NMRA Bowling Green Finals 2009 Coverage

[mark@stangtv]

When Tim Matherly went for his burn out, apparently only half the water box was wet, which caused a shock through the driveline that broke the clutch. Being seasoned veterans in pulling transmissions, a Real Street competitor considers this swap an easy one.





John Keller had two wheels up runs for both testing and qualifying round 1 - both resulting in a lot of sparks. During is Renegade qualifying run, the car suffered damage to both the oil pan and headers from the landing. Additionally, the computer showed a knock and a bent valve-like sound was emitting from the exhaust. They hoped that it was just a broken rocker and not a bent valve.



Jim Brown is still working through the bugs in his Pro Outlaw 10.5 entry. He has hooked up with some key tuners to help him with his nitrous assisted 632 big block. Unfortunately, the car didn't last past 60 feet and they believe it is a broken input shaft.



Kolivas and company were busy swapping out the rear end pumpkin in favor of a different gear ratio.

[mark@stangtv]

Bowling Green is one of the largest concentrations of Mustang enthusiasts that you will find anywhere on the NMRA tour. There was a 2 mile long line to get into the gate this morning as we push towards a record setting weekend, with highs in the low 70s. Heads up qualifying round two will be starting very soon.

[mark@stangtv]

[mark@stangtv]

Conrad Scarry dials in his tune up on his Pro Outlaw Mustang, taking the number one qualifying spot from Keith Neal with a 6.756 @ 218.37 mph. Neal 6.911 stays his best run from last night



The top qualifiers in Super Street Outlaw stay pretty much in place. One odd part of the class is John Urist sitting in the last qualifying spot due to two blown attempts due to traction problems.



In Drag Radial, Enzo Pecchini shuffles up to the number two spot with a 8.043 @ 176.05 mph, pushing down Delvin Bomar and David Guy. Jason Lee is slightly off his usual pace, sitting in fifth with a 8.296 @ 174.77



Robbie Blankenship in Hot Street also shuffles up to the third qualifying position with his 8.709 @ 152.71 mph, shuffling down Max Gross and Don Bowles.



Unfortunately, Larry Hourcle was unable to back up his record attempt from last night in Renegade, but still stays in the number one spot. Brian Mitchell moves to second and Alton Clements moves to third.



Tim Matherly moves up to the number two spot in Real Street, dropping nearly two tenths off his Friday attempt with a 9.582 @ 142.96 mph. Bruce Hemminger drops the ET record lower with a 9.499 @ 141.02 mph.



Mark Anderson moves up to the number one spot from fifth in Pure Street with a 10.223 @ 130.30 mph at the end of round two. Rocky Mason moves from last to fifth with a 10.356 @ 130.40 mph.



Louis Sylvester moves to the second spot in Factory Stock with a 11.200 @ 118.81 mph. John Leslie Jr moves up over Jim St Charles with a 11.361 @ 116.97 mph.

[mark@stangtv]

[mark@stangtv]

Chris Tuten has had a great weekend in Super Street Outlaw, though his brother Brian can't say the same about his Renegade Mustang. What you see above is a picture of a spark plug out of the engine. The intake was one of the many places that was filled with oil. They are hoping to make round three of qualifying.



Sam Vincent is happy with his new engine combination. This is the first time he has run the new motor and has managed a 7.485 @ 184.19 mph, putting him in the third spot. He is also hoping to run the full season next year pending the 2010 rules.



Jarrett Halfacre and crew were seen getting the engine ready to be pulled out. The cause of the problem was unknown, but being a nitrous car now, we assume it might be a piston problem.



Since Tim Matherly has the Real Street championship locked up, he used this race as an opportunity to test some parts, namely the clutch we saw them replacing.



JPC just built this awesome twin turbo S197 for a customer that wanted an 8 second street car. The new car problem fell to a faulty transmission. Just so happens that Justin's True Street S197 was having engine problems, so the team swapped over the transmission from Justin's car in time for round three Pro Outlaw qualifying (since that is the only class this car fits in). Just as we saw it, this is a clean street Mustang that does run 8.80s, sweet ride.

[mark@stangtv]

Tim Matherly squeaked by with the number one qualifying spot and the Real Street record with a 9.47 @ 144.52 mph to Hemminger's slightly slower 9.499 @ 144.52 mph.



Sean Lyon and Enzo Pecchini paired up for a great matchup during the last round of Drag Radial. Both Sean and Enzo were the first pair of side by side 7 second runs, while Sean broke the Drag Radial record with a 7.958 @ 177.02 mph to Enzo's 7.993 @ 177.63 mph.



Charlie Booze got within a tenth of a second of the Hot Street record with a 8.599 @ 156.52 mph. Don Bowles moves to second, Max Gross to third and Bob Halon to fourth. Prior to round three of qualifying, Don Bowles took his 90 year old mother down the track for a quick ride.... not at full power of course.



Continuing his tare, Chris Tuten dropped the bar further down with his 7.391 @ 192.55 mph blast, making him the only SSO car in the 30s this weekend so far. Sam Vincent takes the number three spot from Don Burton with a 7.485 @ 184.19 mph pass.



When Dan Millen rolled up for his second qualifying pass, the car didn't want to run due to a MAP sensor issue that was quickly cured. Though for the third round run, Dan managed a faster 6.799 @ 200.50 mph pass, bumping him from fifth to second.

[mark@stangtv]

[mark@stangtv]

Factory Stock champ and points leader Tommy Godfrey has had issues with his Mustang running too lean. We caught him in the pits swapping out some injectors to help fix the problem. Also, Tommy is still running off the shelf Nitto NT555R drag radials to prove to everyone that they work. After we left, he was also planning a gear change.



Dan Rawls didn't get a chance to test on his new rear gear ratio. By Saturday night he had enough and was in the middle of swapping back over to the setup they new will work.



Keith Neal doesn't get a long well with Bowling Green. Last year he suffered from catastrophic engine failure and this year we found him finishing up a piston replacement, all done with the motor inside the car. Apparently the new Garrett turbos on his car were working too well, creating 48 pounds of boost. Multiple attempts were made to calm down the boost levels, but the result was the burnt piston.



We spotted Jim Breese in the middle of some drivetrain work as we walked by his pits.

[mark@stangtv]

Goes to fellow powerTV video editor and videographer Jeff during the final round of qualifying. Though, he is on a tripod, it is more my own fault.