Cars are in the lanes and we are off and running right on schedule as the sun starts to peek out from behind the clouds here at beautiful Summit Motorsports Park. It’s going to be a great day of racing with the first round of eliminations coming up this afternoon!
There is a lot of action on tap for today, and we promise you don't want to miss it! Here is the packed two-page schedule.
Amy Gray grew up watching her father race at Summit Motorsports Park, and this weekend, she is racing at Summit Motorsports Park. Amy, who drove her 2020 Challenger 11 hours, with her husband, Tommy, to get here, is competing in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout in her car which runs mid-12s. She will fit right in among all of the Challengers, Chargers and other beefed-up Mopars. The category continues to grow in popularity, and adding to the excitement, the eight quickest drivers in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout will earn entry into the HHP Racing HEMI Quick 8 on Sunday.
John Evans came to this race to win, and he proved that by posting a perfect .000 reaction time in his 2019 COPO Camaro to lead the first round of qualifying, among thirty other racers, in COPO Parts Direct COPO Battle. He paired that with a 9.07 courtesy of the just-installed naturally aspirated 427 cubic-inch engine by Ray Barton Racing Engines, which fellow racer David Barton is helping to tune with Holley EFI. Evans is no stranger to final rounds in NMCA and NHRA Factory Stock competition, and the racer from Virginia will be one to keep an eye on this weekend.
VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod pilot Johnny Camp has repaired and recovered from a violent top-end wreck earlier this year with the NEOPMA at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, and the NMCA family is thrilled to have him on the property with us. After two qualifying passes on Friday, Camp is currently seventh in the field and has one more chance to improve upon the 3.749 at 203.03 mph blast today before eliminations begin. His ProCharger-supercharged machine is tuned by Pro Line Racing’s Brandon Stroud (pictured) via a FuelTech EFI system and includes equipment from NGK Spark Plugs, Chris Tatman Electric, M&M Transmission, and Hoosier tires.
On Friday, Joe Bucaro was busy exorcising some bugs from his ARP Nitrous Pro Street ride. Initial suspicion was that something was wrong in the engine, but it was going to take a tear-down to determine the specifics. Unfortunately, his frustrations are escalating as Bucaro is not yet on the qualifying sheet, but he’s got one more shot to get in the show this morning and hopefully can make it happen with either a repair or a spare bullet.
Competitors in the Cobra Jet Showdown and COPO Battle Shootouts are enjoying the VIP treatment this weekend with special Racer Appreciation Happy Hour events, catered luncheons, and more thanks to support from Watson Racing, Holbrook Racing Engines, Chevrolet Performance, COPO Parts Direct, and Scoggin Dickey Parts Center.
After years of flawless performance and hundreds of reliable runs from his 1964 Mercury Comet, Micro Strategies Super Stock contender Kurt Neighbor is struggling to sort out his discombobulated fuel system. Despite the fairly simple setup, something mysterious is amiss but Neighbor refuses to give up until he’s got it figured out. During Friday’s qualifying, he went 10.149 on his 9.50 index and Neighbor has high hopes he’ll be able to run closer to the number today and move up in the order before eliminations begin this afternoon.
Work hard, play hard, relax hard. When you’re at the track so often that it starts to feel like home, and you’ve got a long weekend of racing ahead of you, settle in and make yourself comfortable!
Although Charlie Booze Jr.’s name is usually synonymous with Ford power, this weekend he’s fielding Gary Duncan’s 1984 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta in Chevrolet Performance Stock Presented by Scoggin Dickey Parts Center. The two longtime friends have been collaborating on their racing efforts for decades thanks to a connection from the late Jim Kuntz and are collaborating on getting the setup on Duncan’s third gen just right over at Booze Brothers Racing. Duncan’s son, Scotty, has been wheeling it lately but wasn’t able to attend either the last NMCA race in Michigan or this weekend, so Booze stepped in to do the wheelman duties. Showing the skill he’s so known for, Booze hit it right on the head and blasted the SDPC DR525 crate engine-powered and Proformance Racing Transmissions-equipped entry to the top of the qualifying sheet on Friday with a 9.793 at 133.71 mph trip; he still held the advantage after the order was finalized with today’s third session. Duncan and Booze are hoping to eclipse their performance from the last race where they made it to the finals but barely missed the win with redemption this time out.
It’s important to work smart, not hard, but it’s also important to work fast when you’ve got a hurt engine and another round of racing coming up in a hurry. Joe Clemente, the current Dart Machinery NA 10.5 points leader, and his crew were hustling to load a new bullet into the chamber of their 1993 Ford Mustang and utilized their trailer’s lift gate to make the drop-in process a heck of a lot quicker.
Ray Tumbry’s pride and joy is his super 1968 Chevrolet Nova SS, and the man arrived at Summit Motorsports Park this morning with his entourage in tow ready to hit it in the Bracket category. Tumbry – who works in a body shop – is the third owner of the Chevy and he painstakingly restored it to its current pristine Yenko status. Featuring a Madman & Co. Racing 565 cubic inch big block Chevrolet engine, Rossler turbo 400 transmission, and a plethora of other potent parts, Tumbry typically runs the real L79 in the 8.90-second zone with plans to transform the bracket beast into a street car cruiser once its drag racing days are done.
Tom Ladisky was hoping for a win during the first round of VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod against Ty Tutterow but came away with a big loss instead. Ladisky got into some oil – which he and crew chief/tuner Jon Salemi suspect originated in the drivetrain – and his Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built Mustang spun around wildly before ending up in the left-side retaining wall instead. Fortunately, both the driver and his DMPE screw blown and BAE HEMI-powered car are okay, with the latter sustaining only minor damage to the front end and wheelie bars.
Racers are throwing everything they can at their combinations for QUALIFYING! For qualifying results as we receive them, click https://www.nmcadigital.com/blog/qualifying-mickey-thompson-nmca-all-american-nationals/2325