2006 NMRA World Finals - Unbridled Horsepower

The Laurel Mountain Mustang Car Show was packed with a wide variety of cars from the Blue Oval.

Winner
Tim Matherly of MV Performance was vying for his second Real Street championship title. It came down to the final race of the year as he and Brian Meyer were virtually tied going into Bowling Green. Matherly wasn't messing around as he showed up with a spare engine to put it all on the line for the championship. The car toasted the first bullet in qualifying, and the team swapped in the fresh one for eliminations. The Mustang shop owner from Georgia won the final round with a 9.89 but lost the championship bid as Meyer accumulated too many points at the World Finals.

Renegade racer Zoop Zellonis was on an emotional roller coaster in 2006. The year started great and the car ran better than ever, but a shop fire destroyed most of his mid-eight-second ride. Thanks to friends, sponsors, and family support, he repaired the Stang and actually had a shot at the championship. Zellonis qualified number one with his Vortech-blown ride but did not get a chance to be crowned champion as he exited competition in the quarter-finals. Look for him to make the move to NMCA Xtreme Street in 2007.

Winner
For all of 2006, David Hance pulled double duty with a pair of twin-turbo machines in Pro 5.0 and Outlaw 10.5. At Bowling Green, he ran his '05 Mustang only in Outlaw 10.5 competition as he did not have an engine ready for his Pro 5.0 ride. Hance posted the first six-second run in NMRA Outlaw 10.5 competition and left the final race with the event win and class championship.

Winner
B.E.S. Race Engines' main man, Tony Bischoff, was unstoppable in Pro 5.0 action. The engine builder jumped on tour late in the season but was undefeated whenever he showed up to race. He took the win over Mike Hauf, 6.59 to 6.64 in a tight, side-by-side drag race.

This stunning '06 Mustang GT is owned and driven by Don Shobe. A stout 403ci engine with a ProCharger F3R blower resides under the hood. The team normally packs mid-7-second performances but ran into some traction problems when they applied 1,800 hp to the 28x10.5-inch slicks. His best run of the weekend was 7.79 at 188 mph.

One of our favorite cars of the weekend belonged to Hot Street racer Tim Eichhorn. His '90 coupe features a chassis setup by Matukus Race Cars and a high-winding 400ci engine that Eichhorn built himself at his shop in Florida, Mustang Performance Racing. The coupe pounded out 9.00-second, 150-mph runs without the aid of nitrous or any other power adder.

Victor Downs was the first to bring a modular engine to the Pure Street ranks and it appears that he has started a trend with a few other mod-powered entries at the World Finals. Downs qualified seventh with a 10.66 at 128 mph.

Winner
Ron Anderson wheeled the Leo Johnson-owned, Pure Street-legal coupe to victory in Bowling Green. The team also set the e.t. record with a 10.22 and won the championship. Pure Street is a naturally aspirated, heads-up class for engines under 310 ci.

Winner
JPC Racing's Eric Holliday proved the Two-Valve combination is a force to reckon with in Factory Stock competition. Holliday launched his car into the spotlight with an 11.43 qualifying effort and then grabbed the class win with an 11.40 at 117 mph in the finals against Steve Gifford.

Swill Racing was hauling the mail in 2006 with their Renegade racer. The Vortech-blown ride made a run at the championship this year with Scott Lovell handling the driving chores again. The team was one of three contenders for the title heading into the final race of the year. Lovell lost in the semis when the car pulled a hard wheelie and slowed. The coupe had run mid-eights all year long and oftentimes set the standard in the class.

Busting the juice! Joe Morgan purged the Edelbrock nitrous systems in his Pro 5.0 entry. The Motive Gear-backed team heads into a six-second/200-mph battle with a nitrous-snorting 632ci, big-block Ford.

John Kolivas won the '06 Drag Radial championship under the watchful eye of Job Spetter Jr. In Bowling Green, the car knocked down a class-leading 8.10 during eliminations but slowed up in the finals where Kolivas lost to Bob Kurgan.

Winner
Brian Mitchell grabbed another class win in EFI Renegade and won the championship title in dramatic fashion. Mitchell was the long shot at winning the championship and he threw down a serious effort at Bowling Green. Using consistency and great driving, the Vortech-backed racer beat George Seeger in the finals (8.70 to 9.18) and clinched the championship at the same time. It was the second time Mitchell was crowned the EFI Renegade champion.

Winner
Bob Kurgan might be a rookie in the Drag Radial class, but he isn't a rookie racer as he owns a few championships in other racing categories. The savvy veteran negotiated his way through the tricky street tire class and won. The Vortech X-Trim-pumped engine pushed this '86 Mustang GT to a best of 8.16 at 170 mph.

Brian Meyer dragged the bumper a few times at the World Finals, but he didn't care, as he brought home his second straight Real Street championship title.

Dwayne James of Hellion Power Systems was racing in the Outlaw 10.5 category with this twin turbocharged Mustang. The car belonged to Billy Glidden in 2000, but James updated a few things and added the twice-turbocharged engine under the hood. Bent four-link bars prevented the team from turning up the wick. They did report that the car was originally built to be a lightweight nitrous car and wasn't meant to have a 2,200hp engine in it. James vowed to be back in 2007 with an updated chassis and six-second times.

Winner
The Modular Muscle championship fight was quite dramatic considering there were 47 cars competing in the class and the top-two points earners met in the final to decide who won it all. Robert Hindman lined up against Chris Colitas for all the glory. Both racers broke out, but Hindman got the win with a 12.07 on a 12.10, while Colitas ran 11.82 on his 11.88 index.

Winner
Eight-second street cars are totally cool. William Slavey proved the street-worthiness of his beast by running his car for 30 miles with no problems. After the cruise, the Wild Street contestants sat in the staging lanes for a few hours due to rain. Slavey finished off the night with an impressive 8.91 average.

Winner
It was big-block versus small-block as Sam Dyer lined up against Jeff Moses in the finals of Open Comp. Moses dropped a sick 0.007 reaction time, but Dyer grabbed the win. Both finalists broke out of their index.

Dyer ran 10.806 on a 10.82, while Moses knocked down a 10.911 performance on a 10.93. Dyer was rewarded with the win light.