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It’s Friday, and that means time to get things rolling at the 22nd annual NMRA Spring Break Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park, in Bradenton, Florida. We’re on the ground to get all the action as racers make a few test hits today and prepare to qualify later this afternoon. We’ll be here all weekend long until the event is over to bring readers the latest coverage of one of the biggest all-Ford racing events of the year. The only thing better than being here, is following our coverage, so check back all weekend long.
2015 Factory Stock Champion Matt Amrine is here to defend his title and has made the switch from the T-5 transmission to a TKO from Liberty for this season in an effort to avoid breakage that plagued him the last two events of 2015. He run a 2 valve SVO head engine combo. New for the class this year is allowance of the Mickey Thompson 275 Pro Bracket Radial tire after the Gen 1 ET Street Radial was discontinued.
Bill Dudley has owned this 1965 Mustang since high school in 1992 and is based out of St Pete, Florida. He runs a Nelson Competition built 410 ci Windsor topped with TEA ported Hi Port heads and a Saturday Night Special plate System from Induction Solutions backed by a C4 trans and Gear Vendors Overdrive. Dudley is looking to compete for the 10.0 Index in True Street on Saturday.
Manny Buginga is back at it after an eight year absence from the racing scene with this LX Mustang. He is running a 380 inch small Ford from Nelson Competition fed by a 94 MM Precision Turbo and backed by a Proformance Racing Transmission. Nick Bruder is tuning the Fuel Tech engine management software and the team had yet to make a pass when we caught up to them in the lanes earlier.
Dwayne Barbarbee is sporting a new engine this year from Kuntz and Company fed by the class legal 98 MM turbo after switching back and forth from a supercharger in 2015. The team tested in Denton and Shrieveport prior to this event with good results. Russel Stone purchased Kuntz and Co. just this January and is working with the team there to advance their power adder combos while transitioning. Their friend Paul Soliz was planning on competing with the NMRA this season but was tragically killed in a drag racing accident so Barbaree and the team are making sure he rides along in spirit with them this year.
Joe Coffeman DeCaria is debuting a new car sporting an MPR built Modular 302 force fed by an F1A Procharger and tuned by Ken Bjones at Palm Beach Dyno with cage and chassis work from Tig Vision. They have tested with promising results and are still working out the new car.
Wild Bill Devine was set to make some test/exhibition runs today but found some oil pressure fluctuations in the data logging. He checked the filter to find some copper and the crew pulled the pan for a bearing inspection.
Vinnie Palazzolo has been running X275 based out of the Philly area and is here competing with the NMRA for the first time this weekend in Street Outlaw. He runs a Bennett Racing small Ford with a 98 MM Precision turbo at 3200 pounds, a change from the Pro Mod 85 he ran in X275. He did some tuning on the dyno just last night at Pressurized Solutions and is using the new Haltech Elite 2500 engine management, he has yet to make a pass today.
Valerie Clements is done for the weekend after some valve to piston interference damaged several valves.
Aaron Bates finished seventh in the 2015 Renegade points and has stepped up his engine program this year with a new top end from Total Engine Airflow looking for more power.
Tyler Eichhorn is debuting a new car for Coyote Stock this weekend using a Ram clutch and G Force T5 transmission. Tyler struggled hooking the car testing and found a broken strut. A quick call to Mark Menscer got them fixed up and a new pair will be here in the morning to get them back on track. Demon Motorsports did the fabrication and chassis. From left to right, Ari Birchfield, Tyler, Tim and Christina Eichhorn.
Joe Guertin is running Coyote Modified out of CRE Performance in Purt St Lucie, Florida with Chet Caminita as crew chief. The team tested in Orlando recently scoring what they think is the first seven second run for the class with a 7.87. He runs an MPR engine with a Procharger F1A 91MM tuned by Cal Hartline and backed by an ATF power glide transmission and converter.
Round One Qualifying Results
Street Outlaw
Dwayne Barbaree sits on top of VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw after one qualifier with a 4.52 at 166 MPH.
Manny Buginga ripped off a 4.58 at 160 MPH in his first full pass to the eighth mile in the car during today’s test session. He qualified second with a 4.87 at 117 after clicking it early.
Renegade
Adam Arndt leads Edelbrock Renegade by a substantial margin with a 7.481 at 181 with five cars making it for round one qualifying today.
Last Year’s Renegade Champion Frank Varella races out of Hellion Racing and sits fourth with a 7.86.
Coyote Modified
Procharger Coyote Modified had seven cars for round one qualifying with Jeff Polivka from Gainesville, Virginia putting his 2013 Boss on top with an 8.18 at 166 MPH with Joe Cram a close second running a 7.23 at 167. Haley James (pictured) put up an 8.43 at 155 landing fourth in class today.
Johnny Lightning sits third so far with an 8.36, he set high MPH so far running a whopping 169.77 through the top end.
Pure Street
Tommy Godfrey leads G-Force Transmissions Pure Street with a 9.37 at 137.63 MPH, a full three MPH better than second place qualifier William Gimbel. Derek Downs, C.J. Reese and Jimmy Wilson round out the field with two more sessions left on Saturday for the racers to improve position.
Factory Stock
John Leslie Jr. pulled the wheels hard on his way to a 10.79 at 124 in American Racing Headers Factory Stock landing third in class.
Frank Brancaccio hails out of Canfield, Ohio with his 1991 Factory Stock Mustang. He sits fourth for today with a 10.98 at 123 MPH.
Coyote Stock
Race Pages Coyote Stock has fifteen cars on the sheet after one session with Michael Washington leading the pack in his 1993 Cobra with a 10.25 at 147 MPH The weather is looking good this weekend for racers to put up some impressive numbers and Coyote Stock is a class to watch with car set up being a large factor in making good runs with the sealed engine class.
Longtime NMRA racer Carlos Sobrino sits seventh in class with a 10.38 at 128.
Ford Cobra Jet Showdown
Ford Cobra Jet Showdown has thirteen cars qualified for Saturday’s class eliminations with Mike Harris leading the field where racers are qualified by reaction time.
