Photos by Jerry Anglese
7/26/05

For the second time in as many races, the team of Brian Robbins and Keith "Skinny Kid" Engling faced Vinny Budano in a National Muscle Car Association final. And for the second time, Budano (above) was the winner. The race was the fifth of eight NMCA events scheduled for the 2005 season.

Budano, of Hicksville, NY, came to the 4th Annual Ross Pistons NMCA Hot Rod & Muscle Car Nationals at Cordova (IL) Raceway Park on July 22-23 with the Pro Street points lead over Robbins. In their previous match-up, Robbins had red lit in the final.

Budano's '04 Grand Am ran consistently in the high 6.60's all day, so Robbins knew he would need to put a holeshot on Budano in the final round. He left with a .033 light to Budano's .073, but Robbins' heavy '72 Hurst Olds went into tire shake just after the 60-foot mark.

"We just made the wrong call on the clutch," a dejected Robbins said after the final. "Keith and I tune this as a team. We both felt we could win this thing, but we just gave her too much at the hit. This is the second race we gave Vinny and I really hope it's the last. I just hate it when we beat ourselves."

Pro Mod shoe Troy Coughlin made his competitive debut in the NMCA Pro Street class with his Sonny Leonard mystery-motored Cavalier. The 815 inch EFI engine coupled to a Liberty Five-speed and a converter ran a best 60 ft of 1.019 and a best speed and ET of 6.761/206.46. Not a bad performance for a car with just two test sessions and one race.

Bryan Mazkiewicz (shown) brought his '03 Mustang from Clearwater, FL to get the Super Street win over Dan Millen's '02 Mustang from Dearborn Heights, MI.