Ford Nationals Start with a Bang at Bradenton Motorsports Park
Holley sponsored NMRA Ford Nationals sees records broken and blistering fast passes during its very first event of the year in Florida.
The Holley NMRA Ford Nationals are off to a rip-roaring start. The NMRA Spring Break Shootout was held at Bradenton Motorsports Park over the weekend of February 27th in Bradenton, Florida. Certainly, there was no shortage of Mustangs, as one might expect. What ensued was a fantastic weekend of lightning-fast passes and records being set in the iconic pony car.
In the Edelbrock Renegade class, seeing eighth-mile passes in the four-second range is not at all uncommon. This certainly rings true in the Spring Break Shootout bracket sheets. Renegade cars are small-tire cars that race heads-up. Both small block and big block Ford engines are allowed, along with a single power adder. The displacement and power adder dictate the allowed weight to keep the class fair. The top 11 cars in this class all ran fours in qualifying. However, the ending brought quite a surprise. Jason Spina and his 1990 Mustang came to face Joel Greathouse in a 1993 Mustang in the final round, and both drivers ran off pace. Spina’s 427 big block Foxbody took the win with a 5.76-second pass against Greathouse’s 5.97.
Dominic DiDonato took the first place spot in the VP Racing Madditives Street Outlaw final with a 5.09-second pass at 132 mph. The craziest part of his win, though, is that his competitor Vinny Palazzolo, last year’s winner, easily seated his place in the finals with a string of bye runs. DiDonato’s win was genuinely fought for, working his way entirely up the bracket to clinch his victory is quite a task.
Things were getting wild in the quarter-mile classes, too. Bill Putnam took the JDM Engineering Limited Street class win with an impressive 8.71 at 159.23 mph. The G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock class came to a very close finish with Frank Paultanis squeaking by Kevin McCullen to edge him out 10.09 vs. 10.16. Mike Bowen ran a 10.19 at 130.66 mph in his stock, sealed Coyote swapped 1971 Maverick to win the Richmond Gear Factory Stock series.