MARTIN CONNELLEY LOOKING TO TAKE OVER NMRA RENEGADE IN 2021

by Jason Reiss    Thu, 2021-02-18 18:51

 

If you’ve followed small-tire door car racing with any level of interest over the last couple of years, you’ve likely heard the name, Martin Connelley. He, along with his team, pulled off some of the most impressive feats of racing success seen in motorsports when they captured not one but two class wins — with two different cars and combinations, mind you — at Lights Out 11 last spring in DXP Street and Limited 235. In 2021, the team has decided to concentrate its efforts on one car and race it in three different classes: NMRA Renegade, NMCA Xtreme Street, and select Ultra Street events when possible.

While the dual-win accomplishment might be enough for many racers to sit back and rest for a while, Connelley raced both cars all season in DXP Street and Limited 235 and was undefeated in competition in those classes. Wherever he showed up, the win went back home with him to Kentucky. He and his gang are unrelenting in their quest for success, which puts them in a prime position for 2021.

“We want to make a run at the NMRA Renegade points championship. First of all, we have to get the car finished up. There’s still a lot to do before we go to Lights Out next week,” said Connelley.

The plan is to get the car completed, then load it up for Georgia. As long as the race car is in one piece and ready to run after Lights Out, they’ll deliver it to Bradenton for the NMRA’s season opener, to be held March 4–7, 2021. If not, they’ll pull it back to Kentucky and regroup before heading back out on the road to Florida, likely their most formidable challenge of the young season.

“Bradenton is pretty far for us; if you miss one NMRA race, you’re behind the 8-ball for points. You lose the points for making all six, and you have to have good races at the other five on top of that. You don’t get the throwaway race either,” he said.

Over the offseason, they’ve made several changes to the car. The silver car is the one they raced in DXP Street in 2020 and now features the engine that was in the Limited 235 car. It’s a Bischoff Engine Service-built 363 cubic-inch small-block Ford, wearing Trick Flow high-port cylinder heads and a ProCharger out front. They also installed a brand-new Haltech Nexus R5 engine management system and will hit the Haltech hub dyno in Lexington, Kentucky, to dial in the tuneup before they head to Georgia for the car’s first outing in its current configuration.

“We’ve used the engine and transmission in the orange car previously, but not all together. This is a whole new bowl of soup, but we’re going to focus on one car. This way, we’re always testing in one trim, the car will always stay in the same configuration, and we can focus on refining that instead of trying to do several different things,” he said.

Connelley has his work cut out for him with this new focus on winning the NMRA Renegade championship in 2021. Everything will likely have to come together just right to bring home the coveted ring the NMRA presents to its champions. But as he found in 2020, that’s not an unreasonable expectation to have when you fill your race team with like-minded individuals who don’t believe second-best is acceptable. For this group, winning is the only answer.

“You can do one thing great or a couple of things good, and we’re trying to be great. We always have intentions of winning the race; otherwise, we don’t pull out of the driveway,” said Connelley.

 

 

 
Categories: 
:::::: News ::::::