With high hopes and emphatic eagerness, racers and race fans are preparing for the Holley NMRA/Red Line Oil NMCA Race for the Rings & Saturday Thrill Festival, May 3-5, 2024 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois.
This is the second race of the year for the Red Line Oil NMCA series and the third race of the year for the Holley NMRA series, and in addition to revving up for a chance to collect a coveted ring, heads-up and index racers in both series are already firmly focused on earning enough points to capture class championships at the end of the season.
Qualifying is sure to be off the charts today, and we can also look forward to the Saturday Thrill Festival with jet cars, FMX Motocross Stunt Shows, the World's Largest BIGFOOT, a sizable car show, manufacturers’ midway and much more. Come back to NMCADigital.com and NMRADigital.com each day through Sunday for race news, schedules, photos, qualifying, eliminations and a race wrap.
FOR QUALIFYING RESULTS AS WE RECEIVE THEM, CLICK https://is.gd/GkPlkz
Here is Friday's schedule, and for Saturday Thrill Festival features, including Jet Cars, BIGFOOT, FMX Stunts and UPR Products Car Show, click https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS4Ku_MQOoVBkSwi4t7lOl_8i_m71zICQarvbfcrWtuFVz2vLsENLDiaWxOBQjNcA/pubhtml
Drag racing is a family sport here at the Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals. You have sons and daughters, moms and dads, grandparents and grandchildren, and all of them can get in on the fun. When it comes to the Duncan family, quality time can also be spent at the track. Grandpa Elwood graduated high school in 1972, and started racing around 1976 in a Chevy Nova. He raced that car roughly 8 years until he purchased this 1969 Camaro SS, which he raced up until 1993 when Jeremy took over driving duties. Getting in on the fun, the youngest pictured Duncan, Avery, races the 1969 Nova. Jeremy races the Camaro in Micro Strategies SS/DA on a 10.20 index, but has run as quick as 9.16 in the quarter-mile, while Avery runs the Nova in Micro Strategies SS/E on a 10.35 index, but it has run as quick as 9.60s. Both are big block cars with engines built by Jeff Taylor Performance, while the Nova features a Powerglide transmission from Marco Abruzzi and the Camaro runs a Joel’s on Joy Powerglide. Both cars use a Coan converter, though. Both cars have super steep gears, and both go through the traps at over 8,500 rpm. Even though Elwood no longer races, he’s still the team crew chief and cook, which is possibly the most important part of the team.
Some cars just want to be in our lives, or maybe it’s the other way around, and they just find their way back home. Case in point, Dale Wolford built this 1970 Oldsmobile Rallye 350 12 years ago and raced it for a couple years before selling it. Just a few months ago, Wolford luckily stumbled on the car, and bought it back. He sold it 10 years ago as a roller, and during that time it lived a pampered life in a climate-controlled building. Those days are over, though, as Wolford took the 425-based engine and Turbo 400 transmission out of his 1965 Olds F85, dropping everything into the Rallye to race in Nostalgia Super Stock here at the Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals. The engine utilizes Rocket Racing heads, a Comp cam, and a Quickfuel Technology carburetor built by Scott Perkins, while the trans features Sonnex components with an ATI 5,200 rpm stall converter and a Cheetah shifter. Currently competing in the 10.50 index, Wolford plans to put the Afco double adjustable shocks and struts, and Hoosier 30x9s to really good use when he steps up to the 9.50 index thanks to a Rocket Racing 517ci combination. Wolford did all the work on the car when he initially built it, except for the paint, which was done at that time by his brother Jason Wolford.
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It is always good to see racecars on the track, but it is especially good to see them this weekend considering the track team worked hard to clear away a large section of grandstands that flew onto the starting line during storms a few weeks ago.
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While Todd Bennett has been out of racing for about five years, he bought his 2020 Corvette-bodied car last year. It was built by Reese Brothers and finessed by Larry Jeffers Race Cars, and it is powered by a Noonan Hemi assembled by Anthony DiSomma of DRE, ProCharger, Liberty’s 5-speed and a Ty-Drive converter drive. Bennett is taking on VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod this weekend, and is focusing on power management to help him pull off 3.70s. “This car is set up for Larry Jeffers’ No Prep Warz, and the wheelbase is 10 inches shorter than other Pro Mods, and I’m running on a 34.5” tire instead of 36” tires,” said Bennett. “We are working on getting the combination dialed in for the weekend, and even though we didn’t have a good test pass, we hope to have some good qualifying passes."
It was hard for Kurt Anderson to miss the first NMCA race of the year as he can’t even remember the last time he had to miss an NMCA race, but he is in action this weekend, and he is armed with a new 454 LS engine built by Wegner Motorsports with an RHS block and RHS heads. Anderson, who lives in Wisconsin and owns Autokraft Racecars and Restorations, competes in NMCA LME Street King and MagnaFuel Open Comp in his 1969 Camaro Z28, tells us that his new engine makes a bit more power than his previous engine, and he hopes to dial in for 9.00 or 9.25 indexes.
Successful Dart NA 10.5 racer Leonard Long had a hurt engine under the hood of his hot rod at the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by Sipple’s Speed & Performance and Top of the Rock Thrill Festival presented by Innovation Performance Technologies in April at Rockingham Dragway, but his engine builder, Jay Zolko, had the remedy. He repaired Long’s 415 cubic-inch bullet within a week, and Long is loving every minute of it at this race. The Pennsylvanian, who rows the gears of the GF-2000 transmission he built at his shop, G-Force Transmissions, recorded a 7.79 and 7.80 and is currently qualified in the second spot. “I am confident we will be good now,” said Long. “I would really like to win that Nitto Diamond Tree Ring in the Race for the Rings this weekend.”
This is the second race of the year for the Red Line Oil NMCA series and the third race of the year for the Holley NMRA series, and in addition to revving up for a chance to collect a coveted ring, heads-up and index racers in both series are already firmly focused on earning enough points to capture class championships at the end of the season.
Qualifying is sure to be off the charts today, and we can also look forward to the Saturday Thrill Festival with jet cars, FMX Motocross Stunt Shows, the World's Largest BIGFOOT, a sizable car show, manufacturers’ midway and much more. Come back to NMCADigital.com and NMRADigital.com each day through Sunday for race news, schedules, photos, qualifying, eliminations and a race wrap.
FOR QUALIFYING RESULTS AS WE RECEIVE THEM, CLICK https://is.gd/GkPlkz
Here is Friday's schedule, and for Saturday Thrill Festival features, including Jet Cars, BIGFOOT, FMX Stunts and UPR Products Car Show, click https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS4Ku_MQOoVBkSwi4t7lOl_8i_m71zICQarvbfcrWtuFVz2vLsENLDiaWxOBQjNcA/pubhtml
Drag racing is a family sport here at the Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals. You have sons and daughters, moms and dads, grandparents and grandchildren, and all of them can get in on the fun. When it comes to the Duncan family, quality time can also be spent at the track. Grandpa Elwood graduated high school in 1972, and started racing around 1976 in a Chevy Nova. He raced that car roughly 8 years until he purchased this 1969 Camaro SS, which he raced up until 1993 when Jeremy took over driving duties. Getting in on the fun, the youngest pictured Duncan, Avery, races the 1969 Nova. Jeremy races the Camaro in Micro Strategies SS/DA on a 10.20 index, but has run as quick as 9.16 in the quarter-mile, while Avery runs the Nova in Micro Strategies SS/E on a 10.35 index, but it has run as quick as 9.60s. Both are big block cars with engines built by Jeff Taylor Performance, while the Nova features a Powerglide transmission from Marco Abruzzi and the Camaro runs a Joel’s on Joy Powerglide. Both cars use a Coan converter, though. Both cars have super steep gears, and both go through the traps at over 8,500 rpm. Even though Elwood no longer races, he’s still the team crew chief and cook, which is possibly the most important part of the team.
Some cars just want to be in our lives, or maybe it’s the other way around, and they just find their way back home. Case in point, Dale Wolford built this 1970 Oldsmobile Rallye 350 12 years ago and raced it for a couple years before selling it. Just a few months ago, Wolford luckily stumbled on the car, and bought it back. He sold it 10 years ago as a roller, and during that time it lived a pampered life in a climate-controlled building. Those days are over, though, as Wolford took the 425-based engine and Turbo 400 transmission out of his 1965 Olds F85, dropping everything into the Rallye to race in Nostalgia Super Stock here at the Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals. The engine utilizes Rocket Racing heads, a Comp cam, and a Quickfuel Technology carburetor built by Scott Perkins, while the trans features Sonnex components with an ATI 5,200 rpm stall converter and a Cheetah shifter. Currently competing in the 10.50 index, Wolford plans to put the Afco double adjustable shocks and struts, and Hoosier 30x9s to really good use when he steps up to the 9.50 index thanks to a Rocket Racing 517ci combination. Wolford did all the work on the car when he initially built it, except for the paint, which was done at that time by his brother Jason Wolford.
It is always good to see racecars on the track, but it is especially good to see them this weekend considering the track team worked hard to clear away a large section of grandstands that flew onto the starting line during storms a few weeks ago.
While Todd Bennett has been out of racing for about five years, he bought his 2020 Corvette-bodied car last year. It was built by Reese Brothers and finessed by Larry Jeffers Race Cars, and it is powered by a Noonan Hemi assembled by Anthony DiSomma of DRE, ProCharger, Liberty’s 5-speed and a Ty-Drive converter drive. Bennett is taking on VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod this weekend, and is focusing on power management to help him pull off 3.70s. “This car is set up for Larry Jeffers’ No Prep Warz, and the wheelbase is 10 inches shorter than other Pro Mods, and I’m running on a 34.5” tire instead of 36” tires,” said Bennett. “We are working on getting the combination dialed in for the weekend, and even though we didn’t have a good test pass, we hope to have some good qualifying passes."
It was hard for Kurt Anderson to miss the first NMCA race of the year as he can’t even remember the last time he had to miss an NMCA race, but he is in action this weekend, and he is armed with a new 454 LS engine built by Wegner Motorsports with an RHS block and RHS heads. Anderson, who lives in Wisconsin and owns Autokraft Racecars and Restorations, competes in NMCA LME Street King and MagnaFuel Open Comp in his 1969 Camaro Z28, tells us that his new engine makes a bit more power than his previous engine, and he hopes to dial in for 9.00 or 9.25 indexes.
Successful Dart NA 10.5 racer Leonard Long had a hurt engine under the hood of his hot rod at the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by Sipple’s Speed & Performance and Top of the Rock Thrill Festival presented by Innovation Performance Technologies in April at Rockingham Dragway, but his engine builder, Jay Zolko, had the remedy. He repaired Long’s 415 cubic-inch bullet within a week, and Long is loving every minute of it at this race. The Pennsylvanian, who rows the gears of the GF-2000 transmission he built at his shop, G-Force Transmissions, recorded a 7.79 and 7.80 and is currently qualified in the second spot. “I am confident we will be good now,” said Long. “I would really like to win that Nitto Diamond Tree Ring in the Race for the Rings this weekend.”