ubbed the biggest heads-up street car challenge in the world, the 11th annual World Street Nationals stood up to its test once again this year. The event, put on by Carl Weisinger and the crew at Orlando Speed World Dragway, is by far the most astounding thing Bithlo, Florida (read: Orlando) sees all year. The race is preceded by the "get together" at Race Rock on Thursday, is one of the most grassroots, awesome races happening in the southeast. With a $10,000 winner's check for the top-dog class alone, the event pulls nearly 300 cars from literally all over the world.

The weekend began on Thursday at 4:00 p.m., at the famous Race Rock restaurant, where the "street legal" cars are ushered in on International Drive as they arrive. With a mix of the wild cars from the drag strip and some nice street rods, they packed the parking lot with plenty to see. (Cranmer photo)

As the crowd gathers along busy International Drive, the sun sets, and the cars pull onto the road. With International Drive closed to public traffic at the Race Rock entrance, the cars pull from the parking lot and exit in fine fashion, with a hop or even a quick burn out. Amazingly, this is all done with police present and without catastrophe. After you go into the restaurant for your "Brute Force" burger, the night is most definitely capped off by the smell of burned rubber in your clothes and the black tracks on International left by smoking tires.

Friday night brought the beasts out to play. This year 287 cars attempted to qualify for four distinct 32-car fields. Heavy Street, a class originally created with a hope for low 8-second cars, consists of cars with any rear tire, stock type chassis and struts and a minimum weight of 3500 pounds being the basis of the rules. They may appear mild, but are very far from it. With 56 racer entries, 24 cars in Heavy Street failed to qualify by Sunday morning.

Heavy Street number 1 qualifier, John Schroeder in a 2002 Camaro, ran a 7.721 at 182.74 mph. (Gruenwald photo)