It was a wild ride for Pro Street racer Scott Oksas.

Records set at first event of season

Words by Scott Sparrow
Photos courtesy NMCA

The NMCA WEST season opener left very little on the table with record-setting runs being the main highlight of the weekend as the Flowmaster Drag Racing Series  featuring NHRA Unleashed presented by Aerospace Components started the 2013 season with the Second Annual Lucas Oil Nationals at Auto Club Famoso Raceway.

On top of the hit parade was a bittersweet weekend for Garrett Turbo Pro Street racer Scott Oksas who in qualifying posted one of the quickest and fastest runs in Pro Street history when he blasted a 5.94/259.26-mph qualifying run in his turbocharged Ford Mustang. With that run, Oksas established himself as the racer to beat in eliminations on Sunday, but his thoughts of winning his first NHRA Wally ended quickly in the second round while racing defending class champion, Mike Bowman.

The tires on Oksas’s Mustang broke loose near the 300-foot mark, but Oksas kept his foot in it hoping to regain control, but instead, the car launched across the track (behind Bowman) crashing into wall at the eighth-mile mark and twice more before coming to a stop near the finish line.

 “I didn’t want to lift, and thought it might settle down, but then all of a sudden I was going for a ride,” Oksas said. The car, he added will need to be evaluated, but upon first glance looks to be in bad shape. “I must say, Hickok Race Cars builds one hell of a chassis. I may have wrecked her, but she kept me safe,” Oksas added.

Bowman won the round but was having problems of his own. “I blew it up on that pass,” Bowman said. Bowman had been struggling all weekend with his car, but was slowly creeping up on his combination. The round against Oksas he ran 6.02 at 205. “And that was only a thousand-foot pass,” Bowman said. “It was on a pass for sure.”