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The Blue Oval Bash: The 2018 NMRA Season Preview

The calendar has rolled over to a new year and the team at the NMRA is ready to kick off another great season of all-Ford drag racing. The new season promises to again have something for Ford fanatics far and wide, both on and off the track at every event. If you have a Ford product the NMRA is the place to be in 2018 for all the blue oval excitement you can handle.

The NMRA will be bringing back its familiar stable of class offerings, along with the addition of the Limited Street class for more heads-up racing action. Every NMRA event has a mixture of bracket and index racing, plus plenty of heads-up racing competition for those with a need for serious speed. To ramp up the fun even more, the NMRA will offer special Shootout classes at select events throughout the season to provide an opportunity for every racer to get that national event experience.

The Coyote Stock class has been extremely popular with fans and racers since its introduction. By putting the spotlight on a racers’ ability to tune their car suspension and bang gears, it has made this class extremely exciting to watch. Coyote Stock will experience a major change for 2018, according to Mike Galimi of the NMRA.

“This season we will fully transition to the Gen 2 Coyote engine platform. This announcement was made when the new engine was made public, and all the cars in the class, no matter what engine they use, will race at the same weight. The Gen 2 engine will be the preferred engine since Ford has stopped making the Gen 1 unit.”

Returning in 2018 will be the extremely popular Outlaw True Street class, with appearances at the season-opening Spring Break Shootout and the World Finals. This class allows Mustangs with any powerplant to race, so it shows off who really has the fastest street-driven Mustang in the country.

“The Outlaw True Street class hits on a higher level of car. They’re street cars, but these guys want to have something different than the typical True Street experience at one of our events. These racers don’t want to do the three-time shots — they want to run heads-up and with no times shown on the boards to see who is the fastest. We allow any Mustang, including LS-powered cars, to run in this class. The car still must be street-worthy, participate in the 30-mile cruise, and then do the Saturday night shootout to be eligible for the class,” Galimi explains.

The NMRA really understands the popularity of all their shootouts and has no plans of changing that for the new season. Both the Bradenton and Bowling Green events are the two largest venues for these special contests and the racers love to shine on the big stage.

“The Turbo Coyote Shootout is returning, along with the GT500 vs Terminator Shootout, the Stick Shift Shootout, and all the others from last year are, as well,” Galimi adds.

The most exciting news coming into the new NMRA season is the introduction of the Limited Street class. This fresh heads-up eliminator is designed to bring new racers into the class racing world, and have current racers try something new. To make sure the category would meet the goal of keeping the competition open, yet not allowing it to get out of control, the NMRA spent a lot of time crafting a solid set of rules.

“The Limited Street class is really a limited power adder-type class that a typical street car guy would build. You can expect to see cars with VMP 2.3-liter blowers, Vortech TI trim superchargers on 363 cubic-inch pushrod engines, GT500s with a VMP or Kenne Bell upgrade, and cars with small 76mm turbos. We tried to make it as inclusive as possible but used the power adders to keep the combos in line. The rules are designed to be open for someone to step into a heads-up class while being restrictive to keep it from being too expensive,” Galimi explains.

With tons of momentum, the new NMRA season is ready to explode into a wonderful symphony of horsepower. The racers have spent the long offseason getting their cars prepared and are excited to hit the track this March for another great year of all-Ford racing. Every 2018 NMRA race will be broadcast LIVE on SpeedVideo.com and you can stay updated on all things NMRA on the official NMRA website right here.

2018 NMRA Schedule

2018 NMRA Classes