BF Goodrich Drag Radial had one of the biggest car counts of the year, with 14 radial-tire hot rods invading Atco. This area is where these cars are most popular, and the DR racers proved that. Chris Little had some black body parts on his green car, which had been put back together after a bad crash at Joliet. Phil Clemmons was the top qualifier with an 8.77 at 164 mph, and he met Little in the final round. Clemmons was quicker, with an 8.729 at 162 to Little's 8.737 at 161, but Little got the jump out of the hole by .060 and got the win. In 5.0 Mustang Real Street had a full field of 16 cars, each packing either a supercharger or nitrous oxide system. Bruce Hemmingerís nitrous car destroyed the

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record with a 9.88 at 138 mph pass in qualifying. He was followed on the ladder by Chris Tuten, also in a nitrous car, with a 10.11 at 134. These top two qualifiers also made it to the final round. Tuten uprooted the tree and threw it at Hemminger with a telepathic .003-second reaction time, but Hemmingerís white car drove around at the top end, winning with a 9.98 at only 127 mph to Tutenís 10.14 at 136.

Tremec Pure Street saw the second consecutive win for Rich Groh. The 2001 BF Goodrich Factory Stock champ has struggled for the last two years with his Pure Street combination, but after winning Joliet he got the fire again, and repeated the performance here at Atco. Groh took out Darin Hendricks in the final round with a healthy 10.70 at 128 mph.

BF Goodrich Factory Stock is all green. That's the color of Mike Washington's car, and also the color of the envy that the other racers must be feeling right now. Washington has dominated the class all year, and took another win, his sixth in a row, at Atco. He beat Jeff Schmell's Mach 1 in the final round with a 12.13 at 114 to Schmell's 12.27 at 110.

Vortech Modular Muscle had 19 cars competing, led by Ed Hicks with the fastest car in the class. He ran a 10.83 to qualify number one, a spot ahead of Roxanne Shepard, who has come on strong in the last half of the year. Hicks made it to the final to face the always tough Lupe Davila, Davila ran closer to his dial-in, but Hicks got the leave, which proved to be worth the win at the top-end.

Toyo Tires Open Comp had the biggest turnout of racers, with 37 cars on the ladder. After six rounds of racing, John Brady and Glen Myers sat in the beams for the final round. Brady, a regular in the class for several years, had to give Myers a 3/4-second head start due to the difference in dial-ins, but the race was won for him before he ever left the line - Myers red lit.

DynoMax Truck & Lightning had 11 trucks entered, including the rides of points leader Mark Morales, Keith Kohlmann, Paul Gamino, and Sal Mannella, who had to rent a truck to compete since his race truck was injured. The rental proved to be a good idea, as Mannella went all the way to the final to face John Riccio's small-block Ranger. Mannella owned the round, getting the holeshot and also running closer to his dial-in.

The three Superchips Bracket classes were packed with Fords of all types, and after some incredibly close racing, six folks made it to the final rounds. Robert Hindman, a (very successful) regular in the Modular ranks, entered Bracket 1 and took it to the locals, beating John Armato of Buena, NJ in the final round. Paul Goldman and Bill Shafer finished one and two, respectively, in Superchips Bracket 2, while Lenny Catalanotto won Superchips Bracket 3 and William Bracey finished runner-up.

The Denso Top Qualifier Awards went to Don Walsh Jr. (Pro 5.0) and Todd Fluman (MSD Super Street Outlaw) for the number one positions in Saturday's qualifying. The Centerforce Burnout Contest was a wild and wooly affair, but the nuttiest of all the entrants was Shane McGoldrick, who burned his tires to the cord, then jumped on the roof with joy when he won! John Welsy's Ranger took the second place check from Centerforce.

And that's it from Atco. We've got a break of over a month until the 5th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA World Finals in Bowling Green, Kentucky, giving all the racers (and the NMRA staff) some time to recoup from a long but very fun season, and enter the last race of the year fresh and ready to rock.

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