Both the NMRA and NMCA provide some of the best door car racing you’ll find anywhere, with an exciting and unrivaled mix of classes. There are a few racers who cover both series in heads-up racing, and another is about to join their ranks. Jennifer Brooke Rice has been battling it out over the past four seasons in the NMCA Nitrous Pro Street class (NPS), but for 2017 she’s expanding her racing schedule to include the NMRA Renegade class.
Rice has been looking to dip her toes into the small-tire racing world for some time, and the Renegade class is a perfect fit for her goals. “I had been trying to find a small-tire class for the orange car to fit in, and when I started hearing more about Limited Drag Radial, that’s what I wanted to go towards. Since I’m not 100 percent ready for dad’s Hemi motor to be put in the car, we decided to stay with NPS and run in Renegade since it’s still a small-tire class. This way I’m getting the best of both worlds, and not slowing down with my elapsed times, since Renegade has almost caught up with NPS,” Rice says.
The car that Rice will be piloting is a familiar one — it’s a 1989 Ford Mustang that her father, Ed Rice, built called the “Gray Squirrel”. Under the hood will be top secret Ford-based engine from Kuntz and Company racing. To compete in the ultra-tough Renegade class, the power-adder of choice for the Gray Squirrel will be a turbo from Precision Turbo & Engine.
Right now the team is feverishly thrashing on their Renegade car to get it ready for the NMRA’s Spring Break Shootout in Florida in just a few weeks. Their goal is to have both cars ready for action when the racing starts at Bradenton Motorsports Park for each series and, just maybe, put Jennifer on-track for her first series championship.
You can catch Jennifer behind the wheel of both her cars all season long at both NMRA and NMCA races in-person, or live right here on Speedvideo.com.