After two days of nearly perfect mid 70-degree weather here in Bowling Green, we've been greeted with rather chilly conditions this Sunday morning as the NMRA closes out the 2010 season with one final day of racing. Several championships are to be decided as the action gets underway today, and one of those will be the Hot Street chase, as Don Bowles trails points leader Charlie Booze by less than two rounds.

Jim Brown had a valve stem rip out on his left rear slick in yesterdays second qualifying session, causing the tire to go completely flat. With the inner liner changed out, Jim came out for the final session looking for a six-second run and the car just quit on him as he stuck it in second gear. Jim will square off with Jim Monson in the opening round of Outlaw 10.5 in what should be a great race given their similar performances this weekend.

Dave Ginter put on an event greater show than he did last night, standing it up on the rear bumper and dragging it to nearly 150 feet before hooking hard right, up onto the left rear tire and slamming down at a hard angle, busting the right front suspension and knocking some of the front bodywork off the car. Meanwhile, Craig Baldwin made a less eventful 9.487 pass in the other lane to advance.

Jim Breese advanced to the next round with a 10.862-second defeat of Mike Bell, who blew it up bigtime in the lights and trailed death smoke all the way to and around the turnoff. Bruce Hemminger went low for the round at 9.249 on his solo run, and Eric Tate defeated a broken Dan Baumann to advance to face Baldwin.

John Leslie Jr. took the higher-qualified Jay Dold down on a holeshot in the first round, his 11.23 just edging out Dold's 11.21.

Carlos Sobrino easily defeated Eric Shankles in the first round with a slowing 11.87 at 110 MPH to advance to the next round, where he will face Tommy Godfrey in a matchup that will essentially decide the 2010 championship. Matt Amrine went low for the round n his single at 11.105, Louis Sylvester advanced with an 11.223 over Charlie Rankin, and Rick Walsh bested Zane Reed with an 11.557.

Conrad Scarry showed that yesterdays national record 6.68 effort was just a preview of things to come, as on his opening round single, his car hiked the front end near halftrack and charged to the quickest lap in the history of the category, a 6.576 at 215.96.

Jim Monson and opponent Jim Brown both launched with the wheels and rattled the tires almost simultaneously. In what could've become a great peddlefest, Monson pulled over to the side Brown motor on through the top end. On the bottom half of the ladder, Mike Murillo took down Dwayne James and his shutoff effort with a 6.990 at a slowing 183 MPH.

Sam Vincent and his hard-charging nitrous car came blasting out of the gate, but began to drift out of the groove with the front wheels danging a couple feet in the air, forcing him to lift and hand the win to Chip Havemann, who made best run of the weekend at 7.44.

Phil Hines launched into instant tire smoke, and he could only watch as Andrew Demarco charged to what read as a 7.14, but was clearly a timing malfunction. Andrew will face top qualifier John Macdonald in round two, who slowed to a 9.36 on his solo pass. John Urist received a first round break single and went 7.389 at 189, and will face Travis Franklin in round two with an 8.35 defeat of Vinny Barber.

Charlie Booze Jr. ran low ET of the round in his defeat of Keith Courtney at 8.448 and 153 MPH to Courtney's 8.77.

Rick Riccardi pulled off a huge holeshot defeat of the higher-qualified Robbie Blankenship, nailing a great .008 light to take the win, 8.65 to 8.51. Riccardi will face Booze in round two. On the other side of the ladder, Max Gross took down Tim Eichhorn, 8.57 to 8.66, and Down Bowles kept his title hopes alive with an 8.53 to send Mike Curcio home.

Chad Allmandinger pulled of a huge upset in the first round, as top qualifier Bob Cook launched into a wheelstand, forcing him to pedal and try to run down Allmandinger, coming up just short by an 8.50 to 8.53 count. In round two, he will face Bart Tobner, who downed Jason Wagoner with an 8.81. On the other side of the ladder, Brian Mitchell advanced with a 8.818 and will square off with new champ Chris VanGilder, who launched hard and then coasted through on his break single.

Sean Lyon might as well put a dial-in on his car and enter the bracket class as well, pounding out another 7.830 at 179 on his first round single. In round two, he'll face Adam Jude, show slowed after opponent Marvin Bridge redlit.

Jason Lee finally got it together when he needed it most, charging to a 7.953 at 177 to defeat number two qualifier Enzo Pecchini and his 8.03 in a great side-by-side matchup.

After a weekend of carnage-free racing all weekend, it got messy in the opening round of Pure Street, as points leader Steve Gifford blew an engine right near half track, getting fluid under the tires and sending him all over the lane and into the wall head-on before backing around and smacking the wall again in the rear. Opponent Don Baskin advanced with a slowing 14.42. Meanwhile, Brandon Alsept, who now has new championship life with the early exit of Gifford, singled to a wheels-up 10.39.

In a matchup that would decide the Factory Stock championship for 2010, Tommy Godfrey easily outran Carlos Sobrino, 11.06 to 11.23 to earn the title. Meanwhile, John Leslie downed Rick Walsh with an 11.350 and will meet Matt Amrine, who ran an 11.16 to defeat Louis Sylvester, in the semifinals.

Mike Murillo used his single run into the final to his advantage, powering to a 6.96 at an early shutoff 179 MPH. In the final he will face Conrad Scarry, who disposed of Jim Brown with a national record backup run of 6.622 seconds.

Charlie Booze ran low ET of the weekend in the semifinals, defeating Rick Riccardi with a stout 8.429 at 156 to Rick's 8.773. Booze will face Don Bowles in the money round, who bested Max Gross by an 8.519 to 8.607 count.

Chris VanGilder made a masterful save, launching with the wheels up and getting out of the groove, nearly up on two wheels before sashaying side to side without ever making contact with the wall. Meanwhile, Brian Mitchell in the opposite lane ran low ET of the weekend at 8.373 and 164 MPH to advance into the final. There, he will meet Bart Tobner, who downed Chad Allmandinger, 8.4325 to 8.590.

The lack of a thrash in the Macdonald pit area pretty much tells the tale, as breakage incurred in the second round victory has ended their weekend. With less than a two round lead in the points, John Urist still has a chance at coming from behind to earn the championship with a win today.

This is just the kind of maintenance you want to be performing between rounds. Conrad Scarry actually ran too quick for a backup of the 6.68 in the first round, and will be loaded for bear to see just what this racetrack has in round two.

After Rick Riccardi's massive wheelstand aided by the stiff headwind in yesterdays final Hot Street qualifying session, Rick and crew had to change or repair both front tires, replace a front wheel, the steering, headers, K-member, and some of the front bodywork in order to make the first round this morning. Rick indicated he and his crew were 50-50 on making the call, but after a drive around the pit area this morning to check the suspension and steering, they made the decision to give it a shot.. And a good one it was, as Rick stole one at the tree from Robbie Blankenship to advance to the second round.

Jason Lee was on a great pass, but lifted early and slowed to a mid 8-second lap in a defeat of Adam Jude. In the final, he'll meet Sean Lyon, who has been on a rail all weekend, running another 7.82 on his solo run.

Bruce Hemminger and Tim Matherly blast off into the sunset in a matchup that would decide the 2010 Real Street championship. At the stripe, Matherly made a huge run with a 9.24 to down Hemminger's off-pace 9.30 to claim the crown and the advance to the final.

In the final, Brandon Alsept, who downed Don Baskin in the semifinals, will face Shawn Johnson.

John Leslie pulled out the quickest run of the weekend in his semifinal pairing with number one qualifier Matt Amrine, cracking off an 11.00 to Matt's 11.18. Tommy Godfrey took an easy solo pass for a trip into the final round.

Conrad Scarry dominated Pro Outlaw 10.5 all weekend, and capped off a race in which he reset the national record and earned another championship by downing Mike Murillo in the final, 6.630 at 213.64 to an all-over-the-track 8.497.

John Urist was never headed by Chip Havemann in the Super Street Outlaw finale, drifting around a little on the cold surface but laying down a 7.419 at 191.97 to steal the championship away from incoming points leader John Macdonald.

In the Hot Street finale, Don Bowles knew he was at a performance disadvantage to Charlie Booze, and gave it everything he had, but got loose and was all over the left lane, relegating him to being a spectator to Charlie's all-time best run of 8.387 at 160.06 for the win.

Brian Mitchell made the best run of the weekend in Renegade in the final round, defeating Bart Tobner with an 8.341 at 163.67 after an .074 to .114 holeshot.

To put it best, Sean Lyon was a machine this weekend in Drag Radial, qualifying number one, resetting the national record, and making five straight passes between 7.820 and 7.830, including a 7.820 in the final to down Jason Lee, who gave it everything he had in the slick left lane, coming up just short with a 7.94.

Newly crowned champ Tim Matherly overcame a huge .064 to 190 holeshot to run down Craig Baldwin, 9.430 to 9.647 for the win in Real Street.

Brandon Alsept came into the final round as the favorite, but we don't run them on paper, as Alsept powered into another wheels up launch and missed a gear just beyond 60ft, while Shawn Johnson cruised to a 10.032 at 133.01 to close out the season with a win.

Season champ Tommy Godfrey cemented his great year with a win in Factory Stock with an 11.137 at 119.33, while opponent John Leslie had something let go in the drivetrain on the top end in a shower of sparks.