NMRA Georgia 2008 Coverage - Sunday

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Renegade



Bob Cook qualified in the #1 position with a 8.50 at 161 mph, and then backed it up with a 8.69 in Round 1 Eliminations taking out Larry Hourcle. Cook's again the favorite but the team needs to make sure the belt doesn't eat itself like in Bradenton.

Ed Thomas is back and he took out Bart Tobener who qualified in the #2 position with a 8.59 - Thomas went a 8.73 but eliminated Bart when he went red with a -.075 red.



Alton Clements announced his presence as a new player in Renegade with a 8.60 at 158.17 mph - he got a competition bye as Victor Nieblas never made the call.

Hot Street



Blankenship, Booze, and Mens all advanced with the best run of the round going to Mike Demayo who went a 8.78 at 151.83 mph in his competition bye.

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Drag Radial





The class with the best racing in the NMRA did not disappoint with some terrific round 1 matchups. Kurgan, Tuten, Akins and Lee advanced. Joey Bridge never made to his first round match up. He qualified in the #5 position with a 8.65 at 177.84 mph but was a no show in E1 giving the victory to Pete Johnson.

Kolivas ran a 1.43 60-foot and still managed a 8.24 at 174.73 mph. This wasn't his 8.12 at 176.63 pass, but it was enough to send Matt Bell to the trailer.

Real Street



Mike Washington killed us in round 1 eliminations. He qualified in the #3 position with a super strong 9.79 at 137.67 mph, but red lit in round 1. This sucks, because we were SERIOUSLY looking forward to someone bowing up to Tim Matherly and Jim Breeze. You heard it here first, Washington is going to be stout from here on out, so the rest of the field better back up.

Who else advanced? Breeze, Matherly, and Brian McCormick.

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Factory Stock



Tommy Godfrey and Steve Gifford were the class of the round of Factory Stock (as expected) and ran a 11.57 and 11.55 respectively in their victories over Jeremy Taylor and Rick Walsh.

Long-time F/S racer Louis Sylvester defeated Jay Dold, and Carlos Sobrino and John Leslie also took wins.

Pure Street



Jimmy Wilson and his monster horsepower hit the trailer early, dropped out of competition by Shawn Hansen with one of the closest races in NMRA history. Check out the incrementals on this pair, a 10.79 to a 10.81 with a .045 to .033 reaction time, Hansen took the win with a .007 margin. That's about the width of a piece of paper. This could defintely affect the Pure Street championship as a Round 1 loss doesn't ever help come the back of the season.

Best run of the round belonged to Ryan Hecox who took a 1.36 60-foot to a 10.31 at 129 mph. Other winners included Alsept, Brad Meadows, and Rocky Mason.

Round 2 coming soon.

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Pro Outlaw 10.5W



Conrad Scary took out Mike Murillo with another 6.96 at 200+ mph run. Murillo has been having problems all weekend, and this pairing was no different, as he could only manage a 9.28 at 100.02 mph.

Ed Rice stepped up his program with a 7.04 at 208 to defeating Ray Hollywood Johnson, and Tim Essick went 7.16 to defeat Brian Carpenter who ran a 11.36 on an aborted run.

Super Street Outlaw



Jarrett Halfacre ended John MacDonald's Cinderalla story with a 7.55 at a mind-blowing 198.17 mph, Don Burton sent Lelsz on the long-haul back to Texas with a 7.51 win, and Phil Hines went a 7.51 to defeat AJ Powell's 7.59.

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Renegade



Bob Cook had a bye to take the win, Alton Clements went another round with a 8.63 at 157.14 mph to defeat Randy King's 8.66, Brian Mitchell and Ed Thomas survived the round.

To show you how close racing in the NMRA series is, check out these numbers.

Alton Clements - 8.388 in Round 2
Brian Mitchell - 8.633 in Round 2
Ed Thomas - 8.650 in Round 2

However, let's not forget that Bob Cook ran a 8.50 at 161 in his solo qualifying effort.

Hot Street



Here we went and started talking about how close racing in the NMRA is, and here comes DeMayo and Booze. Now, let's be frank, there is no love lost between these guys. They respect each other, but when the green light drops, get out the machette's and the blood starts flowing.

Mike Demayo unloaded an unheard of 60-foot.

Are you ready for this?

1.19. ONE POINT ONE NINE.

Freaky.

Drag Radial



John Kolivas is inching toward the 7 second mark, with a 8.12 at 176 mph single, but then here comes Jason Lee's ProCharger entry with his own low e.t., a 8.18 at 169 mph pass to take out Chris Tuten, the #3 qualifier. It was a close race because of Lee's .269 reaction time barely allowed him to run down Tuten. Kurgan and Clemmons also went rounds.

At the stripe it was DeMayo better e.t., a 8.74 to 8.78, stacked against Booze's .043 to .073 advantage on the tree, which resulted in a .01 margin victory.

Since it looked so good above, let me throw in the bold and underlines again.

.0138 margin of victory.

In the second battle between Blankenship and Ben Mens, Mens failed to make the call, and Blakenship singled for a 8.81. That would mean Blankenship and DeMayo would square off in the finals.

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Real Street



Jim Breeze and Tim Matherly. Yawn. Not that they aren't good dudes - they are - nice, great racers, all that, and we've said it 20 times. We need some serious competition in this class. Breeze stepped up big time in E2 with a 9.75 at 139.21 mph, and Matherly went 9.76 at 139.73 to defeat McCormick.



Also, we we wanted to share this bitching shot that we found that Justin C. shot on Friday. Check out the wheels cocked in the air action. Nice.

Pure Street



Hecox goes another round (to round 3) with a 10.41 to take out Rocky Mason, Alsept goes 10.395 to defeat Shawn Hansen (no miracle this round, sorry), and Brad Meadows takes a single. In round 3 the Mod Motors might feast on the pushrods.

Factory Stock

Steve Gifford, John Leslie and Tommy Godfrey all advanced in Round 2 of Eliminations. Godfrey's 11.40 at 117.46 was the class of the round, with Gifford running 11.49 and Leslie motoring down track with a 11.51 at 116.49 mph run.

We sound like a broken record with Leslie, but this may be the year that he makes a serious run in Factory Stock, especially after his final round appearance in Bradenton.

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Here's the winners from the NMRA Georgia event. Justin C. will have lots of news and action from E3 and the Finals to post tomorrow!

Pro Outlaw 10.5W - Conrad Scary 6.941/194.58 over Tim Essick 7.15/203.12
Jarrett Halfacre - 7.47/191.1 over Don Burton 7.82/190.86
Renegade - Bob Cook 8.55/160 over Brian Mitchell 8.80/140 (Red)
Hot Street - Mike DeMayo - 8.750/152 over Robert Blankenship (Broke)
Drag Radial - John Kolivas 8.20/176 over Bob Kurgan (Red) 10.76/92
Real Street - Tim Matherly - 9.74/140.62 over Jim Breeze 9.81/139
Pure Street - Brandon Alsept - 10.38/130.27 over Ryan Hecox 10.39/130.69
Factory Stock - Steve Gifford - 11.46/119.59 over John Leslie Jr (red) 11.60/117
Modular Muscle - Tom Motycka 12.45/12.47 over Susan McClenaghan 10.67/10.69
Open Comp - Mike Olencheck 10.26/10.26 over Danny Towe 10.84/10.89
Truck - Mike Motycka - 12.07/12.03 over Johnny Lightning - 11.50/11.45

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Click below to watch the videos just uploaded:

Round 1 Qualifying - Super Street Outlaw & Pro Outlaw 10.5W

Round 1 Qualifying - Drag Radial, Hot Street, Renegade

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Round 1 Eliminations - Pro Outlaw 10.5W, Super Street Outlaw, Renegade & Hot Street

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