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It’s that time of the year for the NMCA and NMRA to join forces and race in the Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing at the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. Stay tuned all weekend for the race coverage.
Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor SCT Performance. Check out their fine line of tuners, including the new iTSX, at www.sctflash.com.
For our NMCA coverage thread, please click here.
Notes From The Pits
At the NMRA’s race in Milan, John Urist suffered from a parachute failure that resulted in his Fox body Mustang going off on the top end of the track.
While the four time championship winning Mustang wasn’t totaled, it did suffer a great deal of damage. Being the front runner if the Super Street Outlaw points standings and looking for his sixth championship in a row, Urist resulted to resurrecting the legendary ’01.
The New Edge Mustang was built by Mike Duffy Race Cars and known affectionately as “Big Red”. The vehicle was suppose to be campaigned by Dwayne James in Pro Outlaw 10.5 with a 417-inch, Edelbrock SC-1-headed powerplant, mated with a class-legal 123mm ProCharger. Urist had previously won the 2003, 2006, and 2007 championship with this Mustang.
For the many who live and breathe the sport of drag racing, the very thought of never being able to drive again is one they simply don’t wish to face or ponder. But in the fall of 2009, veteran NMRA competitor AJ Powell encountered a fear that went far beyond the scope of his drag racing future.
At the young age of five, Powell was diagnosed with diabetes and as the years progressed, so to did the degree of health concerns related to the metabolic disease. But despite the difficulties that such a situation presents to one in their daily lives, AJ pressed forward like a soldier and contended with the cards that he was dealt.
But after nearly getting his new combination completed, Powell has decided that it might be too great of a risk to go back racing and is taking a, “family first” approach by putting his Mustang up for sale.
What you see protruding from the hood is a nasty PSI “D” rotor screw supercharger, mounted atop a 500-cubic inch HEMI powerplant featuring Total Flow cylinder heads, destined for Outlaw 10.5 competition in 2011. The engine made over 3300hp on the dyno and he is currently asking $125,000 for the complete turn-key race car.
During the NMCA's last race at MIR, Super Street standout Tim Essick suffered some damage as he collided with the wall at mid-track. Essick is currently leading the Pro Outlaw 10.5 points with a narrow, 25-point margin over defending champion Mike Murillo. Word on the street is that Essick has fixed his Mustang and is in route to Joliet for the race.
The NMCA is also racing at Joliet this weekend. For their coverage thread, click the link at the top of the page.
It's a Leslie dominated Factory stock with father John Sr, son John Jr, and sister Sondra all race in the class. As reported on the NMRA blog, Sondra Leslie recently broke the 10-second barrier in Factory Stock trim. Her Coyote 5-liter powered S197 Mustang was recently tuned up by JPC Racing and immediately hit up the New England Dragway for testing. After a new best 60-foot time of 1.46, the numbers at the top end flashed 10.96 at 122 mph.
Speaking of Coyotes,we found current points leader Joe Charles pitted next to fellow class racer Joe Guertin. After Bradenton, Guertin switched his 5-speed backed four-eye over to an easier to drive C4. Also, Justin Burcham who joined the Coyote Stock class at the MIR race, has made his way to second place spot in short time. Believe it or not, the stock Coyote engine from the 2011 Mustang had to be swapped for a sealed Coyote Stock-legal engine from Ford Racing, which has been paired to pro-shifted Tremec TKO-600 transmission.
The ageless Willard Kinzer, now 84 years of age, isn't slowing down any, but rather, is just finding ways to get quicker and faster. Kinzer has a brand new (to him) Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5W machine here. David Wolfe, whom Kinzer purchased his familiar Super Street Fox body two years ago, did some work to this car before the Kentucky businessman purchased it last fall. Kinzer made a lap in the car last season, clocking a 6.74 in his very first pass down the race track. 'So far, I'm really enjoying the way this new car drives, but we're working to get me more comfortable with it, and that's our goal this weekend,' said Kinzer.
Qualifying Sheets After Round 2
Qualifying Round 1 and 2 Highlights
Down Bowles cruised right into the No. 2 slot with an 8.56, just a hundredth behind class elader andy Schmidt at 8.55. Perennial favorite Charlie Booze Jr. was quicker than Schmidt to each of the early intervals before slowing to just a 9.74.
Don Walsh Jr. was one of several heads-up racers to take a crack at the blisteringly hot race track this afternoon prior to the lanes closing for test 'n tune. Walsh, like so many others today, danced around earlr in the run and wisely lifted, coasting to an 8.10 following a nice 1.01 short time.
In the Midwest, heat and humidity often equates to rain and thunderstorms, and the forecast for this weekend certainly contains some of that. We've managed to avoid showers in the Chicago areas thus far, but the ominous clouds have overtaken the sunlight as the first round of qualifying for Truck/Lightning and EFI await in the staging lanes.
Mike Murillo encountered mechanical woes at the drop of the green and was towed off. The current national record holder at 6.49-seconds will no doubt be back in tonight's improved conditions for another shot at it.
Don Walsh Jr. was all over the race track early on and pedaled his way to a 6.88 at 199 mph.
Steve Matusek made a hard move toward the centerline and made an impressive evasive move to keep from collectting the foam 330-foot timing block.
John Leslie Jr. created some fireworks during the second session of NMRA Factory Stock qualifying.
Jason Lee cruised to the top of the Drag Radial qualifying order with a 7.56 in the second session under the Route 66 lights.
Charlie Booze Jr. put together a full run this time around to the tune of an 8.54, but unfortunately, Andy Schmidt in the other lane put together a little bit better one, carding an 8.53 to lead the Hot Street/Pro Stock field into Saturday's final session.
Tim Essick has arrived! After a several week scramble following his crash in Maryland, the Essick team made the long haul to Chicago today and made it here in time to tech in and make a pass in the second session of Super Street/Pro Outlaw 10.5W. Essick hopped and skated just of the starting line and slowed.
It was slim pickin's in Super Street Outlaw with only three cars currently qualified in the class. Sitting on top is none other than John Urist with a 7.250 at 199.70 mph. In the second spot is Phil Hines who lifted on his run after getting out of shape.
Brian Mitchell showed everyone in Renegade why he has the number one sticker on his New Edge by qualifying number one thus far with a 8.460 at 164.05 mph.
The lone wolf, or should we say, the only true Coyote in Coyote Stock currently sits number one in the class. If you don't get what we are throwing down, we are talking about Justin Burcham in the 2011 Mustang that managed a 10.891 at 122.61 mph qualifying pass, less than a tenth away from the Coyote stock record.
Between a mid-day rain storm and an evening time crash, we had to call it quits partially through the second round of Pro Outlaw 10.5W. That means that Super Street Outlaw and Pro Street did not get a second round and tomorrow morning will start a fresh third round of qualifying.
