Drag Racing Online - Race Results

Number two qualifier was Steve Grebeck's nitrous injected '93 Firebird with a best of 7.044/200.31.

In the first round Robbins spotted Ron Dickerson's T-Bolt Ford a tenth and a half and still drove around the Ford. He beat Jim Wiens in round two by nearly six-tenths and he put NMCA heavy Mike Steele on the trailer in the semis by three-tenths.

In the final round against Grebeck's nitrous assisted Firebird, Robbins put a half tenth on the Michigan racer at the tree and then drove away from him with an awesome 6.938/203.92 lap for the win and the five large that went with it. Robbins' complete domination of the eliminator should have come as no surprise as the St. Joseph, Michigan racer was the NMCA record holder in the class.

One of the most popular classes in NMCA/NSRA is the Super Street class. The World Street Nationals' version of this class is called Pure Street. The rules allow "back-halfed" chassis only and have to run "ten wide" slicks. The engines are allowed one power adder (blower or nitrous), and as long as the car weighs a minimum of 3200-lbs the engine can be as big as the driver wants. This is a very entertaining class.

There were 58 cars entered in the class and only a handful were NMCA Super Street legal cars. No one cared. The qualifying ran John Atkinson's spectacular 7.541 in his supercharged hemi-powered '71 Duster to Josh McClelland's stout 8.215 in his '69 Z-28. The variety of cars in this class was unbelievable. Camaros, Novas, a Malibu and a Chevy II represented the Bowtie Brigade. The Blue Oval boys had a group of Mustangs. and there was one lone Mopar. Body brand wasn't the only variable. Engine size ranged from Cameron Jurow's 632 c.i. Fulton big block Chevy to John Gullett's 374-inch supercharged Ford which pushed his Mustang (above) to an unbelievable 187.57

Supercharged or turbocharged engines dominated this class powering the first eight qualifiers. Nitrous oxide injected cars didn't appear on the list until the nine and ten spots, where the qualified cars had 632 cubic inch, nitrous oxide injected, big block Chevys under the hood.

The final in Pure Street was purely sensational. By the time the final was run the left lane had definitely gone south after a multitude of oildowns, but the finalists in this class demonstrated that they are serious drag racers and adjusted for track conditions.

The final matched Orlando regular John Gullet and his small block Mustang against Missouri racer Joe Spetter Jr's supercharged 388-inch rat motored Malibu. Spetter left first with a .427 reaction time to Gullett's .513. The pair had identical elapsed times to the eighth mile with Gullett pulling on Spetter in the last 660 feet. The Bowtie Brigade got a win when Spetter and his Malibu got the win light with a 7.709 to Gullet's quicker but losing 7.706. The winning margin at the finish line was .089 for Spetter.

In the Heavy Street class cars must weigh a minimum of 3500-lbs, use an automatic trans, and can't have a tube chassis, but can use slicks. The cars in this class are closer to being real street cars than any others except the radial tire class.

Heavy qualifying was lead by Chris Kelitz's 615-inch big block-powered '70 Nova which ran the only seven-second elapsed time in the 40 car field. Kelitz led qualifying with a 7.99/175 while Joe Davis' '80 Malibu rounded out the 32 car field with a 9.30/144.

Low qualifier Kelitz marched through the field using a string of low eight-second passes until he got to the fourth round. It was getting late and the track - despite the heroic efforts of the Orlando clean-up crew - was weary from thousands of laps over three days. Kelitz hooked up with No. 21 qualifier Butch Parmalee from nearby St Petersburg, FL who had gotten to the late rounds running off the pace, mid-nine-second passes.

Kelitz went unconscious and cut a .778 light to Paramlee's respectable .509. To make matters worse, Kelitz could only coax a 9.50 out of his seven-second ride which wasn't good enough to overcome Parmelee's 9.51. Parmelee went to the finals and Kelitz went on the trailer.

In an even more bizarre final, Parmelee converted a comatose 1.843 reaction time and 16.43 elapsed time into the class win when his opponent Canadian racer Johnny Chiovitti red-lighted

Other classes contested at the World Street Nationals included the radial tire class won by Hialeah, FL racer Willie Figueroa in a '95 Mustang. Figueroa swept the field, not only winning over Seffner, FL racer Mike Fernandez but he also qualified number one and set low elapsed time and top speed. His Mustang ran a best of 8.675/164.14.

The imports were also represented at the event and the class was won Luis Quiles from Orlando who pushed his '71 Corolla to a 9.821/140 lap to trailer Carlo Gonzalez for the win.

This was simply the best "Street Legal" race I've ever attended and I've been going since the first NMCA races at Memphis. Close to 200 "Street Legal" doorslammers attended to run in only six classes instead of a dozen. Racers came to the line when called, down time was at a minimum and every seat in the house was sold every day.

There was a real "Manufacturer's Midway" with plenty of manufacturers represented and plenty of customers. It makes you wonder why the two professional sanctioning bodies for legal street racing haven't looked at this program and copied the concept. If you can only go to one "Street Legal" race a year, check out the Orlando Speedworld event. It is no "Mickey Mouse" deal!