NMRA Springs into
Action at Bradenton

Results courtesy NMRA
Photos by James Lawrence
3/22/03

The first weekend of March was a wet, rainy time to be in Florida, but when the 6th rolled around, the clouds parted to greet the NMRA faithful as they pulled into Bradenton Motorsports Park to kick off the 2003 NMRA Ford Nationals season, presented by 5.0 Mustang Magazine. The 2nd Annual Nitto Tire NMRA Spring Ford Nationals featured the cream of the crop in Ford heads-up racers, all looking to take home the first trophy of the year.

Action in the NMRA Jet-Hot Ford Drag Racing Series, presented by Ford Racing Performance Parts, was hot, with over 200 heads up cars on the property.

PROCHARGER PRO 5.0, a class that has gone through a bit of a transformation in the last two years, was led by veteran street-legal racer Chuck Samuel, who topped the qualifying order in Kevin Marsh's turbocharged Mustang with a 6.87 at 203

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mph. Samuel was deadly consistent during all of his qualifying rounds, running all of his passes in the 6.90's and 6.80s.

During eliminations, Don Walsh, Jr. used his legendary reaction time prowess to get past Eakins, then shocked the crowd by taking out Samuel with first a holeshot, and then by posting a 6.86 at 202 mph. The team of Samuel and Marsh was a fan favorite, and the NMRA fans were treated to one of the best side by side races of the event. That sent Walsh to the final round to face Mangrum, who had a bye in the semis. Both racers cut reaction times in the .400s, but Walsh was a tick quicker with a .437 to Mangrum's .467, and Walsh then streaked to another 6-second pass, this one a 6.90 at 202 to Mangrum's tire-shaking 8.27 at a coasting 117 mph.

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