A Wild Weekend of Incredible Racing!

Words by Jason Reiss
Photos by Jason Reiss and Scott Sparrow

Wow!  That’s really the first thing to say about the season-opening Nitto Tire NMRA Ford Nationals Spring Break Shootout, because the race action was hot and heavy all weekend long.  Wheelstands, crashes, record-setting performances, and the most incredible True Street field that the NMRA has ever seen highlighted the action.

In the headline class, Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5, six cars showed up to do battle on the sticky Bradenton 1320’. Once qualifying was complete, 2008 class Champion Conrad Scarry took the top spot with a stout 6.78 at nearly 215 MPH, right off the trailer.  Jim Blair, who had qualified with a 6.94 on Friday, loaded up and went home, as he had broken some parts during that passes, which took him out of competition.  Mike Murillo’s 7.11 put him third, but he too left and went home early after damaging a cylinder head beyond repair.  Dwayne James, Billy Driscoll, and Jim Brown rounded out the field heading into eliminations. With two racers out of the mix before the hit, there were two single passes, taken by Driscoll and James, sending them to round two.  Scarry had to face off against Jim Brown, and Brown got out of shape, handing Scarry the win with a 6.81.  Driscoll and James faced off in round two, with James hitting the tires hard on the hit and getting wildly out of shape, sending Driscoll on to his first NMRA final against Scarry, who wisely took it easy on his bye run.  The big-block power of Scarry was simply too much for Driscoll to overcome, as Scarry scored a 6.80 and a half-track wheelie for the win.

Awesome record-breaking action took place in the ProCharger Super Street Outlaw class.  During qualifying on Friday, John Urist clicked off a 7.29, only to be surpassed by Sammy Vincent’s 7.28 during yesterday’s sessions.  Chris Tuten turned in a 7.40 to take over the third spot, while John Macdonald put a 7.45 on the board for fourth.  Filthy Phil Hines went 7.62, , followed by Chip Havemann, Andrew DeMarco (driving Mike Dezotell’s borrowed car), newcomer Dan Pachar, and Anthony Lawson (who purchased Yanni Papakosmas’ hotrod in the offseason).  The first round of competition was a barn-burner, as Lawson got out of shape and into the wall, sending Hines on to round two.  Macdonald took a single after Pachar couldn’t make the lane call, and Tuten’s 7.56 sent Demarco back to Massachusetts.  Vincent had the bye run and took it easy, bringing up the last pair.  Urist and Havemann, friends for years, had to face off.  As the tree dropped, Havemann pedaled the car, while Urist broke the converter around half-track, allowing Havemann get back in it and run him down. The second round had Hines and Tuten facing off, with Tuten taking the win (and move to the final via the bye) with a 7.54 as Hines carried the wheels past the 330’ marker.  Macdonald and Vincent were next up, with Macdonald taking the win in a great side-by side race – 7.34 to 7.38.  Havemann’s single brought him in and out of the groove to a shutdown pass.  Macdonald and Havemann staged, but Havemann got out of shape, while Macdonald put a 7.37 on the board to head to the final round.  Tuten took his bye run, testing the track’s grip, but threw too much at it, shutting down early and preserving the car for the finals.  There, JMac put a 7.42 blast on the board to take home his second NMRA win.