As we sit on the cusp of the 2008 NMRA Ford Drag Racing season, rumors, predictions, gossip, and trash talk litter the message forums and watering holes. As every year, everyone wants to know who is going to end up the 2008 Ford Mustang drag racing year a winner, who a loser, and who could going to get nailed for cheating.

It’s what makes the world go round. As part of the new launch of StangTV, we decided to take a shot at rubbing our magic 8-ball and seeing what comes out. Here’s our call for the possible winners, the sleepers, and the possible rules-benders, of 2008:

Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5

Pro Outlaw 10.5 is the newest championship class in the NMRA. The class has been on a limited schedule for the past two years, but the NMRA brass finally decided to take the plunge and offer it a full schedule for 2008 to replace the now-defunct Pro 5.0 class at the top of the horsepower ladder. You’ll see anything from a wild 500+ inch twin-turbocharged big block, a 450-inch small-block twin-turbo, to a monster-sized nitrous-injected big block out on the racetrack.

The common denominator is the tire; a max size of 33×10.5W tires are the standard, and the tires can barely keep up with the punishing 2000-plus horsepower these bad boys are laying down on a regular basis. In 2007, Tim Essick outlasted the competition to take the three-race title, barely squeaking past Keith Neal at the final race. Had Neal not hung the rods out to dry in qualifying at Bowling Green, Essick might have had much more of a fight on his hands. Third place ended up in the hands of Jim Brown, in his first season behind the wheel of a 10.5W car, Brown acquitted himself quite well.

Racer most likely to win 2008 Championship: Mike Murillo

As a former Super Street Outlaw champion, Mike Murillo knows what it takes to be a champion in the NMRA. Murillo locked up his SSO championship two races early in 2002, the last season he competed on a fulltime basis, and hung up the driving shoes not long afterwards to focus on his business. After a three-year build process, Murillo debuted his new 10.5W car at the 2007 SEMA show.

Defying all convention, Murillo placed the turbochargers in the trunk to gain a better weight balance in the car, and has a 541 cubic-inch Pete Kotzur-built big-block Ford in the nose to huff in all of the boost. Murillo is known for his intense drive and dedication to his craft, and if early reports of the car’s performance are to be believed, he has more than enough beans on tap. Our prediction is that he will use his skills and know-how to take home the title in Pro Outlaw 10.5.

Dark Horse for 2008 – Dan Millen

With an NMRA Super Street Outlaw title, two World Ford Challenge titles, a NOPI championship, and an NMCA Championship under his belt, Dan Millen is not a racer to be taken lightly. Going a bit against the grain by competing with a small-block, single turbo, and 5-speed Liberty transmission, Millen definitely has his hands full with his race car on Sunday.

As we profiled in a recent news update, Millen’s car, originally built by Steve Grebeck, just got an entire new turbo system by the guys at Kooks Headers.
Crew Chief Scott Amesse is always on the ball with his tuning calls, and if the Millen Racing team starts the season off well, we look for them to be in the hunt all the way to Bowling Green at the NMRA World Finals.

Why is Millen a dark horse? We have no idea, except he has been playing bridesmaid in the #2 position and we think people might be overlooking him.

Cheating Whispers? We have no idea…

There are a lot of racers we don’t know well enough, as this class is relatively new to the series, but as Ricky Bobby says, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” Is there anyone cheating?

We have no idea, so we aren’t going to waste your time.

ProCharger Super Street Outlaw

As the long-standing showpiece of the NMRA’s band of brothers, ProCharger Super Street Outlaw features some of the wildest combinations on four wheels, all trying to make it down the track on a set of itty-bitty 28×10.5 tires. Trying to put down 1800+ horsepower on that small tire is no small feat, but the big dawgs of Super Street Outlaw have managed to pour on the power to get these cars down into the 7.40 range at nearly 200 mph. With a 440 cubic inch limitation on the supercharged and turbocharged competitors, a 525-inch cap on big-block nitrous-injected cars, and a 480-inch cap on small-block nitrous cars, you’re sure to see some wild combinations in the Super Street Outlaw pits. John Urist repeated as the champion in 2007 by the skin of his teeth, outlasting Don Burton in a wild final-round finish at Bowling Green. It was only the application of too much power by Burton at the hit that gave the championship to Urist in the final round of the season. Both Jarrett Halfacre and Manny Buginga came on strong towards the end of the season, and Sammy Vincent could have taken the title had his small-block not decided to eat itself in New Jersey.

Racer most likely to win 2008 Championship – Don Burton

After a 2007 season ended by disappointment, Don Burton headed home to Maryland to lick his wounds and prepare his big-block ride for 2008. He has been the bridesmaid in two of the last three seasons, and we predict that ’08 will be his breakout year. He gained valuable information throughout the course of the ’07 season to help him along in his quest, and rumor has it that he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve that he feels will revolutionize the thought of a nitrous car taking the championship in Super Street Outlaw. One thing’s for sure – his Matukas chassis will be prepped and ready for another season of nitrous-gulping, wheelstanding action!

Dark Horse for 2008 – Jarrett Halfacre

When Jarrett and Darron, the Halfacre brothers, decided that they wanted to build a Super Street Outlaw car, the original intent was to go out and have fun competing against people that they had idolized over the years. After finally competing the car, the team found that they were in fact competitive, and redoubled their efforts to try to land at the top of the class. They missed the first two races of ’07, but the team came on strong at the end of the year, winning their first event in Columbus and tacking on a world record pass of 7.42 at nearly 200 mph in Kentucky. With another offseason of work, and attendance that will include the full season this year, the Illinois-based team should be a force to be reckoned with in SSO.

Toughest hill to climb? John Urist

John Urist is one of the most loyal NMRA racers in history. He’s got 3 race cars, and has a world class operation. We think John could have a tough hill to climb because of all of the expectations placed on him to try to four-peat. Is it possible that he could continue the level of excellence that he’s become accustomed to without an ever harder effort?

John works as hard, if not harder, than anyone in the class. He’s only of the multi-time champions with the energy and time to try to repeat.

Urist’s Hellion Power Systems and Urist Racing businesses grew in 2007. Will those .400 lights be a thing of the past? Don’t count him out, as he’ll certainly finish high in the points chase.. but we wonder could he dominate like he has in the past?

Cheating Whispers?

Cheaters? In Super Street Outlaw? That’s never happened before…they are just grey areas in the rules, right? Right? Well, we don’t know for sure, but there are rumors floating around about traction control, and while nobody has even been caught, we know that there are devices on the market that facilitate the use of it, and are no larger than a cigarette pack. Will the NMRA’s crack technical staff find something that they shouldn’t in 2008?

DiabloSport EFI Renegade

EFI Renegade racers have two choices when it comes to power-adders – nitrous oxide and supercharging are the only accepted forms of pumping up the power. Much like Super Street Outlaw, the class has a maximum tire size of 28×10.5; in addition, much of the challenge in making a car in this class perform is the prohibition on wheelie bars as a tuning aid. Also of utmost importance is the fact that intercooling of any sort on a supercharged combination is prohibited. The resulting 300+ degree intake temperatures mean that the tune must be dead on – we’ve seen dozens of cylinder heads that have holes in them where they aren’t supposed to. The nitrous entries, on the other hand, are permitted a larger cubic inch engine to help them ‘keep up with the Joneses’. Brian Mitchell won his third EFI Renegade championship in 2007 with the help of sponsors like Cleveland Performance, and Mitchell seems to be unstoppable. His combination of deadly reaction times and seemingly just enough power to win have rendered lesser competitors powerless. Bart Tobener spent much of 2007 chasing the champ in an effort to put a Modular-powered car into the number one position, and had a chance to win it all in Bowling Green, but fell short.

Racer most likely to win 2008 Championship – Bart Tobener

Bad Bart Tobener pulled out all the stops in his effort to win the championship in EFI Renegade in 2007 and just missed it, but another offseason of work on his 5.4-powered, Vortech-boosted combination will prove to be the equalizer in ousting champion Mitchell from his perch atop the class. The amazing thing about Tobener’s combination is that so much of it centers around off-the-shelf parts – the 5.4 is not really the aftermarket’s darling, so Tobener is forced to work with what’s available. We predict the championship in this class will come down to Bowling Green again, with Tobener pulling out at the end.

Dark Horse for 2008 – Bob Cook

New ride, more power!

After many seasons of campaigning his own car, finishing seventh in points in 2007, Bob Cook was about ready to step back and run a limited schedule for ’08. Until he came up with a great opportunity, that is. Team Sutton High Performance had been running their ’05 in Renegade, driven by Aaron Stapleton, but that situation changed for ’08 when Stapleton finished his NMCA Xtreme Street car in the offseason and realized he wouldn’t be able to get enough time away from his business to pilot both cars. Randy Mohrbach, the GM at Sutton, saw an opportunity to tap proven vet Cook to drive their car, and the rest is history. Cook will have a proven chassis and powerplant to drive at every race, and Sutton gets a great driver in the process. We think this combination could be devastating to Tobener if Cook gets enough testing time in.

Toughest hill to climb? – Brian Mitchell

One of the only racers to have participated in every single NMRA event, Brian Mitchell has been on the receiving end of three EFI Renegade championships. However, his old car was not legal for faster than 8.50 ET’s, so Mitchell went ahead and had a new chassis built up by Demon Race Cars. The combination of an all new racecar, the sure-to-happen bugs in shaking it down, and stepped-up programs by his competition could prove to be lethal to Mitchell’s reign atop the class.

That being said, Mitchell’s car is said to be state of the art, and he could overcome the challenges one more time.

Cheating Whispers?

There is always controversy in EFI Renegade – many of these racers have been competing against one another for so long, it’s bound to happen. As limited as the parts selection is in this class, there is always the question about whether someone has ported and welded an intake manifold, as has happened in the past. They are always looking for an edge on the competition, but we have not heard any rumors lately of people trying to skirt the rules to end up in the winner’s circle, but you can count on StangUndercover to bring it to you if we come up with anything.

BFGoodrich Tires Drag Radial

One of the most challenging classes in the NMRA is BFGoodrich Tires Drag Radial. When you take an engine program that is capable of 1300+ horsepower, and try to put it to the ground on a 325/50/15 street tire, all hell breaks loose. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice the continuous theme of tire size and type being the limiting factor in all of the classes described so far, but none more important than Drag Radial. Drag Radial consists of turbocharged and supercharged entries, all limited to 365 cubic inches for both, and 440 inches on nitrous-injected combinations. Over the course of the last two years, there has been one thing you could count on, and that’s seeing John Kolivas in the winner’s circle. Kolivas has outworked, outdriven, and outwon the competition to the tune of two straight championships. Chris Tuten, no stranger to hard work himself, finished in the number two spot in 2007, followed by rookie driver Kevin Fiscus, who made a great showing in his inaugural season despite a pile of broken parts.

Racer most likely to win 2008 Championship – John Kolivas

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It’s virtually impossible for StangUndercover to pick against the Iceman. The guy has shown that he has what it takes to be a champion time and time again. From thinking outside the box in the middle of last season and switching to an 85mm turbocharger, rather than the 88mm that everyone else was sporting, to taking the tree and cutting it down with .020 lights nearly every time out, Kolivas has certainly owned this class since the beginning of 2006. He spent the winter of 2007-08 dyno-testing his combination, even going so far as to test a ProCharger just to see if it made enough power to be competitive. We don’t know whether he’ll show up in Florida with an 85mm or 88mm turbocharger, but one thing’s for certain – John Kolivas will be your 2008 Drag Radial Champion.

Dark Horse for 2008 – Kevin Fiscus

It’s rare for a racer to step into a class and immediately be competitive, but Kevin Fiscus is one of those exceptions to the rule. He leapfrogged the learning process by purchasing a proven chassis, hiring Steve Petty to tune the car, and testing the wheels off of his sinister black beast. As the 2007 season wore on, Fiscus got a hard look at what he would have to do to win, and spent the offseason working with his car to make it lighter in order to be able to better place the weight. If Kolivas slips up even a little bit, you can bet on Fiscus being there to eat up the droppings.

Toughest hill to climb?– Chris Tuten

We don’t necessarily think anyone in the Drag Radial field is actually an underdog, but Tuten would seem at first glance to be the racer in danger of giving up his points position over the 2008 season. Although he sent his car to Team Z Motorsports in the offseason for some much-needed updating, Tuten is also working with a brand new combination – a ProCharger. As a result, Tuten has spent much of his time updating the engine and dyno-testing to try to find the power he knows he’ll need in order to be competitive. We feel like he could face a lot of new-car type bugs as he gets the new combination sorted out.

Cheating Whispers?

Racers in the Drag Radial class have always been willing to point out the shortcomings of their combination over the combinations that other racers are running. The buzz last season was that John Kolivas was somehow cheating with a one-off turbocharger. Kolivas never admitted to it, claiming that anyone could purchase the exact same parts he was running. Who knows what the truck was? As he’s sponsored by Precision Turbo, he could hypothetically be getting parts that are unavailable to the masses until after he tests them. Until the NMRA’s Rules Committee comes up with realistic and enforceable turbocharger modification rules, we think Kolivas could have an edge over the competition.

Edelbrock Hot Street

Anytime you have a class where nearly every race is decided by hundredths or thousandths of a second, you know that the competition has to be on their game for every event. Edelbrock Hot Street is that class in the NMRA, a jumbled puzzle of reaction times and wheelstands equaling up to a jolly good time on the 1320. With specific weight breaks pertaining to cylinder heads, cubic inch combinations, and transmission selection, this class features the best of the best in naturally-aspirated, high-winding Ford powered action. 2007 saw the mastermind behind Roush Engine Build Services, Ben Mens, take the championship behind the wheel of the Mike DeMayo Sr.-owned Evil89 car. Robbie Blankenship, using one of Mens’ powerplants, slid into the second spot, and Charlie Booze Jr. recovered from what could have been a disastrous start with a couple of wins to finish in third.

Racer most likely to win 2008 Championship – Robbie Blankenship

Having honed his driving skills in Open Comp for two years, Robbie Blankenship has his reaction times down pat, along with the skills necessary to handle a high-horsepower racecar. After a great rookie season where he finished second in points, Blankenship spent the offseason readying his new Matukas Motorsports-crafted New Edge car. Transplanting the competitive Roush-produced engine was the easy part, and Blankenship spent time honing the hook at his local track, Bradenton Motorsports Park, which just happens to be the same facility where the season opener is held. StangUndercover thinks the new chassis will be just the piece of the puzzle that Blankenship needs to punch his championship ticket.

Dark Horse for 2008 – Andy Schmidt

Andy Schmidt has been running in Hot Street for years now, along with crew chief and brother Matt. At one point the team finished third in the points, but last season they struggled trying to find the tuneup and consistency. Hard work goes a long way in this class, and the Schmidt brothers are two of the hardest-working. If they can find a way to sneak past ’07 champ Ben Mens and Robbie Blankenship, they could contend for the title.

Tough Hill to Climb? – Charlie Booze Jr.

A three-peat against some of the toughest competition in the land is virtually unattainable, but Charlie Booze Jr. did it from 2004-’06. After a stumble in the beginning of 2007, he came back in an effort to win the championship with a solid second half of the season. However, Booze and wife Kate had their first child in 2007, and we think he could be stepping back his efforts to race in Hot Street for a few years… But Booze has fooled us before…

Actually, nobody would prefer Booze win the championship other than us. Somebody has to fight and conquer the Roush juggernaut.

Cheating Whispers?

There have long been stories of racers in Hot Street cheating in one form or another. Doctored fuel, illegal carburetors, and all sorts of other accusations have been hurled around at one point or another. This offseason, the buzz has centered around illegal intake manifolds. There have been rumors of the custom-created Edelbrock Super Victor manifolds that is not being legal – the rumors StangUndercover is hearing is that they have been welded and altered. All of this may be a moot point, however, as the NMRA Rules Committee has allowed the new Edelbrock 2828 manifold, which looks to be designed in the same manner as the altered Wilson piece, but is unaltered and completely legal. What about the fuel? We don’t have any proof that anyone is using it, and some of the racers pointed fingers at one another over the course of the offseason, but the NMRA says they will be able to detect it if it’s used in Florida. Time will tell.

News and rumors are always welcome, send them on, no matter how juicy. The PM function is your best bet.

Watch for part two of this article coming out tomorrow.