Words courtesy of Promedia

For the last race of the season, the NMRA and NMCA pulled into Houston Raceway Park for the 2nd Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Lone Star Shootout, presented by Tommie Vaughn Performance. Mother Nature had some surprises in store for the assembled masses but the track crew managed to complete the race by Sunday afternoon, only minutes before more rain came rolling in.

For the combined All-Motor class – comprised of Edelbrock Hot Street and Comp Cams Pro Stock – only two racers braved the gloomy weather forecast to compete. Merv Davis was behind the wheel of the School of Automotive Machinists SN-95, while Rob Valden was piloting Team Powerhead’s ’89 coupe. The two entries were only separated by six-thousandths of a second on the qualifying ladder; Davis carding an 8.591 and Valden carding an 8.597. With the first round also being the final, it was all over before it started as Davis tripped the foul light a mere .004-second early, allowing Valden the easy win.

In Triangle Speed Shop Mod Comp, there were 22 entries all vying for a spot in the winner’s circle. After qualifying, Brian Warwas in his 1982 Mustang occupied the top spot with a .003-second reaction time. As eliminations rolled around, Warwas made it to the semifinal round, where he fell to Susan McClenaghan on a breakout. McClenaghan then faced Curtis Catalon in the final, where a 9.686 on a 9.68 index earned McClenaghan the win.

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In Indy Cylinder Heads Nostalgia Super Stock action, Dallas Schultz came out at the top of the heap, piloting his ’65 Coronet to a perfect 9.750 in qualifying. In eliminations, Doug Duell defeated Rosie Kossuth to head to the final while on the other side of the ladder, Steve Wilson advanced when Randy Stansbury went red. In the final round, Wilson was the lesser offender in a double breakout, earning him the win. As his win light went on, Wilson’s driver-side front tire blew out at speed, causing a scare, but no damage.

Eaton Late Model EFI had a light field, with only four cars entered. Lloyd Mikeska took the top spot with a .313-second over/under, as the rest of the field went under their indexes. Mikeska advanced to the final when Joe Cram broke out by .029-second, and Sergio Gonzalez was the lesser offender in a big double breakout over Crag Parro. In the final, Gonzalez broke out once again, putting Mikeska in the winner’s circle.

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In Super Stang action, eight cars made the trip to HRP to compete. After the first round of eliminations, Lloyd Mikeska took another number one qualifier spot, with a .036-second over/under. Lloyd made it to his second final round of the day after he defeated David Whitt, while on the other side of the ladder, Joe Cram was the lesser offender in a double breakout with Kent Nine to meet Mikeska in the final. With the weather cooler-than-expected, Cram and Mikeska were involved in another double breakout situation, with the win light coming on in Cram’s lane.

Tremec True Street saw 41 entrants, and coming out on top of them all, with the quickest average in NMRA history, was Angel Padilla with an 8.05-second average for the win. Randy Seward took the overall Runner-Up spot with an 8.86-second average, while Robert Mancha took the 9-second win with a 9.40-second three-pass average. Taking the 10-second honors was Darin Watkins, with a 10.013-second average, and joining him on stage with the 11-second title was David Polverari who averaged 11.307. Taking the 12-second trophy was Jesus Flores with a 12.053-second average and Chris Watts took the 13-second win with a 13.103-second average. Rounding out the winners was Drew Lopez with a 14.757-second average for the 14-second class-win.

Image credit: Promedia/NMRADigital.com

The Lone Star Shootout took the top 16 finishers in True Street, put them on a sportsman ladder and had them run against one another, heads-up. After three rounds of racing, it was down to the two quickest cars in the class – Angel Padilla and Randy Seward. Seward cut Padilla down at the tree, but continuing on his 7.90-second string, Padilla drove around Seward, 7.94 to 9.26 for the shootout win.

In Circle D Bracket action, Chris Gulitti put together a .012-second package against Ray Dew’s breakout run to take the Bracket 1 win. Bracket 2 saw Bryan day run an 11.788 on his 11.76 dial to defeat Pack Woody’s 9.374 on a 9.33 dial.