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It’s Sunday morning here at the Super Bowl; racing is underway with the NMRA’s heads-up classes coming around shortly, We’ll be back soon with all the action. Lots of great action yesterday, and there are a number of great battles lined up for today’s elimination sessions. Stay tuned all day!

Justin Fogelsonger turned in his quickest pass of the weekend so far in his second-round win over Sondra Leslie. It seems that having Charlie Booze, Jr. shake the car down is paying big dividends.

Louie Sylvester, Jr. continued to improve, sending Bart Welte home in the second round of Factory Stock. Side-by-side wheels up launches for both had Louie crossing the stripe with a strong 10.94.

Matt Amrine continues to excel in Factory Stock. In an awesome side-by-side race with Jay Dold, Amrine came out on top, 10.97 to Dold’s 10.98.

Joe Charles rocked the second round of Coyote Stock on his single run. A 10.505 was the best pass of the round, edging out Joe Marini’s 10.52. He’ll face Marini in the next round while Darin Hendricks gets a bye into the final.

Befitting the qualifying results, Tommy Godfrey and Teddy Weaver (#2 and #1 respectively) will face off in the final round of Pure Street. Godfrey put up a 9.95 in his defeat of Ron Cullember, while Weaver had a bye and turned in a super-stout 9.86 in the heat of the day.

Terry “Beefcake” Reeves had a bye in the semifinal of Coyote Modified and ran a soft 10.061 test pass.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ladder in Coyote Modified, Joe Cram’s ’06 ProCharged Mustang took on 17-year-old newcomer Camren Massengale in his new Cobra Jet. Despite snoozing at the tree, Cram had enough left in reserve to take out Massengale, 8.719 to Massengale’s 8.944. He’ll meet Beefacke in a battle of the two biggest smack-talkers in the NMRA in the final round.

Bart Tobener continued to sit at the top of the field in Renegade, running the quickest pass of the round with a sweet 8.07 to take out JD Coon.

“We’re tuning on the car big time to find the power needed. It’s either going to be real fast or catastrophic!” says Brian Mitchell. In the first round, it was fast, running an 8.25 to take out Alton Clements. He’ll face Tobener in the semifinals. On the other side of the ladder, Bob Cook took out Charlie Cooper on a monster holeshot when Cooper’s car had problems on the starting line. Cook has a ye through to the final round.

Saving the best for last in Street Outlaw was John Urist, who lit the scoreboard with an unreal 6.99 blast at 198.32MPH on his competition bye. The track surface is absolutely outstanding today, with records set in a number of the NMCA classes. NMCA racer Phil Smith took his nitroused Firebird to the win over Phil Hines, while Andy Manson cracked off a 7.08 over Tony Alm to advance on the opposite side of the ladder. The first pairing of the round had StangTV founder James Lawrence take a holeshot, then make his best pass of the weekend and his racing career in a win over number-one-qualifier Rob Goss, 7.16/200MPH to Goss’ 7.12./198MPH hit.

Elimination Sheets

Semifinal Round Updates

Street Outlaw

In the first pairing of Street Outlaw, James Lawrence faced off against Andy Manson. Lawrence edged in deep and it came back to bite him, as he lit the angry red bulb with a -.009 reaction time and handed Manson the win on the starting line. This is the first chance Lawrence has had to race on a track with the type of conditions experienced here at Route 66 and he went quicker on every pass of the weekend. Manson has been quietly turning in killer elapsed times with his Acors Performance-backed ProCharged hotrod this season, and the semifinal of Street Outlaw was no exception as he streaked to a 7.12 at 197 MPH for the win.

The second pairing saw Urist line up with Phil Smith, and in a tough break for the Mustang racer, the car didn’t react on the starting line and just fell flat on its face over the first sixty feet. He got back in it and attempted to chase Smith down, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Smith, to his credit, has been tearing up the track this weekend with the only nitrous car in the Street Outlaw class. He went hammer down on his machine in the left lane to turn the win with a 7.11 at 194.46 MPH.

Renegade

In Edelbrock Renegade, Brian Mitchell came into the matchup with Bart Tobener with one thought in mind – ‘show up or blow up’. He had a tuneup in the car, but it just wasn’t enough to get around the monster Mustang of Tobener, which has been on a tear all season long. Tobener crossed the stripe with an 8.08 at 172.67 MPH, while Mitchell’s valiant effort lit the board with an 8.22 at 167. In a conversation with Mitchell yesterday, he told us he’d do whatever it took to knock Bart off his perch by Bowling Green, and given his past performances in the class, we don’t doubt it.

On the other side of the ladder, Bob Cook took his single pass and shut down early to set up the final round.

Factory Stock

Louie Sylvester took his shot at the tree against Matt Amrine in the Factory Stock semifinals; it didn’t work out at he turned on the red and handed Amrine the win. Amrine continued his string of ten-second passes and crossed the stripe with a 10.93 blast. 

The other pairing saw Justin Fogelsonger take out James Meredith with a stout 11.036 to Meredith’s 11.39 pass – it was all Fogelsonger all the way in this pairing.

Coyote Stock

The semifinals of Coyote Stock were over before they began, as Joe Charles lit the red bulb and handed the round win to Joe Marini, who turned in a stout 10.55 at 127 MPH. On the other side of the ladder,Darin Hendricks took the tree on his competition bye to save the equipment for the final round.

Final Round Updates

Street Outlaw

In Street Outlaw, Andy Manson gave up his chance to take home the cash and his shot at the Super Bowl ring with a heartbreaking redlight against Phil Smith. To his credit, Smith ran a bracket-like 7.10 to take home the win. 

Renegade

End to end for Bart Tobener this weekend – he cranked off an 8.11 at 166 MPH to take the win over Bob Cook with the outcome nearly decided on the starting line as he just kept pulling away to the finish line. That’s the smile of a winner,because unofficially, he wraps up the class championship with this win.

Coyote Modified

Beefcake backed up the talk in the final round of Coyote Modified, taking the win over Joe Cram on a holeshot victory. Beefcake’s 8.687 at 161 MPH eked past Cram’s 8.672 at 161 MPH on the strength of the starting line advantage. This is Beefcake’s second win of the season.

Pure Street

Teddy Weaver continued his domination of Pure Street in the final round despite giving up a significant holeshot to Tommy Godfrey. At the stripe, Weaver crossed just .008-second in front of Godfrey, or a bit less than two and a half feet at 135 MPH.

Factory Stock

Another end to end win came for Matt Amrine, and Justin Fogelsonger’s weekend in Factory Stock came to an end on the starting line with a redlight. Amrine was on a mission this weekend. He’s won three of the four races he’s entered and three of the five events this season.

Coyote Stock

Coyote Stock was one of the closest races of the final round, with Darin Hendricks coming out on top over Joe Marini, 10.55 to Marini’s 10.57. Right from the hit, Marini went left and struggled to bring the car back into the groove, while Hendricks went straight down Broadway for his first win of the year – and the first win of his Coyote Stock career.

Final Eliminations Ladders

The Super Bowl

In the first pairing of the NMRA vs. NMCA Super Bowl battle, NMRA True Street winner Cal Hayward lined up against NMCA True Street runner-up Jordan Castle. Hayward staged first, Castle got the leave, but Castle took with win with an 8.72 when Hayward snoozed on the tree. The second pairing brought NMRA Mod Muscle winner Donnie Bowles up against NMCA Nostalgia Super Stock winner Dave Schultz in the Big Red Whale Mopar HEMI-powered wagon. Schultz leaves second, but Bowles runs right on his dial with a 10.12 with an 0 to Schultz’s 9.83 on a 9.75 dial-in. 1-1 NMRA/NMCA now.

Next up on-track is NMRA Super Stang winner Larry Firestone and Nostalgia Muscle Car winner Jerry Stamps. Stamps gets the leave and takes the win over Firestone. Nostalgia Super Stock runner-up DW Hopkins is paired with Truck and Lightning winner Gerry Van Veen. Van Veen has an 11.76 dial with Hopkins at 9-flat. Hopkins takes him down with a 9.01 to Van Veen’s 11.67 breakout.

Open Comp Versus Open Comp – NMRA winner Mike Olencheck versus NMCA winner Phil Timm, and the race was over before it began as Timm lit the red bulb. 3-2 now with NMCA on top so far – but NMRA leads the all-time tally with six overall wins to NMCA’s two.

Into the heads-up cars next,with Factory Stock winner Matt Amrine facing off against NA 10.5 winner Mike DeMayo. Amrine has a near four-second advantage, but DeMayo chases him down with an 8.01 to Amrine’s 10.96. NMRA Pure Street winner Teddy Weaver takes on NMCA Nitrous Pro Street winner Don Baskin. Weaver gets a two-and-a-half second advantage on the tree against seasoned racer Baskin. Baskin snoozes on the tree, and Weaver turns in a 9.86 to close the gap to 4-3 in favor of NMCA at this point.

Coyote Stock winner Darin Hendricks takes on Xtreme Street racer Dave Hutnick with a near-three second advantage on the starting line. Hendricks, the first-time Coyote Stock winner and former Pure Street champion, sees Hutnick in his new Camaro. Tree drops, Hendricks goes wheels-up, and on the top end Hendricks evens the score at 4-4 with a 10.54 to Hutnick’s 7.81.

Next up is Street Outlaw winner Phil Smith against Coyote Modified winner Terry Reeves. Nitrous versus blower, Firebird versus Mustang, NMCA versus NMRA – in a battle of Corndog and Beefcake. A second-and-a-half in the bag for Corndog, with Beefcake getting the leave. Both racers jumped the tree with Corndog leaving before the tree came down, giving the Beef the beef – and giving the NMRA the lead 5-4 to this point with two more matchups to go.

Pro Mod champ Steve Summers and Street Outlaw runner-up Andy Manson battle off in a matchup of two of the big boys of the event. A huuuuuuuuge smokey burnout for Manson, while Summers waits patiently near the starting line. Nobody wants to go into the beams..sitting…sitting..sitting.

Manson finally lights his pre-stage bulb, Summers inches in, Lights on, tree down, and Manson is away with a full head of steam. Summers drives 1500 feet and still gets around Manson at the finish line, 5.89 to Manson’s 7.10 blast and evening up the score, 5-5.

It comes down to the last pairing between a pair of Georgia residents and two of the most dominant racers of the weekend, Renegade winner Bad Bart Tobener and the head of WOOOOOO! Nation, Radial Wars winner Keith Berry. Tobener is in the right lane, Berry in the left. The suspense builds as both racers sit behind the burnout box and wait for the call to pull forward.

660 feet to go – this is the single Super Bowl race run at eighth-mile distance in deference to the Radial Wars class. The slow movement into the lights, the revs come up, the tree drops, and Berry bangs the bulb, giving Tobener and the NMRA the win, 6-5, in a suspense-filled final race.

An awesome weekend for both the NMRA and the NMCA, and if you missed it, you should make plans to be here next year – this is without a doubt one of the best races of the season at one of the best facilities in the country!