Tim Matherly

Real Street was a six-car affair in Milan, and sitting at the top of the heap once again was Tim Matherly, with a 9.62 at an amazing 145 miles per hour. He was followed by Jim Breese and Paul Wiley, both with 9.75 ETs, but with Breese carrying five more miles per hour through the traps.

In eliminations, it was an all-Modular affair after the first round, with Matherly, Breese, and Ginter advancing. Ginter redlit in the semis, setting up a Breese-Matherly final round. Breese slowed pretty drastically in the final, only mustering a 9.90 at 129 mph against Matherly’s 9.59 at 146 mph for the win.

Pure Street has been anyone’s game in eliminations this year. The seven-car field was headed by Mark Anderson, driving Ol’ Sliver to a 10.29 at 130 miles per hour. “Farmer Steve” Gifford was only two hundredths behind, and Shawn Johnson was only another .025-seconds behind Gifford. Ryan Hecox slid in behind Johnson, only 13 ten-thousandths behind him.

Mark Anderson	John Leslie Jr.

In eliminations, a pair of breakages in the semifinals gave Ryan Hecox and Mark Anderson unexpected singles into the final round, where it was all Andersons. Anderson led from stripe to stripe and crossed over a tenth ahead of Hecox’s silver New Edge.

Factory Stock was definitely the story with the happiest ending of the weekend. The numbers on the qualifying sheet were almost unbelievable as there were three competitors in the 11.20-second zone, and three other drivers over 121 mph. 

Tommy Godfrey was in the top spot with an 11.23, followed by John Leslie Jr. with an 11.26. Jim St. Charles rounded out the top three in the nine-car field with an 11.26 of his own.

On race day, St. Charles worked his way through his side of the ladder, and ended up in his first final round ever. On the other side of the ladder, Leslie worked through some heavy hitters to meet St. Charles. As the tree dropped on the final, Leslie was away first and kept the go pedal pushed through the floor for 11.29 seconds to defeat St. Charles and take his first event win ever in nine years of racing with the NMRA.

In Super Stang, Atco’s runner up Don Justus took the win over Matt Syanford. Modular Muscle defending Champion Tom Motycka took the redlight win over Kevin Volk. Open Comp saw former champion Bruce Parker take the victory over Jon Pickering, running a 9.08 on a 9.07 index.In Truck and Lightning, Bob Cochran made it to his second straight final, but was defeated by Dave Cole.