Friday action here at Rockingham Dragway kicks off with a test and tune session followd by Round 1 of qualifying for the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport. Both the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals and the Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals will compete at this weekend, and the event will also host the next round of the Radial Tire Racing Association featuring the X275 and Ultra Street, the latter of which is combined with the NMRA Renegade and NMCA Xtreme Street classes and are points races for all of the series and classes.
CLICK HERE for today's schedule.
Keep tabs on NMCA QUALIFYING HERE.
Former Holley EFI Factory Super Cars champion Geoff Turk decided he needed to do some NMCA racing, dusted off his BES Racing Engines-powered, Blackbird Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak, and headed to Rockingham. The car last ran at the NHRA event in Las Vegas where it qualified 3rd and went to the semi-finals with Jason Dietsch behind the wheel. Turk went 7.67 in testing at Beech Bend Raceway right before that event, and his confident he can hang with the rest of the Factory Super Cars top contenders this weekend.
Entering his first NMCA this weekend is Scott Krueger of Jordan, Minnesota. Krueger will be piloting his wicked 1958 Corvette in VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod with his 2011 Garrett-built chassis, Brad Anderson Enterprises 521 blown Hemi, and Lenco transmission. Krueger has run a best of 3.60 in the Vette, and plans to complete the rest of the 2022 Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Drag Racing tour.
When parts delays prevented him from racing at the NMCA season opener in March, Dart NA 10.5 competitor Dwight Ausmus grabbed a budget ticket to Bradenton just to watch and hang out with his racing family. Then Ray and Brad Cox offered to let him qualify their spare car so he could collect the points for the race. Now, his BES Racing Engines-built, Pontiac powerplant is back in action with a new Uratchko Racing Engines cast intake manifold. The upgrade required Ausmus to purchase the largest hood scoop he could find, but he informed us that the next version of the manifold will be a couple of inches shorter to change the engine’s powerband to their liking.
Having competed in the NMCA’s Stock/Super Combo in 2021, Tony Scott has made the jump to Holey EFI Factory Super Cars with his 2020 COPO Camaro. The Greenville, Kentucky, resident hurt his previous engine at the season opener in Bradenton, Florida, but now has a Ray Barton Racing Engines bullet between the fenders. Scott’s COPO has been as quick as 8.09, and are expecting 7s this weekend as they turn it up.
When Rich Nye opened up the 2021 NMCA season with a crash that totaled his beloved Fox-Body Mustang, fellow Dart NA 10.5 racer Leonard Long offered him a loaner ride, but Nye instead opted to focus on finding himself another car to race instead. Now, waiting on engine parts like many racers these days, Nye will be driving Long’s “bracket” car, a Fox-Body Mustang equipped with a small-block Ford engine and G-Force Racing Transmissions GF-2000 gearbox, this weekend. The car has been 8.20s, so Nye should have no problem handling the rental.
Soon after accomplishing an eighth-place finish in Quick Fuel Technology Nostalgia Super Stock last year, Doug Poskevich began building a new 427 cubic-inch big-block Ford to replace the 390 cubic-inch big-block Ford that had more than 800 passes on it. This marks his first race with the new bullet under the hood of his beautiful 1966 Fairlane, and he’s in the process of dialing it in. “My old engine lasted a long time, but it was starting to show signs of wear,” said Poskevich. “It was hard to start and idling rough, and occasionally, the oil pressure was low.” Poskevich, who used to run the 12.00 index, is anxious to see what his new engine is capable of, and his fans and fellow racers are, too.
When Scott Williams let go of the transbrake button during the first NMCA MagnaFuel Open Comp test pass on Friday morning, his 1965 Chevy Malibu SS “did something funky” and the driver knew a part had broken. “That’s why they call it drag racing… sometimes it’s a drag.” Fortunately, it was just a link on the antiroll bar that snapped and Chad Neuenschwander (pictured) was able to grind off the power coating and get it welded back up as good as new. Williams runs a naturally aspirated 588 ci engine with a Holley Dominator system and is glad he’s still in the game for the rest of the coming weekend.
The one and only Mr. John Sears, legendary rule maker and the mastermind behind the rampant success of the X275 small tire radial category, is on the property working with the NMRA and NMCA tech department to ensure all cars and combinations are legal – including the special Mickey Thompson Tires X275 eliminator category.
Amy Faulk has been holding her own behind the wheel of a race car for a long time, as she started racing in NHRA Super Stock and Stock in the 1970s and captured a Super Stock championship in 1979. These days, she’s showing her strength in NMCA Fastest Street Car Super Stock.The Tennessean, whose Firebird has a new LS engine and new converter, set the pace in qualifying with a 9.46 on a 10.75 dial and went several rounds at the NMCA season opener last month, and she hopes to run consistently between 9.35 and 9.40, and win, at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport this weekend at Rockingham Dragway. “As long as the car is leaving the line consistently, we won’t do too much to the tune between qualifying and eliminations,” said Faulk, whose husband, Kenny Faulk, is her crew chief. “It would be nice to win this weekend, and earn a championship in NMCA Super Stock at some point, but I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself. I'm enjoying myself."
While Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle racer Jeff Toepper missed the NMCA season opener last month in Florida, he’s in action at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport this weekend at Rockingham Dragway. His said his off-season work was minimal, and his C and M Engineering-built 383 cubic-inch engine and Powerglide have been working well in his 1969 Camaro for some time now. Toepper, who trapped an 11.62 and 11.82 in testing this weekend, went on to clock an 11.74 on an 11.75 to qualify in the eleventh spot in the first round of qualifying today. He'll aim to run right on an 11.75 in the next round of qualifying. “I’m dialing in the car with weight and with a restrictor plate, which helps get me where I need to be,” said Toepper.
When he’s not running his HEMITuner Performance business, or tuning the Don Schumacher Racing Dodge//Mopar Challenger Drag Paks, Long Island, New York’s AJ Berge gets behind the wheel of his own 2021 Drag Pak. This weekend is his second race with the new machine and his first time competing at an NMCA event. He’s going after the $10k that Mopar is offering to Drag Pak winners at NMCA and NHRA events this year, and has already been 7.839 at nearly 182 in his Challenger.
Joe Oplawski of Hyperaktive Performance Solutions is helping Craig Sullivan get the Darren Mayer Performance Engineering-blown HEMI in Sullivan’s El Mero Mero Mercury to keep putting the power down and deliver winning performances. Currently, Sullivan is qualified third with a 3.788, right behind Robert Abbott with a 3.724 and Derek Ward with a 3.673.
Part of this weekend’s event is the RTRA’s X275 points race, and Eric and Mark Moore from Sanger, Texas, made the trek as they currently sit number one in points and hope to maintain their lead. The family’s Fox-Body Mustang is a 1992 model that packs a 400ci Disomma Racing Engines-built small-block Ford and Precision turbocharger. They finished runner up at the first race of the year in South Georgia, won the second in Dallas, and will no doubt be tweaking on the FuelTech FT600 EFI system to hopefully improve on their best ET of 4.18.
Bryce Rohrs of Hicksville, Ohio, is competing in Stock Eliminator, as well as the Dodge//Mopar HEMI Shootout. Rohrs, who’s normally busy managing his 1,200-acre farm, worked out a deal with Factory Super Cars racer Tony Scott to acquire his 2019 50th Anniversary COPO Camaro. He’s brought in Doug Thompson to help tune the Camaro and hit Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing school just before his first event with the car at the NMCA season opener in Florida. Rohrs won the 11-second class in the HEMI Shootout in Bradenton with his 2020 Hellcat Redeye, and the two blue cars are part of a larger blue car collection that also includes a GT500 Shelby, C8 Corvette, and 2015 ZO6 Corvette.
Taking part in his first NMCA race is Ronny Rhodes, son of legendary X275 racer Ron Rhodes and part of the Rhodes Custom Auto chassis shop. As Camaros run in the family, the Rhodes built this 1968 Camaro that Ron formerly campaigned in NMCA NA 10.5, and turned it into a BES Racing/SpeedTech Nitrous-powered Ultra Street competitor. This weekend, the NMRA’s Renegade, NMCA’s Xtreme Street, and RTRA’s Ultra Street are all combined and will receive points in all series. Rony has help from his sponsors, Motion Raceworks, Optic Armor, Merillat Racing, RS Tech, Santhuff’s, TNT Performance, and TRZ Motorsports, as well as family help from Sam Garrano and their daughter, Ryleigh Rhodes.
Ron Rhodes last NMCA appearance at Martin, Michigan, in 2021 resulted in number-one qualifying honors and a runner up finish to Rob Goss. Today, we caught up with him as he was making changes to his Camaro and adapt to the track conditions. He and his son’s cars both rely on Calvert Racing components to make their leaf-spring suspensions work in such high-horsepower applications.
Lee Hartman has been racing his 2019 COPO Camaro in NMCA competition, but he really wanted to get into a Dodge//Mopar Challenger Drag Pak and was finally able to get his hands on one. This 2021 model is number 10 of 50 built, and Hartman is looking for 7-second ETs as well as getting his hands on the $10k in Dodge prize money that is up for grabs should he win the Holley EFI Factory Super Cars class this weekend.
Rodney Massengale and his son Camren haven’t raced their Mustang since last October, but they are back running the NMCA for 2022. The big-block Chevy/Nitrous oxide-powered pony car has served them well, but Rodney is excited to get back to racing his C5 Corvette and he has a BES Racing Engines big-block Chevy going in it that has been in development for quite some time.
Bob Perrot has been racing with the NMCA for 25 years, and knows what it takes to be competitive in his 1967 Chevelle in Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle. That’s why we’re confident that he’s close to tracking down the issue he’s currently having with the carburetor on top of his big-block Chevrolet. “I’ve run a 10.64 and 10.42 so far this weekend, and I need to get dialed in for the 10.50 index,” said Perrot. “We believe the float in the carburetor is sticking, but we'll get it taken care of in time for the next round of qualifying.”
While Billy Plage has been competing in NHRA Stock, he’s making his NMCA debut and diving into Fastest Street Car Stock at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport this weekend at Rockingham Dragway. Plage, who lives in Sophia, North Carolina, hadn’t had a pass yet when we talked with him and his wife and crew chief, Carole Plage, but he hopes to run 10.70 with the 350 cubic-inch engine under the hood of his Camaro.
Co-owner of TorqStorm Superchargers, Scott Oshinski has his beautiful 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass out to run in NMCA TorqStorm Superchargers True Street this weekend and is sporting a big new upgrade under the hood for 2022. The Steve Morris Engines-built and Dart-headed 565 ci Chevy engine itself is a step up from Oshinski’s former 540 ci bullet, but the real gem is the TorqStorm twin supercharger system that enabled the combination to produce 1,901-horsepower on the engine dyno. The power was a bit too much for the track to hold yesterday and Oshinski spun during testing, so he’s detuned the Cutlass down to about 1,400-horsepower instead. Additionally, a new set of AFCO front shocks (purchased through UMI Performance, along with UMI control arms) have helped Oshinski solve last year’s wheelie issues.
CLICK HERE for today's schedule.
Keep tabs on NMCA QUALIFYING HERE.
Former Holley EFI Factory Super Cars champion Geoff Turk decided he needed to do some NMCA racing, dusted off his BES Racing Engines-powered, Blackbird Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak, and headed to Rockingham. The car last ran at the NHRA event in Las Vegas where it qualified 3rd and went to the semi-finals with Jason Dietsch behind the wheel. Turk went 7.67 in testing at Beech Bend Raceway right before that event, and his confident he can hang with the rest of the Factory Super Cars top contenders this weekend.
Entering his first NMCA this weekend is Scott Krueger of Jordan, Minnesota. Krueger will be piloting his wicked 1958 Corvette in VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod with his 2011 Garrett-built chassis, Brad Anderson Enterprises 521 blown Hemi, and Lenco transmission. Krueger has run a best of 3.60 in the Vette, and plans to complete the rest of the 2022 Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Drag Racing tour.
When parts delays prevented him from racing at the NMCA season opener in March, Dart NA 10.5 competitor Dwight Ausmus grabbed a budget ticket to Bradenton just to watch and hang out with his racing family. Then Ray and Brad Cox offered to let him qualify their spare car so he could collect the points for the race. Now, his BES Racing Engines-built, Pontiac powerplant is back in action with a new Uratchko Racing Engines cast intake manifold. The upgrade required Ausmus to purchase the largest hood scoop he could find, but he informed us that the next version of the manifold will be a couple of inches shorter to change the engine’s powerband to their liking.
Having competed in the NMCA’s Stock/Super Combo in 2021, Tony Scott has made the jump to Holey EFI Factory Super Cars with his 2020 COPO Camaro. The Greenville, Kentucky, resident hurt his previous engine at the season opener in Bradenton, Florida, but now has a Ray Barton Racing Engines bullet between the fenders. Scott’s COPO has been as quick as 8.09, and are expecting 7s this weekend as they turn it up.
When Rich Nye opened up the 2021 NMCA season with a crash that totaled his beloved Fox-Body Mustang, fellow Dart NA 10.5 racer Leonard Long offered him a loaner ride, but Nye instead opted to focus on finding himself another car to race instead. Now, waiting on engine parts like many racers these days, Nye will be driving Long’s “bracket” car, a Fox-Body Mustang equipped with a small-block Ford engine and G-Force Racing Transmissions GF-2000 gearbox, this weekend. The car has been 8.20s, so Nye should have no problem handling the rental.
Soon after accomplishing an eighth-place finish in Quick Fuel Technology Nostalgia Super Stock last year, Doug Poskevich began building a new 427 cubic-inch big-block Ford to replace the 390 cubic-inch big-block Ford that had more than 800 passes on it. This marks his first race with the new bullet under the hood of his beautiful 1966 Fairlane, and he’s in the process of dialing it in. “My old engine lasted a long time, but it was starting to show signs of wear,” said Poskevich. “It was hard to start and idling rough, and occasionally, the oil pressure was low.” Poskevich, who used to run the 12.00 index, is anxious to see what his new engine is capable of, and his fans and fellow racers are, too.
When Scott Williams let go of the transbrake button during the first NMCA MagnaFuel Open Comp test pass on Friday morning, his 1965 Chevy Malibu SS “did something funky” and the driver knew a part had broken. “That’s why they call it drag racing… sometimes it’s a drag.” Fortunately, it was just a link on the antiroll bar that snapped and Chad Neuenschwander (pictured) was able to grind off the power coating and get it welded back up as good as new. Williams runs a naturally aspirated 588 ci engine with a Holley Dominator system and is glad he’s still in the game for the rest of the coming weekend.
The one and only Mr. John Sears, legendary rule maker and the mastermind behind the rampant success of the X275 small tire radial category, is on the property working with the NMRA and NMCA tech department to ensure all cars and combinations are legal – including the special Mickey Thompson Tires X275 eliminator category.
Amy Faulk has been holding her own behind the wheel of a race car for a long time, as she started racing in NHRA Super Stock and Stock in the 1970s and captured a Super Stock championship in 1979. These days, she’s showing her strength in NMCA Fastest Street Car Super Stock.The Tennessean, whose Firebird has a new LS engine and new converter, set the pace in qualifying with a 9.46 on a 10.75 dial and went several rounds at the NMCA season opener last month, and she hopes to run consistently between 9.35 and 9.40, and win, at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport this weekend at Rockingham Dragway. “As long as the car is leaving the line consistently, we won’t do too much to the tune between qualifying and eliminations,” said Faulk, whose husband, Kenny Faulk, is her crew chief. “It would be nice to win this weekend, and earn a championship in NMCA Super Stock at some point, but I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself. I'm enjoying myself."
While Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle racer Jeff Toepper missed the NMCA season opener last month in Florida, he’s in action at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport this weekend at Rockingham Dragway. His said his off-season work was minimal, and his C and M Engineering-built 383 cubic-inch engine and Powerglide have been working well in his 1969 Camaro for some time now. Toepper, who trapped an 11.62 and 11.82 in testing this weekend, went on to clock an 11.74 on an 11.75 to qualify in the eleventh spot in the first round of qualifying today. He'll aim to run right on an 11.75 in the next round of qualifying. “I’m dialing in the car with weight and with a restrictor plate, which helps get me where I need to be,” said Toepper.
When he’s not running his HEMITuner Performance business, or tuning the Don Schumacher Racing Dodge//Mopar Challenger Drag Paks, Long Island, New York’s AJ Berge gets behind the wheel of his own 2021 Drag Pak. This weekend is his second race with the new machine and his first time competing at an NMCA event. He’s going after the $10k that Mopar is offering to Drag Pak winners at NMCA and NHRA events this year, and has already been 7.839 at nearly 182 in his Challenger.
Joe Oplawski of Hyperaktive Performance Solutions is helping Craig Sullivan get the Darren Mayer Performance Engineering-blown HEMI in Sullivan’s El Mero Mero Mercury to keep putting the power down and deliver winning performances. Currently, Sullivan is qualified third with a 3.788, right behind Robert Abbott with a 3.724 and Derek Ward with a 3.673.
Part of this weekend’s event is the RTRA’s X275 points race, and Eric and Mark Moore from Sanger, Texas, made the trek as they currently sit number one in points and hope to maintain their lead. The family’s Fox-Body Mustang is a 1992 model that packs a 400ci Disomma Racing Engines-built small-block Ford and Precision turbocharger. They finished runner up at the first race of the year in South Georgia, won the second in Dallas, and will no doubt be tweaking on the FuelTech FT600 EFI system to hopefully improve on their best ET of 4.18.
Bryce Rohrs of Hicksville, Ohio, is competing in Stock Eliminator, as well as the Dodge//Mopar HEMI Shootout. Rohrs, who’s normally busy managing his 1,200-acre farm, worked out a deal with Factory Super Cars racer Tony Scott to acquire his 2019 50th Anniversary COPO Camaro. He’s brought in Doug Thompson to help tune the Camaro and hit Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing school just before his first event with the car at the NMCA season opener in Florida. Rohrs won the 11-second class in the HEMI Shootout in Bradenton with his 2020 Hellcat Redeye, and the two blue cars are part of a larger blue car collection that also includes a GT500 Shelby, C8 Corvette, and 2015 ZO6 Corvette.Taking part in his first NMCA race is Ronny Rhodes, son of legendary X275 racer Ron Rhodes and part of the Rhodes Custom Auto chassis shop. As Camaros run in the family, the Rhodes built this 1968 Camaro that Ron formerly campaigned in NMCA NA 10.5, and turned it into a BES Racing/SpeedTech Nitrous-powered Ultra Street competitor. This weekend, the NMRA’s Renegade, NMCA’s Xtreme Street, and RTRA’s Ultra Street are all combined and will receive points in all series. Rony has help from his sponsors, Motion Raceworks, Optic Armor, Merillat Racing, RS Tech, Santhuff’s, TNT Performance, and TRZ Motorsports, as well as family help from Sam Garrano and their daughter, Ryleigh Rhodes.Ron Rhodes last NMCA appearance at Martin, Michigan, in 2021 resulted in number-one qualifying honors and a runner up finish to Rob Goss. Today, we caught up with him as he was making changes to his Camaro and adapt to the track conditions. He and his son’s cars both rely on Calvert Racing components to make their leaf-spring suspensions work in such high-horsepower applications.
Lee Hartman has been racing his 2019 COPO Camaro in NMCA competition, but he really wanted to get into a Dodge//Mopar Challenger Drag Pak and was finally able to get his hands on one. This 2021 model is number 10 of 50 built, and Hartman is looking for 7-second ETs as well as getting his hands on the $10k in Dodge prize money that is up for grabs should he win the Holley EFI Factory Super Cars class this weekend.
Rodney Massengale and his son Camren haven’t raced their Mustang since last October, but they are back running the NMCA for 2022. The big-block Chevy/Nitrous oxide-powered pony car has served them well, but Rodney is excited to get back to racing his C5 Corvette and he has a BES Racing Engines big-block Chevy going in it that has been in development for quite some time.
Bob Perrot has been racing with the NMCA for 25 years, and knows what it takes to be competitive in his 1967 Chevelle in Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle. That’s why we’re confident that he’s close to tracking down the issue he’s currently having with the carburetor on top of his big-block Chevrolet. “I’ve run a 10.64 and 10.42 so far this weekend, and I need to get dialed in for the 10.50 index,” said Perrot. “We believe the float in the carburetor is sticking, but we'll get it taken care of in time for the next round of qualifying.”
While Billy Plage has been competing in NHRA Stock, he’s making his NMCA debut and diving into Fastest Street Car Stock at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport this weekend at Rockingham Dragway. Plage, who lives in Sophia, North Carolina, hadn’t had a pass yet when we talked with him and his wife and crew chief, Carole Plage, but he hopes to run 10.70 with the 350 cubic-inch engine under the hood of his Camaro.
Co-owner of TorqStorm Superchargers, Scott Oshinski has his beautiful 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass out to run in NMCA TorqStorm Superchargers True Street this weekend and is sporting a big new upgrade under the hood for 2022. The Steve Morris Engines-built and Dart-headed 565 ci Chevy engine itself is a step up from Oshinski’s former 540 ci bullet, but the real gem is the TorqStorm twin supercharger system that enabled the combination to produce 1,901-horsepower on the engine dyno. The power was a bit too much for the track to hold yesterday and Oshinski spun during testing, so he’s detuned the Cutlass down to about 1,400-horsepower instead. Additionally, a new set of AFCO front shocks (purchased through UMI Performance, along with UMI control arms) have helped Oshinski solve last year’s wheelie issues.