NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing at Joliet, Ill.

NMRA Takes It Again!

Results and photos courtesy NMRA/NMCA

It was a wild conclusion to the 10th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing. Over 600 race cars converged on Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., on Thursday, July 30, to begin four days of competition between the two sanctioning bodies. Each series competes separately with three rounds of qualifying and elimination runs. Once the NMRA Keystone Automotive and NMCA Flowmaster event champions are declared through 23 categories, including both HP Tuners True Street and Gear Vendors True Street, the competition officials then pair up the winners with a corresponding category from the other series.

The Super Bowl Shootout isn't an easy or equal crossover and this year ended up with twelve pairings. The tiebreaker was the final match with the Strange Engineering Coyote Stock lining up with Chevrolet Performance Stock; the winner of that final pair would be rewarded with two points in the Shootout to eliminate any tie.

Breaking right to the good stuff: NMRA won again and it came down to the final pair for the third year in a row! Drew Lyons commanded his Coyote Stock car to the finish line with a 10.45 at 127 mph to turn on the win-light against his competitor, Glenn Pushis. It was dramatic and Lyons was the hero of the day after Team NMRA battled back and forth before going behind by one point heading into the finals. It was practically a scripted finale between both teams with NMRA walking away with the Nitto Tire Diamond Tree ring for the eighth time in the past ten years.

Prior to the dramatic Shootout, the NMRA Keystone Automotive Drag Racing Series was red hot with quick action and tight racing for the fifth stop on the six-race tour. There was no more popular category than the VP Racing Fuels/Stainless Works Street Outlaw class as pre-race hype indicated a large turnout and when tech inspections concluded, 28 racers were registered with 27 of them taking the tree in qualifying.

It came down to the Mustang of the mighty Bruder Brothers and their small-block Ford powerplant against the LS-powered Fox-body Mustang of Eric Gustafson. The California-based Gustafson was deadly all weekend long but an oil line came off in the final round, Bruder streaked to a 4.53 at 163 mph for the win and emerged the victor in the largest field in nearly a decade.

The Edelbrock Renegade class was no less thrilling with the supercharged camp proving to be consistent and fast with Alton Clements Jr. taking his second straight win, this time he beat rookie Aaron Bates with a 7.66 at 179 mph to Bates' 7.80 at 177 mph.

Haley James of Hellion Racing B-Team faced class rival Johnny "Lightning" Wiker in the final round of ProCharger Coyote Modified for the fourth time this season. Both racers traded low ET of the weekend back and forth and by Sunday night James grabbed her third win this year with an 8.39 at 162 mph to Wiker's 8.46 at 163 mph. Moving to the naturally aspirated division puts ACT Pure Street at the top with Jimmy Wilson going to the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle for the fourth straight event as he seems to have Teddy Weaver's number in final rounds. This time it took a 9.73 at 138 mph from Wilson to beat the defending champ, who had posted a 9.75 at 138 mph.

The Strange Engineering Coyote Stock class, with Ford Performance sealed Coyote 5.0 engines, watched Drew Lyons regain his winning composure as he topped Darrin Hendricks in a close battle-10.46 at 127 mph to a 10.48 at 128 mph.