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This is it folks…the last hurrah of the 2012 NMRA All-Ford Drag Racing Series season at the annual Nitto Tire World Finals gathering at the Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green Ky. We’ll be crowning champions in every heads-up category, and with only a pair of the titles decided, there’s a lot on the line for the competitors this weekend. As always, StangTV will have all the results, news, notes, and photos from the biggest Blue Oval drag race of them all.
Special thanks to the presenting sponsor of our coverage, SCT Performance!
It's 80 degrees and sunny here for the first day of the NMRA World Finals, and the staging lanes are packed with racers taking test and tune shots at the Beech Bend Raceway Park quarter mile. Testing will close at 3 p.m., with the opening round of qualifying to follow. The questionable weather forecast for the weekend that we had earlier in the week has improved drastically, but temperatures will remain in the 50's and 60's for qualifying on Saturday and eliminations on Sunday.
Fresh off his Extreme 10.5 victory in Norwalk last weekend, Mustang drag racing icon and ADRL star Billy Glidden and wife Shannon were here earlier today making test hits for a possible run at Pro Street next weekend in Indianapolis. We asked Billy about his plans for 2013 and if the NMCA Pro Street division factored into those plans, but the quiet and methodical Glidden simply replied, 'we've gotta' get through the rest of this season, first.'
Jim Brown has been on the sidelines for much of the 2012 season with engine woes, but arrived here at the season-ending event ready to race. Brown's car labored off the starting line on his test hit this afternoon, possibly jumping into high gear.
"The Fireball" John Urist is on the cusp of what we believe to be his eighth Super Street Outlaw championship and sixth in a row this weekend. This is the first time we've seen Urist's Fox body since a top end crash in Milan that put the car out of commission for a few races.
What goes up, must come down, as Renegade racer A.J. Weiss learned in the first round of qualifying. Weiss got some edge-of-your-seat airtime before crashing back to earth in a rough way.
Justin Burcham rolled to the second quickest lap of the session in Coyote Stock with his 10.78, second only to Shane Stymiest's killer 10.70 in his '90 Mustang.
'HiPo' Joe Charles has plenty of reason to smile these days, as he holds a commanding lead in the Coyote Stock standings. With double points on the line this weekend, Burcham, who sits second in the points, still has a mathematical chance to snatch the title, but it would take a record-setting scenario to pull it off.
Matt Amrine sits atop the Factory Stock sheets after the first round of qualifying with his 10.88.
Louis Sylvester, points leader Carlos Sobrino, and Sondra Leslie closed the round of Factory Stock second, third, and sixth, respectively.
Mike Murillo took his SCT Performance mount to the pole in Pro Outlaw 10.5 with a nice 6.646 at 221.71 mph. Tim Essick, in the opposing lane, began to draft out of the groove about 150 feet out and clicked it off.
Charlie Booze Jr. hung the hoops high on his qualifying shot, riding out this long wheelstand to sail right to the top of the Hot Street heap with an 4.49 at 157.36 mph.
Don Bowles comes into the World Finals with a scant 135 point lead over Booze in the Hot Street standings, needing to outdistance the multi-time champion in qualifying and on raceday to stay on top. On his opening hit, Bowles took flight with his Maverick on his way to carding a second-best 8.63.
With a nearly 1,200 point lead in the Super Street Outlaw standings, John Urist has a virtual lock on the championship this weekend. He and Phil Hines put on a great side-by-side show in qualifying - Hines just edging Urist by a 7.159 to 7.177 count.
Alton Clements got in on the exciting wheelstand theme this evening, standing his '89 Mustang up twice on his way to a ninth-quick and slowing 9.66.
Points leader Brian Mitchell is right where he wants to be after the first session - his 8.44 pacing the 12-car Renegade field. Tim Matherly (right) put his 2010 Mustang into the middle of the field with a seventh-quick 9.94.
Hot Street ace Rick Riccardi has spent the last several months upgrading his racing program and going over his '81 Capri with a fine-toothed comb to take aim at the front runners in the naturally aspirated category. Riccardi hasn't shown his hand just yet, but he did post a nice 8.69 on an early shutoff pass in testing earlier today.
Surprise! The Drag Radial category is again the Jason Lee show, as the Strange Engineering-backed racer carded a 7.61 in the first session alongside the 8.53 posted by Kurt Borton in his neat little '82 Ford Fairmont.
In addition to Super Stang and Modular Muscle categories they're usually found in, the World Finals this year also features the Terminator/GT 500 Shootout and the King of the Street category for late model Mustangs.
