The NMRA put on a great show of racing at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky the weekend of October 1-3.  Huge wheelstands, record-setting passes, and championship-clinching battles took place in all classes, with most championships coming down to the wire.

In the Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5 class, Conrad Scarry lit the clocks with an outstanding 6.68 to lead the field of five into the elimination rounds.  With Mike Murillo hot on his heels in the points chase, Scarry had no margin for error, and he came out blazing on elimination day.  Scarry stunned the crowd with a 6.57 at nearly 216 MPH in round one and then locked up the class title against Jim Brown with a 6.62.  By the time the final round rolled around, the track was cold, and Murillo spun, handing Scarry the event win with a 6.63 at over 213 MPH.

John Macdonald entered the weekend with a slim points lead over five-time class champion John Urist in the ProCharger Super Street Outlaw class.  Macdonald topped the qualifying ladder with a 7.28 on Friday.  However, on that pass Macdonald torched a cylinder head, and he and crew chief Kim Mapes of Motorcity Motorsports made the sixteen-hour round trip drive back to Michigan to repair the castings.  He returned to competition before hurting the engine again in the quarterfinal, putting his title hopes in the hands of Chip Havemann.  Urist proceeded to put a 7.41 on the board to Havemann’s slowing 9.04, wrapping his sixth class championship in the process.

The NMRA put on a great show of racing at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky the weekend of October 1-3.  Huge wheelstands, record-setting passes, and championship-clinching battles took place in all classes, with most championships coming down to the wire.

In the Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5 class, Conrad Scarry lit the clocks with an outstanding 6.68 to lead the field of five into the elimination rounds.  With Mike Murillo hot on his heels in the points chase, Scarry had no margin for error, and he came out blazing on elimination day.  Scarry stunned the crowd with a 6.57 at nearly 216 MPH in round one and then locked up the class title against Jim Brown with a 6.62.  By the time the final round rolled around, the track was cold, and Murillo spun, handing Scarry the event win with a 6.63 at over 213 MPH.

John Macdonald entered the weekend with a slim points lead over five-time class champion John Urist in the ProCharger Super Street Outlaw class.  Macdonald topped the qualifying ladder with a 7.28 on Friday.  However, on that pass Macdonald torched a cylinder head, and he and crew chief Kim Mapes of Motorcity Motorsports made the sixteen-hour round trip drive back to Michigan to repair the castings.  He returned to competition before hurting the engine again in the quarterfinal, putting his title hopes in the hands of Chip Havemann.  Urist proceeded to put a 7.41 on the board to Havemann’s slowing 9.04, wrapping his sixth class championship in the process.  

In DiabloSport EFI Renegade competition, the championship was virtually locked up heading into the event, as Chris Van Gilder had dominated the competition all season long.  Perennial contender Bob Cook put an 8.42 on the board to take the top qualifying spot heading into Sunday’s festivities, while Van Gilder took the fourth position on the ladder of eight entries.  When eliminations came down to the wire, Brian Mitchell and Bart Tobener met up in a battle of Mustang supremacy.  Tobener got loose and had to lift while Mitchell cruised straight down Broadway with an 8.34 at over 163 MPH for the win.

Charlie Booze Jr. is always a threat to win in the Edelbrock Hot Street class, and this weekend was no exception.  Booze qualified at the top of the class with a strong 8.44 to better the rest of the field by a tenth.  With the points lead in his back pocket, Booze cruised through the competition to earn the championship and meet up with Bowles in the final round.  There, Bowles got out of shape, while Booze blasted to an 8.38 to finish what he started.

Racing on a drag radial-style tire isn’t the easiest feat in the world, but Sean Lyon made it look easy during the BGoodrich Tires Drag Radial qualifying sessions.  He clicked off an incredible 7.82 at nearly 180 MPH, which bettered the class record by nearly a tenth and earned him the first-round competition bye.  The final round came down to Lyon and champion Lee, where Lyon lit the clocks with another 7.82 at 180 for the win.

The wheelstanding machines that populate Steeda’s Real Street class put on an incredible show this weekend, with Bruce Hemminger absolutely dominating the competition.  Hemminger’s white machine was running like a bracket car, topping the ladder with a 9.23 to lead the eight other competitors into eliminations.  There, Hemminger ran into nemesis Tim Matherly in the semifinal round of competition.  Matherly drove the wheels off his hotrod to a 9.24, putting Hemminger on the trailer and locking up the championship in the process.  The final round saw Craig Baldwin fall to Matherly.  

In the Eibach Springs Pure Street class, the points battle was very much in effect, with Brandon Alsept, Shawn Johnson, and Steve Gifford all having an opportunity to take home the ring entering Sunday’s sessions, as Alsept topped the ladder with a stout 10.01 over Johnson’s second-place 10.09 hit.  On Sunday, Gifford took himself out when his engine expired in dramatic fashion in the first round, sending him into the wall on three separate occasions, which allowed Johnson and Alsept to fight the battle through eliminations.  In the final round, Johnson got out of the gates first and never looked back, carding a 10.03 to Alsept’s shutdown 16.89.

Another class that entered the weekend with an undecided champion was ACT’s Factory Stock grouping.  Carlos Sobrino had a slim lead over ’09 Champ Tommy Godfrey, but hurt a cylinder in pre-race testing.  That led to an offer of a borrowed car from friend and fellow competitor John Leslie Jr.  Matt Amrine topped the ladder, carding a strong 11.04 to lead the field of eleven into eliminations.  Sobrino had his work cut out for himself entering eliminations, as he had to face Godfrey in the second round.  That matchup ended up deciding the championship in Godfrey’s favor when Sobrino just couldn’t drive around him on the top end. The final round between Leslie Jr. (driving John Tymensky’s car) and Godfrey saw Godfrey making his way to the winner’s circle with an 11.13 to Leslie’s 12.32 shutdown pass.  

In the Exedy Clutch Modular Muscle class, 30 racers entered the field with Howard Ledford topping the qualifying sheets based on a sweet .002 reaction time.  During eliminations, Gary Parker locked up the championship on his way to the finals against Susan McClenaghan.  McClenaghan drove around Parker on the top end for the win.

The Trick Flow Open Comp class brings out the best in the world in Open Comp-style racing, with Michigan’s Ashley Conway leading the pack with a .004 reaction time.  With 31 racers on the property, Saul Walker and Matt Paul outlasted them all, with Paul taking the stripe and the win in the final round.

Brent White, who pulls double-duty at the events by racing in two classes, drove his daily-driver F150 to a .029 reaction time to take the 23 racers in the Detroit Locker Truck and Lightning class into Sunday.  Eliminations found Gary Windsor locking up the championship and making his way into the finals against Paul Gamino, where Windsor sealed the deal and won the event to go along with the season title.

JDM Engineering’s Super Stang class had 24 of the coolest late-model Mustangs on the planet vying for all the gold.  With the points battle on the line, Chris Parisi went just far enough to catch and surpass points leader Lloyd Mikeska to repeat as class champion, but neither one made it to the finals.  There, perennial competitors Larry Firestone and Terry Reeves battled it out, and Firestone went red, handing Reeves the event win.

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