NMRA World Finals at Bowling Green

Words and photos by Greg Acosta

The NMRA World Finals in Bowling Green, Kentucky has always been the most exciting all-Ford drag race of the year, and this year’s 13th annual Nitto Tire NMRA World Finals not only lived up to the expectations, but actually raised the bar in terms of exciting action. The on-track action by itself was awesome, and combined with the additional excitement of the points battles, the largest car show in the history of the NMRA with over 300 cars this was an event for the record books.

In Pro Outlaw 10.5 action, Mike Murillo set the high-water mark in qualifying, with a blazing 6.65-second pass at 217 miles per hour, putting him over a tenth ahead of the number-two qualifier, Tim Essick. In eliminations, it came down to the final round for the championship, where the two frontrunners, Murillo and Essick met. As the tree dropped, Murillo was away first, and made the quickest and fastest pass of the weekend to take the win and lock up the 2011 Pro Outlaw championship.

Super Street Outlaw was a thrill-fest from the word “go”. In qualifying, John “The Fireball” Urist cranked off a pair of 7.02-second elapsed times to take the number-one spot and set the new ET record. His 7.025 put him only .011 second ahead of the number two qualifier, Chris Tuten, on the ladder. In eliminations, Urist never went slower than a 7.06 en route to the final round, where he met Terry Elam, who was having a stellar day himself. As the tree dropped, Urist had the starting line advantage, and as Elam slowed, Urist streaked to a 7.05-second victory. While the first six-second run wasn’t in the cards for Urist, he won his unprecedented seventh Super Street Outlaw title.

EFI Renegade had a nine-car field, and something we haven’t seen for a number of races, and that was cars in the 8.30-second range. Bob Cook put together a stellar 8.34 at 161 mph, but it wasn’t enough for the top spot. That honor went to Brian Mitchell and his 8.315 pass. In eliminatrions, Mitchell met Cook in the semifinals, where Mitchell reset the class record and ran the quickest pass ever in EFI Renegade class history – 8.292 seconds – while losing the round on a holeshot. However that clinched the class championship for Mitchell, his fourth. In the final, it was Bob Cook and Joel Howard facing off for the event win, and Cook cut the tree down with a .008 light, and carded an 8.38 to Howard’s 8.58 for the win.