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It’s the first race of the NMRA season here in Bradenton for 2012. With a strong showing in True Street and the Cobra Jet Showdown, this weekend will be the place to be for Mustang racers. Keep it tuned to StangTV all weekend for the coverage from Bradenton!
Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor SCT Performance, check them out at www.sctflash.com.
Saturday Morning News From The Pits
With an average of four cars running per race last year, it was inevitable that the Real Street class was going to get axed. Two of the prominent racers, Tim Matherly and Jim Breese, have made the jump to Renegade. It looks like at this point that defending champion Bruce Hemminger will not be making the upgrade. It hasn't been a simple upgrade; both racers have had to make significant drivetrain and suspension upgrades to be competitive in the class.
Don Bowles had his PSCA-built four eye Mustang here to do a few test passes on. This car was built specifically for the west coast Hot Street rules, which are dramatically different than the east coast's.
A few more heads up cars showed up this morning - Super Street Outlaw's Andrew DeMarco and Factory Stock's Rick Walsh.
Qualifying Round 2 Notes
Factory Stock
Carlos Sobrino would come out for his first official qualifying hit to take the number one spot in Factory stock with a 11.163 @ 119.23 mph run. John Leslie would improve slightly to a 11.282 while Kermit Buffington would have problems at the line that would cause him to have to be pushed back.
Drag Radial
Jason Lee would improve slightly off his Friday's qualifying pass with a 7.523 @ 185.49 mph, which can be mainly attributed to keeping the front wheels on the ground.
Renegade
The cause for Alton Clements sideways shuffle in the first round of qualifying was related to transmission problems that dumped fluid onto the tires. He was able to take over the number one qualifying spot in wheels up fashion with a 8.487 @158.42 mph. Jim Breese would abort his run after getting dangerously close to the centerline...and later coughed out an air intake pipe.
Hot Street
Michael DeMayo would join the Hot Street qualifying sheet with a 8.773 @ 152.31 mph run - third best to Blakenship's and Bowles' non-improving runs from the first session.
Super Street Outlaw
Kenjo Kelley would improve to the third spot with a 7.324 @ 187.50, while Tuten and Urist stayed one and two from their first round times. Phil Hines would have to abort his run after getting loose about 100 feet down the track.
Mike Murillo would suffer parts failure from a broken transmission case that sprayed fluid on the track from start to finish, causing a one hour delay to clean up. Jim Brown would suffer parts failure as well from yesterday and only staged his Mustang to get qualifying points. Tim Essick stays number one with his 6.903 pass from yesterday.
Qualifying Round 3
Here's someone you haven't seen at an NMRA race in awhile, Manny Buginga. While there has been some off season chatter than the former Super Street Outlaw champion was going to return, Manny is still sitting on the side lines...in a matter of speaking...
Only a light amount of reshuffling happened during the final round of qualifying. Don't forget to check out our 200+ image photo gallery by using the drop down at the top of the page. Here are a few of our favorites from the round
Future Feature – Joe Guertin’s Coyote Powered Fox Body
