he NMRA racers streamed through the gates of Kansas City International Raceway for the Inaugural Aeromotive NMRA Ford Nationals, presented by ProCharger and Metro Ford. The racing turned out to be some of the best of the year, with the return of two champions to the winner's circle and some new winners.

ProCharger Pro 5.0 had five cars, led by defending champion Don Walsh Jr. in Philip Pickering's car. At the end of last year, Walsh decided to take a year off, but the pull of heads-up Mustang racing was too much to resist. He first showed up this year at the Maple Grove race and finished runner-up, but at KCIR Walsh had the new, smaller ProCharger blower combination turned up high and set the pace with a 6.69 qualifying effort. He went on to beat Mike Hauf's Mustang in the final round, using a .004-second reaction time to do it!

MSD Super Street Outlaw also saw its defending champion return to the winner's circle for the first time this year.

John Urist (shown) had only competed in one NMRA event in 2004, but when he showed up at KCIR with his newly painted big rig containing customer Dwayne James's supercharged car, everyone knew he was serious about getting back on top. Setting the pace was still points leader Jim Blair with a 7.68 at 183 to qualify on top. Blair lost in the second round, however, and in the semis Urist beat Maple Grove winner Manny Buginga while Mauro Vitale had a bye to the final. Urist used a holeshot and a 7.81 to beat Vitale's 7.88.

Edelbrock Hot Street has been owned by Charlie Booze Jr. in 2004, and at KCIR he once again led the field in qualifying. His 8.96 at 151 mph pass was the only qualifier in the 8's, and Booze would also be the only 8-second car in eliminations. The final round came down to Booze and Andy Schmidt. Schmidt's car broke, while Booze (lead photo) blitzed to a 9.03 at 150 to take his fifth win in five events.

ProCharger EFI Renegade had nine power-adder cars on the ladder, led by the Maple Grove winner, Zoop Zellonis (below).

Zellonis' supercharged car qualified with an 8.70, just ahead of Larry Prykucki's nitrous car (8.836) and Bob Cook's supercharged car (8.838). The top five qualifiers were all in the eights, but Zellonis had them all covered on Sunday, and took out Bob Cook in the final round with an 8.78 at 153 to Cook's 9.009 at 155.

BFGoodrich Drag Radial saw the Maple Grove finalists once again make it to the final round. Rob Corujo (Maple Grove runner-up) and Phil Clemmons (winner) sat one and two on the ladder, but the entire field was in the 8's and unbelievably tight. The 7-car ET spread was between Corujo's 8.428 and John Gotera's 8.788! As at the last event, Clemmons cut a killer light (.008) and ran an 8.592 at 167 mph to take the win. Corujo got loose at about 300 feet and nearly hit both retaining walls, but did a masterful job of driving to keep the car from getting damaged.

5.0 Mustang Real Street saw a first-time winner when Craig Baldwin (above) put his Vortech-supercharged '88 Mustang on top of the qualifying order and all the way into the finals. There, he met Jay Meagher's '93 Mustang. Baldwin got away first with a .099-second reaction time and ran the quickest pass of the weekend, a 9.682 at 139 mph. It was an especially sweet victory for Baldwin, since this was the first race that his wife and kids had been to!

Tremec Pure Street only had five cars entered, but there were the top racers in the class and the finals were deja vu all over again. Rich Groh and Gene Hindman lined up in the money round, as they have done several times this year. Hindman drilled the tree with a .005-second reaction time, but Groh passed him on the top end and won with a 10.522 at 128 mph to Hindman's 10.607 at 127.

With mid-season weight revisions in BFGoodrich Factory Stock, all eyes were on the dual between the pushrod and modular cars. Modular cars had won all four races leading up to KCIR, and Bob Cosby (above) made it five for five, but he had to work for it. Defending class champion Mike Washington was in the other lane, and left with a perfect light, a .000-second reaction time! Unfortunately, he suffered a little bit of tire spin, and that allowed Cosby to get around him and win with a nasty 11.43 at 117mph to Washington's 11.91 at 114.

Vortech Modular Muscle had 15 cars on the ladder, led by Roxanne Shepard and her "Tweety" '99 Mustang. Shepard went out in the second round, however, and the finals came down to two other NMRA veterans, Rick Doern and Shane Williams. Williams got the better leave, cutting a .015 light (to Doern's also-good .025), and he kept the lead the length of the track. The bad news is that he went too fast and broke out, giving Doern the win.

ADVERTISEMENT

As expected, Toyo Tires Open Comp had the biggest turnout, with 22 cars making up the field. The fastest of them all was Pete Ricart and his wicked, big-block '65 Fairlane that ran 9.32 at 151 mph. Ricart used sub-.100 reaction times to go all the way to the final round, his first in NMRA competition, to face Robert Jones' Maverick (above). Ricart and Jones both nailed the tree, but Ricart's car slowed from its 9.30 pace while Jones stayed on track and won with a 10.254 on a 10.21 index to take the win. That's the first Maverick to win a non-bracket class in the NMRA!

DynoMax Truck & Lightning had a diverse selection of trucks, including Lightnings, Rangers and even a Lincoln Blackwood. The finals came down to the two Rangers of Robert Johnston and Scott Sexton. It was all Johnston, with a holeshot and a 10.245 on a 10.10 index, to Sexton's 9.549 on a 9.13.

Hedman Hedders Wild Street had 10 cars entered, including the cool '66 Cobra of Francis Rose. Dan Shipley's '93 Mustang had the quickest average at 11.123, but the car actually had two passes in the mid-10's and a slower 12-second pass to skew the average up. Dan Herman's '92 Mustang was the runner-up, with Darin Wilson won the 12-second bracket and Marshall Banks was closest to a 13.00-second average.

In the Superchips bracket classes, Keith Jahn beat Mitch York in the Pro Ford, Bruce Waddle got past John Hickok in Super Ford, and Bill Beck won Street Ford, with Chris Hall coming in runner-up. The SLP Burnout Contest was won by Sean Fling, while the UPR Top Qualifier awards went to Don Walsh and Jim Blair.