Tim Knieriem Ready To Tackle NMCA Memphis Homecoming

With solid skills and a consistent combination, Tim Knieriem was a force at Nitrous X and X275 races across the country when he decided to dive into NMCA Edelbrock Xtreme Street last year.

“The class is loaded with great racers and engine builders, so I knew that I was going to have to put everything I had into my program in order to be successful,” said Knieriem of Knieriem Racing Engines.

His approach worked as he earned a trip to the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle, a runner-up, a lead spot in qualifying and ultimately a second place finish in 2018 NMCA Edelbrock Xtreme Street points in the beautiful black Mustang owned by Daryl Reynolds and motivated by a 450 cubic-inch small-block Ford which Knieriem built using a Dart Iron Eagle block and complemented with Edelbrock GV2 heads, a CID intake and a BLP carburetor flowing VP Racing Fuels’ C23 before pairing with a Nitrous Express nitrous system and NLR nitrous controller.

“It was a shock to finish as well as we did last year,” said Knieriem, who relies on a Bilbrey Automotive-built Powerglide and PTC converter to help put the power down in the car rolling on Afco shocks and struts and Mickey Thompson drag radials. “We were competitive right out of the gate, but then we had some chassis issues early on, which we addressed, and then we had some electrical and fuel issues in the middle of the season. We thought we had addressed those as well by the final NMCA event of the year in Indiana, but then, the issues cropped up again at a No Time event in late fall, so we knew we would have to track them down.”

After putting the car away for winter, Knieriem, who had gone as quick as 4.69 in the eighth-mile in NMCA trim, pulled his engine to freshen it and worked with Mike Stark of CFM to massage the cast CID intake that had been on his engine. He then worked with Nitrous Express for new nitrous parts to go along with the massaged intake.

While he missed this year’s season-opening NMCA event, the 17th Annual NMCA Muscle Cay Mayhem in March at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, Knieriem rolled into the 11th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals by MAHLE Motorsport in early April at Atlanta Dragway. There, he flew to a 4.69 to qualify in the second spot, and made it all the way to the final round of eliminations and earned a runner-up finish with a 4.87.

Now, he’s preparing for the highly anticipated Inaugural Comp Cams NMCA Memphis Homecoming, May 2-5 at Memphis International Raceway, while also preparing another engine for his car. It’s a small-block Ford that will feature a Dart Iron Eagle Pro block, GRP rods, Ross pistons, a Callies crank, BAM roller lifters, Comp Cams cam, and his current BLP carburetor and Nitrous Express nitrous system, and he hopes to have it under the hood of his hot rod this summer.

“My current engine is 15 years old, with the exception of the heads and intake, which are newer, and that speaks volumes about the Dart Iron Eagle block,” said Knieriem, whose crew includes wife, Amy, children, Shelby and Cole, Daryl Reynolds, Wayne Reynolds, and occasionally fellow racer John Warren. “It was time to build a new one. When we leave the house to go to a race, our goal is to be competitive and win, and this is an important step is remaining competitive.”

If you can’t be at the Inaugural Comp Cams NMCA Memphis Homecoming, catch it on the SpeedVideo.com live steam RIGHT HERE via presenting sponsor COMP Cams along with TCI, Performance Distributors, Speedwire, Flying A Motorsports, Moroso, GForce Performance Engineering, SCT and SPEC Clutches

(Photos by NMCA and courtesy of Tim Knieriem)

About the author

Mary Lendzion

Formerly a writer at the Detroit Free Press, Mary Lendzion writes for Power Automedia, NMCA and NMRA, is the director of media and public relations for Summit Motorsports Park and is happiest in the driver’s seat of her Mustang.
Read My Articles

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