It’s the oldest and quite possibly biggest, most important race for the NMRA, the World Finals held at Beech Bend Raceway in beautiful Bowling Green, Kentucky. The stage is set for some exciting showdowns to determine the champions in several classes. The forecast calls for a chance of rain all weekend long. We’ll be here until it’s all over and in the record books. Check here often all weekend for the coolest photos, and information on all the excitement.

Brenspeed is out in force, with several cars on the property,

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We have been fighting mother nature all day. Spotty rain showers have been hampering things all afternoon. Each time the track crew at Beech Bend gets the track dry, another shower pops up and soaks the surface again. The first round of qualifying was set for 3:00 pm central time, it’s presently 4:30 and we just watched a significant shower move through and the crew is again drying the track.

Testing

We have seen a few test passes, as everyone looks to dial in their combination. The weather will make things tricky, as it’s warm today on Friday, and scheduled to be cooler later this weekend.

John Urist is looking for his first championship in the new Street Outlaw class. The points gap is close, and anything could happen as temperatures drop tonight and setting a records is worth 50 bonus points.

The biggest story so far today has been Valerie Clements. Coming off a crash at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl in Joliet, IL a few months ago. Clements presently has a damaged engine in her EFI Renegade car. Clements is presently second in Renegade points, and had hoped to maintain that position going into the finals. Clements told us that the engine is down a cylinder, and needs to be swapped out. Her crew is looking to swap the engine out, if they can get their hands on an engine hoist.

NMRA officials have told us that they will get the first round of qualifying in tonight.

Having thrashed late into the night all week long to replace the engine that was damaged at Norwalk, Terry Beefcake Reeves is looking for a win and looking to dial in the updates to his combination.

Modular Muscle racer Adam Cox continues his search for 9 second time slips, having run a low 10 earlier in the day during testing. Cox has been dealing with traction issues.

Jim Logan’s clean Mustang GT looks to the sky during test and tune Friday afternoon.

Charlie Cooper’s Cobra Jet makes a hit.

We were pleasantly surprised to see Darren Hendricks (far lane) with his 93 Cobra a Former Pure Street car from a decade ago. Hendricks has made a return to NMRA racing, and is competing in the Coyote Stock class.

Brenspeed brought out five cars this weekend, representing the Indiana based Performance specialists well.

Sometimes Mother Nature Wins

Around 8:00 pm this evening NMRA and Beech Bend officials called it a night. They had tried getting some True Street and Bracket cars down the track on eighth-mile passes only. In spite of the best efforts of the track crew falling temperatures and high humidity would not let things dry out as needed. Round one qualifying will have to wait for Saturday morning at 10:00 am, with round two scheduled for 3:00 PM.

The Clements crew get started removing their damaged engine. Fortunately Tim Matherly loaned them a backup engine for the weekend.

We stayed late, but found most racers had already packed it in and were calling it a night. In the Clements pit, the crew began working on an engine swap. Valerie Clements explained to us, “After the first test pass it didn’t feel right, and on the second one we had a lot of white smoke. We found two spark plugs were burned, and a compression test showed no compression on the number six cylinder.” Fellow racer Tim Matherly loaned an engine to Clements so she can continue her weekend, and her crew is in for the long haul this evening swapping everything out. Valerie seemed positive though, and her upbeat attitude in the face of adversity is a cheerful reminder of the winning spirit of drag racers.

We’ll be back at the track tomorrow for qualifying, and hopefully mother nature will smile favorably upon us and allow things to get rolling as they should. Until then enjoy a few night time shots from True Street, and check back tomorrow for our next update.

We loved this clean 1980 Cobra competing in True Street.

True Street racers made eighth mile test passes due to conditions in the shut down and top end of the normal quarter-mile track.

We can’t wait to see what the True Street cars will do tomorrow in better conditions.