This past weekend’s NMRA event was full of record-setting elapsed times across the board, and one of the most notable accomplishments was Bart Tobener’s shattering of the seven-second-barrier in Edelbrock Renegade competition. Tobener laid down the number so many racers have been chasing for a long period of time, carding a 7.94 at 172.01 MPH during the event at Maryland International Raceway.

Tobener is one of the OG competitors of Mustang racing, having raced in so many classes and sanctioning bodies over the years we’re not even sure if he can remember them all. He rededicated himself to Renegade competition at the beginning of this season with one goal in mind — to take home the Renegade championship, and using one of the new ProCharger F-1C-10.5 superchargers, he’s well on his way toward achieving that goal. 

We can recall a time when Doug Mangrum struggled to get his Pro 5.0 car into the seven-second range, needing a set of Yates-style cylinder heads atop a Keith Craft-built 383 cubic inch high compression Windsor-based engine coupled with a single-stage fogger nitrous system and huge rear meats to run a 7.99 in April of 1998 at Fun Ford Weekend in Houston.

These days, Bad Bart does it with a 339 cubic inch, four-cam supercharged engine rolling on 275-wide tires, and does it with ease. It was one of the most uneventful passes we’ve seen in quite some time – the car just shifts the weight to the back, hooks, and goes – to the tune of an outstanding 1.19 60-foot clocking and a 5.11 in the eighth-mile. 

Tobener just crashed this car approximately three weeks ago at the NMRA/NMCA All Star Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Without the help he received from Schoneck Composites, Prestige Mustang, Tim Eichhorn of MPR Race Engines, Tim Matherly of MV Performance, Philip Patch, UPR Products, Wade McGowan, his wife Kristi, and many others in between events to get the car repaired, Tobener would have been unable to make the event. 

Instead, he’s setting records and breaking down barriers. And did we mention he went on to win the event?

We can only imagine what Bad Bart has in store for us over the rest of the NMRA season.