Phil Hines

The NMRA is heading into their annual extravaganza, the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing this upcoming weekend, July 11-13 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. StangTV will be on-site all weekend long bringing you the hot info and awesome photos you’ve become accustomed to over the years.

The points chases are heating up in all of the classes and we’re expecting to see a number of new cars on the property as well.

In the ATF Speed Street Outlaw class, Phil Hines is on pace to repeat as class champion with a strong showing so far this year. Although he only has one win under his belt – in Maryland – he’s been in the final round of every race so far. John Urist is less than two rounds behind Hines in second place. Andy Manson is having the quietest season in recent memory – he won the most recent race in Ohio and has been steadily creeping up on his ProCharger-boosted, Chris Acors-built ride.

Both Urist and the other six-second player in the class, Dwayne Barbaree (currently number four in points) have been the quickest on the track but have been unable to convert those performances into enough round wins to overtake Hines to this point. 

As the Street Outlaw class is combined with NMRA and NMCA competitors at this event we’ll be seeing a number of NMCA’s Brand X racers taking the tree against the Ford contingent. Making the long trip from the West Coast is the Dragzine-sponsored NMCA West points-leading Street Outlaw LSX-powered ProCharged “BlownZ” Camaro to compete against the East’s best Street Outlaw racers. 

James Lawrence And the Team Blown Z Crew

Bart Tobener

Just last week, we published an exclusive interview with current Edelbrock Renegade points leader Bad Bart Tobener. To date, Tobener is the only Renegade racer to crack the seven-second barrier, and he has his sights set on taking home his first-ever class championship. He’s currently four-and-a-half rounds ahead of second-place Johnny Lightning’s JLP-tuned Cobra Jet machine. JLP teammate Charlie Cooper is also going rounds in his Cobra Jet, working his way through the field to three semifinal appearances – it’s only a matter of time before Cooper takes home a win. Will this be his weekend? Not if Tobener has anything to say about it. 

For the first time in recent memory, Brian Mitchell is not leading the Renegade points chase – he’s all the way down in fourth place a very unfamiliar vantage point for the multi-time class champion. Mitchell won the first race in Bradenton but has struggled with parts failures since, while 2009 class champ Alton Clements is coming on strong as he took home the win at the most recent event in Ohio. Renegade figures to be an exciting class to watch all weekend long.

The ACT Pure Street class is back in NMRA competition after a two-season layoff, so far this year it’s been the Teddy Weaver show. Weaver has thoroughly outclassed the rest of the competition with four wins in four races; it will be very hard for anyone else to catch him for the championship at this point as he has well more than double the points of number-two racer Scott Barker. There will be at least two new racers in Illinois; Billy Gimbel and Mike Gucciardo will be making their season debuts there.

Frank Varela

Hellion Racing’s Frank Varela is the Diablosport Coyote Modified champion based on his three wins and one runner-up so far in the inaugural season for the new class – there just aren’t enough events or rounds for anyone to catch him.

The Super Bowl win is still up for grabs, and Terry Reeves and Joe Cram have both shown promise so far with their new combinations. Craig Baldwin had a catastrophic engine failure in Ohio – will he be able to fix it in time for this weekend? 

The Strange Engineering Coyote Stock class has become everything hoped for when it was originally conceived. The racing action in the class has been super-tight all season long. 2013 class champion Shane Stymiest is leading the points chase, but number-two Joe Marini had JPC Racing revamp his ride to get down to weight and currently sits in the second spot with one win and two semifinal finishes to his credit. Joe Charles won the Norwalk event over Stymiest on a holeshot, proving that the champ can be taken out.

Shane Stymiest

There will be a number of new competitors on the track in Illinois as we hear Bruce Hemminger will be making his return to the NMRA in the Coyote Stock class. Former Factory Stock racer Matt Williams also now has a Coyote between the fenders. We even hear that former Pure Street racer Steve Gifford will finally be making his Coyote Stock debut. 22 competitors have taken to the track in Coyote Stock so far this year, with more on the way – the class has truly led a resurgence in NMRA heads-up competition.

In Nitto Tire Factory Stock, so far this year it’s been the Matt Amrine show, as the 2013 champion has taken the win at two of the three races he’s attended this year. James Meredith made the switch to Factory Stock prior to the Maryland race and he went on to take the Norwalk event win over Amrine on a holeshot. At this point it looks like the only racer with a chance to overtake Amrine for the championship is Jay Dold, and he’ll need to be virtually perfect over the last two events to do so – and hope Amrine falls on his face. You can’t ever count out John Leslie, Jr. or Sondra Leslie, either – the brother-and-sister team are due for some good luck.

Matt Amrine

Whatever happens this upcoming weekend, you need to tune your internet browser right here to StangTV – we’ll be on-site bright and early Friday morning to cover the event from start-to-finish!