Today the path to the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle gets clearer at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals. Racers finalize the qualifying order and kick off eliminations at Atlanta Dragway. Competitors in the Chevrolet Performance Street Car Challenge, Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout, True Street classes will decide the winners in each index category today. Tomorrow the eight quickest machines in the Dodge // Mopart HEMI Shootout will move on to the Arrington Performance HEMI Quick 8 presented by Red Line Oil.
[gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="17404,17405"] Here is how the action will unfold on Saturday at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals.
After racing to a best of 4.46 and 161 mph and two runner-up finishes in his 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler clone in ARP Nitrous Pro Street last year, Randy Dolensek praised his crew consisting of legendary NMRA Pro 5.0 driver Chuck Samuel, Steven Michael and Jeff Seemann, and then put his focus on this year. He asked Samuel to freshen his nitrous-enhanced 632 cubic-inch Ford engine, and he installed an air dam under the front bumper of his car for aerodynamics and personally lost weight to help the car lose weight. Then, the Wisconsin-based driver signed up for this weekend's event, his first NMCA event of the year, as is currently leading qualifying with a 4.54. While Michael and Seemann are on-site, Samuel is tackling the tune-up remotely, and it appears to be working well for the talented team.
Tripp Carter had an amazing weekend at the invitational race held at Dragway 42 a few weeks ago. He told us it checked all the boxes for him as he won the event, won the biggest purse ever for these cars, ran the quickest elapsed time, ran the fastest top speed, and defeated last season's NMCA and NHRA champions. After getting hooked on the NMCA in the early days, he vowed to participated when he could, and he is making that happen now. This season his goal is a Holley EFI Factory Super Cars championship. Giving huge credit to his support team at Watson Racing, Carter is working on that goal at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals after running a 7.76 at 178 in the second qualifier. Carter says he started off soft and is getting after it now, so it will be interesting to see how quick these cars run in the Georgia heat.
Laura Willingham caught the drag racing bug by taking advantage of the Dodge-provided entries in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout. She didn't know much about drag racing at that time. After entering in the class, however, she learned a lot about drag racing and has competed for the past three years in her manual-trans, 5.7-powered Challenger. Her car is mildly modified with a Borla exhaust, a hotter tune, and a Hellcat air intake, which she says made a huge difference. She is gunning to win the 14-second class and take a trip to the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle.
There are several 2019 Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320s on the property at Atlanta Dragway, but Jason Andrews special ordered his and it was the first one built in black. He is competing in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout with his stock machine that runs consistent 12-second elapsed times.
Edelbrock Performance Xtreme Street racer Brian Keep took home the Victor trophy at the season opener inBradenton with his 4th-Gen Camaro clicking off 4.5-second runs in the crisp, dry air. He's had problems since, however, and after reloading the firmware in his ECM and fixing a broken rocker, Keep feels the F-body will be ready to lay down a good run in qualifying today.
They call Jeff Smith Mr. Mopar and for good reason. He is a wealth of knowledge about the company's modern muscle cars. His personal ride is a 2019 Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320 is one of 52 sprayed in this red and one of only 12 with the same options on the sticker. Like all his friends at Atlanta Dragway, Mr. Mopar is racing in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout with his 1,320. It ran an 11.55 at 117 at the season opener.
Holley EFI Factory Super Cars racer Jim Betz hosted the Dragway 42 invitational race, that Tripp Carter won a few weeks back, with fellow competitor Jason Dietsch. He is chasing the number in his 2018 Mustang this weekend after making some big changes. He says he let the car down, so he is going to give it heck as the weekend moves on at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals.
Piloting a bright green 2017 Charger Blacktop Edition, Joe Giordano is running in the Dodge // Mopar Hemi Shootout. His 5.7-powered machine is upgraded with a custom exhaust and a Stage 4 tuner calibrated for 100-octane fuel on race day. It has run a best of 13.26 at 105 mph so far.
After making several changes to his combination, Bill Skillman and his team were moving in the wrong direction with his Holley EFI Factory Super Cars machine. A broken spoiler on a qualifying pass did some minor damage to the car as well, but he hoped to move to a more tried and true prior setup to stay competitive this weekend at Atlanta Dragway as the team swapped transmissions and revised the gear ratios out back last night in hopes of diving deeper into the sevens as the weekend goes on.
Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle champion Andy Warren is once again pulling double duty this weekend running his Caprice in Nostalgia Muscle and Scott Libersher's Gas Monkey COPO Camaro in the Coan Engineering Stock/Super Stock Combo. Andy's 3,700lb Chevy has been lightened about as much as it can be, and he's had thoughts about possibly swapping in some supercharged COPO power to further boost the 9-second machine's on-track performance. Wouldn't that be cool!
Styled with a throwback graphic, Charlie Halum's 2019 Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320 was custom ordered with hood pins and an SRT wing. At 4,150 without driver it has run high 11s in good air, but he expects the stock 1320 to run in the 12s this weekend. He did upgrade the car with the new Nitto NT555RII drag radials, so if he takes a trip to the Winner's Circle, he will be eligible for a substantial bonus from Nitto.
The car is terrific, Chuck Watson Sr. enthused. He hasn't been behind the wheel of his 2016 Mustang Cobra Jet in four months, so he was blowing off the rust. He had to lift in the second round of Holley EFI Factory Super Cars and fell to the fifth spot, but the car is right in the mix on the merits of his 7.86 at 177 mph. He says the car is crazy reliable thanks to Watson Racing's in-house engine builder, and you can tell he loves being back at the track.
Looking to go rounds in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout and qualify for tomorrow's Arrington Performance HEMI Quick presented by Red Line Oil is Wade Atkinson. His 2019 Dodge Demon is stock save for a grippy, green blower belt and Weld Racing wheels fitted with drag tires. It usually runs low 10s, and those passes account for most of the 200 miles on the car. I wanted to use the car for its intended purpose, he told us.
Edelbrock Performance Xtreme Street competitor and engine builder Tim Knieriem said this weekend will be about who can turn the power down the most, as teams balance the power versus traction equation. Knieriem's nitrous-fed small-block Ford engine put him at the top of the qualifying sheet after round one with a 4.78 performance.
Jason Dietsch was all smiles when we stopped by. Stoked to be back racing with the NMCA after fighting ignition problems in Bradenton, he ran a 7.94 at 173 in the second round of qualifying which found him in the middle of the Holley EFI Factory Super Cars pack. He says Chris Holbrook helped him sort the car out, so it is making progress and running quicker with each round.
Don Fenlon has a long history with his 1973 Camaro, as he has owned it since he was in high school 35 years ago. It has gone through a fair amount of changes though the years, with the most prominent being the level of power it puts down, and while Fenlon had some issues with the big-block Chevy under his hood last year, he and Ruben Hernandez recently gave it fresh internals and he has been clocking consistent 10s in MagnaFuel Open Comp. I think we have it dialed in, said Fenlon, whose girlfriend, Judy Nevies, is helping him this weekend.
A big pop at the top end from NMCA VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod racer Robert Cox's sleek 17 Camaro during last night's second round of qualifying was a crank trigger on its way out. The twin Garrett turbocharged Jerry Bickel-built machine wasn't able to put down a good number yesterday, and the guys are hoping for a better performance today to improve their qualifying standing from last to something other than that.
NMCA VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod hotshoe Adam Flamholc was sharing his supercharged 63 Corvette with Hank Stubbs earlier this weekend, but Flamholc wheeled the wild Chevy for qualifying where he took the number one spot with a 3.74-second blast. Stubbs hopped only in for a few test hits, as the car's transbrake location was changed and he wanted to confirm the switch was a sensible one. Flamholc, however, was hit by a fellow driver while he was standing in the staging lanes yesterday and fortunately sustained no injuries so he will be able to run in eliminations without issue.
While Ted Wood had been campaigning a Barracuda in MagnaFuel Open Comp, he debuted his radical and'recently-built 1941 Willys in the category this weekend. The car, which he will also run at Gasser events, packs a 632 cubic-inch Merlin engine, but Wood doesn't yet have his combination tuned to its full potential. Since this is the first time out in the car, I'm still getting a handle on things, said Wood, who made the trip from Mooreville, Mississippi. It's misbehaving a bit, but we'll get it dialed in, and we've made some suspension changes, which will help.
TJ Strange, in the driver's seat of his father Terry Strange's Mustang, has been steadfastly picking up steam in Dart Machinery NA 10.5 presented by Diamond Pistons, and one look at the 406 cubic-inch engine under his hood shows how. Built by Terry Strange, it's topped with Hammerhead Hemi heads, and it cranked out 1,138 horsepower at 10,000 rpm during a recent dyno session. In our opinion, these are great heads, and we paired them with a unique Holley Hi-Ram intake for an LT Chevy that we cut up and made work for this combination," said TJ, who relies on two CFM Performance carburetors and a RPM TransmissionsTurbo 400, and is currently qualified in the seventh spot in the high-revving category with an 8.14. "The valves are huge.
Scott Libersher is an early adopter of the smaller pulley allowed for the COPO Camaros in Holley EFI Factory Super Cars. Having made the change so close to the race that his team didn't have time to do any dyno testing so the difference in power output was unknown. He fought traction issues while adjusting for the new combination, but they hope to get it within striking distance of the Cobra Jet crew.
Shawn Calabrese and his crew chief/son, Nicholas, tried a few different torque converters in his 2000 Trans Am. The car has a new rearend as well, but he is still seeking the right launch to get the car to perform. Racing heads-up in Chevrolet Performance Stock presented by Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center has proven challenging, but he is determined.
Many fans knew the 1960 Plymouth that Al Wilson drove in Quick Fuel Technology Nostalgia Super Stock, and now, they're getting to know the 1979 AMC Spirit that he recently began driving in Coan Engineering Stock/Super Stock Combo. The car with the 304 cubic-inch AMC engine and two-barrel carburetor carries the Floridian to 13-second passes, and while he has it dialed-in, he admits that the competition in the category is tough, and it may take some time to get to the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle.
Today's QUALIFYING results as we receive them are HERE
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Here is how the racing action will go on Sunday down at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center All-Star Nationals.
Eliminations had just begun when rain fell over the track tonight, but here are results for the categories that were completed: HERE