Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals Giant Photo Gallery
By Evan J. Smith
Photography by Rudy
As true fans of the sport of drag racing, many of our staffers spend down time back at tracks, whether it’s in the stands, behind the wheel or behind the wall with camera in hand. This past weekend, NMRA/NMCA photographer Dr. Rudy Rouweyha headed back to Summit Motorsports Park in his home state of Ohio to capture the sounds, smells and images at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.
The Doctor hit up just about every angle the track offered for photo opportunities—he didn’t even have time to stop for the famous Norwalk ice cream.
Despite rain that cancelled two of the pro qualifying sessions and created a compressed schedule, Dr. Rudy was still able to lock his Nikon on some fast cars competing in the variety of classes. In fact, many NHRA racer cross over to NMCA, especially in Micro Strategies Stock and Super Stock, along with Holley EFI Factory Super Cars, which is identical to NHRA Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown.
As you may have already read here on RacePagesDigital.com, former NMRA Limited Street racer Del Holbrook took the top qualifying spot in FSS at Norwalk with his Cobra Jet Ford Mustang after running a blistering 7.668 at 181.72 mph top the all-star field of 23 cars. Other notables in competition were Doug Duell, Kyle Pawuk, Kevin Helms, Kurt Neighbor, Jimmy Ronzello, AJ Berge, Mark Mawuk, Kevin Skinner, Jason Dietsch and Scott Libersher.
Former NMCA competitor Leah Pruett captured the win in Top Fuel, which was here first for Tony Stewart Racing. Pruett, who was also the No. 1 qualifier, ran 3.761-seconds at 326.79 mph in her Dodge Direct Connection dragster in the finals, besting Justin Ashley to earn her 11th career win and first at Summit Motorsports Park.
“You always love coming into raceday from the No. 1 position, but we were coming off of a final qualifying day that wasn't going super well for us. But we dug deep and put together what we thought was going to be a good program,” Pruett said. “The day started off stressful, we had some system malfunctions in the first round, but thankfully we got past that. Going into the final round, all of the systems we thought we had fixed, well different ones came up. Things we'd never seen before, and we only had 30 minutes. So it was, roll the dice, blow on them, and shoot. Neal Strasbaugh said, this round, you're going to have a racecar that's going to win.”
By Evan J. Smith
Photography by Rudy
As true fans of the sport of drag racing, many of our staffers spend down time back at tracks, whether it’s in the stands, behind the wheel or behind the wall with camera in hand. This past weekend, NMRA/NMCA photographer Dr. Rudy Rouweyha headed back to Summit Motorsports Park in his home state of Ohio to capture the sounds, smells and images at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.
The Doctor hit up just about every angle the track offered for photo opportunities—he didn’t even have time to stop for the famous Norwalk ice cream.
Despite rain that cancelled two of the pro qualifying sessions and created a compressed schedule, Dr. Rudy was still able to lock his Nikon on some fast cars competing in the variety of classes. In fact, many NHRA racer cross over to NMCA, especially in Micro Strategies Stock and Super Stock, along with Holley EFI Factory Super Cars, which is identical to NHRA Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown.
As you may have already read here on RacePagesDigital.com, former NMRA Limited Street racer Del Holbrook took the top qualifying spot in FSS at Norwalk with his Cobra Jet Ford Mustang after running a blistering 7.668 at 181.72 mph top the all-star field of 23 cars. Other notables in competition were Doug Duell, Kyle Pawuk, Kevin Helms, Kurt Neighbor, Jimmy Ronzello, AJ Berge, Mark Mawuk, Kevin Skinner, Jason Dietsch and Scott Libersher.
Former NMCA competitor Leah Pruett captured the win in Top Fuel, which was here first for Tony Stewart Racing. Pruett, who was also the No. 1 qualifier, ran 3.761-seconds at 326.79 mph in her Dodge Direct Connection dragster in the finals, besting Justin Ashley to earn her 11th career win and first at Summit Motorsports Park.
“You always love coming into raceday from the No. 1 position, but we were coming off of a final qualifying day that wasn't going super well for us. But we dug deep and put together what we thought was going to be a good program,” Pruett said. “The day started off stressful, we had some system malfunctions in the first round, but thankfully we got past that. Going into the final round, all of the systems we thought we had fixed, well different ones came up. Things we'd never seen before, and we only had 30 minutes. So it was, roll the dice, blow on them, and shoot. Neal Strasbaugh said, this round, you're going to have a racecar that's going to win.”
