixth in the class with an 8.75.We had a conversation with AJ Wyce this morning - he was suffering from a migraine headache yesterday and had to skip the qualifying session. He has acquitted himself well so far today by jumping into the third spot in Renegade with a strong 8.57.
Filthy Phil Hines fixed the problem that kept him off the qualifying ladder yesterday - he rolled across the scales a couple of pounds light. Today he turned in an outstanding 7.344 at 195.18 from his ProCharged 2001 Mustang. Hines told us yesterday that he hasn't made any changes since last month's Lights Out race at SGMP other than changing the supercharger and adjusting the tune to compensate for the changes.John Urist seems to be getting a handle on the turbo combination in his car - he's qualified second in Street Outlaw with a 7.45 at 191 MPH.Scott Grove's Renegade car is perhaps the most docile 8-second car we've seen in a long time. It doesn't hike the tires or do anything violent - it just hooks and goes, and landed him at the top of the qualifying ladder heading into eliminations tomorrow.Shane Stymiest clicked off a strong 10.57 at 123 MPH to lead the Coyote Stock field through qualifying, but a few of the competitors are being torn down this evening and the qualifying results are not finalized yet.Charlie Cooper is the lone Cobra Jet owner to try his hand in heads-up competition this weekend. He's competing in the Renegade class and qualified fourth with an 8.61 entering eliminations.
JPC Racing customer Joe Marini has the only 2011-up Mustang currently competing in Coyote Stock. Marini didn't make a pass yesterday but acquitted himself well today with a strong 10.76 at 124 MPH.This is Joe Guertin's second season racing in Coyote Stock. The Floridian had never raced heads-up prior to last season and is still getting his legs under him in competition.As one of the few seasoned competitors in Coyote Stock, 2012 class champ HiPo Joe Charles has the advantage of having longtime NMRA competitor and former champion Tim Matherly in his corner. The pair spends countless hours testing different things on the dyno.One of the neat things about Coyote Stock is that the NMRA is in control of the tune that each competitor runs - it's a canned tune from the wizards at Ford Racing Parts. NMRA tech official Randy Auwarter waits prior to the final round as the tune is uploaded to a competitor's car.Louie Sylvester laid down the quickest pass in Factory Stock history in the final round of competition.The team credits chassis work and tuning from Dave Zimmerman at Team Z Motorsports as a big help in their program. The car spent time at Team Z in the offseason. Aeromotive head honcho Steve Matusek continued testing his Pro Mod today. He's got Chuck Samuel here helping the team to get sorted out - they've made a bunch of changes recently and were basically starting from scratch. When we say this thing is LOUD...trust us..it's loud. Even up atop the tower with earplugs in, it was painful to listen to the popping and banging on the starting line.
Coyote Stock qualifying results are not finalized – a few competitors are being torn down. We will post sheets as soon as they are available.
It’s the first race of the year for the NMRA at the familiar Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. With a lot off season rules changed and classes combined, it will be interesting to see how racers will adapt. Stay tuned all weekend as we bring you in depth racing coverage from the NMRA Spring Break Shootout.
Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor SCT Performance. Check out their new Livewire TS at www.sctflash.com.
Bad Bart Tobener is here this weekend competing in the Afco Street Outlaw class. Tobener is running an 88mm turbocharger atop his 336 cubic inch Modular combination; both items carry a weight break in the brand-new class.Coyote Stock champion HiPo Joe Charles debates the merits of the Ford Racing Parts Boss 302 intake manifold.Coyote Stock competitor Paul Dishroon had quite the challenge on his way to the event. Four trailer tires (and a smoked tow rig transmission) later, he's here and ready to race. The Iron Man of True Street, Randy Seward, made his first hit of the day and clicked off a stout 8.58 at 160 mph. The car was driven here from Tennessee - no trailer needed.We caught up with future Coyote Stock competitor and Holley's Director of Sales, "Uncle" Robin Lawrence. He'll be teaming up with Bruce Hemminger to field an entry for the class shortly - Hemminger is working on getting the car finished up.Street Outlaw competitor Chip Pike purchased John Urist's old car and is here with the NMRA for the first time this weekend. He's got a ProCharger F-1X under the hood of the familiar machine, and Urist is assisting with the program.Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend so far is the 94mm turbocharger hidden in the nose of John Urist's machine. Urist will be working with both the turbo and the ProCharger you're all familiar with - the car is actually capable of being swapped from one to the other in about an hour and a half. Since the class is brand-new and there isn't a lot of testing data for any of the combinations, Urist is planning to test both power-adders at some point this season.
Shane Stymiest took the top spot in Coyote Stock this afternoon by besting the competition by one-and-a-half tenths.Also testing this weekend is Pro Mod racer Steve Matusek. Although Matusek hasn't been able to get down the track cleanly yet the team is working hard to sort out the car.After digging his trailer out of the Illinois snow earlier this week, Louie Sylvester Jr. made the long trek to Florida worthwhile with the number-one spot after the first round. His 10.77 bested Matt Amrine by .05 heading into tomorrow's qualifying.Street Outlaw brought out former Fun Ford Weekend Renegade racer DJ Loiacano. DJ's machine uses a 443 cubic inch engine and F-1X ProCharger for motivation and propelled him to the number-two spot with a 7.54 at 187 MPH.We talked to Factory Stock racer Chalie Rankin earlier today. Chalie has a brand new engine from class championship engine builder Chris Smith and is planning on hitting all of the events this year thanks to a new job title.A surprise visit from Conrad Scarry - the Con-Man is testing the Scarry Crew's new Outlaw Radial car - a soft 5.10 pass was straight as a string. This is only the fifth pass on the car to date,and the combination is basically the same as what he ran in his Outlaw 10.5 car.Jim Breese made lots of changes to his Renegade car over the winter. A new intercooler has improved performance and a revised seating position has him feeling much more comfortable in the car.Terrence Whalen made the trip down from Georgia to compete in the new Street Outlaw class. He is currently qualified fourth with a 7.75 at 186 MPH.Randy Seward found a split silicone connector after his last hit and was able to fix it in time for the last True Street time trial. His 8.44 this afternoon is his best pass to date this weekend.
